2 weeks later

"Eyre! Let's go out and have some girl time!" Harper cheers over the phone. Eyre's exasperated sigh is heard on the other line. The redhead could just see Eyre face palming or rubbing the bridge of her nose at the moment, but it doesn't bother Harper.

Recently, Eyre has begun to major Theoretical and Mathematical Physics.

The main reason why?

String Theory.

She would spend hours and hours doing research of it until she's passed out, and our heroine's best friend would find her the next day, in her room, drooling over a few books. Eyre has thousands of papers and sticky notes stuck everywhere to the point where it's covering the billboard of pictures and selfies the two took.

To Harper, it kinda felt like a slap in the face to see her cover the billboard...

But at any rate, she's completely forgotten her dream of saving people, 'giving them a second chance in life' as she puts it.

Becoming a surgeon.

"Harper, I don't have the time. Sorry." She says over the phone and Harper's smile drops.

"When was the last time you ate?"

"I don't know? Half a week ago?" She says, almost as if she's just raised her hand to ask for a pencil in elementary school.

"Half a week?! Eyre, there's a small cafe near your apartment. It's a block away and I'll pay."

Oh yes. Now here's the part where you, the reader, is caught up to date with what's happened.

A week ago, as soon as Eyre touched her mansion, she cut her ties with the Vesper family. Harper's parents generously bought her an apartment room and continues to financially support Eyre up till now.

"No, seriously Harper. I'm hitting the shooting range for a bit." Harper purses her lips, brows furrowing.

She does that quite a bit too... Harper ponders to herself. 

"Why?"

"Dunno. It's comforting."

"Shooting a gun is comforting?"

"Yeah."

Harper sighs, "Eyre, you sound like a psychopath. I'm picking you up. If you don't come, I'm cutting your allowance." The redhead jokes and Eyre huffs into the receiver.

"What are you? My mom?"

"At the moment, yes."

~*~

"Harper, I have no idea why you're making me go out.." Eyre complains, looking at the small menu.

Harper takes a quick glance at Eyre.

The poor shut in has eye bags already. Eyre's also cut her own hair, though it isn't at all terrible. Her once long locks now end about chest length, and the ends are still slightly curled. No matter what she does, it's always the least bit curly unless she gets her hair straightened by a professional, which, she had back at the mansion. Eyre looks paler. Nobody would notice it unless they haven't exactly seen her for over a month. The ring that she had taken from the hospital is not on her left hand, but on her right.

Harper can't help but take notice of the misplaces ring.

    It looked so important to her... So why...?

"You've been locked up in your house ever since you step foot in it. The shooting range doesn't count as stepping out. Plus you haven't eaten in half a week and you say that as if it's the most common thing in the world." Harper reasons, setting her eyes on the picture of the fluffy, golden brown, circles of heaven at the same time.

"It kinda is.." Eyre  mumbles under her breath, half a second after Harper's words left her lips. A sudden storm of confusion seems to cloud Eyre's mind and her eyes begin to dilate.

"Are you ready to order?" The waitress snaps Eyre out of her mental state. Harper lets out a relieved breath. She then turns to the waitress with a smile.

"Yup! I'll have some pancakes and hot chocolate and she'll have the XL burger." Harper orders and Eyre sends the redhead a glare.

"Harper, I told you. I'm not that hungry and there's no way I can finish even half of that burger." She snaps and every guy in the cafe seems to let out a sigh in relief. Harper looks away, slightly peeved.

    Women can eat whatever they want y'know...

Harper shakes off her disappointment, requesting one final root beerfor Eyre soon after.

"Do they even have burgers in a cafe?" Our purple eyed heroine questions and Harper chokes a laugh.

The waitress comes back with two mugs of hot chocolate. Eyre raises an eyebrow and Harper raises her arms in mock surrender.

"Excuse me, I only ordered one.." The redhead rubs the back of her neck apologetically. The waiter, who Eyre and Harper reads off as 'Janet', winks. Janet then sets a note on the table, looks to two guys across the cafe, and waltzes away. Harper takes the liberty to read the note.

