Chapter Twenty Four: The Smoke in Our Eyes
I plopped onto my bed with a big sigh "Wow, what a conversation," I let my head fall onto my pillow, not believing the talk I just had with Cole. It was a rather deep conversation but I felt as if we gain a little new respect for one another. I knew that he would trust me and that I could trust him, that was enough to gain my respect. I was just surprised that he openly cried to me and even said that he never would with the others. I wondered why he'd do that, was it possible that he had some kind of respect for me that he didn't have for the others? I kind of doubted it because I found it hard to believe that he'd be able to come to me with that instead of the others, who have known each other for a little over two years.
I turned my head to look over at my phone that was laying on my nightstand and reached for it. It was a little too far to reach so I had to lean closer to actually grab it. I turned it on and went to my contacts, stopping at my sisters name. I wanted to call her and talk to her about what happened that day, I needed to talk to her. I hadn't called her for a couple of days and I thought that it'd help me by talking to her about it. She told me to update her on everything that happened and she'd probably hate me for not telling her about it all at first. I sighed and selected her name. I bought the phone up to my ear, listening to it ring and ring. She finally picked up, saying "Hey, Cass."
"Uh, hey Amanda. I wanna talk to you about something," I told her. Now thinking about it, I wasn't 100% sure what I was going to say to her. I mean, how do you just tell someone Well, it turns out there's this person threatening Ninjago and me and the team are fighting them, and things might get ugly. Maybe I could just not tell her that things could get ugly, they was the best idea. That way she wouldn't freak out and tell me to come home or something like that.
"Is everything okay?" She questioned, concern evident in her voice. There she goes, easily being able to tell that something was wrong. Whenever I'm about to tell her something bad she automatically knows that something's up and feels the need to ask me a hundred questions and make sure that I'm okay. "Did something bad happen? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," I insisted "and honestly don't know what to say. Long story short: there's a new villain in Ninjago and we're planning on stopping them. I just wanted to let you know so you wouldn't freak out if I told you after we fought them. Just please, please don't freak out or anything, I'll be fine and you don't need to worry about me."
The line was quiet for a second until she spoke up "I don't know what to say. I mean, this is big, but I'm not going to freak out or anything. I just want you to be safe, and not dead."
"Don't worry I won't die or anything, I can handle myself. Plus I've got my team to back me up. Well, all of them except for Jay and Zane."
I quickly explained to her what happened and she was clearly shocked. "What? Are you serious?" She wondered in disbelief, not being used to stuff like that. It was pretty obvious considering that she's never fought before and expected things like this. I couldn't even see her fighting if she wanted to, she'd be beaten in a matter of seconds, I hated to admit it but it was true.
"Yeah. I honestly not sure what we're going to do, we're going to talk it out soon," I started until I heard the door open, looking over to see Shadow coming in and sitting on the foot of her bed. I sat up and turned to her, letting my legs dangle from the side. "Uh, I gotta go Amanda, I'll call you soon. I promise, bye," I heard her say bye as well and I hung up. My eyes shifted over to Shadow on her bed. "Hey."
She looked up at me and sighed "Hey Cass," I could tell that she was down, clearly from what had happened not that long before. I didn't know what she was thinking but I did know that she had hundreds of questions like the rest of us did. "I see you talked to Cole a little while ago."
"Yeah, I did. What did he tell you?" I questioned, raising an eyebrow and curious as to what she had to say. It wasn't hard to guess that she found out from him considering that no one else could have told her about it. Unless he told someone else there wasn't anyone else she could have hear it from. I was hoping that it was him because stories like that would always be twisted somehow if it was told from someone who wasn't even there to begin with.
"He told me that you cheered him up. That was nice of you to do," she told me.
"It was nothing, really. He needed some support and I was there for him. . It wasn't like I didn't want to, I'd be there to cheer any of them up when ever it was needed, I couldn't just sit around and do nothing. "He's a friend so I helped him, I couldn't just walk away from him, Shadow."
"You sure about that?"
