A/N: CGA here! My ideas aren't sapped yet, and I told y'all I'd be back soon! So, this is a little something I like to call Loss, Regret, and Annie. It's a rather edgy-sounding name, but rightfully so, I think.

Now, here's something that's pretty different about this story compared to all my others: this one's actually mostly written already. I have up to chapter nine completed, thanks to me writing it during WTSHW, and I don't see this exceeding fourteen chapters. They're short but powerful.

So... let me know what you think, and I'll try to keep this updated once a week! Thanks for reading :)

I wasn't ever supposed to see her again. We didn't have anything special, and we certainly weren't stupidly devoted to each other. We just spent a night together.

Of course, I regretted that decision instantly the next morning when I woke up. My head pounded and throbbed with the knowledge that I'd made a terrible, utterly horrible mistake I couldn't take back.

She didn't recognize me at first, or pretended not to, and that was fine. The situation would be easier to deal with that way. It was just strange knowing that she was the same person when she acted completely different from before.

Despite her young appearance, she was very swift-moving and seemingly experienced. She was shy at first, at the club where we met, but she wasn't completely against it when her friends started pushing her towards me. Women were controversial and hypocritical.

She told me her name wasn't important, and after the deed was done she couldn't leave fast enough. She had better things to do and places to be.

She was probably right, but my drunken self wanted her to stay longer – at least then the hotel fee might have been worth it.

Still, I had nothing to do with her anymore. If she wanted to ignore me or pretend she didn't know me, that was fine. Great, even. That meant I had fewer people to worry about.

"Hey, Raeger, did you hear about the new farmer? She's a girl!"

Right. I was at the restaurant. Since I started drinking again, my memory would become hazy at the most inopportune times.

"Yeah, I gathered that much from Veronica's introduction."

"No way! You met her already?"

"Yup."

"Is she cute?"

Raeger sighed. It served Agate right – sometimes she was very nosy. In my experience, women were always like that.

Meanwhile, I just sat at the counter by my lonesome, quietly enjoying my food. It wasn't any of my business what they were talking about; it never was, and I didn't care.

"Aw, c'mon!" Agate whined. She wouldn't give up. "You know how long it's been since you've been on a date? It's been at least - "

"All right, all right, that's enough," he said, putting an end to it.

And it most certainly was. I stood up and headed towards the kitchen counter to place my dishes in the sink. After leaving the general area, I allowed myself a stretch and a yawn. People were exhausting. Why did they get so worked up over something that didn't matter?

So there was a new farmer moving in and sure, she was a girl. Her relative attractiveness shouldn't have mattered at all; as long as she got her work done at the end of the day, I couldn't care less that she wasn't as attractive as the magazine models. Once everyone else saw her, things would calm down, just like they left me alone after realizing I wasn't one for idle chatter.

I sighed while walking up the steps to Elise's mansion. Oh, well, back to work.

"Nadi! I'm glad you're back."

When was Elise ever glad I came back?

"Now you can decorate the fountain!"

I scoffed. Right. She only pretended to care when she needed me. Didn't everybody around here? This town, though small, was full of superficiality.

Just a week before I moved in permanently, Veronica told me a resident farmer had passed away. She asked me to wait at least a few days before arriving so the villagers could recuperate and adjust. That was fine. I didn't need the money badly, anyway, and I didn't need a bunch of somber faces telling me their sob stories.

Everyone in town was cheerful and upbeat, though, when I moved in, as if nothing had even happened, like a tragedy never occurred and nobody ever died. No one I talked to mentioned the old lady, either, like she wasn't important anymore.

As usual, however, it had nothing to do with me or my work, so other than my thinking it odd, I paid it no mind. Death obviously meant nothing to these people.

The fountain was giving me more trouble than necessary. I had to take a sip from my flask to keep me motivated and level-headed enough to deal with it.

Pretty soon the bluebells I planted around the stone actually looked like flowers. With any luck, Elise wouldn't bother me for the rest of the day now.

But I chose to stay, anyway. I didn't want to go back into town and hear everyone gush about the new female farmer. I already knew who she was and how she looked, and I just didn't care.

If how she was with me really was a whole different person like I expected, then I could assume she was just like everyone else here: too friendly, overly nice, and outgoing. She'd fit right in, and then things would go back to normal.

