Old Friends
Laelia & Julie - SFW
Laelia & Julie - SFW
Laelia was about fifteen minutes from securing a meal.
It wasn't like, a difficult one, or anything, but it wasn't like she put absolutely no effort into these things. She wasn't grabbing people off the street. She could have. But she preferred not to. She had a method. She would never call them rules, because she broke them essentially whenever she felt like it--she had people to keep off her trail, at the very least, and also things got boring.
But it wasn't like the universe was just dropping scuzzy but attractive men on her lap! And she'd been just a few minutes to dropping a "your place or mine" when someone sat down at the table.
It was a testament to Laelia's distraction and the amount of sheer stank at this bar that she hadn't noticed the woman when she'd entered. Her face was somewhat unfamiliar. Age changed people in a heartbeat. Literally, in some cases, it seemed. But the smell was unchanged and unmistakable.
"Laelia," she said, and that was all.
"Sorry, I think you've got the wrong--" began the man Laelia had been a few hours from eating whole.
"Trent," Laelia said with a thin smile. "Sorry, I've got to take this."
"What do you mean you've--"
"Don't worry," she said with a sigh, standing up. "I'm sure we'll run into each other again." She fixed Julie with a steady look, sturdier than she was feeling right then. "Walk with me?"
Julie stood to follow her out the door, and Laelia wondered vaguely if Julie was getting smaller. Was that even possible? She hadn't been that tall to start with. Then again, Laelia was eating a lot better now than then when they'd been in school. It was probably her. Probably.
"...This is what I get for walking around like this," Laelia joked awkwardly, to try and break the tension, after they'd walked half a block side by side. "And here I thought it was safe."
"August's with the kids," Julie said, answering the question Laelia had been skirting around.
"...How old are they now?" Laelia wondered.
"Hannah's graduating college in a few months."
"Holy shit, that's so old!"
Julie snorted, then began to laugh. "I know, right? I swear she was starting high school last week."
"Does August know where you are?"
"Right to the point, huh."
"That wasn't even close to the most pressing question I have," Laelia said with a pained smile, cautious not to show teeth.
"Yeah, he knows. He wasn't super happy about it."
"No, I can't imagine he would be," she said with a snort. He'd always been right about her. Laelia had told her as much many, many times. "What made it worth fighting with the loverboy?"
"August's been talking about moving back to Korea..."
"Please don't tell me you wanted to keep me abreast of your family's location."
"What if I did?!" Julie snapped. Laelia rolled her eyes, and Julie gave her arm a shove. It was like rice paper hitting a brick wall. "You're practically their godmother."
"I'm nothing of the sort."
"Yeah? And when Hannah was attacked?"
Laelia made quite the fuss of being distracted examining her nails, painted a deep blood red. "I was in the neighborhood."
"You weren't even close to the neighborhood."
"And besides, I always do that. Also, you know, most people wouldn't be super happy to have someone who slaughtered a teenager near their kids."
Julie shrugged. "I'm not convinced August wouldn't have done it if you hadn't gotten there first," she said, and it was Laelia's turn to laugh. She wasn't wrong. None of them had grown very far from their roots, she supposed. "Look, you can fuss about it all you want, but we both know that if anything happened to us, you'd keep an eye on the kids. And if we vanished, you'd panic."
"I never panic," Laelia lied. "And I definitely wouldn't about that. What surprises me is that you haven't yet." Any sane person would have left that town. Also, any sane person wouldn't be able to sleep knowing that she knew where they lived. She'd stopped checking in after what happened with Hannah. Home wasn't like it used to be. These things made the news. And besides... it wasn't good for her, or anyone.
Her moods were so fickle. Obsession wasn't a good look on someone who could barely tell curiosity from hunger on a good day. August knew that. That was why he was the smart one.
"It's just, Hannah got into Seouldae--"
"Holy shit, really?" Laelia asked, mouth cracking into a wide grin despite her previous caution.
"And August's a bit worried about the culture shock."
"And so you decided to come here and let me know your entire family was going to pick up and finally leave Michigan?" Laelia snorted. "That's a long-ass way to come for that, Jules."
"We're thinking about selling the house. I thought you might..."
Laelia blinked. "Why would I ever?"
"Old time's sake? Retirement? Summer home?"
"None of those things you just said apply to me in the slightest. Is this a money thing? Because--"
"No! I just thought you might want it!"
"There aren't any more bodies in the backyard, I took care of that like thirty years ago--"
"You have good memories there!" Julie protested. "Lots of them! That was the last place we were..." Her voice drained away. "You know," she said quietly. "All together."
"It's also where August shot me point blank with a shotgun."
"You startled him!"
"People can't shoot me every time I startle them! I'm spooky, it fucking happens!"
"You were fine, though."
"That doesn't mean I enjoy it! I hate shotguns," Laelia whined. "You know I hate shotguns. I was spitting up shrapnel for like three days."
"There were good times! You got blessed by an angel in the backyard!"
"It's really telling that you consider that a good memory."
"You don't?"
"I don't think about those times much," Laelia said with a frown. That was the truth. She was a different person now. In a very, very literal sense. "They happened to someone else."
"That's just the PTSD speaking."
"You need a human brain to have PTSD, Jules," Laelia said, rolling her eyes. They'd had this argument a lot.
"Your brain is humanish!"
"It's really not," Laelia sighed, despite the fact she knew Julie never got it. "I'm not buying the house, Jules. I hate Michigan. It's too fucking cold."
"Fine," Julie said with a sigh. "I just thought I'd ask. And maybe catch up, before..."
"Mmm." Laelia made a left into an alley, Julie followed, because she always did. She'd been fearless when they were teenagers and she was fearless now. But unlike Laelia, her skills had served their purpose and left. "Then I've just got one more pressing question."
Quick as a flash, she had Julie against the wall of one of the buildings, hidden from view of the street. She pinned the smaller, older woman in, one hand against the wall and one casually on her shoulder, a grip that could break any human in half in a blink. "How did you find me."
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