Meliora - Emanate - 38

[lady_mab]

Liala Darcy

A loud burst of laughter escapes our table as Catalina tries to finish her story through the giggles. "And then-- and then, do you want to know what he said?"

"Not really!" Trisha waves a hand and fails to hide behind her coffee cup. It does very little to block just how embarrassed she looks for this boy that none of us know.

"Well, he said, 'I don't know why you're being so emotional about it'." Her voice sounds more like a preteen, cracking on every single syllable possible. "And I was just standing there! I couldn't even say a thing because I couldn't even believe what was happening!"

"Ugh, boys," Bri chimes, shaking her head and rolling her eyes. "Are your brothers like that at all, Liala?"

I have a hard time wiping the smile off my face. "Sometimes I think Lio's more dramatic than I am. He's very emotional when something doesn't go his way." The number of fits that he's pitched when we were younger is off the charts. Perhaps it's because I always lacked the energy to get mad about something. But he always argued with Rhys over the most ridiculous things. "Rhys, by comparison, is very calm. Never raises his voice."

"God, your parents must have their hands full." Bri shifts so she's leaning against me, kicking her legs out on the bench beside Trisha's thighs.

"Oh. Um." This is a perfect way to get me to sober up. I straighten my posture, trying not to force Bri to move out of the way, but trying not to default into my slouch. "I think the reason that Rhys acts the way he does is because he had to raise us. Our parents died a few years ago in a car accident."

The three of them quiet immediately, and I hate the fact that I'm the one who brought the mood down. They don't exchange looks, just study their coffee cups and nails awkwardly.

Bri moves to rest her head against my shoulder and puts an arm around me. "I'm sorry to hear that, hon."

I give a one-armed shrug, careful not to disturb her. "We've had time to get used to it. We lived with our grandmother for a long while, but then she passed away from old age. Rhys finished secondary school and started to take care of us instead of going to Uni. Got a degree in between working and being our caretaker."

Trisha whistles, the hint of a smirk on her lips. She casts me a quick glance, and I can tell that she's trying to break the tension. "Are you sure he wouldn't be interested in me?" She waggles her eyebrows and, as she leans in, pushes her bust forward more than her shirt was already managing to do.

"P-pretty sure," I stammer, cheeks flushing at her behavior.

"Oh for fuck's sake," Catalina sighed, reaching out and pushing Trisha back despite the girl's laughter. "Are you trying to seduce the not-present Rhys or Liala?"

Trisha's giggles are bright and infectious, and the dark atmosphere that threatened to overtake the table immediately recedes. "I'll take either, I'm not picky. You're both cute." She casts me a wink, noticeable to the others at the table.

I double over, drawing the hood of my sweatshirt up and over my head as their laughter washes over me. "Oh my god please stop or my face will burn a hole right through this table."

I've learned over the years to parse what sort of laughter that people around me are making -- if it's teasing or good natured. Lio and I have spent so long on the fringe of our peers that teasing reaches our ears easier than praise. Whispers behind hands and glances thrown our way, questioning and wondering about us.

But these three girls, who I've only known a few months, are delighted to have me with them. There's no sense of malice in their tone, and they look out for me as one of their own.

In a fruitless attempt to remove the attention from me, and my own insurmountable embarrassment, I mutter, "Rhys isn't interested in women. You're out of luck there."

Trisha groans and I can see her shoes scoot closer. She must be sinking dramatically in her seat. "I shall have to put aside my thing for older men with glasses."

"Please stop talking about my brother like that. I am literally so embarrassed right now."

Bri pokes my cheek, though she has to worm her finger between the side of my face and my arm. "It's okay, you can get her to stop and get payback by talking about her super hot cousin. It's the only reason Catalina became friends with us at first."

Across the table, unseen, Catalina gasps in a most scandalized fashion possible. "That is so not true." A beat passes, then she says, "He is super hot though."

"Arrrghhh!" Trisha cries, and I watch her feet disappear from view. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry. Please don't talk about him like that. I get it now."

I look up, chin propped on the table, still doubled over, to see her covering her face with her hands and her head tilted back against the bench. "So long as you have seen the error of your ways."

"Yes, I have, I repent." She spins out from beneath the table and rises to her feet. "Okay, let's move on from the coffee shop. I'm thoroughly warmed up."

