Chapter 406: Better Without

Back then, Connor had tried many times to prove himself better than Oric, but Willow ignored all of his advances. As a teen, there was not much he could do, but Connor often tried to impress her with the latest and newest, and while Willow was always excited, and treated him as awe inspiring, she was never swayed to his side.

Desperate, Connor had even gone as far as to tell Willow that Oric was sleeping with another female friend of theirs. It was not true, but he had hoped to put a wedge between the pair by making Willow jealous. He did not expect her to respond by offering herself to Oric, in what he could only guess was a rushed decision to make him hers completely.

Despite being close, Oric and Willow had never spent any real time alone, so when they disappeared into Oric's bedroom and locked the door behind them, Connor knew it was a bad sign for him. The pair had taken advantage of the lack of parents during one of their weekly get togethers', and Connor's jealousy peaked knowing that Oric was losing his virginity first.

Now that they were all adults, Connor decided to come clean about how he felt back then and why he had told people what he discovered. Willow claimed not to care though, she told him that it was Oric who had done her wrong, saying that if she cared about people finding out, she would not have done it in the first place.

With the hatchet buried, Connor and Willow drank as they recalled past memories of things they did, and things they should not have done when they were younger. After a while, Willow excused herself, and promised Connor that she would come back to sing karaoke with him. She did not realize how drunk she was until Olivia volunteered to walk her to her room. They wanted to find Mina but were found by Oric instead.

Willow fled to her room not wanting to stay within Oric's line of sight any longer, but he followed her, and somehow the conversation landed back on the long-forgotten past. After rejecting Oric's apology for what felt like the one hundredth time that day, Willow left with Connor, hoping to find Mina and make her sing for them.

Whenever Willow was stressed or depressed while at Wayvair University, she would ask Mina to sing to her. The woman had an enchanting voice, and although she was not a very emotional person, she was good at capturing the mood of a song. Willow's favorite thing was when Mina sang happy songs to a slow melody because somehow, it always felt like each word was sung specifically for her, and Willow needed that feeling again.

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Not wanting to follow Oric and Willow, Olivia found and stood next to Mina who looked like a fish out of water next to the person she was with. Her posture was stiff like a rod while Brayden asked her random questions. Olivia knew that it was the man's attempt to get to know Mina better, but she had a feeling that her friend was more concerned about the glares she was receiving.

Olivia could tell that Mina found Brayden attractive, but so did many other women, and they had all flocked around, staring daggers at Mina, as she was the only one who held and kept Brayden's attention. When the man asked Mina where she had gone, she told him that she went to buy food, but ended up sitting with children, doing arts and crafts as she ate.

"Do you want to make babies?" Brayden asked. "I mean, in the future. Do you want children?" Mina's face turned red and she looked at Olivia wondering how she should respond, but Olivia's eyes were so wide that Mina did not think the woman would be of any help.

"Don't scare her away," someone shouted from behind, saving Mina from having to answer the heavily suggestive question. Bastien strolled up to Mina and wrapped his arm around her shoulders and she wiggled away. "See," Bastien said. "Mina is one of the good ones." He reached up to stroke Mina's cheek, but Oric caught Bastien's hand, and shook his head in warning.

"Your back," Mina said in a relieved tone. She had begun to internally panic when she realized she had been left all alone with people she did not know. The arrival of Olivia helped to calm her, and the timely appearance of Oric gave her a means of escape.

"Willow is extremely drunk," Oric said. "She says she is looking for you and won't stay in her room." Mina had seen Willow drunk in the past and knew there was a fifty-fifty chance the night would end in tears. She quickly made her way to where Oric told her Willow could be found.

----

Mina found herself in a large room that unlike the rest of the cabin, resembled a nightclub. There were shifting lights, tiled floors, a bar, a stage and most importantly; a karaoke set up. Willow was on stage, but she was not singing. She was cheering on another woman who was brutally murdering a classic girl power anthem. When she saw Mina, Willow literally jumped off the stage and pulled her friend along, while Olivia followed behind, not knowing how else to lend her support.

"Sing for us," Willow pleaded, and Mina shook her head.

"I don't want to," she replied, and Willow used the tried-and-true method of making Mina feel guilty.

"You are the one who brought me here. The least you could do is sing for me." Mina sighed in defeat and allowed Willow to pick a song while she took the stage. The lights were bright, so Mina could not see very well, and she was glad for that because if she caught sight of Brayden again, she was absolutely positive her voice would give out.

A melody began to play, and Mina recognized the song as an extremely sad love ballad that Willow used to make her sing in Wayvair. Back then, the lyrics meant nothing to Mina, but now that she knew Willow's history with Oric, she understood their significance.

The song was about a woman who fell in love at first sight. She gave her heart to a man who did not cherish it. It went into detail about how the woman was ridiculed and bad mouthed by the man, who had moved on from the singer without so much as a goodbye.

Mina felt uncomfortable singing such a song in a place where half the men came for women, and all of the women came for the men with no promise of anything, but Willow promised to go back to their room after Mina sung three songs, and knowing how headstrong her friend could be, it was a good deal.

Willow's second song choice was one that Mina recognized as well, and she wondered how she could have been so dense in the past not to grasp the importance of the lyrics to her friend. The singer of the upbeat ballad was a man who had fallen for a woman who he later found out was using him. The man later goes on to sing that he would waste no more thoughts on his past love, telling the listener that every line in the song was part of his final goodbye.

The last song was one every woman in Pan knew like the back of their hand. Even a person like Mina, who hardly listened to the upbeat dance pop genre knew the song well, because it sang of the nerve of men.

In a male dominated country, there were not many pro-women empowerment songs, and the one Willow chose was the first of its kind back then. The lyrics were to the point; I am so much better without you.