normality at its best

two

'strange birds' birdy

"No shit, me either, love." She snorted, taking a gulp of her alcohol.

I got up and began pacing, my wine abandoned beside her.

"Okay, okay, okay—"

I steeled my nerves then faced her.

"I am a protagonist, but I don't want to be."

She giggled.

"Wait what?"
It felt good to let that bit out and suddenly I couldn't stop the words leaving my mouth.

"I have two powers, persuasion and the ability to summon passports out of thin air."

She laughed aloud at that, and I soon found myself joining in, before regaining my breath and continuing.

"Which is useful for escaping every time an Occurrence happens. Alex," My face was completely serious, matching my tone, "the universe keeps trying to make me into some kind of storybook heroine, and I've been Avoiding it all my life."

Somehow, that night, she believed me. In fact, she took me completely seriously, aside from the fact that she often found parts of my hardship completely hilarious, like the time I was crossing a bridge on my way into the town of Seabird, Western Australia. The troll had barely the time to say,

"I... smell...mortal..."

In it's slow gravelly voice, which should teach it to speak faster, before I was off down the road, laughing at the idea of that storyline.

"Oh god, a troll! What are you, a billy goat?"

The next day, as she made breakfast, Alex, asked me for another story. I considered the library in my head, and settled on one of the high school ones, a smile already reaching my face.

"Okay, so in Year Eleven, meaning I was seventeen, a bunch of Romanian exchange students came to my school. There were three of them and they had ridiculously perfect looks, so they were the talk of the school, and they walked in a group, eyeing off everyone, trying not to talk to anyone. Then this one time I bumped into one in the hallway and he just stared at me weirdly. I knew that this was an Occurrence, and was already trying to figure out whether or not to leave, but they didn't even look at me until two days later, after school, when I was walking back to my place and I realised someone was following me. I climbed a tree and waited for the person to pass but they had gone and then I turned to find the head exchange kid literally floating next to me, in the air."

I started to chuckle to myself, continuing as Alex's smile grew.

"And he started talking really dramatically like and said 'I am the Crown Prince Lucius and you are to be my Queen', but I didn't hear much more cos I'd had enough. So naturally, my classy teenaged self booted his sorry floating ass out of the tree, yelling 'yeet', then jumped out of the tree, ran home, and moved the next day."

We dissolved into laughter. Alex passed me a plate with eggs and sat beside me.

"Another!" She giggled, tucking into her food.

I began to tell her about the time when I met that one chick at the beach and her touch turned my hair into a streaky mermaid green, and the horrors of my cover up dye job.

It was nice, being able to talk about it. It was nice not being lonely. And it was nice sharing these experiences with someone.

We compromised, that night, and went to a club, because I refused to go to the strip club. As we wandered through the darkening shadows, we passed a strange door in a side street, where a fuzzy mist was beginning to swirl.

"What is that?" Alex breathed when I pointed it out to her. I hooked my arm through hers.

"Portal." I tugged her onwards.

If she hadn't believed me before, she definitely did now.

-

A blissful two months passed, and I did not move from my place with Alex in London. Three and a half months. The longest I have ever stayed in one place since my parents were around. I did miss those days, with my tiny family, in our small house by the creek. My father would make a hearty soup for dinner and my mother would laugh with me about the faery I accidentally batted away with one flailing arm. Then came the day that she collapsed, and as did my heart.

The hospital room was clinical, sterile, white. Nothing like Alex's vibrant personality. I brought as many flowers and plants into the room as I could, and I stayed by her side as much as I could. A nurse who turned out to being one of the small Occurrences was denied my attention and left the room looking disgruntled. I watched as the colour and life dribbled out of my best friend's body. She told me, one day, about the lovely childhood home that she lived in, up in a teeny tiny area called Falstone. She told me with dreamy eyes of the beauty and simplicity and enchanting easiness of that life in the countryside. She had swapped it for adventure, she most certainly had, finding a friend like me to room with. Only a few cousins and an ancient grandfather remained up in Falstone, but it was very unlikely that she would make it there. Instead, I was to remain by her side as she made her funeral arrangements for up in the countryside, where her small family and I could return her to the earth. This day hurt me greatly, watching as someone so young, only twenty, spoke of how she would like to be buried and celebrated. In the following days, she spoke quietly with me about the adventures we would have together in her home town soon, and asked me to tell her stories.

One morning I awoke to see her sleeping, and soon realised that my best and only friend in this world was not there.

sorry for the tiny chapter, i'll publish the next one today to make up for it.

:)

rmf