Julie Bane

Chapter Twenty-Five

  "It's your turn Carlos." She sniffles. I give her a small smile.

  "I'm sorry for almost dropping you out of a window over a busy road. I know that's pretty bad. And it was very mean if me." I say. "Ok, I'm done now." I say turning around.

  "No, Carlos." I stop and look at her. I look into her sad, tear-filled, brown eyes.

  "I'm freezing though babe, I want to go somewhere where it's warm." I say.

  "But... but..." She starts whimpering again.

  "Ok, fine. We can stay." I wrap my arms around and and hold her close. Wow, she's making me warmer by touching me.

  "Misty, you were a great cat-"

  "You're not taking this seriously Carlos!" She cuts me off and pushes away from me.

  "Well what do you want me to do? But the ball of fur a real coffin? Those are expensive." I say.

  "I just... I just want you to act like you care." She sighs. "I... I need you to act like you care. For me." She looks into my eyes.

  "Ok," I nod. "Ok." I take a deep breath and face the stone sticking out of the ground.

  "Misty, you were a great friend to Julie. You made her laugh, and you cheered her up when she was down, you comforted her. And you were there for her when no one else was, without you, she wouldn't have had any friends." Julie stomps on my foot.

  "Sorry." I whisper to her.

  "And I want to thank you for that. For keeping my girl happy dueling bad times." A small smile spreads on my lips as I realize I just called Julie my girl.

  "And most of all, Misty. I need to thank you. Because if you weren't there when that man with the rifle came in last night, Julie would be dead. If you, you clueless ball of fur, weren't being stupid and weird and jumped onto Julie when she was an open target, she wouldn't be here right now. And I know I couldn't bare to lose another one of the Bane's. So thank you misty, thank you for saving our girl. Neither of us could live with ourselves." I finish and relax.

  I look down at Julie to see she's looking at me, tears still leaking down her face. She's looking at me with a look I can't quite comprehend. And she surprises me by wrapping her arms around my neck tightly and digging her face into my chest.

  "Thank you Carlos, that was so sweet." She cries. I stroke her hair.

  "You're welcome, brownie." I say softly. She looks up at me.

  "Brownie?" She asks.

  "Yeah, you have brown hair and brown eyes, like a brownie." I explain. She shakes her head at me before just staring at me.

  "Carlos." She says.

  "Yeah?" I ask, looking down at her lips.

  "I think I'm starting to remember everything." I look back up at her eyes.

  "Really? How much?"

  "I remember meeting you, and I remember you saving me at school."

  "Is that all?"

  "Yeah."

  "Well, that's mostly what's happened. Except for two big things. You don't recall anything about a car or why you went to the hospital?" She shakes her head. "It's okay, you don't need to remember them anyway. They aren't good memories."

  I look back down to her lips. I feel myself slowly leaning in, not taking my eyes off of them for one second.

  "So where are we going to live?" I freeze and look back up at her.

  "What do you mean?" I ask.

  "Where will we live? At your house?"

  "Sure." I say and look back down at her lips.

  I lean in again, hoping she won't say something else and stop me, and hoping that she doesn't freak out and she allows me to do this.

  I'm two inches away when she shivers and looks down.

  I pull away disappointed and look at her.

  "It's really c-cold. Can we go home now?" She asks and I nod.