Kate Andrews

Chapter 15

Heyo!

Another change I've made into the story (yes, I'm that good at planning ahead), is that Kate and Seth are now about 16 years old. Seth's a couple months older. I think I've mentioned somewhere that they're fourteen or something. I have a lot to edit when I go back to the previous chapters. Anywho.

Chapter 15

There are few people in this world that realize that it's possible to have silence that isn't awkward.

Seth was one of them. I was not.

I was just about to blurt out a couple of words strung in the worst possible way to form a sentence I would probably regret saying, when Seth said, "Really?", raising an eyebrow at me.

I swallowed my mouthful of chocolate, and replied indignantly, "What?"

He shrugged.

"Uh huh. You want some, don't you?" I said, passing the bag of M&Ms to him.

He took some and passed it back, the corner of his mouth lifting up, ever so slightly. But even this 'divine' intervention wasn't enough to stop me from blabbing.

"So, do you have a girlfriend?" I mentally slapped myself. Smooth, Kate, very smooth. Doesn't sounds desperate at all.

Without looking surprised, he seemed to ponder over the question for a moment.

"Uhh, no," he said, finally.

"That took some thinking," I observed.

His mouth was just opening in reply, before I added, "And don't you dare say 'It's complicated'. That's the most annoying answer ever."

"No, I just...I mean, it's just," he stammered.

"It's just?" I prompted.

"Look, it's a long story, okay?"

"I've got time," I shrugged.

"Seriously, it's very long."

I glared at him, "Never mind. That's the most annoying answer ever."

He gave a half-shrug, like, 'What're you gonna do?'.

We were out of the building, and were following Aaron. Where he was going, I had no idea. Cassidy was right next to him, and it didn't look like he had cooled down yet. Cassidy seemed annoyed, at Aaron, I suspected. She confirmed my suspicions by dropping back, and walking next to Kevin, who was busy with his phone, and was trailing a bit behind Aaron. 

Seth and I were walking side-by-side, but with a good distance between us. By now, I was embarrassed at my outburst. When we had first exited the building, I had looked around curiously, to see what made this world so different from ours. But truth be told, there wasn't much to see. It was greener and the air was less polluted, but besides that, there wasn't much to see. The one big change was that there was silence, broken only by mine and Seth's conversation, and the occasional chirp of a bird, Not a single other being was in sight, and that made me shiver. For the first time since we had reached here, I yearned for home and familiarity. 

'You wished for this,' said a voice in the back of my head.  I sighed inwardly, for a second regretting that my wish had not come true. 

As George Bernard Shaw had said, 'There are two great tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart's desire. The other is to gain it.' And for the first time, I I felt like I understood a little bit of what he meant.

"We're here," called out Aaron, his voice gruff. Even Kevin looked up at that.

I got up on my tip-toes to see where 'here' was. Apparently, it was nothing. Aaron had stopped in front of a road. An empty road. He raised his hand and touched the air in front of him. It rippled, just like Binstrome's image had when I had felt it back home. 

As we watched, the air materialized into a minivan. Something told me that the interior would not be that of a typical minivan. Without glancing back, Aaron unlocked the back door with a key he had in his hand and stepped inside. Cassidy motioned for the rest of us to follow him.

Seth and I looked at each other, unsure. Neither of us had a clue where this was going. Whatever the inside was, 'Hey, Zephigon! We're coming for you in our red minivan!', didn't sound threatening. I would've preferred a jetplane, or better yet, a dragon. On second thought, a dragon might not be as convenient. You can't exactly climb inside it.

Standing inside, I wasn't staring at the kitchen to the left of me, or the row of targets lined up with a wicked-looking knife stuck in the centre of each, or the huge TV screen that showed an image of two X-humans guarding a pair of large doors. I wasn't even gaping to the umbrella holder that was full of unsheathed gleaming swords with golden handles that could easily disembowel a man.

What I was gawking at was the teenage boy with a bow in his hand, whose arrow was pointed directly at the chest of my older brother. The boy who had green eyes that were narrowed in concentration, and dark hair that tumbled onto his forehead. 

Even as I considered smacking myself for it, I thought, 'What is it with this planet and great-looking guys?"

That ending just sounds so bleh, doesn't it? Unfortunately, I couldn't think of anything better. Like I said, I'm going to majorly edit my previous chapters, and maybe then I'll fix this. I hope I'm getting over that massive writer's block I had.

Thanks for reading!