Dance with a Devil

"Violet."

Her sister had been calling her for a week and every time, Violet was always doing something that made her miss the call, or she just didn't feel like talking to her sister. Whenever Angelina called, it wasn't always the most pleasant conversations.

"Hi, Lina," Violet said, rolling her eyes at Garrett, who smirked as he got a beer out of the fridge.

"Finally. Good God, Vi, I've been calling you for ages," her sister said. "I need to tell you something!"

"I figured. Do tell, sis."

Angelina let out a breath. She was building up the suspense and Violet was waiting on the other line. She started tapping her foot and she heard Garrett chuckle at her and she scowled at him.

Violet loved her sister. She was just never that close with her. Lina lived in New York with the rest of her family, being the golden child that she was. Whenever she called, it was always to talk about some boy she had met--nothing about other personal things that Violet would rather have listened to.

"I'm getting married!"

Violet almost dropped the phone. "What?!"

Garrett looked at her, questioningly, and he mouthed, "What happened?"

She shook her head at him and said, "Lina, did I just hear you say you're getting married?"

"Yeah!" Angelina exclaimed. "I know you just met him the last time you came, so you don't really know him that well, but I love him and he loves me too!"

"Wow," Violet said, leaning against the kitchen counter. Angelina had been dating an intern she met at the hospital named Joseph Janacek for only a year and she was already getting married?

"I just wanted to tell you that even though we haven't decided a date or anything yet, you're going to be my maid of honor! You can come up to New York anytime, right?"

"Well, it's not like I can just drop my things and take the next flight to New York whenever I feel like. I have school, I have Garrett..." Violet explained.

"Oh, I know," Angelina said. "I'm just saying that I'm going to need you when we decide the date. You'll be my maid of honor, right?"

"Of course I will," Violet rolled her eyes. "Congratulations, Lina. I'm glad that you found someone who makes you happy."

"Thank you, Vi. Listen, I'm going to head off to dinner with Joey and his family. I'll call you later, okay?"

"Yeah. Bye, Lina," she hung up the phone.

Garrett was watching amusedly the entire time. When Violet finally set her phone down, she looked at him and gave him confused look.

"What happened?" He chuckled.

"Lina is getting married to a boy she has been dating for less than a year. Do you remember--"

"The pact that you two made?" Garrett stood up and wrapped his arms around the girl. "Yes, I remember. You and Lina will not get married to a boy unless he has done everything he could ever do to prove that he loves you," he recited.

"Oh, you do listen," Violet said, somewhat seriously. Garrett rolled his eyes and pecked her lips.

"You don't think this guy has done that for her?" He questioned.

Violet shrugged. "Maybe he has, I guess I don't know. But, this isn't the first time Lina has been engaged. My sister is twenty-five years old and she's been proposed to twice. This being the second. I'm happy for her, I am, I'm just wondering if she really thought it through. You know? The one time my reserved, doctor sister doesn't make full decisions has to do with love."

Garrett let go of her and shrugged, scoffing, "Marriage. Not thinking about that for like, a millennia."

Something made her freeze. The way he said it, maybe? Violet looked up at him with a confused look, which made him go, "What?"

"You don't want to get married?"

"I do," he nodded. "But not until I'm like thirty or completely sure the girl I want to marry is the love of my life--the girl of my dreams. I mean, I thought Rachael was that girl--"

Violet turned away. Always with Rachael.

"I was going to propose to her--"

Violet started to walk away. She heard Garrett sigh behind her and say,

"She did exist, Vi."

"I know," Violet said, not looking back at him as she made her way through the apartment, into their bedroom. Garrett followed behind her.

"Then why do you always walk away when I mention her? She was a huge part of my life."

"Yeah," she said, turning back around to look at him. "But why do you always have to use her to relate to everything. I'm not Rachael, Garrett. I'm not going to break your heart like she did."

"I never said you were!" Garrett exclaimed, reaching out to touch her but she pulled her hand away. "I'm just saying that my experiences in the past makes me look at things differently--marriage included. Violet, I'm sorry..."

