Forever Now

Chapter 24

Chapter 24

  He took me to a local café about a block from my home. I’d never been there before, something that seemed to elude him. I’d never had much of a social life, at least not unless it was that time of the year in which I needed to rebel, so local stores meant nothing to me. I owned what I needed, bought what I needed and nothing more. I ate at home, alone while reading or tracking a reap. He seemed to understand the basic need to be alone but other than that he shook his head with a smile. 

  I let him order, one of those few perks he got to do when he was down here, and leaned back on my seat. I took to looking at him and noticed his new piercing, the metal protruding from the corner of his lip. I smiled at him as the waitress left in a hurry, enchanted by his charms or perhaps confused over his sex. I looked pointedly at his lip and received a nod.

"Like it?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. 

"I don't know," I said. "I haven't tried it out yet.”

He looked at me, startled, before his mouth twisted in a smile. The waitress returned with our drinks, diet coke for him and a vanilla shake for me. I take a sip and wait for him to do the same. He stared at me for the longest time, his eyes digging holes into my face, before looking away and taking a sip of his coke. He swallowed it slowly, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat seductively. I stared at it, at his neck, and noticed how tensed he seemed.

“What’s wrong?” I asked him after a moment. “You look tense as hell.”

He shook his head and looked away. Our waitress returned with our food, quiet rapidly, too rapidly it seemed. How is it that here, in Chicago, food arrives just moments after ordering? Seemed impossible; in all the time I’ve lived here, its taken an hour at the least to get food, even at McDonalds. I shake my head and eat a fry. A very hot fry! I gasp out, breathing in through my closed teeth, and swallowing slowly. Kryzstofer looked at me, his mouth quirking into a smile that was on the verge of laughing.

“Its hot!” I complained loudly as the fry went down my throat, scalding it as it did. I took a big gulp of the freezing shake and sighed as the throbbing, over exaggerated, pain in my throat went away. Kryzstofer chuckled and after a pointed look from me, took a fry himself to stop from laughing.

“These are actually rather good,” he told me taking another. He pushed the plate of food towards me, the plate of fries more into his direction, and gave me a look. I looked to the food, banana and strawberry French toast, and, after a small sigh escaped through my lips, I dig in.

“I rather good,” I mocked eating a spoonful of whip cream. The creamy cream melted in my mouth, mixing with the bread and banana I ate next, in a delightful combination of flavors. He was staring at me again, as he always did when I ate in front of him, but I ignored him. I ate, concentration on my food rather than the darkness that pooled around in my mind.

But when I took a peek at his back, pretending to look behind him, a man walking towards us caught my eye. I looked to the man, my mind trying to remember where I’d seen him before. Tall but short at the same time, his walk was confident, purposeful, his eyes shone even from the distance from under long strands of brown hair. His cheeks were covered with short stubble, his thin lips curled in a smirk as our eyes connected. Kryzstofer looked behind me, noticing my distraction, and smiled at the new comer who was approaching our table. He stood, standing in front of the man who my mind couldn’t place. I knew him but from where? 

They hugged, long and hard, and for a moment I felt like I was looking in on something personal before realizing what they were doing. Their right hands clasped in between their hugging bodies, over their hearts. They were sharing their knowledge, their information with each other. It took me a moment to realize -- why was it taking me so long to realize the obvious? -- that he was also an angel. He was... I knew him that I was certain of. But my mind was muddled, blocked from entering that certain memory.

When they separated, hands still clasped, after what seemed like an eternity but what was really only a minute or so, they stepped away from each other. Kryzstofer’s face no longer held a smile, instead his mouth was set firm, his eyes cold. Something bad, I take it.

“I know you,” I said slowly.

“Yes,” the man said, his voice surprisingly rich. He, unlike Kryzstofer, continued to smile, a warm smile that reached all the way into his cerulean eyes.

“From ... where?” I asked as they took a seat, Kryzstofer letting him slide into the booth. The man stretched his right arm around Kryzstofer, resting it on his shoulder like they were old friends... or lovers, something I didn’t really liked. Kryzstofer looked sharply at me, somehow reading my mind and shook his head slowly. The man noticed, his eyes fleeting to Kryzstofer for a moment before returning to me.

“Think about it,” the man said.

I didn’t have to because a voice behind me, a voice that sounded very happy, responded before I could even think about thinking about who this man was. The voice cut through all the silence that had been in my mind, the barrier to the memory broke and I remembered.

“Hadrian, love!” Hixak said behind me, cheerfully.

Hadrian’s smile disappeared, his eyes turning a harsh blue, as blue as mouth Everest, and settled on Hixak. For once Hixak seemed visibly shaken as he stared into Hadrian’s dark blue eyes, his smile vanishing seconds later. Kryzstofer looked down at his nails, his attention set firmly on them. This was clearly not our problem but being stuck between them... was not good. I touched his leg under the table and motioned with my head. He nodded and as fast as we could, we moved away and into another booth, as far from them as possible.

The last words I heard from the table were from a suddenly bored Hadrian, “Fancy seeing you here.” 

*** My gorgeous Hadrian is on the side, Jared Leto.

** This is actually a tie in for a later chapter in Beautiful Lie, this and the next cahper, you'll see why soon.

*I'll upload tomorrow again cuz i got these last chapters planned very well, after some homework.