Oh, Sweet Misery {{KATIE-POTATIE!}}

[Jonathan Halliwell]

((JUST ME AND KATIE'S CHARACTER. Bring in Roxie? We can do it in this one...))


March 25

Jon was exhausted and hurting. Oh, God. There had been another attack, and this time, Faith had been involved, among his many friends. Faith was now blind, temporarily, but she was blind nonetheless. He was counting on Kai to take good care of his kid sister. Aimee was missing, a note that mentioned something about beatings and rape and a week from the day. Matt... Ah, geez. Matt was a mess in the form of a human pincushion for knives. It may sound cruel, but it was the only way he could say it. At this point, he was crying, so stressed and worried and hurt. Aly was barely hurt, but she had almost been raped. And the new kid, Vance, had been hurt pretty bad, too. Along with so many others...

And now, he was having his attacks again. He was hurting all over, and not to mention he was still so weak. So as he leaned on the couch, in tears, he felt the world shifting under his feet, swaying and swirling. He felt so sick... Then there was Roxie. She'd been acting strange lately, and something was up with Cal. Adam was barely around, and something had definitely gone down with him. Of course, he'd also had his little cousin Ana kidnapped and his older cousin, the professor, killed in the attack. Poor guy... So here Jon was, completely miserable, and to top it all off he was dizzy, nauseous, and had a headache the size of Jupiter. Plus he ached all over, but he would get through somehow. Right now, he just needed somebody, anybody...

[Roxie McElroy]

As much as Jon was hurting, Roxie was panicking. She had witnessed first hand - being girlfriend to Jon and seeing all of his many friends almost daily - what had happened to everyone, and it was the sort of thing that made a girl like her unable to breathe. She came from a normal, Muggle family who didn't experience anything as horribly frightening as this. She wasn't used to it. She came to school to learn magic and have fun, not have her (and the lives of her friends) put into danger. The girl wasn't equipped well enough to deal with the likes of this. She just... couldn't do it. When her sister had been involved with the attack it had just pushed her that small way over the edge, and she knew.

She just couldn't deal with any if this anymore. She had to end it with... everybody. Jonathan - as much as it pained her to say it - had to go, because, truthfully? He scared her. He scared her out of her wits. Since he had been ill, she had been afraid to touch him at all, as if he was a bomb waiting to blow up. That wasn't the way couples were supposed to act. Couples were supposed to hug and kiss and love each other, like in the fairy tales. There wasn't any chance of you turning around to see the person you loved most in the world dead, if you were in a fairy tale. Real life sucked, and Roxie seriously thought she was going to go mental if she had to put up with it any longer.

So, no, she wasn't. But first she had to find Jon.

This didn't take long, as she knew he wouldn't have walked far from the dormitories in his condition. But it was best not to think about his condition... Because of this, however, the Fina headed straight for the Fina common room. When she reached it, and climbed in, there he was. Looking so miserable and pathetic that Roxie wanted, just for a second, to rush over to him and scoop him into her arms, though she couldn't. She almost loved him again. But she had to push such feelings away. She had to end this, or else it would all end in tears if he was killed in another attack. Or even, if she was. "Jon? We need to talk." Her breath came out like it does if you're very cold or have been crying, but she was neither.

And she waited to start.

[Jonathan Halliwell]

For the first time in his entire life, Jonathan Halliwell wanted to get so drunk he wouldn't even remember his own name. If only it would make him numb to the pain for only a while, it would be that much longer with his peace of mind. And every second counted, especially right now. As his eyes clouded over, he forced himself to calm down, willing his tears away. He also swallowed his anger and hurt, biting back his fear and helplessness. Then he got a leash around his racing heart and shallow breaths, frocing himself to slow them down and deepen them. He wasn't going to have an attack, not now. Not on top of everything else, because it just might actually kill him. Literally. So he groaned, and eventually eased into a state of semi-calm, which was the best he could hope for.

He wiped his eyes, cleaning off his cheeks and stopping the flow of tears that trickled out. He sniffed a few times, clearing his nose, and then pushed aside his feelings and most of all the pain. Physically and emotionally, and just as he was about to go find Cove for some company, the common room door opened and his eyes shot up to it. And in walked Roxie, and he found his breath catch in his throat and his heart skip a beat. But this was no happy greeting. Something was wrong with her, and he somehow knew that he was going to be finding out in just a moment. He swallowed, working to moisten his throat so he could speak, as it was dry, and was about to try his hand at a greeting when she beat him to the punch.

Okay. Bad sign. Good things never started with that line. Ever. And the most famous ending was usually the end of the relationship between the two in the conversation. His mouth parted slightly, and he just stared at her for a moment, at a complete loss for words as his mind raced around all the possibilities. But maybe she was just worried, or she had news. Or she was probably just going to talk about him and how he should be taking better care of himself. Or maybe she was going to talk about -- "Hey. Uh, okay... Would you, um, like to sit, or is this a standing sort of thing?" His eyes found hers, and he waited, praying that his main assumption was wrong. Not now... He needed her. God, he needed her.

