Chapter 16
In that moment, I was feeling something different than before. No, I wasn’t going to magically fall in love with him in seconds, but what I was feeling was different than hate. I’ve never seen him with the gentle look he was giving me, but his eyes were telling me otherwise. He was still upset over the matter before. He wasn’t talking though, just watching me. The tears on his face were drying, but his eyes were still brimmed red.
The thought made me think of my bleeding feet. When he saw that I was looking at them, he froze and looked at me in disbelief.
“What were you thinking? Oh that’s right, you weren’t,” he snapped at me, the anger back in his face.
And he was back. Technically, he was right. I wasn’t thinking, but who would when you were dealing with him. He was being a hypocrite, but I needed to remind myself that he’s not okay. He may have never been.
“Well sorry if I wanted to make sure you were okay.” I jerked my head to the side in a sassy manner.
He rolled his eyes. “Guess where that got you. You’re not okay.” He threw his hands up.
“Phoenix, you need to stop trying to get away from telling me about what you’re hiding. I found you in a library full of broken things!” I was getting mad.
“At least let me help you first,” he sighs and runs a hand down his face.
He put a finger under his eye and catched a tear. I’ve never seen a guy with so much emotion, other than in movies, that is. He looked at my feet again and sighed. He stood up and scooped me in his arms. Why did I feel like the damsel in distress when he was the one who was just crying into my shoulder?
I leaned my head on his chest and listened to his shallow breathing. He was trying to be strong, but he could only do so much.
“Where are we going?”
“There should be a bathroom around here with a first aid kit, so I can fix you up. You seriously just get back from living homeless and riding a dragon, and you’re already hurt. You were serious when you said you were clumsy.”
“You finally figured that out?” I said with a small laugh.
“Nah, I was just trying to get under your skin.”
I narrowed my eyes and gave him my best glare; well as best as I could from the position I was in. I heaved a sigh again as we turned into a bathroom. He sat me down on the sink carefully and opened a cabinet. The red box was hard to miss.
I drew in a sharp breath when he touched my foot and brought it up to look more closely. His hands were gentle though. I winced when I saw the tweezers come closer to me. He tugged on his lip and looked me in the eyes.
“This might hurt a bit, just a warning.”
The fluttery feeling in my stomach was back. I wasn’t going to lie and say it was horrible, because it was quite the opposite. Was this why things didn’t work out with Collin? I’ve never felt anything like this for Collin; he was just a simple crush. The thing was I still didn’t know what I was feeling for this boy in front of me. Until today, I’ve strongly disliked him.
The constant pain in my foot intensified when he started getting the glass out. He was being tender with me, which I greatly appreciated. I wouldn’t want to end up like those book shelves and books.
“Phoenix,” I said as I felt the tweezers go deeper in my skin.
“Sorry, I’m trying.” He was telling the truth; I could see it in his face.
The wait seemed endless, but he was finally done. He wrapped my feet in bandages and gave a small nod to himself. He pressed his lips in a line before swiftly putting me back in his arms. I didn’t know where we were going, but I really didn’t care at the moment.
It was kind of distracting, being in someone’s arms. If they were thinking of training me, it would be a while before I could. That was entirely my fault. I don’t regret it though; I was finally learning more about Phoenix.
One advantage I had over everyone was that I had taken Karate classes in my early teens. I quit once I became a blackbelt, but I do remember some of the moves. Maybe that would help in training; at least I hope.
“There’s a place I always go to when I want to be alone, so I thought we could talk there. You should feel special; I’ve never taken anyone up there. Other than my mum, that is. Mind reading isn’t all that.” He mumbled the last part.
I wasn’t feeling that special. I felt kind of bad, and not just because of my foot.
“Do you have a nice bone in your body?” I didn’t intend for him to hear it, but he did.
He didn’t say anything back. He just frowned and kept walking on like I said nothing. My head flopped when he walked up three sets of stairs. Now I was a little curious to see where we were going. He pushed open a door and I squeezed my eyes shut from the light. I blinked a few times and looked at where we were.
I knew we were on a roof, probably the top floor. The sky that I was still getting used to made the garden in front of me look amazingly beautiful. It was gorgeous. When I was younger, I always wanted a date in a garden, but this was even better.
“Wow, this is amazing!” I gushed without thinking.
“Most guys would lose man points for this, but I don’t care. When I come up here, it helps me think. Anywhere else doesn’t work as well as here.”
