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grudges and headlights | kate
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Topic: grudges and headlights | kate (Read 51 times)
Esme Alricsson
(24/01/2025 at 00:57)
Fourth Year
C7D3T4S4
early november
She'd noticed it more and more, but it wasn't until they'd left a shared class where the Slytherin girl had sat alone, silent and distant, that Esme found the nerve to walk up to her.
"Hey Kate," she whispered, a brush of shoulder contact as she settled beside the snake.
"Are you headed to the Great Hall? Do you mind if I walk with you?"
Esmeralda Alrcisson
knew
the Dankworths. Though she'd been born in Spain and her family's, at least through her father, fortune had come through there, moving to London had meant establishing new roots. They'd interacted in parties and other social events, as most purebloods tended to do, and Esme had always acted civilly toward the girl, even when she'd seemed like the sort to stand above others.
Seeing her alone and embittered struck a chord within her, and she was both curious and considerate enough to figure out why, if she could. Esme herself had been in similar shoes until only just recently. While she had preferred to sink into it, looking back on it now only made her realize she would have appreciated someone,
anyone
, who might have been willing to simply ask if she was okay.
"Are you alright?"
«
Last Edit: 24/01/2025 at 18:21 by Esme Alricsson
»
the
beat
in my
BODY
marches
to a
GROOVE
Katherine Dankworth
(24/01/2025 at 15:02)
Fourth Year
C5D3T4S4
It was not normal for Kate to be alone. As unpleasant as she could be, she had actually manage to become fairly popular around her housemates. But lately, she didn't feel like spending her time with friends. Almost everytime they approached her, she just would say she wanted to be alone.
That day was being a particularly bad one. Her feelings had actually started to catch up with how she performed in her classes, and the pit on her stomach had made impossible for her to be as
shiny
as she usually was.
She turned her head just a little when she heard Esme. In other circumstances, she would probably just say something mean and walk away, but she felt so sad that she didn't even have the energy to be herself. So she just nodded.
The company could be worse. At least she knew her by sight. She ran in the same circles as she did, at least during the holidays, when the pureblood families reunited the most. Just as she was about to say something, anything, really, that could start the small talk, Esme hit her with a question that made her stop in her tracks.
"Are you alright?"
Tears start filling up her eyes before she could stop them. She normally was such a private person. She hated showing weakness. And why would she tell Esme she was sad, out of all people? They have never really talked.
But lately, her stupid emotions felt like they were constantly overflowing. Not only she was heartbroken, but she felt like she had no control of herself because of it.
The next words came so naturally they almost circled back around to feeling weird.
"Not at all."
Esme Alricsson
(24/01/2025 at 18:27)
Fourth Year
C7D3T4S4
She didn't expect Katherine to appear so vulnerable.
The welling of tears nearing the brink of flooding her face had Esme's senses heightened and her expression rather shocked to see how a couple of words, poignant as they were, could make such an impact. She couldn't shake thinking about herself then, wondering again that if someone would have asked her when she was feeling her lowest if she would be able to keep it together and fake her way through it.
It gave her a keen sense of where Kate was, of her mindset, and how unlikely seeing such a thing must be when someone was so proud. If there was anything making her think otherwise, the words that came next erased them.
"Not at all."
Esme didn't want her to cause a scene or have others stare at her if she broke down. Had she barely been hanging on this entire time? The Ravenclaw girl wrapped her arm around the girl's shoulders, covering her, as she rushed them to get out of sight before she pursued asking why she was feeling that way.
Dragging them into the nearest empty room, Esme slammed the door behind them. She let the girl go for a moment as she brandished her wand, locking the door. Then, she conjured up some tissues and held them out for her to take.
"What's wrong?"
«
Last Edit: 28/01/2025 at 01:32 by Esme Alricsson
»
the
beat
in my
BODY
marches
to a
GROOVE
Katherine Dankworth
(25/01/2025 at 14:58)
Fourth Year
C5D3T4S4
She let Esme guide her towards what seemed to be an empty classroom. She had no strength to say anything about it, and furthermore, she was glad Esme spared her of the humiliating of crying in front of her classmates.
That was the moment she realized how easy was to really see right through her. She had always been so proud of being this person who no one really quite knew, keeping her feelings so guarded only those who got close enough could actually say who she was. But now, sitting in one of the empty desks, while she reluctantly reached for a tissue, she felt like an open book.
It was awful
.
