by R. J. Sable
“Some people need to mellow out,” Bear chuckles, shaking his head at the retreating bus.
“Well you did sort of jump out in front of him, Bear,” I grin. I love that he’s completely unfazed by almost dying but I’m still waiting on an explanation.
“Had to save this little guy,” he grins, baring his teeth. No matter what people say about hippy-types, Bear must be doing something right because he has the most perfect set of even white teeth I have ever seen.
I draw my attention away from his pearly whites, noticing for the first time that he has his jumper wrapped around something and bundled under one arm.
“Bear, is that a pigeon?” I cock my head at him.
“Yup,” he nods, lifting the bundle up so he can look into the little rodent’s eyes. “Poor fellow seems to have broken his wing. He was about to get run over.”
“I see,” I grin. Not many people would risk their own lives to save a pigeon’s and it’s one of the things I love about Bear. He didn’t even think twice about it.
I still haven’t gotten over the surprise of seeing Bear in Derby so I study him silently as we walk towards my house. He hasn’t said anything but I assume that’s where he’s going.
“You come to see mum?” I ask eventually.
“And you, glowbug,” he grins. He blushes slightly and I’m not sure why but I let him off because a lot of what he does is sort of unpredictable. Like jumping out in front of busses to save feathery rats.
“I didn’t know you were coming,” I smile.
“Sort of spur of the moment. I was walking past the train station and it just felt right.”
I nod because I know Bear goes on his feelings a lot of the time.
“Have you talked to mum already?” I ask.
He nods and wrinkles his nose slightly, digging his spare hand in the pocket of his canvas trousers.
“Bear!” I gasp when he pulls out a mobile phone. “Welcome to the twentieth century!” Until this point, he’s religiously avoided anything that even hints at technology. I have a sneaking suspicion it’s because he doesn’t understand it rather than that he believes mobile phone masts melt your brain.
He grumbles something and hands it over. “Corinne made me get it. I’m only just figuring out how to use it.”
“Now you can just text me instead of going all the way into town to talk to me,” I beam happily, making sure my number is saved in his phone.
“Text?” He frowns.
“SMS,” I explain. “It’s like a little letter that gets delivered instantly.”
“They would have called that witchcraft a few years ago,” he grumbles, sweeping his hair out of his face and into a ponytail before tying it with one of the bracelets from his wrist.
“Anyway, I was thinking I might stay here for a while, catch up with you guys.” He looks at me sideways and I can’t quite gauge his expression.
I’d point out that our house is tiny and already fairly cramped but there’d be no point. Bear would sleep on the kitchen floor and not care. He’d be happy no matter what.
“Awesome,” I beam. “I’ve missed you.”
“I missed you too, sweets,” he grins, his eyebrow ring tilting to the side as his whole face smiles. “Your mum says things are going good for you. Says you’ve been all smiley. You sounded happy on the phone.”
I nod. “Things are going better than expected. I’m pretty close to happy, I think.”
“How will you know when you’re there?”
“I don’t know,” I shrug. “I guess I’ll just feel it.”
“Maybe you’re already happy and you just don’t want to believe it,” he suggests.
“Maybe,” I frown. I’ve not really thought about it like that. I’ve definitely been happier but I’m not sure if I’m truly happy. I don’t think I can be until I’m back to Elise and everything’s perfect again.
“How are things with that boy? He still hassling you?”
“Yeah,” I sigh. “I just saw him on the bus actually.”
“Oh?” Bear prompts with genuine interest. He almost drops the feathery mess as he shifts it from one arm to the other.
I nod. “Seems like he wants to be friends.”
“And that’s a problem?”
I sigh. “I don’t know. I don’t want everything being dragged up. I’ve moved on, he’s moved on. It’d be better if we just stayed away from each other.
“You may have moved on, glowbug, but you definitely haven’t moved past it.”
I glare at him and he chuckles because he knows me too well. He knows I’m glaring because he’s right. If I’m truly honest with myself, I hate that I lost his friendship and I hate that he rejected me like that and I can’t even hate him for it because he’d just saved my life.
“Can’t you just start over with him? Forget what’s happened and see if you can be friends again.”
“I don’t know,” I sigh. “I kinda wish he would just leave me alone for the next two years.”
“Just think about it, sweets,” he sighs.
I know that what Bear says comes from a good place and he usually doesn’t give advice unless it’s something he’s thought about for a good long while so I just nod and commit myself to think about it. Just think.
“Home sweet home,” I grin as we approach the front door.
“Home sweet home,” Bear agrees, opening the door and letting himself in.
The moment we enter the kitchen, mum throws herself into Bear’s arms. I look away and meet my aunt’s gaze so we can share an eye roll. We both know what’s coming next and neither of us have any interest in watching the two of them swap saliva.
When I was younger, seeing them kiss freaked me out but I got used to it. A lot of people in the earthen community are like that and a kiss between them seems to be more of a symbol of friendship than anything romantic. I never understood it but I figure that’s more a reflection of my dislike for any sort of intimacy than anything else.
“Nice to see you, Cecile,” Bear beams, giving her a proper Bear hug once he’s finished with my mum.
