Inbetween

Chapter Six

Willow tried to keep up hope that they would find a way for Yuri to return home. As the days dragged on and they scoured her neighborhood, her hometown, and the surrounding countryside for another portal, she started to realize that she was going to have him around for a lot longer than a short visit. With each failure, she acknowledged more and more that she needed to make more permanent arrangements for him.

"You know, people are starting to wonder who you are. This is a small town so word gets around fast. People want to know why you're staying with me."

Yuri considered her statement for a moment. "I guess you aren't inclined to tell them the truth, then."

She shook her head. "Some people aren't as much of a skeptic as me, having them believe your story might be even worse. There are a lot of superstitious people around here and they're going to think you're a demon."

"Maybe I am a demon." He flashed a roguish grin.

She punched his arm, playfully. "Don't even joke about that."

"Why not?"

"Around here we chase demons back to hell."

He considered that idea for a moment. "Maybe that's just what I need."

"You think your home is hell?"

He shrugged.

"It doesn't sound nearly bad enough to be hell if you ask me."

"If you don't want to tell them the truth what do you want to tell them?"

"I could say you're a friend visiting from out of town."

"That's true enough," he agreed.

"Yeah. We'll just say that you're visiting from out of town and try to change the subject. No sense in trying to make up a bunch of details that we'd have to memorize."

There was a devilish twinkle in Yuri's eyes the next time he spoke. "Or we could say I'm your foreign lover here for a visit of indeterminate length."

Willow blanched at the thought of that story spreading around town. Then she regained a bit of her composure and prepared to shoot down his proposal. "We can't do that. The whole point is to come up with a story that will get people to ask fewer questions. If you make up a story like that we'll have a lot of explaining to do."

He leaned in tantalizingly close. She could feel the warmth radiating from his skin. Her pulse quickened and a blush involuntarily rose to her cheeks. She did not know why she was responding to his proximity like this. None of it made sense to her. This was Yuri and he was teasing her. She knew this and still, she felt bashful.

He tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. "We could make it more than just a made-up story."

Willow backed away. She was not sure what had just happened, but she had not seen this coming. She thought she could read situations than this.

"You're kidding, right?" she asked just to check.

He blinked, pulled back out of her space and settled back into his seat. If Willow did not know any better she would have doubts as to whether or not anything had happened at all. Amazed by his composure, she felt as though everything was all out of whack now and somehow he still seemed just fine.

He met her eyes, looking completely serious and answered her question in a way that did not at all answer her question. "I'm only kidding if you want me to be."

She stared. She had no idea how she was supposed to respond to that. She was not even sure she wanted to respond to that since any response on her part might end up giving too much away. This sort of reaction was not what she expected of herself at this age. This was middle school behavior. She was not that naive or innocent. She had boyfriends before, but something about Yuri seemed to be nullifying all that. She did not like it.