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Following Bobby’s visit, Lorna is called upon to have sympathy for her roommate.



Lorna gazed dreamily into her mirror, fingers tracing softly over her still exposed ribs. Her scale said she’d gained three pounds. She was searching for it with meticulous obsession. It couldn’t hurt. The knock on the door made Lorna jump guiltily. She tugged her blouse together and fumbled the buttoning of it. “Yeah?” she called. If Ali was going to harass her again about Manuel, she wasn't opening the door and Alison could beg another one from Cain if she wanted to.

"Roomie? Please let me in?" was the rather wobbly answer, the sound of something thumping on the door lightly easily overheard. A low muffled word followed seconds afterwards, spoken too lowly for Lorna to hear this time.

Well, that wasn’t resolute “you will tell me what’s wrong for your own good” Ali-voice. In fact that wasn’t an Ali-voice Lorna was very familiar with at all. She finished fastening her blouse and pulled the door open, crossing the room as she did so. “What’s wrong?”

The face that looked up at her was still tear streaked, despite Alison wiping the back of her hand on her cheek again before giving Lorna a look of pure misery. "I didn't know!" she wailed, before leaning her head down again, shoulders shaking as the crying started anew. "How could I have missed it?"

Lorna reached out and led Alison over to the bed to sit down, “Missed what? What happened?” She curled an arm around Ali’s shoulders, letting the other woman cling to her.

Curling up next to Lorna and holding on, Alison cries for a bit, feeling wretched and horrible. Eventually the tears slow again and she sighs tiredly, shaking her head. "I... someone just told me that they... loved me." Biting her lip, she fought back the tears that threatened to spill over again. "Oh Lorna. I didn't know. I... I don't..."

Lorna blinked and did a mental review of the mansion. Fully half the school was in England right now and half those left were rather attached. At least, Lorna didn’t think Alex was harbouring any secret loves for her roommate. In fact...oh. “Since these aren’t tears of joy I’m seeing, I’m guessing he didn’t react well to you letting him down easy?” Lorna had a sinking feeling she knew who he was.

A bitter laugh escaped her, and Alison shook her head powerlessly. "Tried to hide it. Was horrible. He always hides everything. And I should have seen it." She wiped at her cheeks once more, palm brushing roughly against her skin. "He tried to act as if it was all okay..." She looked down, sighing heavily.

"It's not your fault." Lorna tightened her embrace. "Of course, he did. If he was the type to feel things on the outside, you would have known before now."

"But it was so clear, looking back now," she murmured, shoulders slumping further, leaning into Lorna a bit. So obvious, like so many other things she should have seen - Betsy, Lorna being ill and so many other things that had just skipped her attention entirely.

Blaire, pity party of one. Lorna didn’t say it out loud because it’s bad form to mock your roommate when she has legitimate angst. Sympathy was what was called for here, “Of course, it is. That’s the evil genius of the past. Just like it’s clear to me that I should have talked to Scott about Alex. That I should have forced Alex to talk to Scott about his problems with his control. That I began starving myself because a boy told me he couldn’t love a fat girl.” Lorna sighed and rested her head on Alison’s shoulder, “Even the ‘paths and precogs miss things, Ali. It wasn’t your fault.”

"Okay," was the tired and defeated sounding answer, a world of doubt held in that single word. She slid an arm around Lorna's shoulder, shifting slightly so they both could be more comfortable. And bit her lip a bit at what her roommate was saying, so much of it things she'd never mentioned before so plainly. "M'glad we're roomies again."

“Me, too.” Lorna knew Alison would keep blaming herself anyway. “It’s not your fault” was the million dollar sentence. But it was Monopoly money if it wasn’t believed. “I’m sorry I was such a bitch. Another one of those things that’s really clear now that it’s over...you were right and I was messed up.”

"M'not always right," was the quiet reply, after a moment of silence. "And it doesn't matter who was right or not anyway. Just so long as-" she paused, taking a deep breath, arm tightening around Lorna's shoulders carefully. "Just so long as you're ok, in the long run."

“No, you’re not. Which is good because I’d have to kill you if you were. Damned irritating quality that.” Lorna smiled, trying to lighten the conversation. Less with the focus on Lorna’s problems, more with the funny, please.

A small chuckle greeted that, fading quickly however. "Yeah..." sighing heavily, Alison shrugged. Not having forgotten in the least that she needed to grill Lorna about what Manuel was talking about, but knowing it would take time to get to the heart of that matter, as well - and leaving it alone for tonight, not having the energy to even think of going there. "Thanks for listening, roomie."

“Anytime.” Lorna resolved to keep an eye on her roomie for the next few days and try to keep her from blaming herself for anything else. Alison always took too much on herself. Lorna renewed her commitment to never tell Alison what had happened. The past was passed.