Sitting outside and away from the rest of the party goers was the best idea we could have had. We still heard the sound of the harpsichord being played while being able to hold a conversation if we so chose.

Right now though, we were quiet, me admiring my girlfriend profile while she stared at the inside. Despite me telling her to relax, she was still on guard. A bit more relaxed, but still somewhat on alert.

“A coin for your thoughts?” I finally asked, now wanting to see the front view of her face.

“I was wondering, aren’t they going to dance?”

“They could if they wanted, but it’s not really that kind of party. Why, you wanna dance with me?”

She turned a few shades of red, totally adorable and as expected.

It will be fun to talk about the party with her later. In fact, being here with her was proving to be fun, something previously unheard of.

So many times had I been forced to come, putting on that stupid dress and airs, acting like a marionette to my mother. The fact I could be sitting there, on the sidelines, simply enjoying the nice music and Violet’s company seemed miraculous.

The current music stopped, followed by a new, slow tempo-ed one. Violet got up and stood directly in front of me.

No way! Is she going to…?

She offered a trembling hand, inviting me to take it for a dance. Our first ever dance. Not mine personally, but by how awkward she was acting, it definitely was hers.

I had my hands on her shoulders while hers were on my waist, our steps drawing a small circle we kept repeating slowly.

“You really are full of surprises, you know?” I told her, still giggling and hiding my face on her chest.

“Hmm…”

I then felt her holding me closer and kissing the top of my head. I popped my head up and looked her dead in the eye. Just that wouldn’t satisfy me, and I let her silently know.

She looked over the shoulder, making sure people weren’t watching, and when I was hidden from view, she leaned down while I stretched up for a kiss. Since the music had stopped, we stayed with our lips connected a bit longer, waiting for the music to resume. That really wasn’t needed though, the song of her heart beating just as fast and merry as mine was all the melody we needed.

“There you are!” a familiar voice clamoured. “I’ve been looking for you all over.”

Mathilda had finally come to join us. She was carrying a plate full to the brim with food.

Unlike her elegant dress, she dropped her body on a chair at the table Violet and I had been using, huffing and puffing about people having gotten late, making her stand on uncomfortable high-heels. I couldn’t get why everyone seemed so obsessed with stilettos. Were they planning on using the heel as an assassination tool or weapon in a post-party battle royal?

“Humph, I should have brought something like you two,” she commented about our footwear. “When I get home, I’m putting my feet on a tub of warm water.”

We joined her at the table, and started chatting about the party.

This one counted with forty-two guests, us three included, the large majority, the usual people, Jessica being one of them.

“Can you believe she made a comment about the colour of my dress?” Mathilda asked.

I wasn’t surprised she did, and I also couldn’t see what was wrong with it. It was a very pleasing salmon colour that suited her just fine. It certainly was more interesting to look at than Jessica’s pearly-white one.

“Yeah, she also tried to make fun of Violet.”

“Pfft, fufu. That didn’t go out so well though,” Violet added.

“I’d have loved to see that. Hard to believe you were her friend once.”

“Huh!? You two were friends!?”

That was a long time ago, I explained. Back then, I was desperate to have friends and Jessica was one of the few people my mum approved. I had to tolerate a lot of bad behaviour from her, but I was lucky enough to have her grow bored and walk away from me. I still received my mother’s anger because somehow it was my fault. Maybe it was, but I didn’t care much then, and I couldn’t care less now that it was in the past.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

I told Violet I was fine as I entangled fingers with her. She had placed a hand on one of my knees and was looking at me with her usual worry when I was done retelling my past.

I wasn’t done with dealing with my past though. Part of us coming here was for me to do exactly that. I still needed to talk with Marcus, so I asked Mathilda if he was around.

“Now that you mention it, do you know if anything happened to him?”

“Why do you ask?”

“It may sound weird, but… he didn’t hit on me. In fact, he doesn’t seem to be talking much with any of the girls that came.”

I exchanged a look with Violet. We were both wondering if it had been her punch rattling something in him that caused a change in behaviour.

With my partner’s consent, I told Mathilda about that whole mess. Some of that explaining also invited more questions, notably about my relationship with my mum. I had grown comfortable enough to talk about it, so I also told Mathilda about the divorce, that we weren’t in good term and that she had been very bad to me without telling exactly what “very bad” entailed. Mathilda wasn’t dumb, she could most likely make a very close guess with how evasive I was being.

