The Catalina Touch Effect (NaNoWriMo2014)

Chapter Eighteen

The smell of vanilla and raspberries was comforting against the cries of Myles O’Connor,a defeated young man with no parents and no others. The loneliness had hit him as soon as he had sat upon Catalina’s bed to relax. The lack of voices, the silence of the heart monitor, the way his family looked at him and his sister as they walked right past without a word or bite of turkey. It was Thanksgiving day and they were silent. Everything was.

Catalina was behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist as she knelt on her bed. Resting her chin upon his shoulder, she looked to her couch, out of ideas. She could lay games with him, or make out with him, but he looked like he was dying himself.

“Myles,” she finally said softly, “I love you.” He said nothing, nor reacted. He hadn’t said anything since she had gotten him to calm his empty mind. She had said that many times before including when he got down upon his knees to beg for her solid return to his arms. She mentioned it a couple times during their rendezvous, but never out of the blue like that. Never before had she meant it in a place where it was needed like that.

“You can sleep here,” she offered. “I’ll text Isha and Samanta- say I can’t make it.” Myles sat still and she sighed. She released her grip on him and pushed him down to lay on her bed, then straddled him. He looked up at her as she pulled off his glasses and kissed him gently upon his lips, then got off of him and went to the couch to turn on the television.

She powered on her XBox360 and looked over to Myles. With a smile, she patted the seat beside her. She grabbed two controllers as Myles struggled with sitting up. He groaned as he did so, simply mentally exhausted.

There was no feeling coursing through his veins as there usually would be. There was no effort in his steps to the couch, and even as he sat down and was handed a controller, he wanted to go to sleep and forget there was even his existence. As much as he loved his mother, there was no turning back on what he had said. With his luck, she’d want him to have the family jewels or some cliche like that, but it was done and overwith. She’d be cremated and put on the shelf in his old bedroom.

A statue sitting on the couch next to Catalina, Myles watched without expression nor care that Catalina chose Minecraft. Just a game to mope about in to him, really. Walking around on blocks to simulate the growth and development of humankind with her was just boring to him. He set his controller down after only two minutes and stood. Catalina watched him with a concentrated look as he walked to her bed once more, flopping down into the pillow face-down and letting out a scream.

She jolted, then slowly set her own controller down. Thinking quickly as he continued his solid scream into her pillow, she stood and balled her hands into fists at her sides, letting out an even louder scream. It ripped the air open, making cars crash in heaven and lamps shatter with how loud and high-pitched it was. Myles instantly looked at her, eyes wide in fear.

She opened her own and stopped her screaming. With a huff, she relaxed her tensed shoulders and shook her head. “Good,” she said with a smile. “Now that I’ve got your attention,” she stopped, walking to the kitchen and sitting on the counter, “I’d like to keep it for a bit longer.” Myles sat up, swinging his legs over the side of her bed and watching her attentively for the first time in the night. She kicked off her heels and tilted her head, looking at him.

“You came to my work place a week ago. You asked for me and were declined, but you instead demanded me instead of walking away. When I came out of the back from gossiping with my friends, I saw you. You looked like shit.” Myles felt hurt with her tone, but kept listening. “I pitied you. Your hair was mangled, your shirt and jacket not matching colors, and you had a beanie on your head as if you’d gotten it from Eli and then held it in your grubby hands for a few days.”