Chapter 403: Closure-2

Oric did not know what he was expecting from Willow, she had always been thick skinned, and it was one of the reasons why he was drawn to her. Despite the fact that there were plenty of much more handsome boys in their circle of friends as teens, she only had eyes for him, no matter how badly people teased her about it.

When Willow had chosen to give herself to him all those years ago, Oric was nervous and unprepared, but he was also a hormonal teen and he could not resist. Instead of waiting until they could properly protect themselves, he entered the naked girl on his bed, believing that he could remove himself when the time came, but the time came unexpectedly, and he was 'unsuccessful'.

"We didn't change the sheets," Oric said through gritted teeth. Back then, he had been so nervous that Willow would become pregnant that his main focus shifted to getting them to a pharmacy, quickly; he did not consider anything else.

"Anyway; what has been done is done. I guess I should thank you for not telling our parents the truth."

"Don't you have anything to say?" Oric asked, expecting an apology for her wrongdoing as well.

"About?" Oric wanted to strangle the woman who had tortured him with coldness for a year before she disappeared.

"You lied about me."

"I did not. I checked the time when we started, and it didn't move by the time we were done." Oric felt his face flush, and if his skin were lighter, he was sure he would have turned red in anger.

"That was my first time. You never gave me a chance to prove myself." Willow laughed theatrically.

"You've been proving yourself all over Pan the last few years. You don't need my assurances."

"And you haven't been?" He asked, fully aware that Willow often left for months without a word to her family.

"What I do in my free time is none of your concern. Why are we talking about this anyway? I'm trying to look for my friend." Oric could not argue with that, and the conversation was not going the way he expected, so he decided to drop it. Unfortunately, they could not find Mina and both people headed back to the lodgings.

----

Cylus stared at Vanya, not because she had shown up, he knew she was coming, he had invited her himself. The only reason they had not shown up together was because she claimed to have had a hair appointment she could not miss, and that was why Cylus was staring. Vanya had changed her hair to a color nearly identical to Mina's.

While that in itself was not significant, Cylus kept thinking about Mina's words comparing Vanya to Lisa. He had not paid attention to it before, because women changing their hair color was normal, but he started to question what had led the women to choose the same shade of brown. It was not exotic like red or blonde and was actually a bit boring.

"You changed your hair," Cylus whispered to Vanya, hoping to get an insight on her thought process.

"I told you I was. Do you like it?" She asked with a smile. Cylus did not like Vanya's new look, and the fact that she was wearing light contact lenses, and less makeup than normal worried him further.

"I preferred your original style," he replied honestly, only to have Vanya's face drop in dejection.

Vanya poked around at her plate, feeling as though Cylus was purposefully showing her how little she meant to him compared to Mina. When he had come to tell her that he wanted to try formally dating, she had been elated, but since then, everything she did seemed to be out shined by the woman.

The woman had gone viral again because someone 'leaked' recording footage and audio from when she was working with President Rue in the studio, and people were beginning to think that Mina would debut as a musical artist. While neither Rouge or Mina made any comments on the matter, Vanya knew it was because they were using the hype to promote their label, which had seen growing competition over the years, and needed the boost to its relevance.

Vanya did not want to compare herself to anyone, because in theory, she had won, but she was scared. There were conflicting rumors circulating about Cylus and Mina, and although it was her in the office that day, many people believed it was the very woman she was trying to make jealous. Her own plan had backfired against her, and not even changing her appearance was helping. Whatever spell Mina had placed over Cylus was a strong one, and not even Vanya's body could break it.

----

Willow and Oric made their way back into the kitchen hoping that Mina would have gotten hungry enough to return. Seeing all the food gone, but no Mina, they moved to the dining area where Bastien made a loud and exaggerated coughing sound at the sight of Willow.

"Did you break the record?" He asked, trying to tease his friend, and the antagonized Willow responded coolly.

"Not even close," she replied, much to the annoyance of Oric. "Did Mina not come back yet?" Cylus stood up from his seat feeling as though he should have gone after the girl himself.

"She wasn't in her room?" He asked with worry in his voice. Vanya who was seated beside him rolled her eyes at the outburst. There was nowhere the woman could have gone without a car and unless someone trespassed onto private property and took her, she was likely somewhere nearby.

"Stop messing around. Did Mina come back or not?" Willow asked. She had been agitated by Bastien's remark. Out of everyone, he was the person she was least thrilled about seeing. She had cried in front of Bastien once, because back then, she thought he was her friend. Sadly, he was more focused on trying to kiss her than comfort her. It was then that she decided to stand up for herself, otherwise people would have thought they could use her as they pleased.

Instead of answering Willow back, Cylus darted in the direction of Mina's room and as Willow said, Mina was not there. He began knocking on doors randomly, disturbing some of the men and women who Connor had invited and irritating Connor in the process. So far, Connor's birthday weekend was off to a troubled start, but he still worried about the weird girl.

"Mina wouldn't have just left, has anyone tried calling her phone?" Connor asked. It was an obvious suggestion, but in his opinion, no one was behaving rationally. It had been less than an hour and knowing that Mina was not the type to dip into an open bedroom, he surmised that she must have gone somewhere to clear her mind of the embarrassment she faced.

"Didn't she say she used to work here?" Olivia added, seeing that her cousin did not look good, and Vanya; even worse. "Maybe she went to the staff lounge?" Willow nodded in agreement, making her way out of the cabin, and toward the main lodgings, where general guests checked in and out.

Unlike Willow; Cylus, Oric and Olivia made their way toward where the minicars were kept. They picked up Willow as they passed. The whole ride, all Cylus could think of was worst case scenarios, and he had no one to blame but himself. The small vehicle had barely come to a stop when all four occupants made their way out of the cart and into the main cabin.