“That explains why you were acting so odd after the New Year. I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be. I’m way better now than before. I lost my mother, but I now have a father that is a lot more present because he doesn’t have to worry about mum getting mad about it, a girlfriend who treats me like I’m the most precious thing in her life, and her dad, Papa Stan, he treats me like I’m also his daughter. All in all, I ended up in a far better position, don’t you think?”

Mathilda kept staring at us, hand on her chin, looking pensative. She wasn’t as easy to figure out as Violet, but she was most likely digesting all that had been told to her.

When she was done with it, she asked if I wanted to talk with Marcus. Hearing a yes, she offered to pick him up. I told her I’d do it myself, but Mathilda said she was going to grab some more food so it wasn’t a problem.

I noticed she was looking a bit shorter than before and making no audible noise as she walked. Looking at her feet as she went away, I saw her going barefoot, either foregoing any dress code in place, or simply forgetting about her shoes.

Never minding that, I faced Violet. She always got a bit down when hearing those kinds of stories, but this time, she was looking at me more in thought than sadness. There was also a certain shine in her eyes that weren’t tears.

Asking if she was ok was met with her telling me she was fine. That she was proud of me for having gotten so strong.

I smiled and pulled my chair closer to her. Now that we were butting shoulders, I hugged her arm and leaned my head on her.

“You can thank my girlfriend for that. I wouldn’t have gotten here were it not for her.”

She chuckled and grabbed my hand, pulling it to her lips, kissing its back before resting it on her lap.

“Hello there,” a slightly shaky male voice greeted from the side.

Marcus was standing a bit away, looking awkward. Besides that, he looked the same as always, not counting for his now slightly crooked nose. It might be messed up for me to say, but somehow, I thought he looked better with it. His face was too symmetrical before. It also made him look more… manly? Rugged? Something like that.

I greeted him back and asked him to sit down. I tried to sound as friendly as possible, but the glaring girl sitting besides me was scaring him off.

“Violet, please be nice,” I hushed her loud enough for him to hear.

Her being nice turned out to be Violet looking away. She really could hold a grudge.

No matter, that was enough to convince him to come and take a seat.

For the second time today I spoke about my parents divorce and the stuff mum made me go through, apologising profusely for having played with his feelings. He didn’t say a word while I talked, he just listened. Hell, he didn’t even nod. Then…

“I’m also sorry. There were times I noticed you weren’t into me, but then your mother or my ego would convince me that you were just playing hard to get. I’m… I’m really sorry for having been so predatory towards you.”

“…Thank you… and listen, Marcus… in the end, I don’t think the fault lies with none of us. It was my mother. She made us her playthings.”

He gave me a nod and then looked at Violet.

“Violet was it? I’m very sorry to have harassed your girlfriend. Had I known for a fact Abby was in a relationship, I’d have—”

“She told you, but you chose to ignore it,” Violet hissed, giving him one of her ravenous looks.

“…It’s true, I did that,” Marcus admitted, his head hanging. “I can never take that back, but trust me, I’ve learned my lesson. That punch you gave me made me think a lot of stuff and… I’m really sorry for all I did to Abby.”

It looked like our suspicions were true, Violet’s punch really did rattle something in him. This new Marcus, if what he said was true, I could forgive him. Was there even a point in holding a grudge? Not in my opinion.

“…If Abby forgives you, then… I guess I’ll try to forgive you too.”

She couldn’t see it, but I was smiling at her. It was my time to feel pride about my partner.

Marcus thanked her, but she didn’t utter another word towards him.

With nothing else to talk about, he got up and bid us farewell.

“I honestly don’t know how you do it,” Violet let out when she finally looked at me.

“After so much pain, I just don’t want to burden myself with more nasty feelings,” I told her.

She hummed and stared off into the garden below.

I’d let her think about it. She said she’d try to forgive him, that’s more than I had expected of her. Even if she can’t do it in the end, I was already satisfied with the result.

“Did it go well?” Mathilda asked, when she got back with two plates full of food.

“Better than expected even. Is that all for you?”

“Goodness no! I thought we could share it. I’ve seen you eat after all.”

Oh great, another person to treat me like a glutton.

“Now that you mention it, Abby should be hungry right now.”

“I’m not a glutton! Humph!”

I was indeed a bit peckish, but that’s neither here nor there.