From: Stana Hierspiel
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 19:38:16 -0500
Subject: [FARPG] Stana: Flashback 2


"I should have guessed." Henry answered wryly, peeking at the book she had turned over while addressing him. ::History of the Romanov Dynasty:: he read, giving his head a mental shake. ::Man how can she READ that stuff?:: 

"Encyclopedia Brown" he joked "a fact for every occasion." 

She smiled shyly, fingers tightening on the spine of the book compulsively. "It's not that bad." she said, although the doubt in her voice was apparent. She was always too easy to tease.

"So..." he fnally said.

"So." Stacey answered. "This is it then. Off to college for us both. Are you excited?"

"I guess." Henry replied. "I'm trying not to think about that yet. I mean, the whole summer is here now."

"Yeah. Well-" the other began "I'm looking forward to college." 

He smiled, thinking she would. High school had been bad enough for her, he knew. Hopefully she would be able to make a fresh start now that she was leaving. Noone would know her, where she was going...and noone would care if they did.

"How is it..." he commented "that we ended up here on teh last day of school reminiscing over old times, and talking about the future?" 

"That's just the way it was meant to be." she asserted quietly. "Two opposing forces of nature brought together." 

He was never sure when her jokes started and her sermonizing ended. Perhaps there was no clear cut between the two. He just grinned again. "Perhaps so, "Christian" "

She smiled at the pet name. "Not perhaps, "vampire", it's fact." 

Sometimes, he could almost believe her.

__________________________________________________________________ 

"Sometimes..." he said "when she said stuff like that... I could almost fall for it. Fate, faith...whatever it was...it was real with her." he sighed. "I hope that wherever she is right now...that it's where she wanted to be." 

"What about where you want to be?" Mark asked "You're always welcome to come out with us."

Henry smiled in genuine gratitude, although he knew that the other could not see.

"Three's a crowd, man." he said "I'm ok...it's just, not knowing..." 

"I hear ya." Mark agreed. "But we tried our best. The police found no sign of them...no witnesses, and the roommate that was to have met with them-what was his name...?"

"Aaron..." Henry replied automatically.

"Yeah, him...he had no idea. He wasn't there at the time. . .. If it wasn't for the fact that they found Stacey's car there...noone would have been able to tell she arrived safely."

"She may have arrived safe..." Henry began tightly 

"Don't man." Mark replied softly "let it go. She's dead...and we did our best. She knows that."

"You don't even believe in life after death" 

"She did." Mark replied. "That's good enough for me. Think about the offer. You may need a fresh start too."

"Yeah." Henry paused a moment "hey Mark-" 

"Yeah, man?"

"Do you really think so...?"

"I do...because I remember that it was real to her as well." 

*click*