The Revealing

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

It was warm there that day, wherever there was. Toby refused to tell me. I didn’t know why. It was not as if I could have found my way back anyway. I was outside, sitting on the front lawn on a blanket with Peri. Toby came out of the house with drinks. He wasn’t wearing a shirt. No wonder he was tan.

“Aren’t you afraid someone will see you?” I said.

He shrugged. “The only people who can see my wings are all people I can trust.” He sat down beside me, brushing my arm with his.

Peri jumped into his arms. I didn’t understand how she had so much energy. She’d almost died less than 10 days ago. I guessed that since she had the ability to heal, recovery didn’t take long for her, but still.

“Is that lemonade? Can I try some? I never had it before!” She was bouncy and hopping all over Toby, trying to reach the drinks.

“Whoa. You mean to tell me this will be your first time ever trying any lemonade?” he said. Both of them seem too energetic. “It’s a good thing mine will be the first you’re trying.”

She darted past his arm and grabbed the glass he offered her. She took a sip and swallowed, and her face lit up. “This is amazing!” She slumped down on the blanket and started chugging her glass. It was a delicate-looking glass with little strawberries painted around the bottom.

I sipped my drink and then looked at Toby. “When do we get to go back?”

I saw a flash of hurt in his eyes, but he tried to hide it. “Obsidian, why do you want to go back? They can’t protect you. They led you right to the elders. I don’t even know if they are all trustworthy.”

I felt offended by his mistrust of the closest thing I had to family. “You don’t need to trust them. I have things to do. I can’t just be hiding out somewhere.”

His shoulders slumped. “Why not?”

“I have school, a life and my friends. They need me, and I need to feel normal. I know I’m not normal, but I just don’t want to feel like I’m a circus freak or something.”

He looked at his feet, obviously insulted.

“Not that you’re a freak,” I said. “I mean, two months ago, I didn’t even think aliens existed, and now what do you know? Bam! I am one!”

He nodded in understanding. “Fine. Then I’m staying there with you.”

I almost laughed. I could see Damian ripping Toby apart for, one, keeping me away from him and, two, claiming to be my opposite. Willow had said that when you met your opposite, it was an instant feeling. I didn’t feel any different around Toby than I did around Damian. I didn’t know what the issue was. Maybe I was just broken.

I sighed. “Okay.”

He beamed at me.

“But I don’t know what Damian will do to you. So just keep all the opposite talk to yourself—for now anyway. Oh, and you need to wear a shirt.”

He laughed at the tone in my voice. “I think I can handle Damian,” he said, making his voice sound macho.

“Don’t be so sure of yourself.”

He smiled at the challenge. “Why? You don’t think I can take him? I saved you single-handedly. I guess you helped a little,” he said sarcastically, even though I’d handled a large group of the elders. “Well, maybe someone helped carry Peridot out of there.”

He winked at me and smiled, but I didn’t smile back. “I’m serious. Don’t piss him off. He has enough going on in his life as it is. He doesn’t need you making things more difficult.”

He looked a little wounded at my tone, but he brushed it off. “Okay, okay. I give. I won’t challenge the guy.”

“So can I call her?”

He raised his eyebrows. “Who?”

“Willow.”

He nodded as he handed me his cellphone. “You can go inside if you want privacy. Just not too long. Long-distance charges these days are killer.”

Long distance? Where are we? I picked myself up off the blanket just as Peridot dive-bombed Toby. She seemed to like him a lot. That was good. At least that meant we really could trust him.

I ran inside and slammed the door, and I was alone. For the first time in a week, I was really alone. I walked over to the couch and cried. My tears were a little overdue. I had been holding it all in—Carson dying, me almost dying and Peridot almost dying. She had been closer to death than I, given that she was so small. Death had surrounded me ever since my parents died.

If Toby was serious, my parents’ bodies had had to die all over again. They probably hadn’t gotten a resting place either, at least not a respectful one. I trusted that Toby and whoever had helped him hadn’t left a bunch of bodies lying around the gym after I passed out. I wept, and my shoulders shook. The buried feelings of mourning and tragedy already sown into my personality bloomed again.

Carson. My friend. My only real childhood friend. Gone. All over again. But this time, he isn’t going to come back ten years later. In my mind, I saw his beautiful purple eyes close for the last time. It had happened so fast. One second, he had been there protecting me, trying to keep me from harm. The next, he had been on the floor with his chest open and burned to a crisp.

This isn’t supposed to happen. The good guys don’t die! Carson was good. Everything he did was for good. Now he is gone. It’s my fault. If I wasn’t special, if I was normal, Carson would still be alive! If I had never met him, he would still be breathing. If he didn’t fall for me, he would be safe.

My whole body was shaking, and I was doing the most embarrassing kind of crying, the kind where my whole face was leaking and my expression made Bigfoot look like America’s next top model. I was lying on the couch, holding the phone. How was I going to call Willow, knowing it was my fault? Her life would benefit from not knowing me. I brought tragedy and death. The door to the house opened.

