BORED [Alecis]

"I don't expect you to believe anything I say or do, Rowan. I've never given you a reason to trust me. It's my fault, and I know it. I'm sorry for making you hate me Rowan. I swear, if I could do it over..."

She trailed off, not knowing what to say. What could she do?

A small twinge of doubt made its way into Rowan's thoughts. If Alecis was acting, she was quite talented at it...If he didn't know any better he might have believed her.

'Good thing you know better, huh?' Nym said pointedly. She couldn't be having her clio's judgment get clouded or they'd be in trouble.

Rowan weighed the possibilities. If she was lying, and he believed her, who knows what she could manipulate him into doing. But if she was telling the truth and he didn't believe her, he'd probably really hurt her. Then again, if she was telling the truth and he did believe her, he'd probably end up hurting her anyways. So the best option was to not believe her...Then why didn't the doubt go away?

"What exactly changed in the past few days?" Rowan asked slowly. "Where did...this epiphany or whatever it was...Where did it come from? A week ago you hated me. What's different now?"

"Actually Rowan, a week ago was when I finally understood. Do you remember when we were at Froom? When I started acting weird? I don't want to hurt you anymore, Rowan. And though I want to be around you, I don't want to annoy you. I don't want you to hate me.

Even though I know you do. And I know that me telling you I like you wont stop you, I can't help but try."

Where this was coming from, Alecis didn't know. This was so not the plan. The plan was to forget this, and yet, this felt better. This felt right, because even if he did continue to hate her, which she knew he would, at least she could get it out. She needed to.

"I don't hate you," Rowan said at once, without even thinking. Whoa, where had that come from? He always thought before that he hated her...Well, hate was a strong word, maybe "greatly dislike." But right now it was hard to look at the sad, emotional girl in front of him and harbor any ill feelings towards her.

"Don't say that to me. I know it isn't true and lying isn't making anything better. I'm being honest with you, can't you please, please be honest with me. I need to hear you say something mean. Please? If you do... maybe I'll be able to get over it."

As she spoke, her voice got softer and sadder. She didn't want him to say mean things. But maybe, maybe it would work. It probably wouldn't hurt as much as it was hurting now. She could only hope, because it was hurting pretty bad right now.

Rowan shook his head. Even if he wanted to he couldn't think of a single mean thing to say. "Alright, I'll be honest," he replied. If she really was being genuine, than he needed to be too. "I don't hate you...but I don't like you."

He felt horrible saying this, but Alecis needed to know. Three years of malice and rivalry couldn't be undone in a few days. To be honest, he couldn't fathom how she could possibly like him. He had never treated her any better than she treated him.

She felt a pang in her heart and her body tingled, but it went away quickly. She already knew that. Of course he didn't like her, that would have been ridiculous. But, hopefully he meant the part where he said he didn't hate her.

Now, what could she say. She had spilled what she needed to. She had been rejected, as was expected, but now what?

She twisted her mind around Rheis', but unfortunately, her dæmon didn't have any answers.

So she just nodded.

This whole situation was causing a lot of emotional turmoil, and Rowan still didn't even know if he could trust what Alecis was saying. He couldn't figure out why she would pretend to like him...Now that he thought about it, the Alecis who had hated him had way too much pride to pretend to like him...So...she really did like him it seemed.

'WEIRD,' Nym said loudly. She agreed with Rowan's logic. 'I guess she isn't faking...But hey, doesn't she like Lior though?'

That's right. If their actions at the tavern were any indication, Alecis was with Lior. Oh no, this was going to get complicated...She had said this affected four clio. The other two were Lior and Charlie.

Rowan couldn't stay here with Alecis anymore. It would just cause more pain for all of them. He was with Charlie. Alecis was with Lior. It needed to stay that way, and to stay and talk with Alecis might just keep that from happening.

"I have to go," he said, knowing it was abrupt, but it was better that way. The less they saw of each other after this the better. For everyone.

Alecis nodded again, not wanting to speak outloud. If she would have, it would have come out as something resembling a squeak[not of the cat variety, the sound xD].

And so, even though she wanted to stay with him, Alecis turned to walk to the far side of the valley. She didn't want to go home just yet.