“Like 20 questions?”
“Not really. The object is just
asking questions. Each person gets one question per turn. No winner, no rules, you
don’t even have to tell the truth; but…it’d be nice if you would;” his jade
gems were serious and piercing.
“I’m game;” I smiled, interested in
how this would turn out and hoping he would lighten up again. I liked it when
he wasn’t so serious; it kept me from being too serious. “You start.”
He leaned back on his hands, his lips
scrunched to the side in thought. “Why are you here?”
I thought a moment, judging just how
much to tell him. Drei had warned to be careful, and thus far we had all
limited how much we tapped into our power, causing him to believe most of it
was mere coincidence. What he didn’t think was coincidence, we worked to
convince him he imagined. It had become quite a game with the kids; it was rather
entertaining hearing the stories and conspiracy theories they developed and built
upon until we had forgotten what had started it all.
“Because I can do this,” I said after
a moment, picking a flower resembling a fairy hat from beside me, using the air
to lift it from my fingers and presenting it to Nick.
He plucked the blossom from the air
saying, “Nice parlor trick.”
“Not so much a trick.” I didn’t
really want to explain. Showing him was one thing; actually telling him
outright was quite another. “My turn, right?”
Nick nodded, inspecting the flower
for wires or something, trying to make it levitate as I had moments before,
only to watch it fall to the grass repeatedly.
“What was your life like before?”
“Before the fire?” he clarified. At my
nod, he continued slowly; “Well, we were happy. Kit and Kate had just started
second grade and were ecstatic, finally allowed to buy non-matching clothing
sets. My mom had insisted until then that twins were safer dressed alike. Really,
she just thought they were cute dressed the same. Dad had been promoted and was
talking about moving, which of course led to arguments with my mom; she
insisted we stay and not uproot our lives because he wanted to. He was
threatening to leave and just send money back, which she said was irrational
and that we needed him. And then they’d jump straight to making up;” his cheeks
flamed as though he had stumbled across this once and regretted it since.
“I used the instability of their
relationship to stay out late. I never did anything I might later regret, but
being around people who did somehow made me feel less cowardly. The first time
I misjudged the night’s events and showed up late to be caught, they ripped me
a new one, then apologized for stunting my growth and just asked if I would
stay away from those guys. Course I didn’t…and now I kind of wish I had. Who
knows, maybe they still would have been around.”
“I thought you said you were happy?”
“Kit and Kate were, I was, and Dad
was; Mom just didn’t want to move, otherwise she was thrilled for Dad and the
rest of us.”
“You really miss them,” I stated,
thinking about my dad at home, wondering for the first time how he was holding
up.
“What was your life like?”
“Before coming here?”
“Well, it is a reciprocal question.” I
laughed as he wiggled his eyebrows. The first time he had done that, I tried
and he fell over laughing so hard, I couldn’t help but laugh. I could tell from
the look in his eyes he was thinking of the same thing.
“Superficial,” I started, forcing
myself to look at what my life had really been like. “My dad worked all the
time, I never knew my mom, and my mother was in constant denial of there ever
being someone else. I was an only child, left to my own devices—one of which was
a credit card with a limit I never reached. I had friends who were more like
snakes with pearly smiles, but it was better to be on their side than to be
against them. And then Drei saved me.”
He waited a moment longer, as though
expecting more explanation, but I wasn’t going into the details of why or how
he saved me. Nick needed to know that as much as he needed to know why I was
here.
When the tension in his relaxed
position returned, I knew he was ready for me to ask him another question. “What
were you thinking that night, when they were talking about making you leave?”
Nick shrugged and looked out past the
kids to the lake.
“Really,” I insisted, resting a hand
lightly on his knee. I had been so concerned with everyone else in the room, I
didn’t know, and I kind of wanted to.
“Well,” he drawled, as if still thinking.
“At first I was just preparing myself for it. Trying to convince myself that it
was nothing and at least I had met you, and I was feeling better. I had kind of
expected it,” he admitted, “but just the mental preparedness of myself was
lacking. But then you argued for me, and I couldn’t believe it. You barely knew
me and yet you were fighting for me against one of the most frightening guys
I’ve ever met. And I couldn’t stop thinking about how amazing and brave that
was.” He didn’t shrug, as I had expected him to, to lighten the weight of his
words. Though I had looked away to hide my flaming cheeks, I knew he was staring
at me with those piercing eyes, trying to measure my response.
“What were you thinking?” he
questioned after a moment.
I didn’t respond right away because I
didn’t know how. The night was a blur; I couldn’t even remember what Drei had
said really, let alone what I was thinking.
“I don’t think I was,” I began slowly.
“I just remember that I knew it was unfair and at one point that I was ready to
leave if Drei wanted me to. What he was doing wasn’t right, and it made me—it made
me so angry.”
Nick nodded, like he knew this
already and just wanted the confirmation. “Your turn.”
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