He loved her, and that was his first mistake...

[Roxie McElroy]

{LeOMFGZZZ!!1!ONE A TAG. A slightly God-modey tag, but oh wells.}

Okay, so maybe the young Fina could have chosen a better opening line than, 'we need to talk', but give her a break. She'd never broken up with anyone in her life, let alone someone she actually really cared for, and that was the line everybody used in the movies. Hell, Roxie could very well have opened with a kiss and a, 'hey, honey, how are you today?' and it wouldn't have made any difference. The conversation was still going to head the same way, and from whichever direction you looked at it, it would probably end in more tears.

The blonde sniffed, and gently touched his arm. Her voice was thick when she spoke; it sounded like it was clogged with unshed tears. Maybe it was. "Let's sit." Her hand slid down until it clutched his hand, and she headed towards a sofa, sitting on the very edge. When she was sure that Jonathan was next to her, and reasonably comfortable, she continued.

"Jon." Folding her empty, slightly clammy hands together in her lap, she closed her eyes, and remained silent for a moment or two, as if trying to think up what to say. Which was, in truth, exactly what she was doing. "The thing I need to talk to you about it quite serious, and I don't think you're doing to like it at all. Ugh, I just don't know where to start..." She closed her eyes again, and took a deep breath. "I love you. You know that. But lately I've been feeling like..." Her light eyes shifted from her lap to his face. "like I don't love you enough. Everything's happening so fast, and you're so ill and broken..."

"I just don't feel enough for you. I can't look after you. I can't deal with your attacks and your hurt and your pain." A tear trickled down her pale cheek and she cringed. It burned her until it reached her chin and dripped off. "I'm just not strong enough. I can't be with you when you're like this. I see my friends around me, Emerald and Belle, and they're doing fine. They're dealing with everything famously." She sniffed again. "They could look after themselves and everyone around them if they wanted to. And it makes me feel so, so ashamed that I'm not the same."

Roxie let out a little, choked up sob. "I can't do it. I'm ashamed, and I'm..." She was silent for a little while before she added the last words. "And I'm running away. From us. I just can't be with you anymore."

[Jonathan Halliwell]

Roxie took his hand and led him to the couch, and he settled in, looking comfortable in her eyes but really feeling as tense as if he were standing on the edge of a cliff about to fall. He listened as she spoke, and he felt something gnawing at his heart, shortening his air supply. And then she said those words, and God, he felt as though someone had pushed him off. His chest tightened just as his throat did, and he found it a little hard to breathe. But he didn't let her know that. "And I'm running away. From us. I just can't be with you anymore." He knew he would have nightmares with those words, and as he looked at her, he felt like he had just slipped off the edge he had been teetering on for the past couple of months.

But oh no, Roxie wasn't crying. She was too strong for that. But he was, he soon found out as he felt something warm trickle down his face. His face was covered, hidden from her view, and his arms were propped up on his legs as he struggled to get his emotions under control. After a moment, he had wiped his eyes and face and looked back at her. When he spoke, his voice was flat, hollow. Like an empty shell. "Well... I guess this is goodbye. I think..." He got to his feet, walking a few steps away, his back to her. "I think loving you was my first mistake..." It was whispered, but it was heard, and then he walked away, leaving through the common room door and into the hallway.

Now, he was the one running away; ironic, huh?


((You could have her chase him or whatever you like. Or you could have the other person we planned find him either now or later. If now, then let me know in your next post and I'll make a new thread for them somewhere and it could start. ^^))

[Roxie McElroy]

Jonathan's face was obscured from from view, and Roxie couldn't see his tears, but she stared right at him anyway. She wished that she could see his face, his expression, so that she could be sure whether she had made the right decision or otherwise, but she couldn't, so she imagined it anyway. When he lifted his head and wiped his eyes, she knew that he had cried. A pale hand shot to her small mouth, and she let out a small, dry sob again. She hadn't expected him to be this upset. She certainly wasn't prepared for it whatsoever, and it knocked her about just a little.

She listened to his cold words, her face screwed up, her eyes cringing; the face of someone crying. All that was missing was the tears. Another small dry sob escaped, and she said, "Goodbye, Jonathan. I'm so sorry." Her voice was muffled somewhat by her hand, but it was loud enough to be heard, just as his muttered last words were. 'I think loving you was my first mistake', was what he said, to which the Fina girl replied in a choked voice, "Yeah. I guess it really was." A little cold, perhaps, but she didn't really know what else was to be said- if there really was anything that could be.

{Sure. Our Intermise can meet him wherever you want, just makey the board. ^^}