“Welcome,” Cecile smiles. It’s a tight smile and one I’ve seen a hundred times before. I’m not sure whether or not she actually likes Bear but she’s always polite with him. To be honest, I don’t think she trusts mum’s choices with any sort of male company. Especially when that company becomes a part of my life.
“You two arrived home at the same time?” Mum prompts, leading us into the kitchen.
“I got off the bus when I saw him jump out in front of it,” I grin, winking at Bear.
“Bear!” My mum reprimands with genuine irritation. “You really must be more careful!” This is new. I’ve never seen mum anything other than relaxed with him.
“I had to save this guy,” Bear holds up his rodent bundle for my mum to see. “We need to get him looked after.”
Mum’s face immediately softens as she coos over the pigeon who I imagine is quietly disgruntled about being wrapped in a jumper.
Cecile and I both wrinkle our noses and move to the kitchen so we can get on with dinner. Bear isn’t really fussy about what he eats but I suspect he’d rather have what we’re having than the raw rabbit food mum’ll be having.
While we cook, they ring around to try and find somebody else who doesn’t mind touching the foul fowl (who they’ve now named Roger). The RSPCA are kind enough to offer Rodger a home if mum and Bear drop him off so I’m left alone in the kitchen with Cecile to help prepare dinner.
“Did you have fun with Becky?” She asks me as we work side by side. “She’s a lovely girl.”
“She is and we did,” I nod.
Cecile nods back and goes back to chopping her vegetables. We work in our usual rhythm of comfortable silence. Cecile isn’t particularly talkative but she’s not unfriendly and I appreciate everything she’s done for us by taking us in like she did.
She smiles kindly as I glance up at her and run something over in my mind. I can always count
on Cecile to say it how it is. She never sugar coats things but she’s always honest. I don’t often come to her for advice but if I do, I know I’m hearing what I need to.
“Aunt Cecile?” I prompt, focussing on chopping the onions because I like having my hands busy.
“Hm?” She replies, her own hands working expertly as they cut the carrots into neat little julienne strips.
“You remember Karl Carter?”
“There’s a name I haven’t heard in a while,” she muses. “What about him?”
“He’s at my school,” I mumble.
She nods, waiting for me to continue.
“I don’t know what to do.”
“That’s a new one,” she chuckles to herself. “You always know what you want to do, Elise. It’s something I admire about you.”
I look away from my onions for a second to cock my head at her but she doesn’t meet my eye so I let the compliment slide.
“He wants to be friends again.”
“I see.” She turns and folds her petite body over, pulling two small pans from the cupboard. “And what do you want?”
“I want him to leave me alone so I can forget I ever knew him,” I grumble, taking one of the pans off her so I can start making the sauce.
She chuckles. “Elise, you talked about that boy every day nonstop for a while. I don’t think you can forget someone like that.”
I sigh because I know she’s right and I wish she wasn’t. In my ideal word, Karl and I wouldn’t interact in any way shape or form over the next two years but that’s not going to happen. I need to find a way to make it as painless as possible.
“I wish he was like he was when we were six,” I sigh wistfully.
“You’re not the same girl you were then either, Elise,” she frowns and I can’t read her expression. “Bad things have happened to both of you. I don’t know this boy but I know you. You are stronger now than you were then. You have grown into a brave and fair young woman and he might have changed too. I can’t imagine what losing a mother would do to a child that young.”
I nod because I loved Helen Carter and she wasn’t even my mother. Mum waited until a few months into my therapy to tell me because she knew it would upset me and it still hurt like hell. I can’t imagine how much it must have hurt the Carter family.
Things like that change people.
I realise I’m still judging Karl by the person he was before and he might be doing the same to me. That needs to change.
Chapter 14
I have a new list. I’m hoping this one will make my life a little easier. Becky and I spent most of Sunday on the phone talking. She told me all about her date with Rob and his sweet kiss at the end of the night and I listened intently, waiting for Becky Blossom to give any hint that he hadn’t treated her right but it never came.
I have no interest in kissing but it sounds like Rob simply kissed her on the lips and she liked it so I can’t hold the kiss against him. I tried not to remember my first kisses like that. It wouldn’t be right to be jealous of my best friend.
In return, Becky listened to me tell her all about Bear and his rescue Rodger mission. She thought it was really sweet.
She would. She’d probably have done the same.
I really can’t wait for the two of them to meet and, since there’s no sign that Bear will be leaving any time soon, I figure they’ll get the chance. I don’t know how Bear does it. He’s sleeping in mum’s room and she has wooden floorboards. I’d have backache from hell if I slept like that.
Before we went to bed last night, I filled Becky in on my plans for surviving two years with Karl so this morning she took me to see her science teacher.
“Why on Earth do you want to know that?” The teacher asks distractedly as he shuffles through a stack of test papers. It’s morning break and he looks sort of busy.
Becky glances at me because she doesn’t want to answer on my behalf. I can’t exactly come out and say it without sounding like a weirdo.
“I keep getting static shocks and it’s getting on my nerves.” Because it’s always from the same person and it makes me want to scream.
