Missing (Markise/Anna)

[Markise Sterling]

Markise's heart ached for Annabelle, though he couldn't help the slight flush that came with her compliment. "I'm really not that great, Anna," he insisted, but scooted over closer to her all the same and slipped one arm back behind her shoulders. "Just because the guys at Hogwarts are the worst kind of dogs doesn't mean there's anything wrong with you. They're the ones with problems and you're way out of their league. All of them," he said definitely.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

Another tear escaped from between her closed lashes. Rather than brushing it away, Anna turned into Markise, buried her head in his shirt, and took the comfort that Markise had offered. She wanted to tell him he was wrong, that she wasn't even good enough for the people at the school, that she didn't want the perfect guy, that she just wanted happiness, but she didn't trust her voice to work properly, so she remained silent against him.

[Markise Sterling]

Markise gave a light sigh and wrapped his arm lightly around her shoulders and stroked her hair. There really wasn't that much else to do right now. His brows creased, and he wondered if he'd been talking about her Chase at all. Her description seemed to fit Ariel so well, though. And he knew how easy it was to get caught up in something like that, to want so badly to reach that spark of good that everything else was easy to justify. But sex didn't make a relationship. Attraction brought people together but didn't keep them there. Markise held Anna in silence, letting her calm down or come to terms while he thought over his own mistakes.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

Juliet hooted again from her cage, and Anna tried to ignore the owl. When the animal was persistent, Anna took a deep breath and sat up reluctantly. She picked up the letter which had been placed on the coffee table after a moment of hesitation and stared at it. "I have to send it." She whispered to give herself encouragement. She knew she didn't want the letter to be a goodbye, but couldn't let things linger without some sort of resolution. Her mind was constantly occupied with him, and she hated that she knew he was avoiding her.

Anna folded the letter, not noticing the teardrop that had fallen and smudged a portion of her carefully written letter. She tied it to the DVD, then sent Juliet away to deliver it before she got cold feet. Coming back to the couch, she sat next to Markise and looked at him for guidance. "How long did it take for you to stop wanting your ex?"

[Markise Sterling]

Markise winced at the question. "I haven't," he said, "but in my defense we only broke up in December and he went and ruined everything by being all nice to me the other weekend." Markise didn't even realize he'd slipped out of his usual polite, vague they and straight into the more specific he. Ariel was a touchy subject. He also didn't realize how much he'd probably just told Anna by referring to the weekend.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

Anna's lips formed a silent Oh at his admission. She was surprised to hear that they had broken up shortly before the last time she had seen Chase, and even more to hear that they were still in contact. “So we’re going through basically the same thing then.” She felt guilty for the comfort that she took from that knowledge. She wasn’t glad that he was hurting or confused over his ex, but it helped to know that someone else was dealing with the same type of issue she was.

“What happened over the weekend?” She knew that if Markise wanted to keep it to himself he would sidestep the question, but she hoped he wouldn’t. Anna wanted to know what could cause him to hang out with and ex he had just referred to as an dumbass.

[Markise Sterling]

Markise winced again, then looked determinedly into the fire rather than at Anna. "He walked me back to school Saturday morning," he said simply. He didn't care what Annabelle thought of that, didn't care what conclusions she came to. If she wanted to know that badly, she could ask. "Anyway, at least I know there's no way in hell I'd take him back." Them. Where had his vague them gone? Markise's lips pressed tightly against one another.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

"What did he do that makes him so bad? I mean, if you still care for him but refuse to be with him?" Anna didn't know the story about Markise and his ex, so she was trying to piece the information together as he offered it, and was more or less thinking out loud. She knew next to nothing about the actual relationship, the breakup, or whatever might have occurred since, including the weekend.

She wiped at the the remaining tears that were drying on her face then looked back to find the firm setting of Markise's mouth. "Nevermind, you probably don't want to talk about him." For a moment she'd welcomed the distraction, anything to forget her own troubles. Just one look at him told her it wasn't even worth making Markise relive his.

[Markise Sterling]

Markise's lips eased as he glanced aside at Anna. He turned his gaze back to the fire and shook his head lightly. "It's fine," he said. It wasn't like he had anyone else to talk to, and even giving Annabelle a version so watered-down it was barely truth was better than holding it all in until he screamed.

"The first time we were together, apparently I was the only one who thought so." Something he'd done twice now. It was really pathetic. "We had this huge fight, but ended up getting together for real. He'd tell me stuff that no one else knew, and if I got stuck he'd help me out, but everything in between he was an a~hole. He was always criticizing me, and the first time we went out to that club together, he got with someone else." That was enough of that story for Anna. He didn't want to give her a heart attack. He glanced aside again to see her reaction.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

Anna's eyes widened and her temper flared up on his behalf. "He really did that? What a jerk! No wonder you got rid of him!" Markise hadn't said as much, but Anna jumped to conclusions to fill in what hadn't been said. She couldn't even imagine going out and having the person she was with leave her for someone else. "Some guys have no class, you just don't do things like that on a date."

[Markise Sterling]

Markise squeezed his eyes shut a moment, and his brows knitted at Anna's attempt to champion him. "He'd never been with anyone else and I told him... I told him to go have fun, just to... I asked him not to go too far, and to come back to me. He came back." Markise looked down at the legs of his trousers and picked an almost invisible piece of lint off. "It's probably my own fault, but I knew he'd leave me if I didn't, so I took a chance." And it hadn't worked. "It's no good being with someone who doesn't want to be tied down."

[Annabelle Hennessy]

Anna sighed, forcing herself to calm down despite still hating the guy. She reached up and took a strand of Markise's hair around her finger, pulling it back away from his face. "It's not your fault. I know a lot of guys cheat, which doesn't make it okay. But to do it while you're out with your boyfriend...I don't see how anyone could even think of doing such a thing." She ignored the last part that Markise said. She'd be a hypocrite if she commented because she'd told Chase he could see other people too.

[Markise Sterling]

Markise rolled his eyes as he looked over at the fire. "Apparently I should have expected it, and it's not his fault because he needed the experience." And the money, but there was a detail that Anna would never need. "Anyway it doesn't matter because I wouldn't take him back if he begged me and I'm not going to that club now." He couldn't make any promises that he'd stay away, but he wasn't now.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

"Is that where you ran into him this weekend? At your Friday night club?" Anna knew about Markise going out on Fridays, that he went alone all the way to London. She didn't think it was her place to try and convince him not to go. Even if he got drunk when he was out, she assumed that he did every time after seeing him inebriated, she didn't hold it against him. She couldn't ask him to go to the Bloody Mary instead, someplace she could accompany him, because he couldn't be himself there. She knew the clubs were an outlet for the lifestyle he was hiding, and it would be wrong for him to have to hold it in.

[Markise Sterling]

Markise nodded, still keeping his gaze diverted as he answered with a low "Yes." Maybe Anna hadn't figured it out after all. She'd had to ask, so maybe she hadn't put the pieces together. It felt painfully obvious, and it probably was, now. But maybe she hadn't. Maybe she didn't notice that he'd said Saturday morning instead of Friday night. He'd said it so long ago in the conversation that he decided to pretend that was the case, whether he had any proof or not. "But like I said, I'm not going there anymore. It's better for everyone that way."