Ace:
We need to talk.
I stared at the text message for the 50th time as I walked across the school's parking lot. Dread seized me as I opened the doors and walked down to hall to my dorm. Had she found out I was lying to her? Or worse, had she decided I wasn't worth her time?
I rolled my shoulders, only to flinch as my shoulder protested and began to throb. Not only had those bone-bags done a number on my wing, but the muscles in my shoulders and wings were all intricately connected, so it affected my shoulder too. Gym was going to be a nightmare.
As I reached for the handle of my door, it swung open and was greeted by a pair of bright brown eyes. Clarssia.
"Hey," I said, forcing a weak smile.
She hugged me gently, and took my gym bag with all my clothes and stuff I'd needed on the mission from me. "I've missed you."
We walked to my room in silence. Something seemed different since I'd left. I swear you could almost hear the tension crackling between us. I sat down on my bed, patting the seat beside me. Better get this over with sooner as opposed to later.
"So...what did you wanna talk to me about?"
She bit her lip, and immediately looked down.
"Clarissa...?"
Slowly she began to look around my room, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as she did so. "Why did you lie to me?"
"What?" I felt like someone had just punched me.
"You heard me, Ace. Why did you say you were going to see a relative? Why didn't you just say you had to do a "mission" ?"
My jaw went slack. Who'd told her?
"Answer me, Ace."
"I..."
"You what?"
I swallowed. "I didn't want you to know... didn't want you to get hurt."
Her expression softened, "Look, Ace...I know you probably can't tell me where you're going, or what specifically it is you do, but I'd rather you tell me you have to do a mission, rather than outright lie to me. I was worried."
I nodded, dumbfounded.
She let out a long breath, "Okay...so...we're cool again?"
I nodded again.
She smiled, "Good, because I'd miss you too much if we fought over something stupid," she said, leaning over and hugging me.
I hugged her back, I really had missed her. I didn't know who'd told her, but as long as she didn't know the details, she should still be safe. I reached up to brush a strand of hair back from her face when pain exploded across my shoulder. I hissed in pain and dropped my arm.
"Ace?" worry seeped into her words, "Ace, what's wrong?"
"It's...nothing, just a small scrape."
She glared at me, "Let me see it."
"Really, Clarissa, I'm alright-"
Before I could react, she pulled my shirt off, revealing the wicked cut across my shoulder. It'd cracked slightly too, and I could feel the blood sticking to my back.
A soft gasp, then, "What happened?"
I refused to meet her gaze, as she ran to the bathroom and came back with a towel and a small bowl of water, and began dabbing at my wounds.
"It's nothing, really," I said, teeth clenched against the pain.
She shook her head, gently bandaging the wound after cleaning it. Suddenly she paused, and then I felt another sharp stab of pain. "Gah! What're you-?"
"What's this?" She held open her palm, which had some faint orange powder on it. My eyes widened...had those skeletons somehow done something to me?
"I don't know," I lied.
"I'm going to take it out, whatever it is."
I sat stalk still as she re-cleaned everything. It took nearly 10 minutes before she was satisfied enough to bandage me up again.
"Well, I don't know what that was, but it seems to be gone now. Did you go to the hospital after your....mission?"
I nodded, "We have skilled medics with us. I should be fine now. Thanks."
Slowly she nodded, but I could tell she was still worried, no doubt wanting to tell me to quit my "job."
I took her hand, "Hey, I'm alright. We'll go out and do something tonight, just the two of us, okay?"
She nodded again, and rested her head against my good shoulder. Although I couldn't see her face, I knew her eyes were swimming with uncertainty.
* * *
Life settled back into its normal pattern after that. Three weekends after I got back was the first snowfall of the season, now that it was late November. Despite our age, Clarissa, Borgos and I engaged in an intense snowball fight. I won of course, but my victory didn't last long when Clarissa ran up to kiss me, and Borgos decided it was the perfect moment to unleash his hidden stash of snowballs at us. I'll get him back next time, especially since the cut on my shoulder was practically healed already, one of the perks of being a dragon is we heal faster. In other words, things were perfectly normal...with one exception.
I stared into the mirror in the bathroom, thinking. Ever since my last mission, I'd sometimes felt a small tingling sensation where the cut on my shoulder was. It would go away soon enough though, and I'd dismiss it as my nerves being shot, or the wound healing.
But now the wound was healed. And it hadn't gone away.
Something felt very wrong to me, and I was starting to get creeped out. See, I have perfect control over when I allow my dragon parts to grow, such as my wings. But for the past two days, I'd woken up with the wing that was injured resting on my pillow. Of course I'd retract it as soon as I woke up, and it didn't seem to be causing me any other problems, but it was still unnerving. What if it popped out in class one day, then what? Humans tended to believe what they wanted, which generally was, that magic didn't exist. Now, I was perfectly fine with that, it's what had kept us hidden for all these years. I remember once when we were kids, Borgos sneezed and a small puff of fire came out of his nose. Everyone around us thought he had just lit a match, and dismissed it as something trivial. They believed that it didn't exist, so they automatically thought up another explanation. Which was fine with us.
Except Clarissa wasn't exactly your average human. Sometimes we'd be together, and I'd freeze up slightly whenever I felt my shoulder tingling. I'd make up some excuse of course, like I stiff from working out, but I think deep down she knows I'm keeping something from her. Something big, bigger than my "job" too. After all, her essay was on the fact that dragons existed, and I know she's fascinated with mythology. Who's to say one of these days Borgos will open the door for her while I'm asleep, and she'll walk in on me with one of my wings out?
* * *