Mia opened her eyes and felt a body lying next to her, the dip of the bed alerting her. After adjusting her eyes to the light, she looked to her side and saw Eli sleeping heavily on his back, one hand lying on the pillow next to him, the other resting on his stomach. The rises and falls of his chest and the quiet breaths falling from his parted lips told her he would be out for a few more hours, sleeping off the alcohol from yesterday.

Mia laid there watching him for a long time, her eyes traveling across all of his art. As peaceful as he looked, his art was a constant image of quiet turbulence.

The ink that stretched across his skin like a virus looked beautiful in the golden forenoon light seeping in through the curtains. Mia had looked so many times at his ink, tried to imagine him sitting in a chair somewhere, getting it done. How long had it taken all together? How painful had it been, especially the tattoos that curled around his neck and skull?

Mia looked at her own tattoo and let her fingers brush against the outlines of it. It had almost healed now, but it had hurt. She wasn't squeamish when it came to pain (which perhaps was a good thing when being around Eli), but she had to admit, sitting there getting ink imbedded into her skin for nearly 30 minutes had hurt.

She could only imagine how much pain he had gone through to decorate his body.

That of course led her to the thought of how shallow she had been back then. What kind of person would sit through hours and hours of hard pain, just for the hell of it? Just to look good in some ink? No. They had their reasons. People with tattoos. Reasons you couldn't possibly understand unless you took your time to actually ask. Sadly, so many people were too busy judging to stop and ask; They looked at tattoos like they were graffiti, not art. Mia was ashamed to have been one of them once.

With a sigh she slowly sat up, running a hand through her hair, her fingers getting stuck in stubborn knots. Eli had really messed it up good last night. Her fingers traced down her cheekbone to her lips, feeling how they still felt a little sore. It was a wonderful sensation. It felt as if she could still feel him there, kissing her with that mouth of his...

"What are you doing?"

Startled, Mia turned her upper body and saw that Eli had opened his eyes and were watching her through heavy, tired lids. Even then, he looked beautiful. "Nothing. Just... thinking."

"Do you always rub your lips when you think?"

"Sometimes."

"Bull."

She couldn't help but blush and look away. "I was thinking about you, okay?"

He sighed tiredly. "No need to. I'm here, aren't I?"

Maybe physically. But was he here emotionally? "I'm going to go take a shower."

He made a sound that told her he had heard her, but that was all. His tired lids closed again, and so Mia took her silk robe and wrapped it around her naked body. She then walked into her bathroom and started the shower, before dropping her robe to the floor and stepping in. The water felt good against her skin and massaged away some of the tension that was left from yesterday.

She was slightly sore down there, but like the sensation on her lips, it was a pleasant ache. She washed and rinsed herself thoroughly, and then she just stood there for a long while, thinking.

A lot of cards had hit the table yesterday. All this time Eli had been holding up his poker face, and now as it turned out, she finally knew the whole of it. Why he was the way he was.

You could blame C.E.N.T.U.R.I.E.S for a lot of it, there was no question there. But he was someone before C.E.N.T.U.R.I.E.S showed up and took him away. He had just been a boy, but even small minds had big thoughts. He had been an orphan. Thoughts of his parents had to have been going through his head. Where did he come from? Why did they give him up? Were they still alive? If so, would they, as he had said, ever come back for him?

Maybe a part of him had accepted C.E.N.T.U.R.I.E.S' offer because he had given up on them returning. He wanted to belong somewhere, and since science being the only thing he could relate to, it had probably sounded like a place for him; A place where he would fit.

... And then C.E.N.T.U.R.I.E.S had robbed him of his freedom and forced him to do inhumane things, thus resulting in him becoming the closed-up, emotionally unavailable person that he was today. A person of resounding stealth, caged within cold, hard, unbreakable walls.

And yet yesterday, he had broken down in a way.

Mia realized her skin was pruning, so quickly she turned off the water and stepped out of the shower, wrapping a towel around her body. She begun drying off, but her mind couldn't leave the subject being Eli alone.

There was not much she could do now. He was free; for the first time in his life he could make his own choices, and he was a grown man, so he could do as he pleased without anyone telling him he couldn't. That meant there was nothing she could do to help him if he didn't want it.

But she wanted to help him. So much. He needed some sort of counseling, or maybe he just needed a change of scenery. A vacation to Bora Bora, maybe. Or something.

He's been through hell, and your prescription is a trip to Bora Bora, her voice of reason sarcastically drawled at her. That the best you got?

Where did all this leave them? Mia had never been into labels, but she was tired of not knowing what her and Eli was. Dating, friends, enemies, a couple... or nothing? Was he even interested in her? If he was, then why? She wasn't smart like him. She couldn't do quantum physics. She was usually smiling and cheerful, he was brooding and closed off. God, they sounded like a classic Hollywood film.

She just didn't know what to do. She was at her wits end. Not a bell inside her head rang.

Funnily, in that moment, she heard her phone ringing inside her bedroom. Hastily, she ran back inside, eager to stop the shrill sound from waking Eli up again. She took the call and then quietly walked into her living room before pressing the phone to her ear without checking who was calling her. "Hallo?"

"H-hey, Mia. It's... it's Anna."

Stopping in her tracks, Mia clenched her jaw and took a deep breath before beginning again. "What do you want?"

There was a shuffling paper sound in the other end, and Mia realized it was Anna sniffing into a tissue. "I just wanted to apologize again. I've... I've really been doing some thinking these days. Mia, I'm so sorry for everything. You have to believe me. I feel so ashamed of everything that I did. Please, I'm so sorry."