“Alright,” the bedraggled teacher sighs. “Atoms are made up of protons, electrons, and neutrons,” he says like he’s given this lecture a million times and – by the look of him – he probably has. “Electrons tend to move around which changes the charge of the atom.”
I resist rolling my eyes because I need him to explain it to me but I could do without the full lecture. I just need to know how to make it stop.
I soldier on and listen to him drone on about conductors and balancing electrons but break’s almost over and, although I now understand why static shocks happen, I’m no closer to understanding how to stop them.
“That’s really fascinating, sir,” Blossom beams and I think she genuinely means that. “So how would you go about reducing static shocks.”
I shoot her a grateful smile and focus my full attention on the doddering teacher.
“Well, if your skin is dry, that could be causing more friction between your clothes so you could use lots of moisturising cream. Or you could use clothes made only of natural fibres, or you could simply try touching a non-conductor before you touch the surfaces which are giving you static shocks.”
My brain is rapidly jotting down the answers to add to the list I made the night before after some fairly vague internet research about rubber-soled shoes.
“Was that helpful?” Becky asks hopefully as we make our way to our next classes.
“I hope so,” I nod, smiling because I love that she wants to help me. “I need to earth myself. Bear will love that idea.” I laugh to myself. “It doesn’t really explain why I get shocks more often with Karl though.”
“No,” Becky frowns contemplatively. “Maybe one of you just has a lot more negative charge than the other and you just sort of neutralise one another?”
“Maybe,” I nod thoughtfully. I don’t like the idea that one of us is negative because I suspect it would be me.
We go our separate ways with our usual plans in place to meet in the common room for lunch and I spend the last half an hour of my lessons psyching myself up to do what I know I need to. I have my handy static-proofing list at the ready and I’m fairly sure it will be becoming a permanent fixture on my bedroom wall.
I arrive in the common room early and Karl and Matt are already there because they’ve had a free period.
“Hey, demongirl!” Matt shouts out as I enter the room.
Normally, I’d glare at him but he’s just given me the perfect entrance into the conversation I need to have because I can go over there without an excuse now.
“What was with you and the guy with the crazy hair?” Matt grins cheekily as I make my way over to them.
“He was saving a pigeon,” I shrug.
“Why?” Matt scoffs.
I scowl at him because I love Bear. “It was injured.”
“It was a pigeon!” Matt points out, nudging Karl who’s watching our back and forth with amusement.
“So he should have just let it get run over?” I scowl.
“Yes!” He exclaims exasperatedly.
“I’ll remember that if you ever break a leg in the middle of the road,” I frown.
“I’m a person, I don’t shit all over everything!”
“Being a person doesn’t make you better than a pigeon. I sometimes think a pigeon could outsmart you.”
Matt growls at me and Karl laughs. The growl sounds threatening but I can tell he’s not really bothered because his eyes aren’t burning with anger like they normally are. I actually think he’s enjoying himself.
I’ve seen how people are with Matt and the others. Nobody really gives them any crap. The only people who give Matt any jib are Karl and Ian. Well, and me of course.
“Do you make a habit of going home with hairy men off the streets?” Karl interrupts before Matt can make a comeback. I’m not sure but I think he looks a little irrita
ted with me and I don’t know why.
“Bear’s my uncle,” I shrug, glaring at him because if he insults Bear I’m going to relocate his dangly bits and make them internal with a swift kick of my boot.
“You don’t have an uncle,” he frowns.
I glare at him because he’s doing it again; he thinks he knows me. Plonking myself down on the seat next to him I huff and plant my rucksack between my feet. “I do too.”
“And his name is Bear?” He raises a disbelieving eyebrow.
I nod and unzip my pack.
“Alright,” he frowns. “What’s this?” He eyes the brown paper packet I’ve just handed him suspiciously.
“Offering of peace,” I shrug as he unwraps the three Wagon Wheels I bundled together.
“You make peace with Wagon Wheels?” He smirks at me, his starling blue eyes shining with amusement.
“There’s no better peace offering,” I explain as if it’s the most obvious thing ever. Because it is.
Karl laughs and grabs a little plastic Tupperware tub out of his bag and hands it over to me. Now it’s my turn to look at him sceptically.
“Offering of friendship,” he grins.
“Karl, this is an apple in a tub,” I raise an unimpressed eyebrow at it.
“You can hardly complain,” he shrugs. “You gave me Wagon Wheels”
“Wagon Wheels!” I cry in exasperation. “Have you tasted them!? They’re like a holiday for your taste buds!”
“If you say so,” he chuckles, leaning back and examining his treat. A treat that I’m contemplating taking back because he obviously doesn’t appreciate the circular wonder for the miracle that it is.
“No don’t eat it!” He blurts as I go to examine the apple. To be honest, I’m sort of hoping it’s a joke and there’s some sort of chocolate flavoured treat hiding in the apple.
“Why not?” I frown.
“You can’t eat it or you’ll ruin it. You have to keep it to remind you of me,” he smirks, a little dimple appearing on his right cheek.
“What?” I frown. “So let me get this straight,” I shift slightly so I’m facing him and he can see how truly unimpressed I am. “Your idea of an offering of friendship is to give me an apple that I’m not even allowed to eat?”