…

She met my eye three days later during my usual lunch. I tried not to stare, but it was like she was an entirely different person, worse than I expected. No matter how much I told myself it didn't concern me, it almost did. How could one person change personalities as if they were shoes? Wasn't it tiresome? I'd only spent three hours with her, but I'd thought she was the good kind of different.

She confused me. Maybe I just wanted to understand her motives.

Before I knew it, she occupied the stool next to mine. I didn't exactly want her to, but I wasn't so uncaring and impolite as to shoo her away. She could do as she pleased.

"Hey, so... Nadi?"

Her voice was very soft and quiet. She didn't want anyone to hear her.

I nodded, though surprised she even remembered my name, considering how out of it she was that night.

"Uh, I remember you, and what happened... vaguely. And, y'know, I'm sorry if I, well, got your hopes up, but I was, like, totally plastered and literally anyone would do at the time. You understand, right?"

Ugh. I didn't think she would ever stop talking.

She reeked of fruity perfume and her hair was up in one of those stereotypical high school girl buns, messy with frizz and strands sticking out everywhere. I knew then that she really couldn't have been any older than eighteen – she showed it too much.

"Don't worry about it," I said, hoping she would just forget about it and leave me alone. She didn't, though. "It's not something someone like you should concern yourself with."

She giggled and thanked me, taking her stench with her as she hurried away. It looked like she just wanted to flirt with Raeger, anyway, since she seated herself right in front of him at the other counter.

I shook my head and sighed. What a troublesome, annoying girl. I didn't know how I was possibly once attracted to her.

I looked down at the flask on the countertop. Alcohol. I grimaced.

Maybe a few days without it wouldn't be so bad.

But after talking to her, even just for that little while, she didn't confuse me anymore. I had her all figured out.

Agate tried to get her attention. To my knowledge, they were the same age, which was great. Maybe she wouldn't bother me again – either of them.

After I finished my meal, I sealed all of my curiosity away. Back to work.

Elise accused me of slacking off, as usual, but I ignored her. She just wanted to get a rise out of me. It was nothing new.

Some of the townspeople told me I was living in a rut, that since winter was over and spring had come, I should start anew. What did they know? What did they even mean by that – my life was boring?

Not everybody needed parties and snooty girls in his life. How condescending. I was content with the finer things: peace, quiet, and isolation.

I didn't think I'd ever understand why the people in this town insisted on pestering me everyday. And it only confused and frustrated me further when I couldn't be alone on the bench in front of the inn.

If I wanted to talk, I would, and until then... Ugh.

"Why do I always see you by yourself?"

It was Klaus. I thought he at least had the decency to know when people wanted to be by themselves.

I shrugged. "Do you see me a lot? I'm not always alone."

"Ah, yes. At times I see Elise scolding you. I can only imagine how nice that is." He smiled.

I scoffed at his attempted humor and took another drink from the flask.

"Drinking as you do is bad for the lungs," he told me, crossing his arms.

I wasn't going to listen to a perfumer tell me that. "Yeah, I know."

It seemed like he was going to sit down next to me, but he didn't. Instead, he just stood there and sighed. "There are plenty who would miss you."

"Like who?" I wasn't planning anything, but I would've loved to know who he had in mind. I hardly spent enough time with anyone here for them to even have the chance to know me, let alone miss me.

The point of moving to a small town was to be surrounded by nothing but the quiet sounds of nature. At least, that was what I expected, with this classified as a farming community.

Klaus brought me out of my thoughts. "Elise, for example. I've never seen her nag anyone quite as much as she does you."

Nagging and scolding translated to adoration? That vile girl wouldn't miss me if I dropped dead on the job; she'd continue harassing me until her ears got tired of hearing herself talk. She wouldn't find out for a while, considering how vain she was.

"She cares for you a great deal."

This conversation was starting to get boring. He wasn't saying anything particularly entertaining, and every time he opened his mouth after that he talked down to me.

I tuned him out with a quick sip and slowly felt myself drifting into unconsciousness. Lately, I'd been getting drunk more and more often. I imagined it was because the anniversary was coming up soon, but no matter the reason, I didn't want to pull another stunt like the infamous one from the other week.

It was only the fourth day of spring and already it was too warm to sleep outside. Or maybe I just didn't want to sleep at all.

…

Klaus must have left me alone just after I started spacing out; he wasn't anywhere nearby, and I knew no more than fifteen minutes had passed. The sky was still the same shade.