I admired him for that; for having the guts to tell me that. I just nodded in thought. I could see how it would be a peaceful place. I wish I had somewhere back at home like this when I was there.
“All right buddy, enough stalling. Pick somewhere to sit.” Maybe I was being a little pushy, but I really didn’t care.
He locked his jaw and sighed. He took us over to the edge and placed me on the short brick wall. I froze up and looked down. It would be a long drop if I fell.
“What if I fall?”
He laughed quietly. “I’ll catch you.”
“But what if you don’t?”
“Just trust me.”
Silence engulfed us. I wasn’t going to be pushier and make him start talking. It was already implied that he had to. What was he thinking? What ran through his mind twenty-four seven? Did he want to get to know me more like I did with him?
We were now sitting right beside each other, our arms almost touching. The wind was making it a little chilly, but nothing I couldn’t deal with.
“When I was born, my parents wanted a boy. They needed an heir for the throne. I didn’t realize it when I was younger, but the older I got the more I solved the mystery. They had never really wanted a kid; they just needed me to do the job.” He said and shrugged.
He clenched his fist. “They have never really loved me because of that. I’ve never felt good enough. They made me feel like I could never live up to them. When I was just five, they started to teach me the ways of a prince. It was never my goal to become a proper prince, so I didn’t listen.”
His voice sounded angrier as he went on. “Every single day I would go through these practices and it really just turned me into who I am today. I don’t know how to feel; I’m an empty shell. And I think my parents do know this, but I also think that they don’t care.”
I could relate to him in a way. I knew how he felt; like he wasn’t good enough. And that empty shell feeling is familiar too. The more I thought about it, the more I found we connected on a deep level.
“But what could I do? My parents are stronger, and my mum can read minds. How can I get away from this? I’m so sick and tired of feeling this way… alone in this world. I’ve never felt like I belong.”
He sucked in a deep breath. “Ever since you got here, I’ve felt different. I didn’t want to believe that, I denied it. I didn’t want to believe the Piercingwings was correct. It was something my parents strongly thought of.”
He grabbed my shoulder and made sure I was looking him in the eyes. “I’m scared of these feelings; because I’m afraid I won’t be able to treat you like the way you should be treated.”
From the way he’s treated me, I shouldn’t want to. But I wanted to make him feel and see the better side of life. I wanted to help him and get to know him better. The actual him, not this covered and fake person that he became.
I took sharp intake of breath and asked, “Would you like to know what it feels like to not feel empty?”
He let go of my shoulder and turned away quickly. My hands were sweaty and were shaking. The last thing on my mind was my injury, but that didn’t matter. All that mattered in this moment was his story. I once again judged too quickly without thinking.
I barely heard the words. “Yes, I would,”
Phoenix took me back to my room without saying another word. I was bombarded by Thorin as soon as I was put on the bed. Phoenix slipped out before I could tell him anything else. I sheepishly smiled at Thorin, but all he did was glare.
“What did I tell you, Sylvia? I knew you were up to something,” his eyes went wide, “what happened to your feet?”
I knew he was mad; he called me by my first name. “Uh, you know me. I wasn’t looking and stepped on some glass,” I shrug it off.
He ran some fingers through his hair and narrowed his eyes. He sat beside me on the bed with our shoulders touching. I trusted him like he was my own brother, so it wasn’t a bother to put my head on his shoulder.
“Since you’re apparently not going to rest any time soon, how about we watch a movie?”
I lazily nodded my head and didn’t dare move myself. He chuckled and shoved me off his shoulder. There goes the heartwarming moment. I stick my tongue out at him and fall against the soothing blankets. Maybe I was a little tired from the walk in the forest, but Thorin didn’t have to know that.
Thorin got the TV remote and looked over at me. “What do you want to watch?”
“What is there?”
“The TV has an unlimited amount of movies; any movie ever made. From all the worlds and dimensions. We could either watch one from where you come from, or we can watch one from another dimension.”
I was stunned. They had tons of movies to choose from. I usually didn’t like watching the same movie a billion times, so why not try something new?
“Uhm, do you mind watching a romance?” I didn’t know what his reaction would be, but the last thing I was expecting from him was to laugh like a lunatic.
“All right, stop being funny; what do you really want to watch?” He grinned at me cheekily.
“I wasn’t joking, Thor.”
The color of his face drained. “You’re not serious, are you?”
I hid a smile. “Would I ever lie to you?”
He gave me a pointed look. Okay, maybe not the right thing to ask. He dropped his shoulders and looked defeated. Yeah, I was watching a romance movie with my body guard. Who was like my brother from another mother.
