Entangled

15, Return to Reality

After our brunch, we decided to peruse the small town's shops to help kill time before our yoga class. There was one store that had a lot of pocketknives and handmade necklaces. Another store had vintage clothing that neither of us were really interested in. We found a tiny bookstore and ended up spending a long time in there, searching through the books, secretly peeking over each other's shoulders to figure out what kind of genres the other liked. 

Storm liked books that had mostly real-world settings but had a fantasy twist to them. He also liked poetry. It had been a while since I got around to reading books, so I ended up being more picky with what caught my interest. Both Storm and I discovered that I liked dystopian or post-apocalyptic books. 

Both of us bought three or four books, and then went to find other stores to explore. We spotted a gift shop, and spent another good chunk of time in there. We would pass touches to each other as we explored, Storm's hand grazing my shoulder or waist, my hand grazing his stomach or back. At one point we stopped to look at some key chains, and we both wrapped an arm around each other's waist. We were leaning heavily against each other, Storm murmuring in my ear about how annoying it was when you couldn't find your name on any key chain, anywhere. 

Our backs were facing the shop's windows, and from the other side of them, we suddenly heard a lady start screeching profanities. We both turned to see what was going on, and I flinched when I saw an old woman with white, crazy hair and clothes meant more for a teenager, directing her profanities right at us. Her face was twisted into an ugly glare, and she was literally shaking her fist at us as she spat about homosexuals being scum. Her aura was a dangerous red, lashing out in time with her words, flaring and fuming like fire. 

Storm tensed protectively, not saying a word as he nudged me and started walking down the aisle so we could head to another area not close to the windows. The screaming lady followed us on the other side of the windows, her voice nearly unbearable to listen to with how screechy it was. She still screamed as we turned the corner and tried to hide from her among the other aisles. 

"What if she comes in here?" I pointed out quietly. Storm made a sound similar to a growl, but not quite, and he steered us towards the door. We left the gift shop and ducked into a very narrow alley right next to it. We were pressed chest to chest, tight, but our hiding place worked as we heard disgruntled muttering approach the door to the gift shop, and then the door opening and closing, cutting off the muttering.

"Sheesh," I said. Storm chuckled a bit.

"Didn't think I'd run into someone like her around here," he said. I raised my eyebrows briefly in agreement. But then, something occurred to me.

"This might give me a chance to practice using my power," I said. "I've only altered one person's aura before, and she wasn't unlike this lady."

Storm raised a brow at me, and then peeked out of the alley. He shimmied out and peeked into the gift shop, since the door was made of glass. "Is it easy to do?" he asked me.

"I don't know, really. I'm not entirely sure how I did it before," I told him, stepping up next to him and peering over his shoulder. The old woman was walking back and forth across the store, scrutinizing the aisles in search of us as if we would appear by her sheer force of will.

"Here, I'll distract her and keep her busy," Storm said. His statement took me by surprise, and I opened my mouth to say something, but he was already slinking back inside the gift shop. It's like I've got a sidekick all of a sudden. Or a partner in crime, depending...

I waited outside, watching as Storm pretended to have been hanging out in a mug aisle the whole time. The old woman found him, and she immediately walked up to him and started pointing her finger in his face, complaining about what he was doing with me earlier. Her back was to the door, so I took this chance to silently slip inside. I hid myself behind a clothing rack of hoodies not too far from them, and focused my attention on the woman.