    'You two? Us? Date? Give us a call: xxx-xxx-xxxx'

Eyre merely rolls her eyes as soon. Harper flashes the two a wink, though with no intention of going out on a date. Men like them just aren't her type.

Eyre groans, "Seriously? Why can't we do a single girl night without a guy trying to pick us up?" She then takes a sip of the hot chocolate before shoving it across the table over to Harper. "I mean I just woke up from a damn coma."

Harper frowns. "Why'd you give me your cocoa? I mean I don't mind, but it's one of your favorites..." She trails off, looking down at her mug.

"Here's a plate of pancakes, and your XL burger! As well as the root beer. Don't worry, those gentlemen over there paid for your order as well." The waitress smiles and sets the XL burger down. Janet takes the plate of pancakes but the plate slips from her hands. She gasps.

    MY PANCAKE!!!

Not even a second later there's a small clatter. Harper opens her unintentionally shut eyes. Eyre lets out a sigh in front of Harper before sipping her root beer, then immediately shoving it away just as she had done to her hot chocolate.

"Well? Aren't you going to eat? There are starving children in the world, you know?" Eyre clicks her tongue and Harper's eyes tread down to the small stack of pancakes in front of her. Janet stares in shock, still processing what's just happened. Harper's mouth gapes open and Eyre taps it up closed.

    Did she...? Catch that? Bu-! Her reflexes are way beyond the average person's! What.... happened to her..?

Harper musters a smile to the waitress. "Th-thanks Eyre! I think that's all we'll take for now." The waitress shakily nods her head, scurrying off.

Harper looks down at the plate, the sudden thoughts of pancakes now forever scarring her. She keeps her eyes on Eyre with a look of worry. Eyre takes a small bite of the burger before calling up the waitress.

"What's wrong with it?" Harper questions and Eyre shrugs.

"It's too oily and has way too much flavor. The hot chocolate is too sweet and the root beer is a lot more carbonated than I remember." She complains and the redhead swiftly take a sip of each drink, then a small bite of the burger. A frown adorns her face as she wipes the corners of her mouth, careful not to let the red lipstick smear.

"Eyre, what are you talking about? It tastes exactly how burgers, cocoa, and root beer is supposed to taste." The waitress had gotten to their table by then, a slightly troubled expression on her face.

"Y-yes? Is there anything wrong?" Janet asks and Eyre nods her head. Harper, in a frenzied panic, crosses her arms to a giant X while shaking her head furiously.

"May I use your kitchen?" Eyre suddenly asks and the waitresses contorts to confusion. 

"I-I'm sorry-?"

"No worries. I've seen you walk in and out of that door. I can get there myself. I'll be using it if you don't mind." She states ever so plainly and swiftly walks over to the kitchen doors.

Harper bolts out of her seat, leaving a dumbfound and speechless waitress at table number 7, a pencil poised over her small notepad. No many people could hear the small, 'huh?' squeak from her lips.

"Eyre? What the hell, Eyre!?" Harper shouts, shoving the double doors open, only to see her best friend already cutting a piece of raw meat off the remains of a cow flank. She expressionlessly looks up, a bit of blood on her hands, and the knife gleaming.

"What?" She asks. The chefs cower in fear at the corner of the kitchen, a good and safe distance from her.

     Smart.

"Wh-what are you doing??" Harper attempts the calm approach. That just about fails when she screams internally, a loud 'slam' echoing from the giant knife that has cut an evenly proportioned piece of the flank.

Eyre seems nonchalant about the procedure.

The huge slab of meat is tossed onto the grill.

"Eyre, wasn't that heavy?"

"No." Comes her blunt reply and Eyre unconsciously mutters the words, 'Stick...bigger fire....15..?" Under her breath.

As soon as the meat it a nice brown, the edges a bit charred, Eyre takes it off the pan with her knife and sets it onto a cutting board. She slices into the mouth watering steak and then pops a small piece into her mouth. Pure bliss envelops her face and Harper can only stare in shock.

    All her life, Eyre had lived the luxury of taste. Everything had a flavor, a scent, a touch, something that stands above the rest. Yet she merely hacked some meat off a flank and grilled it!

