I gave a warm smile to Ms. Cirsium as she began to bow out of the conversation. I prepared to take Estelle and Luke to the little café just outside of Beacon as I began to pat my various objects of import – just to make sure I had everything before I left. Turning to Luke and nodding, I felt a… Disturbance?
There was this kind of rumbling. Almost as if cataclysm followed behind us. W-what was it?
Well, at first it was just a man in a Hawaiian shirt. That… Was odd. Luke seemed grated just by his presence so I immediately thought it was his father, or – something. They spoke quietly and briefly, they clearly didn’t mince words between the two of them. I thought about asking a question, but before I could Luke turned to me with a nice smile indicating it was time to go for coffee. Happily I glanced at Estelle – she seemed ready to leave too.
Luke opened the door and before I could fully blink he was on the floor.
The girl argued with Luke in a way that reminded me all too much of myself when Estelle and I were littler, when we would fight for mum’s time and affection. It was sweet. Even if it was also overly violent. She got up, introduced herself. The two Schwarz’s even managed to stop fighting long enough to complete two full sentences.
“Well, April, it is a pleasure to meet you.” My knees folding into a proper curtsey as they had so many other times.
Estelle simply gave a bit of a nod and wave.
“Nice to meet you April – I’m Bianca’s older sister.” She said with a strong grin.
Realizing this was quickly turning into a Schwarz family reunion I thought it’d be best to head out now. So with that I smiled once more at Luke’s family and left to meet the cold air.
On days like this I found it fairly easy to keep a fair amount of warmth by tucking my wings in close to my body. However, for some reason I still seemed to be colder than usual.
“You seem worried.” Estelle pointed out obtusely not glancing away from the sidewalk as we walked in a now broken silence.
“No, I’m not.” I said attempting to reassure my older sister. But that the thing about older sisters – They never take your word for it.
“What time are you picking up dad?” She said, an audible dissatisfaction threatening to ruin Estelle’s attempts at placation.
“In two hours he’s supposed to be getting in.” I responded, it was only now starting to sink in for me too.
Entering the café the scents of peppermint, cinnamon and other wonderful, refreshing things filled my senses. I took a booth seat opposite of Estelle now that I was face to face with her… She seemed more upset than I had realized. I didn’t want to talk more about dad. Estelle and I rarely fought but when we did it was about him.
“So,” I began probing my mind for ulterior conversation topics.
"The Mindaro's are here." I said with a positive tone.
"Nice! Must've been a long time since you've seen them, huh?" Estelle said taking a sip of her coffee with a smile.
"Yeah, I love when they visit. They're just the perfect family - y'know?" I said nearly day dreaming about them.
"Mhm." Estelle said somewhat dejected.
“I have an interesting story for you.” She began a small smile working the way in from the corner of her lips.
“Oh! Perfect.” I said happily crossing my right leg over my left.
“I went to the bar the other day.” Estelle said, pushing part of her hair over her right ear.
“Oh.” I said, realizing this was going to be like just about every other story Estelle used to share with me when I was younger.
“No! This is exciting stop.” She insisted waving a hand in my face, forcing a small grin out of me.
“So there was this girl-““This is exactly like every other story!” I protested. My sister was nice, back in the day some even boasted about her temperance. But that was more or less how you found out who really knew Estelle. She was anything but. Any story from her nights out involved drinking and some cute girl who was
definitely the one until proven otherwise at the next convenient juncture.
“No! But it isn’t! Because, okay. So she approached me in her kind of, I think she used her sexy walk.” Estelle began eliciting a laugh from me, but she continued.
“So she approaches me and she’s all: Hey baby I just took your purse, now I’m gonna take your heart.”...
“Estelle were you scammed?” I asked not really understanding the sexiness of taking someone’s purse I guess.
“What? No! I wasn’t mugged she just took my purse at first! Then she sat down for a second, we had a chat and I gave her my credit card for her number.” She stopped looking blankly into my eyes. Almost passed me as she continued to stare in silence. I took a loud sip of my cappuccino.
“I think I was scammed.” She said her cold hands cupping her to-go coffee cup.
We continued on for a few minutes sharing laughs, I also shared the advice of getting her credit card back because Estelle had hit a new low for how thirsty she had gotten. This was getting ridiculous. But as time passed our meager few minutes was up and Estelle too had to bow out patting my head as she walked passed to the door. I heard the bells chime and suddenly, I was alone.
But not before too long my phone jumped to life buzzing loudly on the table.
“Hello?” I answered with a bright tone in my voice.
“Is that how you answer the phone?” A familiar voice rung out crystal clear over my phones speakers.
“O-oh, no father. Sorry.” I responded quietly, I wasn’t expecting him so soon.
“I’m at the airport how soon can you be here?” He asked, annoyed.
“I can be there in twenty minutes.” I answered, preemptively grabbing my coat.
“Ah, I thought you’d be ready on time today of all days. I’ll simply use a town car. I have a few errands to do while I’m in Vale, you may expect me at the school in three hours. Goodbye.”“Bye d-“The phone call ended. I put the phone down and took a sip of my cappuccino once more. Today was going to be hard.
fledermaus
Plank Sinatra
Izurich