Just not awful enough to keep her from talking to Esme. Damage was already done anyways. She couldn't stop bawling her eyes out, and she was pretty sure the girl was at that stupid party and saw all that went on between her and Oliver. It wouldn't take a lot for a smart girl like Esme to figure it out.
"Have you ever had your heart broken?"
Esme Alricsson
(28/01/2025 at 01:46)
Fourth Year
C7D3T4S4
They'd barely made it out of sight before Katherine became a bawling mess.
Esme winced once the storm came. The girl's face reddened, and the tears streamed like a broken faucet. Watching this, her mask becoming one of sympathy for the girl, the Ravenclaw wondered if this was the first time she'd gotten a proper cry or if this was just one of many she'd gone through the since... well, whatever had devastated her so much that this could get triggered by asking her if she was alright.
She let it happen, watched it overtake her, and only made the small effort to hold out tissues and be there. There was little she could say or do in the moment when the pain seemed overwhelming. Esme, at best, only brushed back the girl's hair from falling on her face. The small gesture of affection she could offer without feeling too invasive.
When Kate did finally speak, the words cut at her like a scythe.
"Have you ever had your heart broken?"
Holding her breath, Esme did not need to search her mind and heart long to try and answer it. The experience of her and Wyatt had felt so fresh that reflecting on it now still stung. It was the only experience she could fall back on, and looking back at everything that had happened and then seeing how devastated Kate appeared to be, how could she honestly say that they were the same?
So, she didn't.
"N-no," she admitted to both the Slytherin girl and her own self.
"I thought I felt
something
like that, for someone," and she inhaled a sharp chunk of air and let it inflate her lungs and stretch her limbs before she reached out and dropped her hand on the snake's back, her hand rising and falling in support. An exhale, and she let the sigh bring relief.
"But I've never felt like
that
, how you are feeling right now. So, it couldn't be. Not really. I'm so sorry, Kate. I didn't realize you were holding this all in."
the
beat
in my
BODY
marches
to a
GROOVE
Katherine Dankworth
(03/02/2025 at 15:03)
Fourth Year
C5D3T4S4
Katherine wiped the tears from her face, although it seemed futile, because she couldn't really stop herself from continuing crying. She was so embarrassed. She had cried in front of most of her friends, and now she was crying in front of practically a stranger? Would everyone in that damn castle know she was a weak person?
Then Esme confessed she had never had her heart broken, and a bitter laugh escaped her lips. "Then you should count your lucky stars, because I don't think there's a worse pain than a broken heart."
Curiosity got the best of her when Esme started to talk about a certain
someone
who had wronged her, mostly because she couldn't even imagine who she could be talking about. "Who was it?"
She asked mostly coming from curiosity, but there was also a part of her who wanted to retribute Esme's consideration by helping her with whatever was bothering her. In the most part, because she didn't like to be in debt to anyone. But also, because there was a tiny part of her who felt grateful. "Don't be sorry. It's my fault, really. This is exactly why my father always warned me about letting people in."
Esme Alricsson
(05/02/2025 at 10:54)
Fourth Year
C7D3T4S4
Esme, somewhat cathartically, wished she could have expressed how grateful she was to Kate for being able to shine a reflection to her own pain and realize how much in paled in comparison. For all of her problems, her anger and her jealousy and her unsatiated desires, Esme had not felt she had come close to tears when regarding Wyatt. At most, it had been tears of frustration. An anger filtering out all logic from being denied her ability to control everything when it came to them.
She began to stroke Kate's hair as she told her that she should feel lucky that she hasn't' felt that way. While a part of her wanted to argue the point, she knew better than to do so. There was no reason to diminish her pain by trying to add some perspective. Not this soon.
"Who was it?"
"Um," she started, looking away.
"No one important," she lied. Esme bit her bottom lip, as she always seemed to do when thinking back to it, noticing the distinct lack of swelling absent the intense contact she'd craved like a drug. It wasn't her problem anymore and she buried the feeling, happy to engage in a different topic when Kate brought up her father.
"That sounds like something mine would say too." Her father, as Slytherin as they came, had warned her that trust was a two-way street. Lacking vigilance might end with her getting hurt the way Kate had been. Except, Esme was starting to realize that keeping everyone at arm's length hadn't helped her the past year. It only made her feel worse, alone to her problems, with no one to talk to.
The Ravenclaw knew it's not what the other girl intimated, but she figured she might as well say, "You can count on me."
They could both use more friends.
«
Last Edit: 05/02/2025 at 10:57 by Esme Alricsson
»
the
beat
in my
BODY
marches
to a
GROOVE
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grudges and headlights | kate