Who: Hank and Ness When: Foredated to early Saturday afternoon Where: The apartment What: Wishing she was at prom and getting a surprise visit
Vanessa was hung-over. Hung-over, depressed, and confused. Regan had visited her again last night. Were Friday night visits from Regan going to become routine? She hoped not. Like the first time, last night had been a vicious cycle of drinking, violently accosting one another, and heart-to-hearts. Rinse, recycle, repeat. Ness woke up that morning terrified. She didn’t want it to happen again – because she liked the attention. She knew she shouldn’t, but she had so few chances to interact with anyone and while interacting with Regan exhausted her… It excited her, too. When Regan had left – to go get ready for prom – Ness had broken down. She’d tried to keep herself from tears the entire time Regan had been there (failing from time to time), not wanting to give the little princess any more ammo to work with.
But Regan was gone now, and with everyone getting ready for prom, she didn’t expect any of the professors over, though Professor Xavier might call. He did that fairly often, even if he visited less and less. She wished he would give the address to other students. Someone had to miss her, care that she was gone, be willing to forgive her, right? Then again, maybe not. Julian still seemed on the fence, but willing to try to forgive her. She just didn’t want to be lonely anymore.
With Regan gone, Vanessa moved slowly over to her closet. Her clothes had been transferred, the only things she took from her room. And wrapped up in a white bag hung the dress she had bought a month ago in preparation for prom. Her senior year prom. It should have been a wonderful night, one she’d remember forever. Now she was going to be spending it alone in an empty apartment. The tears filled up her eyes. She took a deep breath, taking out the dress. She changed right in front of the closet – why move to the bathroom in an empty apartment? She pulled on the flowing purple dress. She fussed around until it sat just right on her, adjusting the back. Her gaze caught on the beaded butterfly that covered the small of her back. It was supposed to represent her metamorphosis, her emerging as herself, due to the help of Hank, Julian, Terry, Megan, Tandy, Wanda, Paige, all her friends. She wanted to become her own person.
Now it just seemed to represent, in all its beauty, her true ugliness. She’d betrayed them all. The caterpillar came out a poisonous, dark moth, not a beautiful butterfly. She tore her gaze away, crumpling to the ground in front of the closet. She leaned up against the wall, burying her head in the crook of her arms, and let out a pained sob.