I wanted to stand up and return home, but the familiar feeling of a headache prevented that. I normally carried around a second flask – of water – for such a situation, but it must have slipped my mind earlier. The beast of the town had proven fierce already.

And there she was, exiting the restaurant. She didn't see me immediately, which made me both upset and happy. The alcohol was taking its toll. I just hoped I didn't disregard all rational thought again.

"Nadi?"

She knelt down on the ground in front of the bench and watched me with big eyes. Being rational was the last thing on my mind.

"Don't sit there. You'll get dirty."

She stared at me for a few more seconds and then coughed into her fist off to the side. "Hey, are you drunk?"

"Yup."

She giggled. "You're so honest. Usually drunk people don't admit they're drunk. I never got that, like, what's the point of - "

"What's your name?"

She stopped talking and tilted her head. "What?"

How could anyone be confused by that question? I closed my eyes, somehow believing that doing so would alleviate the pain. All the pain.

"Um... I'm Annie," she said slowly. Annie. "I thought I told you that already, when we, y'know..."

"You told me your name wasn't important." I rolled over on my side, facing away from her. "You said you had better things to do."

"Did I...?" She laughed. "Sorry, guess sometimes when I get drunk I act totally different – kinda like you right now."

I yawned. "How so?" I didn't particularly care for her answer, but I would hear her out.

"Well, I mean, I don't know you that well, but you seem like the kind of person who shuts others out. You're kinda mean to everyone but deep down you really just wanna get along with them?"

The beast only further confused my drunken mind. It was too much to take in and try to think about right now.

"Oh, and while we're talking about being drunk, you should stop drinking so much all the time."

If I'd had a gold coin for every time I'd heard that, I wouldn't have been here in this town.

"It's really bad for you," she continued. "I know you're probably thinking 'Wow, what a hypocrite' because I drink, too, but I've been in town literally four days, and you've drank at least five bottles of... whatever's in your flask, based on how often I see you drink from it."

She talked quite a bit. At least she wasn't stupid, though – instead, she seemed surprisingly observant. "I don't drink that often, or in such large quantities."

"Okay, now you're sounding like a generic drunk."

Even though I was nearly numb to all my senses, the hangover brought me back every now and again to remind me how annoying she was. It was funny in a sarcastic way: I'd always said women were controversial, but my mind and thoughts yearned to prove me wrong.

I could've sworn I fell back to sleep briefly, because the next thing I remembered was her asking when my birthday was – and I actually must have fallen asleep because my senses were starting to return.

"Why does that matter?"

"Because I wanna know when I can get you a gift."

I scoffed. "You want to give me a gift?" Someone like her didn't need to bother with someone like me.

"Yeah! Why is that so hard to believe?"

"Because..." I hadn't had someone give me a birthday gift in a very long time. But I wasn't going to tell her that. "...You should spend your money on other things. Aren't you just getting started?" I certainly didn't need anything, anyway.

She puffed out her top lip. It seemed she just didn't want to listen to my refusal. "Does that mean your birthday's this month?" She must have taken my silence for an answer. "Mine is. It's on the twenty-third. Now you gotta tell me yours!"

What sort of twisted logic did this girl use? Splitting headache...

"If I tell you, will you leave me alone?"

"Yeah!" She nodded too happily. Just watching her exhausted me.

I sighed. "Fine. Summer thirty-first."

"Really? On the last day?"

I sat up and reached for the flask, trying my best to ignore her. Before I could put it to my lips, though, she pried it from my hand.

My reflexes were shot. I could only watch helplessly as she poured out the remaining ounce onto the cold pavement, absorbing it in seconds. I looked up at her, wide-eyed, but I didn't know what to say; could I say anything?

"You're welcome," she said proudly. "I assume you'll run out completely in like a day at the rate you drink, right?"

What was she getting at...?

"Alcohol is expensive, especially liquor like this. When you run out, come see me. My parents own a liquor store back home, so I can get some for free or super cheap."

Was this blackmail? I'd run out of liquor and have to beg her? I wasn't broke. I could buy more when I ran low.

I had to admit, though, she made me completely reconsider drinking in the first place. If I'd feel this way around her every time I drank, my life would be a dangerous one. I seriously had some things to think about.

She set the flask back down on the bench and walked away. I bet she was feeling rather good about herself after that. Did she get off to other people's misery? She didn't even know the half of it.

Jeez... If I hadn't already signed my life away to Elise and her family's mansion, I would have run so far, so fast, away from this town. It would kill me.

~CGA