“Jeez, can you take any long—” He cut himself off at the sight of the way I was.

I would probably have been speechless too. My body was shaking from guilt, and my eyes were swollen from tears. Toby quickly came to the edge of the couch.

My cheeks burned. I was embarrassed that he was seeing me like this. I was a wreck. Peridot came in, put her healing hand on my back and soothed me, and I started calming down. She took deep breaths with me, and the sobs came farther apart now. I was still shaking, though, holding the phone.

“Maybe now isn’t the right time for you to call,” Toby said.

I nodded, handing him the phone. He took it and then held my hand. “What happened?”

“It’s my fault.”

Peridot interrupted before Toby could speak. “It’s not. If you believe that, then I should think that too, considering you were coming to save me. It’s no one’s fault. It’s not yours, and it’s not mine or even his. It’s the fault of circumstance. That woman—she wouldn’t have done that if she wasn’t as far gone as she was. She had no soul. It’s not something that can be pinned on one person; it’s an effort of all things in his life—all the choices leading up to that final choice he made to protect you. It’s not your fault. It’s not mine. It’s no one’s.”

Toby stared, eyes wide, at the 5-year-old girl who was wise beyond her years. I was used to it. Peridot was a reader, thus the good vocabulary, and she was mature. After everything she had been through, she was a tough cookie.

It was only certain moments, such as her jumping around at her first taste of lemonade, that reminded me that she was still young. I sighed, knowing that Peridot was right. Toby’s mouth hung open while he looked at me. I shrugged. “Words of wisdom from a five-year-old,” I said.

We all laughed, and I felt better. “I think I can make that call now.”

“Are you sure? Do you want me to stay with you?” Toby asked.

Peridot’s hand was still on my back, so I was sure she had a good grip on my emotional state. I shook my head. “Go do something important. I have Peridot here.”

Toby nodded and went into the kitchen, probably to make lunch. I smiled at Peridot, and she smiled back, keeping her hand in place. My hands shook a little as I dialed the number, but as soon as I heard Willow’s voice, my heart melted, and I wanted to be home to hug her. I was calm, most likely because of Peridot. The first words that came out of Willow’s mouth when she picked up brought a smile to my lips.

“Give her back, you slimy Obsidian stealer! I just lost a brother. Don’t take my only sister!” she yelled, apparently thinking she was talking to the person who’d taken me.

“Hey, hey, he isn’t that slimy.”

At the sound of my voice, Willow grew silent. “Obsidian?” She sounded as if she were talking to Santa Claus or her favourite celebrity.

“Hey there, girlie. How are things?”

“You’re alive! Well, I knew you were alive, but now I know for sure. Oh my gosh! When are you coming back? I can come break you out! Granted, I would have to sneak out. Damian has had me under his foot since we got back. But I don’t care!”

I could hear the tears in her voice, and tears welled up in my eyes as she continued to squeak through the receiver. I could hear Damian in the background. Willow told him to get lost, and then I heard a struggle as Damian obviously stole her phone and probably locked himself in the bathroom. I could hear her pounding on the door with her fists.

“Obsidian?” He spoke into the phone, his voice rough, as if he hadn’t been talking a lot lately.

“Damian.” I breathed his name. At that point, Peridot got up and went to the kitchen to get the sandwich that Toby had made her.

“Okay, what’s the name of the guy I’m going to kill?”

My voice strained when I answered. “Damian, don’t do anything stupid. You should thank him. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have had a chance to fight anything off. He helped to save us.” I couldn’t bring myself to say “from the elders,” but he knew what I was talking about.

“He also took you away from me. So he is on my bad side at the moment. He is going to have to work to get off of my black list. When are you coming home, Bunny?”

The desperation in the last question almost broke my heart. “As soon as I can. Oh, by the way, Toby—the guy who saved us—is coming too.”

There was silence, and then he said, “Well, at least I won’t have to hunt him down. What was it? Tony? Whatever.”

I laughed. “Toby. And don’t even think about it, or I’m going to have to lock you in your room until you promise to behave.”

He laughed too. “That doesn’t seem like much of a punishment, especially since the lock is on the inside, and you would be locked in with me.”

I blushed at the tone of his voice. I missed this kind of talk. Heck, I even missed him calling me Bunny—not that I would ever let him know that. “Damian, what am I going to do with you?”

The smile in his voice was undeniable. “I could think of a few things.”

Blushing again, I changed the subject. We talked for about 20 minutes before Willow threatened to break down the door. Reluctantly, he let her have the phone. She then proceeded to ask me a million questions that required detailed answers, asking new ones before I could catch a breath.

Toby came back into the room, and I told Willow I had to go. She whined a little, but we said bye and hung up.

“You look exhausted,” Toby said as I handed him the phone.

“Yeah, Willow can really suck the life out of you. I think I’m going to take a nap. It’s been a long day.”

“I think that’s a good idea.” He leaned in and kissed my forehead. “Sleep tight, Angel.”

Angel? That’s a new one. I guessed that since I might be getting wings one day, it was appropriate. However, I still preferred the name Bunny.