"Because of hormones or because of all that talking?" Bri teases, grabbing her coffee cup and following suit.

The three of us start to clear off our mess from the table, chatting away about our plans for the rest of the day that we don't notice that we're one member short as we start to peel away from the table.

"Catalina?" I call, hands shoved into the pockets of my sweatshirt. "Is everything okay?"

She's staring down at her phone with a furrowed brow. A small breath escapes her, and we watch her shoulders slump with disappointment. "It's a message..."

My fingers twitch, and the phone in the pocket of my jeans is a sudden and noticeable presence.

We immediately move back to the table and crowd around her. "What does it say?" Trisha asks.

I sit on the very edge, uncertain if I should even be involved. They're a different team, and Kaito and Lionel have confirmed that different teams get different messages. I don't want to pull a Lionel and get involved in something that isn't mine to interact with.

"The subject is 'Common Law', whatever that means. Message reads: 'Thirty-first January, twenty two hundred hours. Court of Chancery. Don't mind the water. Court is still in session. Attendance from all Participants and Informants is mandatory.' Why the fuck is this asshole always so vague? None of this even makes sense." Catalina glances at her two teammates before all three of them turn to look at me.

"We get to finally go on an event together!" Bri chimes, latching onto me and pressing her cheek against mine. "Ohmygod after all this time we finally get to actually hang out and do Meliora related things."

I laugh despite myself, reaching up to try and peel her off, but she just holds on tighter. "I don't even know if I'll be the one going. Lio's better in these situations than I am..."

The girls release a chorus of "Ummmmm"s at the same time, and now I really can't hold back the laughter. "I don't think so, hon," Trisha says, digging through her purse for her phone. "Shit it's not like I know who your Informant is. Catalina, do you know?"

"No, dear, I don't. But that's okay because Liala's going to tell him herself. Aren't you?" She turns those puppy dog eyes on me that she used on me the first day I met her. They've been used on everyone multiple times -- dire situations only, she's told me -- but I've only been on the receiving end of them once before.

It's my turn for an 'ummmmm' but it's far weaker and more nervous than theirs. "I guess it wouldn't hurt?"

All of them cheer and immediately start chattering excitedly about what the clue could mean. I manage to finally pull myself away from Bri and tug my phone free from my jeans. Sparing them a quick, envious glance, I send a quick text to Kaito.

Hey, so I'm out with some friends right now, and they got a message from the APM. Says that it's mandatory for all of them. Did you get one?

"Lia! Has he answered yet?"

"No, I've just barely sent the message. He's not much of an early bird."

Catalina waves her hand. "Forget that. Come help us figure this out."

I scoot back in closer, and she holds out the phone so that we can all see her screen. She's brought up a search for 'Court of Chancery', though there isn't anything helpful on the first few hits.

My phone buzzes softly in my hand, and I glance down to see a response from Kaito on the screen before it goes dark. Leaving the three of them to argue over the difference between 'court' and 'law' as defined by one of the search results, I pull up the message.

Yep, got it a few minutes ago. I sort of just ignored it because I haven't had coffee yet.

A huff of laughter trickles from my lips and I shake my head. Typical Kaito on a Sunday. I was wondering if you could just... not tell Lio. And I'll go.

I see the dots across the bottom of the screen that indicate he's attempting to compose a reply. I don't know if it's taking so long because I'm anxious, or because he's still waking up.

That's fine by me, but I can't guarantee that he's still not pulling texts from the Informant ether like he has been.

It's a very fair point. True. But if the argument comes up, tell him I claimed the spot first :)

Hahaha will do. I'll let Rhys know.

I put my phone back into my pocket, and it's only then that I notice the silence from the girls. I look to find them watching me expectantly. "Well, I at least claimed the spot first, so it's just a matter of if Lio demands to go instead."

"No offense to your twin, but he's sort of boring."

"Yeah, all he does is glare and talk about computers."

"To be fair, that's because computers don't talk back." I smile, though it broadens into a grin as I absorb the moment. "Okay, enough about that. Let's figure out what the hell this message means."

Our plans for the afternoon are put on hold as we cluster around the tight space available on the bench, piecing together yet another puzzle sent to us by the Assistant Program Manager. I don't have much confidence that there will be any sort of great information reveal from this meeting, but I enjoy the time spent with my friends and being able to actively participate. For once, I feel like I can actually enjoy this 'game'.