#stebony

Foreword: Drabble challenge created by @alwaysbellamyblake. Prompt 36:  “ I wish I could hate you” with Stebony as per requested by @my-lazy-genius.

       Stefan was pushing Ebony’s buttons and he knew it. But he couldn’t stop. It was a bad day. Mentally. He needed somebody to talk to, somebody to annoy, somebody to make fester. Stefan wanted to lie and say he hadn’t always been like this, but he had. If he wasn’t stuck on Ebony, it was that damn girl he had saved at the lake.

           Sometimes, selfishly, he wished she had died. Then she’d be out of his fucking head. Instead, she remained in his thoughts, almost taunting him.

           “You’re not even doing anything Ebony, why can’t you just talk to me?” Stefan practically begged her, starting to get a little annoyed at this point, not that he showed it. He never showed it.

           She huffed, sucking on her bottom lip, “I don’t want to talk, especially not to you.”

           “I didn’t even do anything today,” he said, a sharpness encroaching on his words.

           “You don’t have to be so demanding,” she muttered, turning her back to him, looking out the dumb window. Stefan hated that window. It meant she was ignoring him, going back into her own world again.

           And suddenly he felt something wet and hot splash his cheeks. Unexpected. He frowned.

           Ebony glanced back over at him, the same time he looked up. She scowled, “Stefan, are you actually crying? I told you already, it’s NOT you, I just don’t want to talk.”

           “I’m not trying to cry,” Stefan wiped his eyes, but the tears just kept coming.

           He knew why, though. He was angry and upset and Ebony, and he was damn tired of trying to fake nice and pretend like he didn’t have any feelings. More than anything, he was missing that girl he saved. Her beautiful eyes, her silky black hair, her face, reminding him too much of the girl he was sitting with now, as if they were one of the same.

           She softened, only a little, “You never tell me anything. What you’re thinking, the kinds of things that bother you. I’m not a mind reader, so just tell me what’s on your mind so I can stop feeling bad for you.”

           “I don’t want to burden you,” he laughed, it was an empty laugh, but Ebony rarely realized. Or maybe she did and this was her way of letting him know she did. “I was just remembering somebody.”

           She rolled her eyes, looking away again, “You’re so weird.”

           “Don’t you want to know about them? Or do you hate me that much?” he asked, half-curious.

           “I wish I could hate you,” she hissed, turning around, full circle again. She narrowed her eyes at him, crossing her arms, “What about them? Is it some dead girl you used to love, because I’m not really a listener of romance stories.”

           Stefan’s heart leaped and he hated to admit it. He felt sometimes like he was betraying the girl he saved. But he was falling deep. Ebony had him in her grasp and she didn’t even realize it. She didn’t realize that Stefan wanted to do everything to make her happy, to just see her smile, once, please.

           “She was a lot like you,” he paused, “and I saved her.”

           “I thought you said you killed everyone you touched,” she said, not missing a beat.

           “She was special. Like you are. I remember her eyes, they were so dark. It was as if I could see her soul through them. They were so damaged and it was only after I saved her that I realized that she was just like me,” he laughed, coldly, “I should have talked to her. I bet she was just like how I used to be. I remember the sting of solitary.”

           “You should have,” Ebony said unexpectedly, her gaze away, “Because I remember being saved from death and feeling like I was the only person left in the world.”

Foreword: Drabble challenge created by @pretty-bad-au-ideas. Prompt A8:  “ It’s terrifying, how nothing ever stays, don’t you think?” with Stebony as per requested by @my-lazy-genius.

          Stefan was used to disappointment. Immortality. Two hundred years. Sixty days or something. Still counting. After a while, you started to realize that everything in life was transient. The friendships, the excitement, the happiness, even the sadness. It was never pervasive. It came and went and it was really the only reason why Stefan could afford to keep a smile.

          Then he met her. All black. All darkness. An amalgamation of tragedy and confusion and anger all rolled into the body of one small girl. Everything about her was permanent. She was an ultimate fuck you to the world as he knew it. And he loved it.

          He didn’t want to let her know that she made him feel young again. She made him experience that sadness and hurt and frustration in ways he never thought he could again. He hated to admit it, but during their arguments, when they screamed out windows and to the sky and when everyone in Concord could hear them, he actually felt alive.

          Death was all he knew, but she made him feel life again.

          It was on a day when they were at the lake, peering into the murky water, that the fleeting nature of life came back to Stefan. He narrowed his red eyes and leaned back, brushing his strawberry blonde hair out of his eyes. She was concerned. She always was when he grew quiet and drew within because he was her reflection. He was supposed to be everything she was not.

          In a dark voice, he murmured, “It’s terrifying, how nothing every stays, don’t you think?”

           She was silent for a long time and Stefan was sure he had found the words to mark the dark girl crumple before him. But then sternly, as if she was reminding him, she uttered, “But the memories never leave, do they Stefan?”