Playing with Forever

Chapter 24: Paula

Very true.

I immediately liked Paula. With a purple and gold aura, she was assertive, quick, and not afraid of speaking her mind. I guess spending forty years with immortal adults would do that to a person. She was playing chess with Emile when I walked into Sam's that evening, throwing M&M's into the air and catching them in her mouth while giving Emile playful taunts about their game.

When she saw me, she glanced over with narrow eyes, examining me. "One minute," she said to Emile, then turned around in her chair.

She inspected me with intense eyes, making me strangely nervous. After a long few seconds, she smiled mischievously. "I like you," she stated very matter-of-factly.

I blinked in surprise, completely startled. "Oh," I managed to say. "Um, thanks. I'm glad."

"You're pretty, and I like that you don't have an aura. It must mean you're clever to hide it," she told me.

"Oh. I'm not so sure about that. But thank you." I glanced over to where Emile was laboring over the chess board. "You must be clever yourself if you're beating Emile at chess."

She shook her head with a roll of her eyes. "Emile was never very good at chess."

"Hey!" Emile cried in offense.

She patted his hand sympathetically. "Sorry, mon ami, but it's true."

"I must be terrible, then," Sam said as he pulled sodas out of the fridge for us. "Emile always kicks my butt."

"Don't even get me started on you," Paula sighed, giving us all a laugh before she turned to me. "What's your name?"

I smiled. "Abby."

"Paula," she replied, proud of her name and who she was.

"It's very nice to meet you."

"Likewise. Are you Sam's girlfriend?"

Trying to seem unaffected, I replied with a casual, "Nope."

Paula turned and shot Sam a knowing glance that I didn't quite understand, and Sam winked back at her before busying himself by digging through the fridge. "That's a shame," she finally stated, going back to her chess game and digging back into the M&M's.

"Emile, make me proud," Sam called.

"Trying," he muttered, scowling down at the board.

After beating Emile at chess, Paula came out to the art studio with me and Sam and talked with us for a while. There was a paint-splattered couch we liked to hang out on as we did homework, and Paula joined us there. When Sam eventually went back to the kitchen to get us more soda, Paula turned to me with a serious look. "Why aren't you Sam's girlfriend?" she asked, almost like she was accusing me.

I looked at her in surprise for a moment, trying to figure out where that had come from. "Um, because we're just friends." It came out sounding like a question, not a fact.

She looked me hard in the eyes. I felt daunted by the little immortal girl. "Do you love him?"

"Um, as a friend, I guess," I concluded.

"I think you should get together. He's worth loving."

It took me a minute to respond. I was so surprised that I couldn't fit words together in a sentence. "Oh. Well. I don't really think that's going to happen, Paula. Don't get your hopes up, okay?"

"You think I don't understand these things because I'm young," she accused.

Again, I was unsure what to say. "Um."

"But you're not immortal. You're the one who doesn't understand."

I nodded my head. "That's true," I agreed, because it was. "There's a lot I don't understand. More than I realize, I'm sure."

"Are you going to become immortal?"

I wasn't sure I liked this topic any better. "Probably not," I replied. I didn't think living forever would be a good thing, especially in my case. I liked the extra things that being immortal gave from the tiny glimpse I'd been given, true. Power was something that I'd never had possession of, and to tell the truth, I liked the idea. But was power worth living forever? I didn't know if I could survive living my emotionally unsteady life eternally. I sort of avoided the subject altogether. "What do you think?"

She told me sternly, "You'd have to be immortal to be with Sam. You couldn't just die and leave him behind, like Jane did to Emile."

"That wasn't her fault," I pointed out, feeling terrible. Every time I thought about that, my heart ached for Emile. Every time I saw his expression, even when he was happy in the moment, the sorrow and loneliness that lurked behind his eyes haunted me. To have loved and lost? Would it have been better to have never loved at all, especially since he'd have to live through eternity without her?

Paula narrowed her eyes in fierce defense. "You won't do that to Sam," she threatened.

"Paula, Sam and I aren't together," I told her firmly.

"Can't you see how lonely he is?" She sat forward, getting into my personal space in her vehemence. "If you really loved him, if you were really his friend, you'd do something about it."

"Paula..." I was feeling exasperated. And lonely. All my feelings overall hurt with sorrow and everything ached. "It's not like I control everything. It's sort of mutual thing."

She looked at me deeply in the eyes again. "Sam's already decided."

I shook my head, really wanting to change the subject. "Paula, can we talk about something else, please?"