Elements of Love

Chapter 13: Flame Rises

'Why am I doing this?' I think to myself as I'm running upstairs to call flora (my phone is upstairs). Are we friends? Does she need to know? Will this knowledge help her in any way? I don't know, but my instincts stop me from keeping this from her. I call her. (I have everyone's contact information thanks to the mall outing.)

"Hey! Never expected you of all people to call, are we friends yet?" Flora says on her end of the line.

"Can anyone else hear me?"

"I'm on speaker with Moon, but I can take it off if you want."

"Nah keep it on, she'll read your mind if she's curious." I say.

"I will." I hear Moon over the phone confirm.

"Okay so~ what's up?" Flora asks.

"So, I don't know why I'm saying this to you, it just felt bad to keep it from you. Phaze has an ex; he was in a relationship with someone."

"What!?" both of them say through the phone.

"Why are you surprised, moon?" I ask.

"Well, I can't read Phaze's mind, he has a mental block in place; when I asked him to show me a bit of it, he showed me what happened with his roommates and so I stopped looking."

"Fair, that was traumatizing, I understand, but that still doesn't fully explain why you're surprised."

"Phaze is notorious for never getting involved in romance, flora and I spied on Phaze getting a confession from a girl who liked him, because she was worried, and I was curious. Anyways, the girl got rejected harshly, so harshly that flora wouldn't dare confess to Phaze under any normal circumstance."

"That explains why she's just been fawning over him."

"Yep, anyways, his words were, and I quote from Phaze: "I appreciate that you like me and had the courage to confess, however, aside from not even knowing who you are or you not being my type, I have no interest in romance, I find it nice for other people, but when applied to me it is a putrid idea, one that I would shut down immediately, not only because of who I am as a person being lackluster, feebleminded, easily deceived, not worth anything to anyone, and unapologetic; but I've had previous problems in love, I'll be it familial love as a large part, but nonetheless, no love. That's my policy, no love involving me, ever. I'm sorry for being so direct but I hope that it will help you move on, as having one more person who hates me isn't all that big of a deal.""

"Wow, okay, I get the hesitation on flora's part, but how did you remember all that?" I ask moon.

"I can read my own mind, finding memories perfectly intact."

"Cool. Wait, not the focus of this discussion, does Phaze think that everyone hates him?"

"He sure acts happy for someone with that worldview."

"Take it from me, that's just an act. I'm more so confused, he's a genius tactician, and he calls himself feebleminded, he considers his personality or experiences lackluster, which we all know isn't true, and he may act unapologetically, but only to protect himself of others, like with what he said at the end of the rejection."

"Maybe he was hurt so badly by his prior experiences that he now thinks like that, but I think, as much as his past from what we know of it was anything but fun, he shouldn't consider himself all those things, right? And now with the fact that he has an ex being revealed, we can easily assume it wasn't a clean breakup if he never wants to be involved with love again." moon replied to me.

"No. No. That's not true, it can't be, right? Why do I even care, do I like him? No. I like the man in the blindfold. Right? Right!?" Flora is talking to herself, she's getting louder, her voice is trembling, then, it stopped.

"I sent a bunch of signals to her brain, forcing her unconscious, I'll teleport her home, let's talk after school tomorrow, okay?" moon said, a bit of worry in her voice.

"Okay." I say as I hang up the phone; I'm worried for flora. Does she know how she feels towards Phaze? Who is the man in the blindfold? I try to calm down and think, but then Skylar knocks on my door.

"Pack your things, I hear we're heading to Newfoundkinawa (Newfoundland and Okinawa) in three days."

"What!?"