Violet let him touch her and he tilted her face up to kiss her. He repeated, in a murmur, "I'm sorry."

She didn't say anything. She looked at the clock and said, curtly, "I have to get to John's."

"Always to John's," Garrett muttered, when she pulled away from him. She picked her bag up and brushed past him, who was watching, jealously, again. He pulled her back by the wrist, causing her to go, "Garrett!"

"Why are you still mad at me?!" He exclaimed, harsher than he intended. "What the fuck did I do?"

Violet yanked her arm back and she left him without replying back. She drove to John's house not angry, but disappointed. She thought that they got over the Rachael phase.

John let her inside the house without a single word. He plopped down on the couch in the living room and continued to watch the Suns versus Lakers basketball game and he took up the beer in his hand.

He let her be.

Which was completely fine by her. She didn't want to talk to anybody. She didn't really know what to do, so she took out the rags and cleaning supplies and started to really nitpick the entire house. It was the best way for her to get her mind off things--nitpick.

And also because she felt like painting horrid images on the foyer wall instead of her original idea, so it would have been best to stay away from the foyer wall.

"Move!" Violet threw John's legs off the coffee table as prayed the glass fifty times with Windex. John looked up at her, confused, but he didn't question it. It didn't even look like Violet acknowledged he existed.

She moved to the back of the TV and started scrubbing the dust off of the wall behind it. She ended up unplugging the TV, causing John to throw his arms up and go, "Hey!"

Violet didn't notice. She was too busy grumbling to herself.

"Violet!"

"Huh?" She poked her head out from behind the TV.

"You unplugged the game," he pointed, unamused.

Violet stared at him for two seconds before she stood up straight and she said, "Oh, yeah, your game. You know, it's pretty predictable--the Lakers are going to win, like they always do. Stupid fucking game..."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" John asked.

Violet took a big breath and exhaled.

"Did you know Rachael, John?"

The question stunned him. He didn't even see it coming. He set his beer down and stared at Violet in confusion, but he nodded his head.

"Yeah."

"Tell me the truth," Violet said, closing her eyes. "Did he love her like he loves me?"

John stared. Was it a trick question?

"John!"

"I don't know," he shrugged. "I mean, Garrett and Rachael were the 'it' couple. They were the couple that everyone wanted to fucking be like. We thought they would end up together and get married, but apparently not."

Violet turned away from John. She felt his eyes bear into her back but she didn't say a word to him. She started dusting again and the silence in the room was deafening.

"You realize that you being this...neurotic about Garrett talking about his ex-girlfriend makes you look like an obsessive girlfriend, right?" John asked, facetiously, crossing his arms.

"I'm not obsessive!" Violet exclaimed, turning around and accidentally dropping the duster in her hand.

"Sure looks like it."

"I'm just mad that as a result of Rachael, Garrett has to think things over all the time with me. Why can't he be like how he was with her with me? Why am I treated differently? And why the fuck am I telling you this?" She pointed to him, asking herself even though she wanted John to hear it. "You don't even want to get married--and if you did, you'd probably try and marry your penis or something."

John stared.

"I'm sorry--what?" He said. "Who the fuck wants to marry their penis?"

"Barney Stinson."

John rolled his eyes. "Okay, but really--what makes you think I would want to marry my penis?"

"Is it or is it not true that you named it Zeus?" Violet asked, as-a-matter-of-factly.

"I'm going to fucking kill Eric," John said, unamused. Violet bit her lip down from trying to laugh, but it escaped anyway and he glared at her.

"I was in fucking high school!" He exclaimed. Violet continued to laugh, harder than she expected, and he let out a chuckle.

Violet gasped, suddenly. "YOU'RE LAUGHING!"

John instantly stopped.

"You--you were laughing!" She exclaimed. "This is the first time I've seen you laugh! Oh, my God! I've accomplished something!"

He looked unamused again but the first thought in his mind was that Violet wasn't sad anymore--she looked excited. She pointed at him, her jaw on the ground, as if she was a little kid seeing Santa Claus.

Finally, she was able to get her mind off of the thing that was bothering her the most. John accomplished that.