Mari enters Cassandra’s house, eager to see how her friend is going after not being able to visit for a few weeks.
The silver lining of Cassandra’s condition, as small as it may be, is that her parents are quite well off, so if nothing else she’s well taken care of. Mari doesn’t like to think about what might have happened to her if she needed to work to get by.
She appreciates all they do for Cassandra, but she’s also gd that they’re able to help her out at times as well. She’s been such good friends with Cassandra for so long that she’s practically a member of the family herself. Mari was never super close with her biological family, and things only went further south as she got older and wanted to be herself more, so she’s always felt more welcome here than she did in her childhood home.
Mari engages in small talk with Cassandra’s father as she heads for the bedroom, he asks her how she’s been settling into the new house, and she says it’s been a lot of work, but she’s starting to get the hang of it. He’s not really sure how to reply to that, but he’s heard enough about the witch that used to live there from Mari to know that it’s not worth pressing any further.
Mari enters the dimly lit bedroom to greet Cassandra, who is sitting up in her bed with her back against the wall. Getting into that position is likely the most she’s going to be able to manage today. The formerly well built girl has lost a lot of mass over the years, and is wearing a set of cotton pyjamas as usual, there’s rarely a reason for her to put anything else on. She returns a weary smile to her friend.
“Hey Marielle, how’s it going?” Cassandra is the only person who uses the full version of Mari’s name, including Mari herself. She extends her hand to the side of her bed.
“Hi Cass, I’ve got some good news today.” Mari replies, holding Cassandra’s hand as she sits down in the comfy chair that’s been pced next to the bed for when she visits.
“I’ve managed to sort out the public transport problem, so it’ll be way easier for me to visit from now on. If you ever need some company, just let me know and I can be right over, okay?”
“That’ll be nice, I know you’ve been busy, but it’s been a little lonely here recently.” She grips Mari’s hand a bit tighter.
“I’m sorry, it’s been hard for me as well, but I’ll be around a lot more often from now on. Let me know when you’re feeling up to it and we can dye your hair again.”
Cassandra’s hair goes a bit past her shoulders, and the blue gives way near the top to a decent length of light brown hair at the roots, a sign of just how long it’s been since the st time Mari dyed her hair for her. Her hair is neatly cut, but not well maintained, as even basic hair care can prove to be a bit much most days.
“Thanks, I’m… not really sure when that’ll be, but I’ll text you on my next good day.”
“Yeah, whenever works for you. What do you wanna do today? Should we py a game, or…?”
“Mmm… Sorry, I don’t think I’m up for games today…” Mari can’t help but feel like Cassandra seems a bit more down than she usually is. She trusts her to say if something’s going on, so she just hopes that being here for her today will help a bit.
“That’s okay, we can just chill out and watch something easy for today.” Mari turns on the tv and they choose something to watch. They decide on a season of a cartoon that they watched together a couple of years ago, so that Cassandra won’t have to worry about keeping up with what’s going on.
The two of them stay like this for a while, making small talk about the show, and how Mari has been settling into the new house. After a few episodes, Cassandra loosens her grip on Mari’s hand.
“Hey, Marielle… when you mentioned that you can get here easily now, that has something to do with the witchcraft stuff, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah, it does. I learnt a spell from that book the witch gave me, and I can use it to get around the city.”
“Marielle… That’s really cool… You’ve been taking some huge steps recently, and I’m really proud of you for making all this progress.” Cassandra’s voice gets a bit softer as she says this, to most it would sound like she’s just tired, but Mari knows her well enough to know that she gets like this when there’s something on her mind.
“Cassandra, is there something you want to talk about?”
“It’s just… I’ve watched you grow so much recently, you’ve got a huge house to call your own, and you’ve even been learning magic, but I’ve been stuck here seeing and doing the same things for almost a decade now. I’m lucky if I even get to see the street outside my house these days.”
Cassandra turns her head away, but Mari can tell that she’s getting emotional.
“I-I’m just worried… that it’s only a matter of time before you outgrow me.. A-And then you won’t need me anymore…”
“Cassandra…” Mari pces her free hand on top of Cassandra’s to try and comfort her.
“I’m never going to leave you, Cass. You never stopped being there for me when you had so many other things going on at school, and I’ll never stop being here for you now. And besides, you know how I feel about you…”
Cassandra turns back to face Mari, with a few tears rolling down her cheeks.
“I’m sorry, y-you've been doing so much for me. I just wish I could actually do something to make it up to you…”
“It’s okay, I know how hard things have been for you, but I’m here because I want to be, not because I want anything from you in return. If me being here makes everything even slightly easier to deal with, then that’s all I want.”
“Marielle… please stay with me… I don’t know what I’d do if I…” Cassandra says weakly, the outburst clearly taking a lot out of her.
“I will, Cassandra, I promise.” Mari turns the tv off, and helps Cassandra lie down properly in bed, knowing that if she falls asleep sitting up like that she’ll be in a lot of pain tomorrow. She sits back down in the comfy chair and holds Cassandra’s hand, who slowly starts to drift off.
Once Cassandra falls asleep, Mari starts to feel all of the emotion well up inside her. She’d been putting on a brave face for her friend, but this situation has been tearing her apart as well.
It feels like a little more of her friend is fading away month by month, both physically and mentally, and there’s nothing she can do to help. Cassandra has felt like a burden for years, relying on others to even complete normal, day to day tasks. She was always the one that other people could rely on growing up, and being able to help people out when they need it is one of the things she’s missed the most since she got sick.
Now she’s stuck in her house all the time, watching everything else go by without her. Mari looks at a set of shelves in the corner of the room, it used to house an array of trophies and medals she’d gotten from various events, as well as photos of her with various people from school. Not long after graduation she had it all taken down, as she couldn’t stand to look at them anymore. All that remains there is the figure Mari got her all those years ago.
Mari wishes she could have been there for her more back then. After she had her own near death experience she thought a lot about all the things she nearly lost, and ended up confessing to Cassandra that she’d always had feelings for her, but was too scared to say anything. Cassandra told her that she also had simir feelings, but didn’t want to be in a retionship, as she felt bad about the idea of Mari having to take care of her all the time. It broke her heart, but she still wanted to be there for Cassandra as much as she could.
Mari can’t help but feel like if she had confessed back before everything happened, maybe the extra support she could have given her would have helped Cassandra in the long run. She knows that’s not how it works, but she can’t help but beat herself up over it.
At this point she’s having trouble keeping herself together, and decides that she doesn’t want to leave out the front door, at risk of having Cassandra’s parents see her in this state. She activates the spell she recently learned and jumps back to the lobby of her home, praying and hoping that she’ll be able to do something to help the friend she cares about so much.