After taking only a mere seven bites of steak, she sets the knife down (yes, our lovely heroine ate the steak with a knife) and then leaves the kitchen, calling Harper to get the bill.

The redhead manages to slam down a fifty, telling the cashier not to bother with the change.

She then rushes out of the cafe to see Eyre walking down the street. The stoplight turns red and she can only swear under her breath. After a few moments of torturous waiting, Harper dashes across the street and get to Eyre's apartment complex.

To her surprise, Eyre's already in her room, surrounded by sketches, sticky notes of String Theory and differently drawn pictures of: six men, one girl, and for some odd reason a squirrel.

"Eyre..?" Harper's voice echoes through the room. Eyre's head whips to the door way. The broken look on her face is turned to a slightly annoyed one.

"Yeah?" She asks, returning to her notebook. Harper hesitates, eyes turning to one particular drawing. It seems the most complete.

She snatches the drawing off the wall and stuffs it into her purse. Whether Eyre noticed or not is beyond the redhead.

   She might go insane again...

"So, why String Theory?" Harper inquiries and Eyre crumples up the paper in her notebook, tossing it behind her. The slight sketch of our mysterious seven is seen.

"String Theory is a theory about quantum gravity. It deepens questions about fundamental physics and is applied to a variety of problems in black hole physics, nuclear physics and more. String Theory potentially provides a unified description of gravity and particle physics-"

Harper frantically waves her arms about, "Okay, calm down tiger. I just want to know why you're interested in String Theory."

"Oh... I don't know... I guess, when I was in my coma... I felt as if I were in another dimension for a bit over a year.. String Theory also revolves around different dimensions and, y'know... I got interested..?" Eyre shrugs uncertainly and then faces her head down to her work.

Harper hesitates, a finger raised as if to say more. Her hand drops after a minute, the words painting a different picture within her head.

    She's insane.. She really has gone mad. But there's nothing I can do to stop her... I just gotta get her mind off this stuff.

Harper repaints the thoughts into an open smile before slinging an arm around Eyre's shoulder.

"Why don't we go on a vacation?" Harper asks and Eyre's eyebrows furrow.

"A vacation." Eyre clarifies and the redhead deserpately nods her head.

"No."

"What~? Why not?"

"I'm studying."

"C'mon! You've been studying nonstop for a whole week! I'd be dead by now!"

"Well you're lazy, so there's that."

"If you have time to hit a shooting range, I don't think a vacation would hurt!"

"Harper, I only go there for a few hours. Vacation usually means a few days."

"Yeah! We can go to the Bahamas and laze about there for a couple hours then take the private jet back home!"

"No. I'm studying. I have a report due tomorrow and I need to finish it."

"And by finish do you mean spell checking your work for the 14th time?"

"Not funny. Get out."

Harper opens her mouth once more to make another argument, but after knowing Eyre for so many years she knows when she'll fail miserably. Perhaps Harper hasn't really known Eyre for so long?

As soon as she closes the door, her old thoughts are ripped apart and rearranged into the negative ones. Tears leak out of Harper's eyes and her back slowly slides down the door.

    Eyre... What's happened to you..?

~~~

here's to the drabbles:

- when Eyre was mumbling under her breath, she was reminiscing about Yun. Though she did not realize that fact, and was in a trance throughout the whole butchering.

- with the trauma that happened to Eyre in her past, she has developed Dissociative Identity Disorder. though not severe, it has resurfaced due to current traumas

- everything Eyre has wrong with her (that is inhumane) is a cause from her other identity. AKA the loss of taste and the amazing reflexes. as well as her enjoyment in going to shooting ranges.

i hope no one here has DID, as i did my research and find it quite saddening to hear the symptoms of the disorder. but i have done quite an amount of research on the subject to feel comfortable with writing it. i hope no one takes offense to the subject, and if there is something that is incorrect please inform me of the issue.

and of course, the image is Harper West. i hope you all come to love her as much as i do.

thank you for reading this week's chapter! i hope to see you next week.