Originally Posted by MadAlice

Violet's heart skipped a beat at that "I missed you too" but it very shortly took a sudden tumble down into the pit of her stomach. Oh. They were having that conversation. Well, she'd been expecting it ever since she left school, but that still didn't make it any easier to hear. And...friends? Would she--could she--be just friends with this boy--no, young man--now? She didn't know. She felt a brief flash of anger cutting through her disappointment--was he really using the situation with her mother as a reason to end the relationship?! But that anger passed as suddenly as a flash of lightning. Why should Caes heve to deal with all her baggage? It was not like they'd been lovers, or engaged or anything, just a brief school-days romance and nothing more. Apparently. And really, why should Violet expect anyone to be able to deal with all the convoluted relationships and history of the Blackthorne family? She should have known better--really she had known better than to think she could have a relationship with a nice, normal person like Caes. Violet supposed she would become another eccentric, unmarried hanger-on at the family mansion like her uncles, shutting herself up in her garret bedroom and writing sad poetry until she grew too old...

NO! That was just self-pity. She was going to take care of her mother, take care of the family, put all her pain and anger and strange life into her work and become a fabulously successful author someday, travelling the world and living as she wished. (Well, maybe she would write one or two sad poems, but she would certainly never let Caes ever know about them!)

"I see," she finally said aloud. "Well, I guess that's what I expected. We're really both too young to be making permanent life decisions right now, aren't we? So," Violet continued in a non-stop string of conversation, gathering her notebook and pencil together and stuffing them in a small carrier she had with her, "you'll have to send me a postcard now and then and let me know how the Canons are doing." Violet knew that rushing out right away was probably the wrong thing to do, but she didn't want to wait around in this awkward conversation until she said or did something too embarrassing and emotional.