"What do you mean? You wouldn't have walked away either." I wasn't sure what she was getting at, because all of us would have talked to Cole if he needed it. We were there for each other and have each other to talk to one another if needed. I just knew that he wouldn't go to the others if he was going to cry, as he said. Maybe he just didn't want to have long time friends seeing him like that and to think of him a some kind of fragile flower. He wasn't anything like that, he was as strong as the earth he represents because it went to show that he wasn't scared of crying.
"Well, the way he describe how you comforted him made it sound like you really cared about what he had to say. I'm not making any accusations but do you-"
I stopped her right there, raising a finger at her "Don't go there," I sighed and rested my head in my hand. "I know what you were going to say and it's not like that, okay? He's just a close friend, almost like my best friend, actually. Is that so bad?" I knew where she was going with things and I wasn't going to admit to anything. Yeah I'd grown close to him in the past month but that meant nothing, we were just close friends and that was all, it was nothing special and it's never come to become anything more.
"No, it's not," she put her hands up in defense. "I was going to say something else but I'm not going to say it."
I looked up to her, determined to hear what she had to say. "No, you're going to finish what you were saying, don't stop what you've already started," I wasn't sure what she was going to say but she was going to tell me whether she liked it or not, she wasn't going to leave until she told me. I wanted to know what she was going to say, it had to be something good or she wouldn't have brought it up in the first place.
She rubbed her chin and looked back over at me. "Not sure if others can see it, or even yourself, but I can see that you two care about each other, being close friends and all. So I just assumed..." I got where she was getting at but that still didn't mean anything. Couldn't two people just be friends and not have to worry about it?
I rubbed my hands over my face and sighed, looking at the ground. "I really don't want to talk about this right now Shadow. I get you're trying to be nice about it and all, but this isn't the time, okay? I'd rather focus on the bigger situations than this, you thinking what I have the feeling you are," I knew what she was going to say, anyone could have, but it really wasn't the time.
"I'm sorry," she claimed as she stood up. "Well, uh, we should head out so we can talk to everyone. She headed for the door but I just stayed on my bed. "You coming or what?"
"Nah," I shook my head and made a fist with both of my hands, letting my head rest on it and my elbows on my knees. "I'll be out in a minute," we shared looks for a couple of seconds before she nodded and left me alone. "Thanks for noticing," I muttered to myself, thinking of her and what she did. I started to ponder about what she brought up, and it got me questioning a couple of things myself. I guess that you could call that a moment but it wasn't really anything, was it? I honestly didn't know what to think about it.
Thinking about it I wondered if she tried to bring up the same thing with him and what he thought about it. He couldn't have been thinking about the same thing as me, could he? I shook my head in denial, I knew he couldn't. "Gah," I sighed and let myself fall back onto my bed, making the bed shake when I landed onto the sheets. "Why do I need to be thinking about this right now?" I questioned myself while looking at the ceiling.
I eventually got lost in my thoughts about the matter, really thinking the matter through, until Nya came running into the room. "My brother, I can't find him!" She claimed. I immediately sat up and looked at her, who continued. "I don't know where he is. Knowing him, I think he went back to the city!"
Was I hearing that correctly? He seriously went back to the city?! "That idiot!" I jumped off my bed and ran past Nya, heading outside. "Kai!" I called out and looked in the sky in hopes of seeing him flying his dragon. "Kai you damn bastard!" I yelled this time. How could he do that?! And why? Did he think that he could leave on his own like he did and none of us notice?
I saw the others come running out as well, all yelling for Kai. "He's an idiot!" Lloyd exclaimed. I looked around at the others and realized that it was just him, Cole, Shadow, Nya, and myself. If we don't get to Kai in time and he somehow gets take too, then just a little over half of us would be left. Plus Kiara would be only two people away from bringing back Alvah. We couldn't let it come to that.
How pissed off I was started to show when I made a fist. I ran and jumped into the air, letting my elemental dragon form under me. I didn't hesitate to fly back for the city, and saw that the others who were behind me had the same idea. I was going to make sure that he was fine because we could afford to lose another one of us, and I didn't want him to get hurt. I knew he was my teammate, but boy did he really piss me off then!