Man. This was just too much, and on top of everything, she’d had to deal with a pink haired idiot in the coffee shop she’d been trying to use to think. There were no solutions coming to mind, not immediately, and Riley was still trying not to panic over everything that had happened.

It was like she’d thought in the coffee shop, and several times since. If she kept avoiding Aurum, eventually he was going to stop trying to get in touch with her. What the hell was wrong with her anyway? What kind of girl freaked out because the guy called? The kind who knew that things like this were fleeting…that’s the kind. Only…Aurum never acted like things were fleeting, and it wasn’t like he was a giant liar or anything.

Sigh. This was too much, and there was only one way that things were going to get settled.

Riley left the coffee shop, still frazzled, still confused and frustrated, and headed for Aurum’s apartment.

If nothing else, she could yell at him for springing all of this on her, then distracting her with kisses and elevator shenanigans. Those things…she got. Those things…she could deal with. It was the rest that was a problem.

The trip didn’t take long, neither did finding the right door. There she stood, trying to figure out exactly what it was she was going to say when he opened the door.

’We need to talk.’ sounded dire. It was one of those things people said before they dumped you, and that’s not what Riley intended. She didn’t know what she intended. She was just going to wing it.

She raised a hand and knocked. What would be, would be.

What would be would be.

The teachers had not assigned any homework over Winter Break.

Well, they had, but she'd already finished it all. So now... she was playing Skyrim.

An axe slashed through an enemy, just as the door knocked. The menu sprang up. She'd paused.

Hm. That couldn't be Aurum, Amelia rationalized. Who the hell knocked on their own door?

So who could it be?

Saving, Amelia rose to answer the door.

It was the new girl.

"Hey." She said, hand on the door, unintentionally intimidatingly. "Sup."

The person who opened the door….was not Aurum. It was his sister. The one who didn’t like her. From the way the girl was standing, it was obvious things hadn’t changed since Thanksgiving. Great.

“Hey…sup.”

What girl talked like that? Well. Riley wasn’t going to judge. There just wasn’t space for it at the moment, and the last thing she needed was to alienate a member of Aurum’s family.

What was up? Riley shrugged.

”I was just looking for Aurum. Is he home?” Geez. Why hadn’t she called first?

"He should be home within the next hour," Amelia matched shrug for shrug. "You should have called first. What did you need?"

She was probably here for making out. That was a thing girlfriends and boyfriends did, right? When they weren't being complete jerks to each other and giving them reason to be jealous and bitter. And not giving the appropriate reasons why.

An hour…

Did she want to wait?

The way Ami was talking, it was tempting just to walk away.

Except then she might lose her nerve, or talk herself out of having this conversation with Aurum. That couldn’t happen. This might be the only time she had the nerve to have this conversation.

But wait a second.

”I want to talk to him.” she said. What more information did Ami need about the situation.

”Mind if I wait?”

Amelia stepped aside and gestured to the couch.

"Knock yourself out."

Then, she gracefully stalked over to her laptop computer on the round table in the kitchen, and went back to her Skyrim.

Sheesh.

Riley wondered why the girl disliked her so much. Not that it mattered…but she was curious. Nothing specific had happened to cause the reaction, and most of the time Riley had a problem with people disliking her on principle.

Into the apartment she went. An hour wasn’t too long.

Ami had a laptop set up in the kitchen, and Riley made her way to the couch. It didn’t look like Svetlana was anywhere to be found either. This was both good and bad. The girl could be clingy…but she was someone to talk to other than Aurum’s unfriendly sister.

”Thanks.” she said, the deadpan look on her face obvious in her voice as she made her way to the couch to sit.

...

Click.

.........

Click.

............

Click.

Okay. She couldn't focus. Amelia saved. And powered down the video game. Her eyes rose up over the laptop screen, to focus on the woman on the couch.

"..." Her lips parted for a second. She tried to find something to say. Shut her mouth. Sighed.

Okay. This was ridiculous. Her focus returned to the computer screen.

"Sure you don't want to tell me what's up?" She clicked her browser icon, and started pulling up images of captions on cats.

Riley sighed.

”Why does something have to be up?” she asked, though it was probably obvious that something was, in fact, up because she hadn’t called ahead.

Another sigh.

”I just…need to talk to your brother. About some stuff.” she said.

"Are you dumping him?" She browsed. Innocent question. Really simple to answer, honestly. People, stop looking. She wasn't doing anything wrong or breaking any codes by asking. It was just a 'yes or no' thing. No big.

Lady was acting all serious. She wanted to wait for Aurum to get back. Had sought him out with something dire on her mind. Wasn't leaving, despite the cues she was giving out. Something obviously had to be up.

Heh. This one thought he was a train conductor. Silly kitten. Choo choo!

Was she…

”Wha- No!” Riley said. ”Why would I be doing a fool thing like that?”

She sighed and leaned back against the couch.


”He’s the one who’s probably getting sick of me.”

A fool, huh?

Yeah. Amelia had to agree. Dumping her big bro would definitely be a foolish thing to do. He was a catch. And. She didn't like seeing him get hurt.

This woman was smart. Or at least, she'd thought so for a moment. She tabbed over to a picture with a cat in it. This cat had a piece of bacon taped to it. It looked annoyed. Why there was a piece of bacon taped to the cat, she couldn't fathom. Apparently, the person taking the picture had done it to prove he had the balls to do something so stupid. Speaking of stupid.

"He isn't." She said casually.

Click. Click.

Apparently Aurum’s sister was not only sassy…but all-knowing as well.

”How do you know?”

"Cuz he's happy."

I wonder if Beth sent me that e-mail she was planning to send me...

She tabbed over to her e-mail client. She did not look up at Riley.

"He's usually unhappy when he's in a relationship he thinks is going to fail. True story." She enlightened.

”He’s…happy?”

Aurum was the most confusing man in the history of men.

Man. This was getting more and more difficult by the moment. All that was happening was that now there was guilt on top of everything else. She had to get this off her chest…she had to…had to…what?

Dammit, the point of all this mess was getting lost in translation because of Aurum’s stupid sister.

”I just need to talk to him…straighten some things out.”