He grumbled under his breath. “Oi, you’re really set on torturing me today.”
So this wasn’t my best idea, but I loved romance too much to pass it up. Poor Thorin was just going to have to deal with it. I loved teen romance movies, but the problem was I could never find any good ones. They either didn’t have enough story line or were just plain cheesy. I’m hoping that this world has better movies.
“I could do something for you though,” he smiled smugly.
“And what would that be?”
He switched on the TV and nodded to himself. “If you remember, our kind can give hallucinations. I could make it seem like you’re actually watching a personal romance movie while I actually watch something else.”
I didn’t see any flaw in it, so why not. “Yeah, that works.”
I caught him secretly smiling for some reason. He has to be up to something, I just know it. This was going to bite me in the butt.
“You ready for the romance movie of your life?” He smirked.
All I did was nod; he was the one to come up with what I was going to watch. He pressed play on what looked like some action movie and settled into the covers. He was such a dork.
Like all movies, or at least most, music started playing. I didn’t recognize it, but I wasn’t expecting myself to. I anxiously waited for it to start. One thing is for sure, is the last thing I expected was to see myself on the TV screen.
“Thorin,” I hissed and smacked him on the arm.
So this was what the smirking was about. He was trying to get back at me. Guess I set myself up for that one. If I was the main character, that means I knew who was going to be the other one. For the first time since I last saw him, Phoenix was back on my mind.
We were quite alike in some ways; he just didn’t know it yet. After some thinking, I knew I had to help him. I couldn’t just sit and watch him get worse, because it wasn’t going to get any better. One of my dreams was to be able to fall in love with a boy who wasn’t any normal John Doe. And that’s what I got. It won’t be love, and maybe it never will be, but there is always a chance.
“Just keep watching, goof.”
“Oh shut it.” I smacked him on the arm playfully, feeling a weight off my shoulders. It wasn’t completely gone, but I still felt better that Phoenix hadn’t liked because I was a horrible and snobby person. He was just like I, about love. We were both afraid of falling for someone we might lose.
My thoughts were becoming depressing, so I focused on the movie instead. The girl, or really it was I, was in the middle of High School. Both of her parents were dead and she was living with her older brother.
When Phoenix was introduced, I was surprised he had the same jerk attitude as he did in real life. Thorin really wanted to torture me. There was no reason for a character to have the same traits as the real one.
Later I was on the verge of tears at the end of the movie. Phoenix had a heart disease that limited his time. That was the reason why he was such a jerk, because he didn’t want to get close to anyone before he died. In the end, he died on the hospital bed with my movie character crying.
I tried to make it look like I wasn’t crying, but secretly I was. Why would he make me watch a movie like that? I turned towards Thorin with an angry expression.
“That absolutely sucked, Thor! Are you trying to make my day worse?” I sighed out of my nose.
He held up his hands in defense. “Aye, I wasn’t the one who wanted to watch a romance movie.”
“Yeah, about that. Remind me not to watch another movie with you.” I hit him with a pillow on the face.
I took note of his darkened eyes. He threw the pillow on the ground and glared at me playfully. I yawned and ignored Thorin’s smug look. He knew I was tired, even though I didn’t want to give in. So now what? I doubted that he would be leaving me alone any time soon.
“You go on and rest, missy. I’ll just watch another film.” He switched on another movie and turned it on low.
“Are you giving me another hallucination?” I raised my eyebrows and blinked slowly at him.
I knew he had given me one when I heard the first words. I gave him a look that said, ‘really?’ Why would he want me to fall asleep though? Was he planning something behind my back? I groaned again.
“Learning about the history of history is a complicated matter.”
I buried my head in a pillow and curled into a ball. I pulled the blanket over my head and settled in. Now that I was nice and warm, it was very tempting to just fall asleep. I heard Thorin laugh from outside the blanket.
Tomorrow I was going to go out with Phoenix to get to know him better and to show him what friendship means. It was time for his wasting of life to go away. I knew I couldn’t be a magician and poof, he’s suddenly okay. Feelings take time to develop.
I knew he didn’t want to be told what to do anymore, but he couldn’t keep treating ladies like trash. He would have to be willing to accept the ways he has been taught were wrong, and they still are. I didn’t know if he would even listen to me, but I wasn’t going to give up just yet.
I knew I had a mountain to climb, but in the end, would it all be worth it? I had a feeling that it would all play out in the end.
© piercingwings 2014