Welcome home, Violet. {AU}
A lot could happen in three years. After Ben and VIvian spilt up, Violet left with her mom to live with her aunt in some place Tate couldn't remember. He thought of her almost every day, until a new buyer came along.
This one was different. It wasn't some family trying to start over in LA who saw a cheap house and went for it. This time, they sold it to a state institute. The news sent all of the inhabitants running scared for their afterlife, though the plan was never to tear the place down.
Instead, they took the old house and remodeled it into a co-ed dormitory for the college they had built down the road. Tate had fun for the first year, scaring the shit out of the young adults, but the appeal of it quickly wore off. There was nothing fun about being stuck in a house full of college students anymore, or so he thought.
About a year and a half in, he met Mallorie. She was 18, short and tiny, big curly, messy blonde hair spilled over her shoulders and half way down her back. She was pale, almost scary pale, and she wore a lot of eye make up. The way it smeared all over the pillows bugged Tate, but he never complained. She had wide eyes, the kind that made her look crazy most of the time, and her smile made Tate's heart race as if he were looking at Violet all over again. Mallorie was quite, always hiding in the basement --which was now a well lit study with couches that were welded to the floor. They were standing in the game room, his arm wrapped around her shoulders, tucking her close to his side, and she snaked her arm around his waist. He was smitten, and before he knew it, he could barely remember what Violet looked like. That was until she walked in the door as a freshman at LAU. She was one of the new additions to the house, and Tate nearly fainted.
The second he saw her face, all of the memories came flooding back. One by one. Scrabble, the beach, her virginity, those kids, the fighting when she left with her mom, his months of constant emptiness... It knocked the breath right out of him. All of the color drained from his cheeks and he felt as if he might just fall to the floor. It was enough for him to need to sit down for a moment, and for Mallorie's already-wide eyes to become even wider, asking him if he was okay and running to get him some water. No, he was not okay, not at all. You could have sworn he had seen a ghost...
It was easy to lie to Mally about what classes he had, and making up excuses about homework and finals when she invited him to the sorority parties was becoming second nature to him. He snuck into her room, reading her class schedule and telling her all of his were on the opposite side of the school to risk her wondering why they never bumped into each other. But Violet knew the truth. Her being here meant that life as he knew it could end at any time.
After a few hours of uncomfortably watching as they introduced Violet to everyone, and some forced small talk with a girl he wasn't supposed to know, he lied and told everyone one of his lame school excuses and hid from everyone the remainder of the night. Well, from everyone except Violet.
It was about 10:30 when he showed up in her room. Her room mate was off to the co ed showers, probably onto her third meaningless hook up of the month, and Tate figured it was better if they spoke alone anyway. He didn't know how he was supposed to feel at this point, mad because she had shown up out of no where and never bothered to write Tate as they'd promised, or happy that she was home in the first place.
"What are you doing here, Violet?"
