tw: discussions of biphobia, poor marriages
[name_f]Nadine[/name_f] [name_f]Amora[/name_f] Clarendale (19) is someone else [name_m]Rafael[/name_m] does his best to avoid, albeit for different reasons based in awkwardness and assumption. Nadine’s the best friend of [name_f]Ophelie[/name_f] [name_u]Mika[/name_u], aka [name_f]Ophelie[/name_f] [name_u]Mercer[/name_u], Adrienne’s younger sister who she’s had a complicated relationship with since the news of the cheating broke…both instances. Before [name_m]Rafael[/name_m] there was Jessamie, a self-centered and manipulative young woman who prayed upon Adrienne’s insecurities, and neither [name_f]Nadine[/name_f] nor [name_f]Ophelie[/name_f] know how aware [name_m]Rafael[/name_m] is of her presence and influence in the whole situation.
While her best friend [name_f]Ophelie[/name_f] is - a little ironically - an up-and-coming actress, Nadine’s ideas of creative expression revolve around poetry, with her currently being an [name_f]English[/name_f] Literature student, who hopes to specialise in her preferred writing style. She also knows that [name_m]Rafael[/name_m] considers her to be fairly pretentious, partly because of the whole poetry thing, but also thanks to her love of verbose and sometimes archaic language: it’s always fascinated [name_f]Nadine[/name_f], and she’s not going to change her forms of expression now.
There’s also a much more blunt side to her nature that’s led to her getting in hot water a few times - namely when she asked [name_f]Adrienne[/name_f] if the real reason [name_m]Rafael[/name_m] avoids [name_f]Alana[/name_f] [name_m]Jefferson[/name_m] is because of who her sister is, and then when she queried the 7-year age gap between the couple. The second point’s more personal for [name_f]Nadine[/name_f], as she saw her aunt marry a man 9 years her senior, and he proceeded to patronise her, very much seeming to believe she was incapable of making decisions by herself. When her aunt divorced this man, it was a big source of relief for the rest of the family, although [name_f]Nadine[/name_f] tries her best to let go of her biases [easier said than done she also will fess up to].
[name_f]Nadine[/name_f] also knows that the [name_u]Mika[/name_u] family aren’t the terrible, dismissive people [name_m]Rafael[/name_m] believes them to be. The misconception around Adrienne’s sexuality wasn’t because her parents genuinely dismissed the whole concept of bisexuality, but a miscommunication bought on by tension at home: she already felt sensitive following her blowout fight with [name_f]Ophelie[/name_f], and when her parents lack of awareness that their older daughter was bi came up, it spiralled into [name_f]Adrienne[/name_f] interpreting this as them not believing her sexuality [or not caring at least].
It isn’t that Nadine’s blind to her biases in this situation either: she’s been best friends with [name_f]Ophelie[/name_f] since childhood and seeing her go through so much turmoil trying to figure out why [name_f]Adrienne[/name_f] - who knew how much [name_f]Serena[/name_f] loved her, even reciprocating this wholeheartedly in her own way - chose to act as she did. Ophelie’s career becoming such a success has been another blessing, in that her attentions are now focused on acting, while Nadine’s continuing to work on poetry. Since her recent diagnosis of ADHD, self-discovery has become a major theme…and she hopes [name_f]Adrienne[/name_f] can accomplish this too.
Ophelie’s credited to yours truly
Jessamie’s credited to @babynamesfactory