Let's check in with Lacey in the modern day :)

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Scene 4: Smile in Denial

A.D. 2015

Sometimes it felt as if most of this honeymoon consisted of Ryder taking long showers by himself, while she was on the phone with someone else. But it only felt that way sometimes, Lacey reflected. So it wasn't so bad. It was just because every second spent apart from him dragged on like an eternity; but no matter how they spent their time, they were bound forever as husband and wife, so for that she was glad.

Lacey wasn't sure why her thoughts, whenever Ryder was in the shower or otherwise removed from her, so often turned to Dan. Especially lately, now that his love life seemed to be running according to her plan. She supposed that he had to be happy, when Tess was so ecstatic about their relationship. But she wished she felt more certain of it. His happiness mattered to her, quite a bit - he would always be her most treasured friend, even more so now that it seemed she had lost him. She just wished he would pick up when she called him.

He never did. She'd tried one too many times and was growing rather weary of it. But still she had to try, again and again until she finally got through to Dan. For till she heard his voice, a voice so dearly missed, declaring his own happiness, Lacey would never have rest.

Today, while sitting on the hotel bed biting her nails and staring at 'Dan Hollis' in her contacts list, the idea came to her mind of calling him from a phone other than her own. Maybe, just maybe, he would answer the call, if it came from a number unknown... If there was any chance at all, she ought to try. Might as well. She put away her cell, reached for the bedside phone provided by the hotel. Followed the instructions to make an international call, dialed Dan's number which she happened to know by heart, and waited with breath bated at the ringtone, already feeling closer to him though they were apart.

The current ring was suddenly cut short. "Hello?"

At the sound of his voice, she could breathe again. "Dan...!"

And at the sound of hers, his breathing stopped, his heart constricting from the shock. Even from such a vast distance, unable to witness the alarm that fell across his face, she noticed.

"I'm calling you from the hotel phone," she informed him after an eternal silence. "I just... I really wanted to just hear your voice, you know?"

He couldn't say the same. As she'd known to expect.

Lacey went on before he could say anything else, or nothing else; in either case, she had no clue what she would do. "So how have you been?" she asked, continuing without even granting her friend half a second to answer. "Tess seems so happy, so I guess you must be happy, too.... I really hope so, and I wanted to say that I'm so happy for you."

When Dan finally spoke, each word so strained that it sounded as if he was going to choke, he seemed no different from the precious little boy she'd met in preschool. "Cool. I'm - I'm glad that you're happy."

She frowned, despite what she had heard. Wishing his tone had matched his words. "I mean, because you and Tess are happy, right?"

A pause, as lifeless as it was lengthy. "As happy as can be."

Lacey decided, then and there, that that was good enough for her. It had to be. She'd built her own life on denial and lies, she knew deep down inside, so it seemed wrong of her to doubt the honesty of his replies. If this was what he wanted her to believe, then so be it. Whether or not it was the truth, it was the answer that she'd needed.

"That's really great, Dan," she halfheartedly gushed, unsure why the words on her tongue weighed so much. "I... I just wanted to know that. And no matter what happens, I do hope we'll always be friends?"

He paused again. "Yeah, I guess."

She smiled, because a forced smile was often the easiest way to forget that she was in denial. "I'm glad. Well, I'll let you get back to Tess - I hope you'll take good care of her. And yourself."

Another pause, as lifeless as the ones before, though shorter. "Sure."

"Nice talking to you..."

Dan didn't bother pretending that it had been nice for him, too. Evidently, unlike Lacey, it was pretty hard for him to tell a lie. "Okay. Bye."

When he hung up, she almost doubted for a minute whether that had been enough. Whether maybe, just maybe, happiness was worthless in the absence of honesty... But it couldn't be. She lived the lie, and so did Dan, apparently, and that was fine so long as they could smile and tell each other and themselves that they were happy.

As for the matter of this unexplainable power that she seemed to possess, she thought to herself as she slipped out of bed and changed into a pale pink sundress, the pairings that she planned and witnessed were presumably all pure coincidence.

Yet still she could not help but wonder about this impossible power. How it worked, what its limits were. It seemed as if she could bring people together - but could she control their feelings for each other...? She dismissed the thought as soon as it occurred. The power wasn't real; it obviously didn't matter.

Even so, Lacey couldn't help but wonder further whether this power - if it were in fact real - would also include the ability to keep people apart. For one reason or another, she hadn't yet experimented with that possibility, and she wasn't sure when she would start...

The steady stream of shower water in the near distance presently shut off, which was more than enough to take Lacey's mind off of her current train of thought. But before she could be happy about laying eyes on the ever-glorious vision of Ryder stepping out of the shower, her cell phone insistently buzzed; she knew straightaway who it was.

These past few days had been among the most peaceful of Lacey's entire life, because her mother had not contacted her ever since the scandal that'd been so disastrously uncovered. That period of peace was over now, Lacey realized with a petulant scowl, and with a sigh of resignation as she dutifully checked the series of incoming texts.

To nobody's surprise, Mrs. Weaver still expected weekly calorie count summaries; daily updates detailing every potentially significant event in Lacey's life; et cetera, et cetera, et freaking cetera. From the matter-of-fact tone and content of Katherine's texts, it was clear that she assumed her interactions with her daughter would continue as per usual, as if the shameful messages had never been accidentally sent. Lacey had honestly expected nothing less. Since she knew she lacked the spine to stand up to her terrifying harpy of a mother, and since she was so good at denial besides, she figured she might as well oblige.

Nonetheless, she would never shake off what she had read. And whether or not she liked to think of it, Lacey knew that, from now on, a part of her would always suspect the shadiest imaginable motives behind everything her mother ever did or said.

As Ryder emerged from the bathroom, lower half wrapped in a towel and upper half beautifully wet, Lacey wished the vision weren't ruined by vivid mental images of his father and her mother together in bed. She worried whether she could ever look at him again without those horrors flashing through her head.

So just for a moment, averting her gaze from her husband, she let her thoughts turn to her best friend instead. Only now realizing that the pink sundress she had put on was the one that Dan had given her, the sweetest birthday present ever - other than the gift from Tess, on that night when she and Ryder had first met...

The memory was dear to her now not only because it was when her lifetime with Ryder had started, but also because it was a time when her friendship with Dan hadn't yet ended. Not that it was lost to her now... not forever, at least... she reassured herself, denying the sense in the pit of her stomach, the core of her heart, that her most treasured friendship was dead.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Any feels for Dan? :/

Thoughts about Katherine? o_O

Next scene, we'll visit the Weaver mansion (for the first time in a long time!) and maybe learn a bit about what's really going on between Ryder's dad and Lacey's mom...

** And if you liked this one, please don't forget to vote! :) **