The Blue Trident

Chapter 3 : One Rule

A little after noon, they ate lunch in silence on the kitchen counter. No eye contact, no words, just the occasional sound of cutlery scraping against their plates.

It was now around four o'clock, and they were sitting on a plush blue couch in far corner of his gigantic living room. Riptide had his head buried in a book with no cover, and seemed to be extremely engaged in the plot. In fact he had been so caught up with the book, that when Polaris yelled his name out just for the sake of being annoying, it was as if he didn't even hear her. She sat with her legs crossed on the other end of the couch, as far away as possible from him. There was no boo for her to read, and the talking box was never really her thing. So she sat there and fiddled with her fingers, with her hair tie, anything she could really get her hands on.

Just as she was about to fall asleep, she hears him close the book.

"Let's play a game." he says way too enthusiastically for her liking.

She raises her eyebrow at his sudden want to interact with her, after completely neglecting her presence for the past three hours.

"What type of game?" Her words are hesitant, like she doesn't really want to know, but there's that little spark of curiosity at the back of her head.

Her big, brown eyes look into his green ones, and she feels nervous as a smirk places itself upon his lips.

"20 questions." The small playfulness that was growing inside of her, completely wiped out.

Of all the games... Questions. She doesn't want to answer any questions.

Seeing her change in expression Riptide's smirk widens.

"Are you afraid?" He asks, purposely making it sound taunting.

He's got her trapped now. If she says no, she'll show herself as weak and pathetic. If she says yes, she'll have to answer questions she doesn't want to answer. There is no way she's going to make herself look even more vulnerable than he already thinks she is.

"You start." she says, with a sigh.

"What's your favourite colour?" he asks.

Polaris is surprised at first. Earlier when they were arguing she could have sworn he looked like he had a ton of questions spinning in his head. She never thought any of them would be something as simple as her favourite colour. It just seems useless.

"Blue," she says, "it's the colour that mostly represents the ocean."

The ocean. She obviously has some sort of connection to it. But right now nothing really makes sense to him. She's just a mysterious girl he saved from a shark attack. For all he knows she could just be a delusional, asylum runaway.

"You're turn." Eager to continue the game, he point it out.

She seems to be thinking. Something tells him she has a question in mind, but is debating whether to ask it or not. Her lips are parted slightly, like she's about to say something, but is put on pause. He wants to tell her that she can trust him. That she can tell him anything. However, she is a stranger, and he can't expect that of her.

Riptide gives her an encouraging look, it isn't much but it works.

"How soundproof are the walls to my room?" she murmurs.

Soundproof? Why would she ask that? Why would she care? Was this a common question?

Her head is held down and she refuses any form of physical contact. All the walls in the house are pretty soundproof, you can't exactly hear someone talking by just pressing your ear to their door.

"The walls to your room are soundproof enough," he says, "I won't be able to hear you gush about how amazingly handsome I am." Riptide tries to lighten the mood, but his attempt at a joke leaves her unamused, her neutral facial expression still in place. He gives out an awkward cough breaking the uncomfortable silence.

"Why do you live on the island?" he asks.

The question hangs in the air and Polaris' body tenses up. She isn't ready for these types of questions. She can't answer these. She doesn't trust him enough, heck, she might never trust him enough to tell him.

"I like islands." Her pitiful answer makes her sick.

Why can't she lie smoothly to this teenage boy? For years, lies have flowed through her mouth easily to strangers. She's never had to feel bad about lying to someone she barley knew before. Something about him makes her want to tell him everything, pour her heart out. Tell him everything she's been bottling for the longest time. Polaris doesn't understand, her heart is telling her one thing her mind is contradicting.

The look on his face tells her that he clearly doesn't believe her answer one bit.

She crosses her arms over her chest.

"You have no right to be interrogating me. We don't know each other and last I checked this isn't court. I haven't done anything wrong." She didn't mean for her voice to sound so defensive, but her tone was cold and harsh.

Riptide is taken back by her sudden outburst.

She lets out a sigh.

"Look. I don't trust you enough to be answering your questions. I'll stay here, only because you won't let me leave. But please, don't push me to answer questions I can't answer." Her speech leaves a slight wave of tension in the air.

"Alright. No questions," he says, and she gives a grateful nod, "for now." The last part is barely a whisper and he doubts she could hear it.

Now, something has sparked inside him. Riptide is absolutely determined to find out something, anything, about the North Star.