Round 3: Kirsch

Maxwell Kirsch and Samuel Kirsch are Adults. Their daughters Felicitas (Liss) Kirsch, Caritas (Cari) Kirsch, and Iustitia (Izzy) Kirsch are Teens.

* * *

Liss knew she had a choice to make.

She hated that she had gotten herself into this situation in the first place. This wasn’t who she wanted to be. But with her birthday almost here, she couldn’t help but think about the future, and the more she shared her dreams with Ellis, the more it became clear that he didn’t share them. The life he imagined for himself seemed so… ordinary. It made her claustrophobic just thinking about it.

And after that first accidental kiss with Dmitri, she could no longer tell herself that there wasn’t any chemistry between them. Plus, everyone kept telling her how perfect they would be together, and she knew they were right. He had been her best friend since he had moved to Wanderer’s Cove, and adding romance to the mix hadn’t soured their friendship the way she feared. It had only made it… more.

But she hadn’t been able to bring herself to give up Ellis. What she felt for him made no sense, she knew, but that didn’t make it any less real. Being with Ellis felt like living in a different world, one where everything was simple and fun. And while being with Dmitri felt like two puzzle pieces locking into place, being with Ellis felt like all of her was on fire, but in the best way.

After Dmitri and Ellis gave her their ultimatum, she spent endless sleepless nights painting and thinking, wishing there were some way to make the choice easier. But she knew neither of them would wait forever, and it wasn’t going to get any easier. So finally, she came to a decision.

She had a feeling Dmitri knew what she was going to say before she even said it.

He took it well, all things considered. They both said they would stay friends, but they both knew deep down that it probably wasn’t possible.

Liss couldn’t explain what she felt for Ellis. But the conclusion she had come to over all those painful nights was that no matter how long Dmitri waited, she would never be ready to give Ellis up. And it wasn’t fair to Dmitri to ask him to keep waiting.

She spent a lot more nights painting after that, trying to use art to express the feelings she wasn’t even sure how to name. One part of her was certain she had made the right decision, but there was another part of her that she was sure would always miss Dmitri, and would always wonder what they could have had.

Since Liss couldn’t go to Dmitri anymore, she talked through her conflicted feelings with Autumn. Autumn assured her that she shouldn’t worry too much about it – that high school relationships weren’t meant to last anyway, and soon enough she would forget about both of them. That didn’t exactly make Liss feel better – mostly what it did was show her that Autumn didn’t really understand. Dmitri would have understood, she was sure, if she had been able to talk to him.

Meanwhile, it was growing obvious to Izzy that her relationship with Cornelius was going nowhere. They hardly ever saw each other these days; Izzy wasn’t even sure they liked each other. She assumed he felt the same way, but when she finally broke up with him, he cried, and she felt terrible.

Izzy softened the blow as best she could, but Cornelius stormed downstairs… and immediately attacked Cari, who had been doing her homework in the dining room.

Cari won the fight easily. Never had she been more grateful for all those hours at the gym. But the incident still unnerved her. She worked hard to keep up her mask so that no one would see that she was missing whatever her sisters had. And she made sure that everybody liked her, and that nobody had anything they could hold over her. But Cornelius had still felt like he could come in out of nowhere and toss her around just because he was mad at her sister. It wasn’t enough to be camouflaged; it wasn’t enough to be liked. Cari had to make herself untouchable.

With Cornelius out of the picture, Izzy started to get restless again, feeling the pull to do something before she exploded. She could practically feel her brain rot as she sat on the couch watching TV every day after school. She went to Liss, for advice, but Liss, who knew she never did homework if she could help it, just suggested that she focus on her schoolwork more. Not helpful.

Liss’s birthday came sooner than anyone expected. Liss had been thinking about being done with high school for so long, but somehow she had never really expected it to actually happen. She had a small party, with Ellis and Autumn and her family. Dmitri came too, but he spent most of the time in whatever room she wasn’t in, talking to her sisters instead of her.

At the party, Liss explained her idea to Autumn. Now that Liss was all grown up, the two of them could find their own place together to work on their art. They could create a haven of creativity in the middle of Wanderer’s Cove. Maybe they could even find other artists to move in with them eventually.

Autumn was a little hesitant at first – she liked the convenience of living with her parents, and she didn’t think anything could be more inspiring than the river view she had every day as she painted on the porch. But by the end of the evening, Liss was pretty sure she had convinced her.

Liss didn’t know what to make of Dmitri’s behavior. If he had decided to just avoid her, that would make sense. Instead he would ask to come hang out, and then, once he was actually here, exchange a few tense words of conversation before settling in to play chess with Maxwell and glare at her from across the room. It was like he couldn’t decide whether he wanted to end their friendship for good or not.