Rising Shards

I couldn’t remember the last time I cried in front of someone like that. I couldn’t deny how soothing Stella was, even though she was crying too. It felt almost fake that we were both emotional about a date going well. It definitely didn’t feel real to me to open up to someone who actually supported me. After we cried it out then made out for a bit, I had some schoolwork to take care of, so I retreated to my little office nook while Stella hung out in the living room. When I finished with that, I joined Stella, who was on her laptop.

“Hey,” Stella said. “What’s the internet password? And what’s the internet uh, the name thing? Or wait, it’s the one with Diast in the name, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, that one’s mine,” I said. “Have you not been online this whole time?”

“Uh, maybe,” Stella said. “I didn’t want to interrupt you.”

“You could’ve, I was just correcting papers.” I said. “OK, but you can’t laugh at my password.”

“Why?” Stella grinned. “Did you make it something embarrassing?”

“Maybe…” I said. “The password is ‘TripledeluxefarTs333,’ with the ‘T’s capitalized.”

“Wow Evy, that is quite the password.” Stella said.

“Yeah, I know…” I said.

Before Stella got online, I noticed her background was a sweet picture of her and Zeta. She nuzzled up against me a bit, and while I wasn’t ready for cuddling, I did feel alright with her little nuzzles. I liked the soft physical contact more than I would have ever guessed.

“So, I am feeling a touch egotistical right now,” Stella said.

“How so?” I asked.

“I am very curious,” Stella said. She clicked her tongue. “What you thought of my acting.”

She pointed to her laptop screen, which had her acting group’s page up.

“First up, which one did you go to?” Stella asked. “Because there were a few on this run I wasn’t super feeling.”

“I uh, lemme check,” I said. I got my phone out and showed her the email with the ticket attached.

“Oh! Yeah, that one went well.” Stella said. “OK, good, glad you saw one of the good ones.”

“Were there bad ones?” I asked.

“Like I said, there were ones I wasn’t feeling,” Stella said. “I got indigestion and was very upset tummy for one of the showings.”

“Aww, poor thing.” I said. “You were amazing I thought for the one I saw. Very dramatic subject matter. It could have been really phony feeling if you went over the top with it, but I felt it when you were on stage. I barely recognized you when you showed up.

“Yeah, rehearsals were tough for that one, but we all like to push ourselves.” Stella said.

“Is it going to be a pain to commute to your theater group if you’re living here?” I asked.

“Nah,” Stella said. “We don’t have as much going on in winter, so now’s a good time for this move.” She wiggled her toes in her socks as she mulled over her next question. “And like, you can tell me, I won’t be mad. You seriously went just to see me?”

“Yep,” I said. “I have been…I don’t know. I felt creepy about it.”

“You keep saying that,” Stella said. “Don’t feel bad about it, it makes me really happy you thought of me enough to seek out my work when we barely knew each other. Though I guess we don’t know each other greatly, but. I feel like I know you a lot more now.”

“We know each other a lot more physically at least.” I said.

“Yeah, true,” Stella said, nuzzling a bit more against me.

“And we have at least this month for the rest.” I said.

“Hopefully more.” Stella said.

“Yeah.” I said. “Carefully casual, right?”

“Carefully casual.” Stella said. “So, another thing. Potentially a bit more egotistical. I have some videos of my plays on here. Do you…want to watch any?”

“Uh, yeah? I’d love to!” I said.

“Yay!” Stella said. She went to her video folder. “Wait, wait, you have to see this first.” Stella did her trademark gut laugh, which was becoming an easy sign of a wonderful time. She loaded up a clip of Zeta when she was younger.

“Are you recording?” Little Zeta said. Stella behind the camera answered affirmatively. “OK, so this is my ranking of top ten, uh, top eleven, I just thought of one more, this is top eleven best Raina Starlight looks in Tower of Hate and Love! So far!”

“Oh my god,” I said. “She’s precious.”

“I know,” Stella said.

Zeta looked to be around ten or eleven at this point. She had a sparkly tutu on, giant sunglasses, and a sparkly hat, all of which looked like prizes from an amusement park.

"If you're wondering, the outfit is all her," Stella said. "She thought dressing like that would make her channel a huge hit."

“So does she still have a channel?” I asked as younger Zeta continued to list her favorite actor’s favorite outfits on her favorite show.

“I think the channel itself is still up, but she deleted all the ones where she was this age,” Stella said. “I had to save them though.”

“Oh, you had to,” I said. 

"She moved onto fanfics mostly after, I believe." Stella said.

“Good taste, by the way, I love that show.” I said. Tower of Hate and Love was a show I kept up with no matter what. It was probably the only live action show that really had that honor.

“Me too!” Stella said. “I will warn you now, if we watch.” She looked deathly serious. “There are rules.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean the Faleur New Episode Watching Rules,” Stella said. “You have to follow them if we watch new ones live.”

“And…what are the rules?” I asked. I couldn’t tell if she was joking.

“You can only talk during commercials,” Stella said. “If you read any spoilers or leaks, you are not allowed to mention them. And you have to chew quietly if you’re eating.”

“Those sound pretty reasonable,” I said. “I think I can do that. Want me to try those while we watch your plays?”

“Oh no, no,” Stella said. “Because I have to talk over these. I have a lot to say about how these went. Behind the scenes look right to Evy Diast from the fabulous actress Stella Faleur!”

I am not much of a giggler. I’ll laugh yeah, but giggling was rare for me. Stella’s Stella-ness caught up with me there though and I couldn’t help it. I let out like a full-on high school girl giggle. “You’re so cute.”

Stella looked caught off guard by that for just a second, but composed herself. “Damn straight,” she said. “You are too, Evy.”