This hurt more than when I was punched in the face. Repeatedly.

                                    

                                          
Dedicated to Marie for the edits she made for the story! 
Yes, the song is by One Direction. Sue me.
* * *
"Is this coffee?" I asked as I dragged my body into the kitchen. Darkwood turned around to me and did a double-take upon seeing my face, and a look of disgust crossed his features. 
"What the hell happened to your eyes?" he asked, leaning forward to wipe this thumb across my half-closed lids. A coat of liquid eyeliner smudged onto his skin. 
"I was going for a more artistic look today," I answered. "Does it look artistic?"
"I mean, if you wanted to mix Avril Lavigne with Marilyn Manson together in the worst possible way and resemble a ginger raccoon, then you did a fantastic job." Darkwood grabbed a tissue box besides the coffee maker and handed it to me. 
"I ran out of creamer," Elijah said as he strode into the room, carrying the sugar container in his hand. "So this is all we--oh, my gods, what happened to her face?" 
"It's a phase," Darkwood said. I rolled my eyes and took some tissues out of the box, wiping them under my eyes and over my eyelids. A fine layer of solid black tarnished the whiteness of the tissues and I dropped them into the trash. 
"Is it a bad idea to give her coffee?" Elijah asked, putting down the sugar. 
"Hey, leave my caffeine," I protested, immediately pushing past the two guys to start up the coffee machine. 
"Fell's coming back to class today and I'd hate to welcome our professor back with a sleeping student who happened to be the girl who almost lost him his job," Darkwood added, grinning at me when I flashed him a scowl. I knew I shouldn't have told him the story. For the past two weeks, all I heard from his mouth was how I nearly got Fell drawn and relentless memory jokes. 
"I didn't know he happened to save my life when I was seven," I grumbled, staring straight a Elijah. "It's not like anyone told me about my amnesia."
My cousin gave a sheepish laugh as he tousled his black hair. Whereas Darkwood had taken every chance to tease me about my memory loss, I had stolen every opportunity I could to guilt Elijah and my father. Since my father had returned home to Cimeria two nights ago, now it was just Elijah subject to my jabs. 
I understood their intentions of keeping me safe, the health hazards and risks they could've put me in by telling me too early or too abruptly. But eleven years was a bit of a far stretch of keeping something so important hidden from me, so naturally, I had to make them feel somewhat bad about it. 
"Anyway," Elijah coughed, seguing from the subject, "have you two seen my phone? I think I misplaced it last night and now I can't find it."
"You left it in my bathroom," I informed him as I added a fourth scoop of sugar into my coffee. "I found it there this morning, so I charged it and left it on the counter. 
Elijah beamed at me before giving me a kiss on the forehead. "You are the sweetest cousin in the world." With that said, he left the kitchen and I heard him bound upstairs. Darkwood gave me an impressed look. 
"You called Archer again, didn't you?" he guessed, raising a black brow. "That's why your makeup was messed up. You were crying, weren't you?"
"I wasn't crying again," I shot down. "Maybe I just really wanted to look like a raccoon."
"Did something happen that made you think the raccoon look was a good idea?"
I mindlessly stirred my coffee, allowing a few minutes of silence to tick on by before I said, "He picked up."
Darkwood's eyes grew as round as quarters. "What did he say?" he asked in a hushed volume, leaning against the counter as he waited for my answer.