Blood

It had been nearing an hour that Kory had stood here in front of the bathroom mirror, picking out her flaws. There were some things she would have preferred to change, and there were also things she hated completely. The length of her eyelashes, the shape of her face, her posture, these were just a few things that she would have changed if she had the choice. But, standing here, she noticed the things she hated even more. The way her eyes got all watery when she thought of Brian, her chapped lips that had been bitten raw, her fingernails that had been bitten down, the way she had seemed to shrink completely, in a metaphorical sense. When in New York, her ego was three times as large as it was now. And, if she ever wanted to love herself again, she'd need ages to work on that. It didn't seem like it would ever happen in time, and she couldn't bear the thought of actually losing Brian because of some incapability she had been cursed with.

"Kor?" Melody's sweet, gentle voice came from the other side of the bathroom door. She carefully opened it, frowning at what she had seen on the other side. It was an odd experience to see her older sister whom she thought to be the smartest and strongest being in the entire world, so fragile and broken and bitter. "What're you doing?"

Kory only sighed, not able to tear her gaze away from the baron empty soul staring back at her. "I can't love him until I love myself," she muttered, knowing that Melody would know exactly who she was talking about.

The entire scene seemed to change when Melody stepped behind Kory, emitting herself into the reflection. It seemed as though loving yourself was easy, like trusting your instincts was always the way to go, as if being human was okay. Because that's just who Melody was. She made things okay, she made it seem as if even the hardest things in life have some sort of bliss that could be found. She held both hands on either side of Kory. "You spent so much time counting your flaws, that you didn't have enough fingers to count your beauties. Here, have mine," she said, smiling. "Use them wisely."

She thought for a moment. She had to come up with ten things she loved about herself. Not only for herself, but for Melody too. Kory knew that if she hated herself completely, that Melody wouldn't know how to react. She took a long breath before starting. "My eyes. They're pretty...and sad, but still pretty."

Melody nodded. "I love your eyes," she said, "That's one. Nine left to go." She held her left thumb up, a small smile on her face, nodding in reassurance.

Even now, Kory was lost. She didn't know anything she liked about herself. A minute passed before she continued. "Love. I fall in love completely, not gradually or slowly, but all at once."

The soft, elegant girl behind Kory grinned and held up the index finger on her left hand. "That's two," she said, lying her head on her sister's shoulder.

It was getting a little bit easier now, slowly but surely. "Passion," she muttered, a small smile tugging at her lips.

Melody giggled. "Music," she continued, "That's three. Keep going," she urged. After a few seconds of silence, Melody took it upon herself to point out a few things she loved, and knew that her sister loved as well. "Your hair," she whispered, laughing.

Kory grinned. "Yeah, my hair. Five is my tattoos. I'm proud of them. Six would be my hands. They've held baby Melody, they taught her to walk and how to work an mp3 player, they've also gotten blisters and scrapes, but they're still okay."

"That's beautiful," Melody laughed softly. "Only four left, you've got this."

She thought for a while. There really wasn't anything else she loved about herself. So, she decided to look at things from a different angle. "You. You're number seven. I'm proud of you," she said, giving the younger sibling a small smile. "And, eight, Marrissa. Dad is nine. And, ten..."

Melody finished for her. "Ten is loyalty. It doesn't matter that you left. You're here, right? And, I'm sure that if anyone needed you, you would've come back sooner. Ten is loyalty."

Kory shook her head. "You're a bit crazy, you know?"

"Yeah," Melody laughed, "I get it from my sister."



"Rissa! I have cake and shirtless Hollister models!" Kory walked inside, straight to the living room where she set her bag, and kicked off her shoes.

Marrissa laughed as she skipped lightly down the stairs. "Where are the models?" She asked, a counterfeit look of disappointment plastered on her face.

Kory shoved her cell phone into her back pocket, and turned to look at her best friend. "They're running late and will show up right after you make me some food. I've been eating eggs for the last three days," she groaned, following Marrissa into the kitchen.

"What would you do without me?" Marrissa asked, teasingly.

Kory laughed softly. "I would die. We all know this by now," she answered, sitting herself atop the counter. "Where's Matt?"

Marrissa began to boil a pot of water, and sighed. "With the guys, they're all talking with Bullet and Atreyu for a tour in a few weeks. This is were the real shit kicks in. Are you ready for this?"

"Lay it on me," Kory answered, curious as to what Marrissa was getting at.

"We have two and a half months to plan a wedding, otherwise we have to wait an entire year," she said, sighing. "I was gonna call you today, but you came over right before I got dressed. I'll need your help," she said, getting out the ingredients for mac n' cheese as she spoke. She was well aware of the short amount of time the two had, if anyone was aware it was Marrissa, but she had faith in the two of them. They had pulled together two different History essays in only one night plenty of times before, she was sure they could plan a wedding in a few months time. She and Matt didn't want anything extravagant, either. Just something simple with their closest family and friends.

Instead of replying, Kory simply pushed herself off of the counter and skipped upstairs. Marrissa didn't question it, she had always had a habit of forgetting to inform people what she was doing. By the time she had skipped back downstairs, her hair was up and Marrissa's laptop was in her hands. She sat on the floor in the kitchen, and sighed. "We better get started then," she said, pulling her cell phone back out of her pocket and typing away on it quickly. "Can I stay here tonight?"

Marrissa nodded. "Yeah, Matt's bringing the guys home for a while anyways. We can schedule an appointment for dresses for sometime next week, and pick out a color scheme today, and if we get anything else done then that works too."

"Did Matt say anything specific about it?"

She shook her head. "No, he left most of it to me. He just said that he didn't want anything huge, and then said that he didn't want anything pink," she said, laughing softly towards the end.

Kory giggled. "Well, that's fair enough. I can call your mom real quick, to see her schedule for work next week so she can go with us to the bridal store. Anyone else you want to come with us?"

"Mel," Marrissa shrugged. She didn't want a lot of people to be there, it would take longer that way. She was just happy that she had Kory to work with, it would literally cut everything in half.

She nodded. "Alright, I'll tell her. Get cooking because I might die if you don't hurry," she said, laughing and pulling up a document on Marrissa's computer in order to list everything they'd have to do in the next few weeks. She groaned. "Even a small wedding will be hard in two months," she whined, sighing.

Marissa nodded. "Yeah, I know. But I don't wanna wait, and neither does Matt. I imagine you don't either," she laughed.

Kory only wrinkled her nose. "Fine," she mumbled. "We should seriously get going on this, though."

"When did you become my wedding planner?" Marrissa asked, laughing. She and Kory had talked about their weddings before; they're fairy tale dress, an ideal guy, the whole thing. Marrissa knew that she could trust Kory with anything, that's why she didn't worry about her taking the responsibility on a lot of things, they were so much alike it was ridiculous. And, she would have been more excited than Kory was about the wedding if the situation was reversed.

She laughed. "Eh, about three years ago," she said, smiling. "We'll get it done, I promise."