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31_days2012-05-13 11:19 pm
avalonestel.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2012-05-13 11:19 pm
[MAY 13TH] [ORIGINAL] [THINNER]
Title: Thinner
Prompt: "inconvenient but final"
Series: Original
Word Count: 380
Rating: PG
“May I speak honestly, Miss Noelle?” asked Ara.
The girl looked up from her writing. “You may.”
“You seem…unlike yourself today. Is something the matter?”
Noelle smiled, but it was thin, strained. Even in spite of the powder and blush that coated her cheeks and the black limning her eyes, Ara could tell that she had not slept well the night before.
“What makes you say that?” asked Noelle, her voice level and controlled.
Ara raised her eyebrows. “I think I’ve known you long enough to tell. If you wish to confide in
me, you may.”
Noelle shook her head vigorously; her curls bobbed and coiled like springs. “It’s nothing, Acolyte. Simply a mood.”
“You look as though you haven’t slept properly in a week.”
Noelle laughed, loud and sudden, her red lips stretching even thinner, and for the first time Ara saw the gauntness in her cheeks and the mild tremor in her hands.
“That’s because I haven’t,” she said lightly.
Her sarcastic smile was back, but it worried Ara more than it relieved her. “What’s ailing you?”
“I call them my low times. They come and go, have for many years. I’ll be perfectly fine, and then, for no reason, I will become melancholy and miserable for days at a time. Then, I want nothing more to sleep, but I never can, and when I do, it’s in fragments. But I wish, at those times, to sleep until I am glad again. Some nights, when I cannot sleep, it becomes so dark and hopeless that I wish I would simply close my eyes and never wake again. Because even that feels better than such pointless misery.”
Ara gazed at Noelle, who was no longer smiling, but simply staring out the window with glassy eyes. She was silent for several moments. Ara sat, hesitant to move for fear she would startle the girl. Slowly, Noelle turned her head and met Ara’s gaze with a heavy sigh.
“But as I said, it is merely an inconvenience that comes and goes. It will pass soon, and I will be fine once more. Until then, do not mind it. I know well enough not to do anything foolish.” She smiled, then, and pulled her book closer to her. “Now, shall we continue?”
Prompt: "inconvenient but final"
Series: Original
Word Count: 380
Rating: PG
“May I speak honestly, Miss Noelle?” asked Ara.
The girl looked up from her writing. “You may.”
“You seem…unlike yourself today. Is something the matter?”
Noelle smiled, but it was thin, strained. Even in spite of the powder and blush that coated her cheeks and the black limning her eyes, Ara could tell that she had not slept well the night before.
“What makes you say that?” asked Noelle, her voice level and controlled.
Ara raised her eyebrows. “I think I’ve known you long enough to tell. If you wish to confide in
me, you may.”
Noelle shook her head vigorously; her curls bobbed and coiled like springs. “It’s nothing, Acolyte. Simply a mood.”
“You look as though you haven’t slept properly in a week.”
Noelle laughed, loud and sudden, her red lips stretching even thinner, and for the first time Ara saw the gauntness in her cheeks and the mild tremor in her hands.
“That’s because I haven’t,” she said lightly.
Her sarcastic smile was back, but it worried Ara more than it relieved her. “What’s ailing you?”
“I call them my low times. They come and go, have for many years. I’ll be perfectly fine, and then, for no reason, I will become melancholy and miserable for days at a time. Then, I want nothing more to sleep, but I never can, and when I do, it’s in fragments. But I wish, at those times, to sleep until I am glad again. Some nights, when I cannot sleep, it becomes so dark and hopeless that I wish I would simply close my eyes and never wake again. Because even that feels better than such pointless misery.”
Ara gazed at Noelle, who was no longer smiling, but simply staring out the window with glassy eyes. She was silent for several moments. Ara sat, hesitant to move for fear she would startle the girl. Slowly, Noelle turned her head and met Ara’s gaze with a heavy sigh.
“But as I said, it is merely an inconvenience that comes and goes. It will pass soon, and I will be fine once more. Until then, do not mind it. I know well enough not to do anything foolish.” She smiled, then, and pulled her book closer to her. “Now, shall we continue?”