(Untitled)

[turnthebadinme]

Serena had forgotten. It was stupid, she knew, to forget that people vanished here, that it would happen to her, too. This was, after all, a basic rule of island life, of life anywhere, and she had lost more than a few people in her time, so it should have been easy to remember. She was, however, an optimist by nature, and although she'd been badly

Comments

[learnwhatsreal]

It wasn't too hard to tell, getting a good look at Serena after she opened the door, that something wasn't right. Jenny had been smiling, but that faded quickly enough, replaced almost immediately with an expression of concern. She'd been stopping by just to hang out, maybe head down to the beach for a while, but her intentions were all but forgotten now. Making sure Serena was okay was far more important than any of that.

"Serena?" she asked, worrying at her lower lip a little. There was a line, of course, between just checking to see if someone was alright and intruding, but she couldn't very well ignore this. "Hey, what's going on? You look -" She gestured vaguely with one hand, mouth set in a frown. She had a feeling she didn't need to be more specific to be understood.

[turnthebadinme]

Mouth open to answer, Serena shook her head, shoulders jerking back in an unsteady shrug. "I --" She waved a hand, pressing it to her forehead after in an unconscious imitation of her mother, shrugging again. "I'm fine," she said, looking back to Jenny. "I just... thought you might be Beat. Have you seen him?"

She knew it wasn't wise to keep hoping, to think things could still be okay, when overwhelming evidence existed to the contrary, but Serena had never been wise in times of crisis. She far preferred clinging to the last scrap of hope available to her, long after she should. There was still the possibility, after all. She couldn't give up hope while she had that much.

[learnwhatsreal]

Jenny didn't need much more than that to have a pretty good grasp on the situation. All in all, she'd been lucky in the year she had been on the island and she knew it, but that didn't mean she wasn't acquainted with losses of her own. She still remembered all too well pacing around Dan's treehouse, waiting for him to come meet her, only to have him never show up. Around here, a question like that could mean only one thing, that she hadn't seen him, and there was really one explanation for that.

"No," she answered, shaking her head a little, looking instantly guilty for it. "I haven't." It was out of both of their hands, but she wished she had, wished there were some way she could fix this or make it easier somehow. Instead of saying that, though, she gestured past Serena with a tilt of her head, through the doorway. "You want me to come sit with you or something?"

[turnthebadinme]

Serena tipped her head upward, eyes closing and lips pressed tight together. She held her breath a moment, then took a shaky breath. There had to be a hundred places still he could have been, places she hadn't thought to look. "Yeah," she murmured, nodding, "okay."

It seemed so stupid to just sit still and wait, but she didn't know what else to do or where to go or how to confirm or deny her suspicions when they seemed increasingly like fact. Stepping back, she gestured for Jenny to come on inside. Maybe with company, she would feel better. Somehow things would be better. Inhaling deeply, she forced herself to at least look a little steadier, focusing her attention on Jenny. "What's up?"