Tacita sat on the bench, quietly puffing at a cigarette. Valo half-walked, half-staggered out of the nearby building and more or less fell onto the bench into a sitting position. Tacita frowned, peering at Valo; she was a bit sickly-looking, her face flushed and hands trembling slightly.

“Hey,” Tacita said softly, extinguishing the cigarette. “You look sick.”

“I feel lousy,” Valo replied. “You’re going to love this, Tacita. The campus pharmacy, in its infinite wisdom, in an effort to save a few bucks, essentially changed which generic meds they give out a few months back, and that includes the pills I take. Well, I was online earlier, and get this-- the pills I take, their effectiveness is altered by ascorbic acid.”

“So?”

“Tacita, that’s vitamin C! Who the hell thinks it’s a smart idea to make any kind of pill or medicine that’s less effective with vitamin C? Aren’t you supposed to have vitamin C in your diet?”

“Why? What happens if you don’t have vitamin C in your diet?”

“You get scurvy.”

“Only pirates get scurvy.”

“Tacita, I’m being serious.”

“Then quit your meds.”

“Do you really want me bleeding every other week? I think one week out of four is more than sufficient.”

“Point duly noted.”

Valo rolled her eyes. “You know, sometimes I can’t help but think that you’re a set of dreadlocks away from being a trustafarian.”

“What’s that?”

Valo smirked a little and responded, “It’s a rich kid who tries to be all rebellious and bad-*ss and hippie-like, and who uses Mommy and Daddy’s money to fund her special smoking habits.”

Tacita chuckled and said good-naturedly, “I know that you’re just stressed out, and that’s what’s making you talk like that, so I’ll ignore that dig, even though it is more or less right.”

“More or less?”

Tacita patted Valo on the shoulder and replied, “My drugs of choice are alcohol and love. I gave up on illegal stuff back in high school. Too troublesome.”

Valo stared at Tacita silently for several seconds before finally saying, “I don’t know whether to believe you or not.”

“Yeah, I get that a lot,” Tacita said, shrugging.


A knock at the door caused Dunstan to look up from the document he was typing. “Yes?” he called out.

His secretary opened the door and smiled apologetically. “I’m sorry to bother you, Mr. Diggory. I know you’re busy, but someone is here to see you?”

“Oh?”

“Yes. A very good-looking girl. She’s dressed really nicely. She said you know her.”

Dunstan nodded. “Yes, that’s probably my fiancée. Send her in.”

The woman raised an eyebrow at Dunstan, but nodded in agreement. “Yes, sir.”

Dunstan went back to typing his documents. He heard the light tap-tap sound of a pair of high heels coming closer to the desk. Without looking up, he said, “Sweetheart, what’s so important that you have to come in while I’m at work?”


“Cut the crap,” came the angry response. Dunstan looked up, astonished, to see Angela standing in front of him, scowling at him.

“What’s wrong?” he sighed, rolling his eyes.

“It’s not going to work, you know.”

“What’s not going to work?”

“I heard you got engaged to Charise. You think you’re so smart, don’t you? You think if you marry her, I’m just going to change my mind?”

“No, that’s not it at all,” Dunstan lied.

“Listen to me,” Angela snapped. “You can do whatever you want with Charise, but one way or another, I will get what I want.”

“Shouldn’t you be in school right now?” Dunstan asked glibly.

“Shouldn’t you be doing what I expect of you?” Angela shot back. “Really, I’m asking for so little from you. I’m not even asking you to marry me. You can have Charise for that. I don’t care. Besides, she looks like she’ll get fat and end up with hips like an elephant after she pops out a kid or two for you. No, Dunstan, what I’m asking for is far more important, more substantial. It’s nothing that you can’t easily give up. Besides, look at what you’ve already done for me. It’ll basically be the same thing… just with a few changes.”

“Forget it, Angela, I’m not doing it. I’ll call your mom and--”

“And what?” Angela shot back. “‘Oh, hi, Ms. Paxton, I’ve been fooling around with your daughter and buying her all kinds of expensive gifts, and now, she’s basically asking for more of the same. Make her stop.’ Is that what you’re going to say to her?” She scoffed. “Get real, Dunstan.”

Dunstan shook his head and said, rather foolishly, “You’re not the girl I thought you were when we started out.”

“Yeah? Well, you’re exactly the kind of guy I thought you were. You were so easy, let me tell you. I guess all my planning paid off. Or, rather, it will soon enough.”

“You’re a monster.”

Angela raised an eyebrow and replied calmly, “I’m a monster? Dunstan, I’m not breaking any laws. I’m not doing anything that hasn’t already been done plenty of times in history. But you… oh, man, they could put you away for so much. In the eyes of the law, you’re the real monster. Not me.”

“You won’t get away with this.”

“Dunstan, I’m sure that in time, you’ll grow to like the idea.”


“Hey, Em,” Ophelia said, between bites of her lunch.

“Yeah?” Emily replied, putting down her fork.

“Ms. Gibson was dressed up today. I mean, compared to how she normally dresses. I think she even had contacts in.”

“Yeah, I was kind of wondering what that was about.”

“Maybe she found herself a boyfriend,” Ophelia suggested.

“Nah,” Emily replied. “I don’t think most of the teachers here would interest her.”

“I didn’t mean here. I meant, just, you know, maybe a guy who works somewhere else.”

“Like, what, as a doctor or lawyer or something?” Emily asked.

“Yeah.”

Emily chewed on a bite of food for a few seconds, then responded, “Yeah, maybe I could see that. He’d have to be really smart, though. She doesn’t seem too crazy about idiots.”

“Who is?”

“Good point,” Emily agreed, nodding.

They chewed silently for a few seconds. Ophelia then said, “Hey, Em?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m kind of worried about you.”

“Why’s that?”

“I just realized, this is the first time in a few months that I’ve actually seen you eat more than a few bites of anything.”

“Mm. I’ll be fine.”