Mia exhaled and slowly sat down on her couch, closing her eyes.

She hated Anna for the things she had done, especially when she gave him up to the press. Of course she really didn't know what she was doing then, but still, what she had done had been selfish and insensitive. Actually, downright cruel. She had acted on hatred and maybe even on some sort of vengeance towards Mia.

Kinda like you did when you planned on revealing Eli back then with that stupid note, her voice of reason chimed in again.

The only thing that had stopped her from doing that had been seeing him with Elana. She had realized she was acting foolish, and she remembered how awfully she had felt about it and how she hadn't gone through with it in the last second.

Everyone makes mistakes, that little voice in her head thought again. And she is your friend. Doesn't she deserve a chance to gain your trust again? To show you that she is really sorry?

A part of Mia was nagged, too. It had been a hectic few weeks with exams and secrets and lies. Anna had been effected too, and everybody reacted differently. Take Eli for instance; He used violence and ugly words to express himself. She forgave him for that. At least she thought so.

– Anna had made a mistake. She said she was sorry, and sounded like she really meant it.

Now the question was... was Mia going to carry the weight of a grudge for the rest of her life, or should she try and mend it?

"Mia?" Anna said when she had been quiet for a long moment. "Are you still there?"

She took a deep breath and then replied. "I'm here. Do you want to meet up for a chat? I think we could use it."

She heard her sobbing relieved now. "Yes, please, I'd love that. Tammy's Café like always? O-or anywhere else. You can choose, I'll go anywhere."

"Tammy's fine. I'll see you in... an hour then?"

"Yes, one hour, that's fine," Anna said, sounding on the brink of tears again, but happy. "Thank you so much, Mia."

"Yeah... Uh, I'll talk to you then," Mia murmured and then hung up. She wasn't too sure about how this would go, but... she missed her friend.

And despite everything she had said about Anna, she actually did know her trade well. She lived and breathed for Psychology, that's how she got into the Alexandrettia.

And maybe she'd have a clue as to what she could do to help Eli.

~~~

Mia had left a note for Eli, telling him she was going out for a few hours, before driving down to Tammy's where she found Anna already waiting, seated in one of their chairs outside the Cafe.

She jumped up the minute she saw Mia, her eyes looking red and puffy. "Mia. I'm so happy you wanted to meet with me. I can't tell you how sorry I am about everything."

Not quite ready to forgive her yet, Mia just let a small smile lift the corners of her mouth, but it wasn't really heartfelt. "Did you order yet?"

"I was waiting for you. Anything you want, it's on me."

"No it's fine, I can pay for myself."

"But I—"

"Paying for my coffee isn't going to make up for what you did, Anna," Mia said, now meeting her eyes firmly. "I only came down here because I wanted to see if there's still a chance for us to save this friendship. Money isn't the way to go, so if you think you can't—"

"Okay," Anna nervously said, fiddling with her scarf. "I'm just such a mess, I'm sorry. I said and did so many stupid things, I just don't how to start making up for everything. I really want to."

"Then let's just start by sitting down," Mia said, taking a seat in the chair across from where Anna sat. Anna sat down again as well and folded her denim jacket in her lap. A waitress came to take their order, and a moments later, they both had a cup of coffee and a croissant.

"So," Mia said, after sipping her coffee. "You said you'd been doing some thinking?"

Anna nodded and sighed heavily. "I talked to my mama about everything that had happened. She reasoned with you and that made me rethink everything. We argued, and she made me realize how unfair I had been. Somewhere along the line, I just lost overview of it all, I think," Anna said, shamefully looking down at her lap. "You hurt me when I realized you'd been sleeping with Eli behind my back. I had a crush on him and well..."

That was the part Mia had felt guilty about. How had Anna phrased it? She had 'dick-jacked' her. Granted, Eli wasn't a possession or a prize to be won, but it was still an unspoken girl rule; you didn't steal your girl friend's crush.

Mia had done that, even if she never meant to. And then she had continued lying about how she felt about him to Anna. She could understand why she had reacted the way she did, but still, her actions that had followed, she was responsible for those herself.

"I'm sorry that I lied to you about Eli," Mia said, looking down at her coffee. "You have to understand back then, I really did 'hate' him. I can't tell you when hatred turned into friendship and then..."

"Into love?" Anna carefully asked.

Mia's eyes widened. "What? No! I mean... I don't know. We're not really... I mean... I don't know..."

"Have you ever tried talking to him about your feelings for each other?"

Mia scoffed lightly and sipped her coffee. "He really isn't the kind that talks feelings a lot."

"Maybe not through words. Words can be hard to speak, they can hurt too much to voice," Anna said, looking at her. "But there are other ways to communicate than with your mouth."

Mia stared at her croissant for a long moment, letting Anna's words sink in, before she had an epiphany.

– It had been right there in front of her – a way to get through to Eli.

Anna was right. He didn't communicate through words. He didn't listen to them. He preferred written words in a book, art, or even actions.

"Thank you," Mia said, leaning forward to press her hand on top of Anna's. "You have no idea how much you've just helped me."

Anna looked surprised for a moment, but then a nervous smile lifted to her lips. "I-I'm happy. I'll gladly help you any way I can. Anything you ever need, I'll be there."

"Thank you," Mia said, returning the smile.

"You're welcome."

"And Anna?"

"Yes?"

"I forgive you."

• • •

Hmm... Who would like a chapter from Eli's POV? I haven't tried that yet. Could be fun.