The Lovers Arcana

[Fenris]

Artem spent a solid thirty seconds in shocked silence. Which was fine, as it were, since Amelia was perfectly happy to fill the silence herself.

Amelia was a good friend. But he wasn't interested in her in any other sense, as he'd only just reaffirmed to himself. Of course, friends certainly went to prom together, it wasn't an event solely for romantic pairings or else more than half of their senior class would have nowhere to go and that would probably result in some sort of discrimination lawsuit. It was hardly unusual. Especially from someone as... he wasn't sure if innocent was the right word, or if naive was too uncharitable, but something in that ballpark felt about accurate. More than likely Amelia herself hadn't even considered any potential implication of her words beyond wanting to have a good time with her friends. Which probably made him the strange one for overthinking the matter so thoroughly.

Prom, though. Did he want to go to prom? With Amelia? At the very least that erased his fear of being left alone all night. He had no concerns about her leaving him hanging. Though she would probably want to dance, which would be an obstacle to navigate when it came about, he supposed. He'd been all too ready to give a sympathetic nod when Amelia said she didn't have a date (which he expected, not because she wasn't pretty or anything, but because certainly they would have heard about it by now) and perhaps waited a few days before asking if she'd like to go stargazing or something instead. It would be something to do, and would get his mind off of what he was missing, and would probably be more interesting than his actual plan for prom night, which boiled down to "get high and then ???".

... He shouldn't go to prom high, right? Amelia didn't smoke. He was pretty sure.

He was getting off topic.

He looked at Amelia. She really was a pretty girl, and fun to spend time with, and this was the sort of once-and-a-lifetime circumstance that he'd like to have in his back pocket of experiences in case the topic ever came up in his writing. He hadn't exactly had other plans. And if it was a total disaster, well, it was one night in his life. He couldn't imagine it would be worse than dull, and dull was, at least, tolerable.

He knew it would make Dolly happy, too, and that never wasn't a factor.

"Okay." He nodded. "Sure, okay. That sounds... doable."

[Tonyksin]

“Hooray!” Amelia shouted with glee.

It was so awesome that now all four of them could be together for prom. Dolly and Marceline were obviously going to spend a lot of time by themselves for sure, but now Amelia and Artem could keep each other company all night! Amelia looked over at the couple across from her and smiled mischievously. Those two were gonna get all nice and cuddly and cute at prom, she just knew it. She wondered if she could sneak some cute pictures of them being all couple-y when they weren’t looking. Yeah, she definitely could, and she’d somehow convince Artem to get in on it with her. She peeked over at him and grinned. This was going to be the best night ever!

“What should our colors be? I have a really pretty purple-ish dress, come over after school and I’ll show you!” She was basically bouncing in her seat at this point.

Amelia quickly began to gather up her belongings and shove them messily into her bag. She had to go find a place to call the shop and let her grandma know she was going to prom! She stood quickly, smoothing out her clothes and knocking off any crumbs as she did so. She swung her backpack on, and grabbed her finished paper bag of lunch foods. She looked at her friends and squeed with happiness.

“I’m gonna go call my grandma and tell her! I’ll see you later!”

She giggled loudly and ran around the table, hugging each of her friends as she went, and then zoomed out of the cafeteria with a skip in her step, tossing her garbage in the trash as she left. She had to find a hiding place so she could use her phone, she didn’t want a teacher to yell at her.


[Amelia Fischer Prom Continued Elsewhere]

[Fenris]

"I—sure, yeah, I'll—"

She was hugging him, and then she was gone.

"... Text you?"

Huh.

Artem just sat and stared, mouth slightly agape, in the general direction of the rapidly absconding Amelia. They were going to prom. That was a thing he was going to have to plan, and coordinate for, and participate in. More or less immediately once he had a silent moment to gather his thoughts he realized what a terrible idea this was. Sure, yes, she was pretty, and prom was once in a lifetime. A lot of things were once in a lifetime. Dying, for example, was once in a lifetime, and he was perfectly happy to not do that any time soon. He was underselling the severity of the situation, thinking the worst it could be was dull, when, Amelia there or no, the worst it could be was lonely. That overwhelming, overpowering loneliness that crept into his heart when he was surrounded by people with no one to speak to and nothing to say.

He should have said no. But she looked so happy, and it was far too late now.

"I, uh..."

He should've looked at Dolly, that was the polite thing to do. He did not, though. He mumbled in the general direction of the door, barely loud enough to hear her.

"I should go."

He stood, all of his food left behind on the table, and departed, quickly, with no destination in mind outside of far away from right here.

>> Artem Fyodorov continued in Lost Souls