Chapter 12

The disgusting kiss

     “You did that, didn’t you?” I asked roughly. The dream, it had felt so real; everything little thing that I had felt had been real. Angelo sat across from me, his mouth pulled tight, and his teeth clenched. He didn’t say anything, nor did I expect him to.
       “You made me have that dream.” This time I wasn’t asking, I knew.  We sat in the living room, my leg resting on a pillow. I had woken up too soon. The dream had been pleasant enough, to say the least, but for some reason, I felt outraged.
              “I thought it would have made you feel better.”  Well, it had. But that wasn’t the point.
              “Angelo, why though?”
              “I didn’t like seeing you suffer,” was all he said.  
       “I don’t care. Never again; I don’t want you ever again using your powers for me, you hear me?” I ordered sternly. He had broken the rules for me, clearly unacceptable.
              “I thought you’d be happier.”
       “Angelo, that’s not the point! You told me yourself you weren’t allowed to use your powers. You have; twice! I’m not worth you getting in trouble. You have rules to live by, so follow them.”
              “But—“
              “Why would you go risking everything for me? Especially, for something as silly as a dream—“
       “Because I care about you!” Angelo erupted. I stared back in shock, speechless. I had never seen this side of Angelo before. I hadn’t even known it existed. “Okay? I cared about you and I couldn’t stand to see you in pain,” he finished softly.
       “I—“ I couldn’t put it together. Why would he go so far just to allow me some relief? It didn’t make sense. Wasn’t I just another job he needed to accomplish? He stared at me, his eyes full of hurt and anger. I remained silent, too afraid. He was scaring me, really scaring me.
              “Hope…I’m sorry.”
       “Stop apologizing.” My voice was stern. He closed his mouth. “I’m not going to ask you to leave,” I said, “Because that would be cruel. But I am going to ask you…no tell you that you are not, under any circumstances, allowed to use your power on me ever again.”  I was cold, just like I intended to be. And like the child he seemed, he nodded in comply.  
              “Will they come after you?”
              “Who?” he asked.
              “I don’t know, I guess the people who made the rules.”
              “You mean the council. Yes—they will come after me.”
              “Angelo—“
              “They don’t know where I am, though. It could be years before they find me. They are a very slow-paced people.”
       “Why don’t they know where you are? Didn’t they assign you to me?” I asked, dumbfounded. Surely he wouldn’t have picked me on his own. I wasn’t anything special.
              “Well, not exactly…”
       “What do you…mean?” I leaned forward, my arms supporting me. Looking straight at him, he refused to look back, only eyeing the couch. “Angelo, what the hell is going on?”
              “I kind of ran away.” And once again, I could have died. I fell backwards, twitching.
              “Mother….Fugitive…You’re a…fugitive…we are…die…holy…hell—“
       “Hope, you okay?” He asked nervously, leaning over me. I continued to stare at the ceiling, in total shock. “It’s not a big deal.”
       “Big deal?! What the hell, Angelo! You’re a freaking runaway! They’ll find us and kill us; they’ll chop us up and feed us to turtles; I’m to young—“
              “Hope!” he suddenly barked, slapping me. I sat up straight.
              “Owww!” I whined, feeling over my hot cheek.
              “Sorry,” he apologized, “I thought something was wrong.”
       “Whatever,” I mumbled. “So anyway, what will happen if they do find us?” I asked nervously. I didn’t think I could make it another day, knowing there were people after us.
              “They’ll take us away...”
              “And?”
       “My powers will be revoked and you’ll have your memory erased.”  He said it with such ease, as if his powers were mere play things and my memory, insignificant.
              “In other words, I won’t remember anything that has happened.” it wasn’t a question; I already knew.
              “You will have never of met me.”  Angelo stood up and walked to the door.
              “Where are you going?” I asked, anxious.
       “I don’t know, Hope. I suddenly feel very sick.” And then he walked out. I tried to push my leg over the edge of the couch, wincing slightly from the annoying throb. With my broken leg finally over, I used as much force as I could, pushing up with my good leg. Bad idea—very bad idea. I screamed in agony as I stood up. I couldn’t take it anymore. Screaming more out of frustration than anything, I fell on the ground; luckily, on my back.
       “Just great, Hope! You total sack of poop! You can’t even stand up! He’s running away and here you are, moping around, like a loser. Didn’t I tell you, one of these days your loserness would bite you in the butt! Oh yes I did, but you didn’t listen! You…you… Moron!”  I began hitting the ground, once again, resuming acting like a small child. I felt so useless. I couldn’t walk nor could I run after Angelo. How was I to say he would come back? If I had been him, I would have taken the next train out of this town, out of my life, and out of this mess, right back to the council. If I had been him, I wouldn’t have wasted my time on me. But I wasn’t him, and there was really no way to know how he thought.
       “Fudge...” Pushing up, I slowly sat up, trying to take it easy on my leg. “Where are those damn crutches?” I looked around, eyeing for anything that resembled them but the only thing that looked anywhere near it was a lamp and that wouldn’t have been much help.
       I shouldn’t have left bed, I thought, pinching my forehead. I heard the twist of the doorknob and looked up to see Kevin walk in.  He stopped in his tracks, staring weird down at me.
       “Umm, sis why are you on the ground?” he asked, confused. He held a bat and a ball; he’d just come home from his friend’s house. Yet again, he was filthy.
              “Come here, dirt boy,” I snarled.
              “Why?”
              “Because I said so, so get your butt over here.”
              “No,” he pronounced proudly.  He eyed me, giving me a smug. I was going to kill him.
              Calm down, I instructed myself, taking deep breathes. Now was not the time to get hot-headed.
               “Kevin, where’s dad?” I asked as nice as I could. I tightly clenched the shag carpet beneath me.
              “Mhhhhmm,” he shrugged.
              “Well, can you at least help me?”
              “At a cost,” he grinned. Just great.
               “And that’d be?”
       “Amber has to kiss me,” he stated, trying to stand tall. Without knowing it, I found myself trying to hold down a laugh. Amber would never ever kiss this kid.
              “Kid, I can’t do that.”
              “Fine, then you can wait for dad to get home...oh which will be in 4 hours.”
              Why that little—
              “4 hours!” I complained.
              “Ya, he told me to tell you he’s on a date,” he explained, winking.
              “Fine…” I gave in.
              “What? Speak up,” he stated, attempting to push my buttons.
              Too late, my buttons are already pushed, I thought.
              “I said, fine, I’ll get Amber to kiss you,’ I mumbled.
              “That’s what I though.” He started to laugh.
              “When did you start to become such an a*s?”
       “Since you started hanging out with that creep. I don’t like him. Something’s strange about him” Kevin walked over, dropping his stuff on the way. Holding out his hand, I took it, allowing him to grab my other arm. After a few tries, we had managed to get me back on the couch.
              “For a 10 year old, you’re pretty sharp.”
              “And for a 16 year old, you’re pretty dumb.”
              “Hey watch it,” I warned, nudging his side with my elbow. He began to laugh.
              “So…” Kevin said, trying to fill the awkward silence.
              “Dad didn’t go on a date,” I flatly stated.
              “Nope,” Kevin said, pronouncing the ‘p’ a little too much.
              “I should hit you right,” I commented, staring straight in front of me.
       “I’ll tell dad,” he replied monotonically.  The he turned to me. His face was covered in crusted mud. His cheeks were flushed, and sweat had dried in his bangs, letting them hang down sloppily. “Why did Angelo leave?”
              “What do you mean?”
       “I saw him leave the house. He looked troubled. He was talking to someone on a cell phone.” What? I didn’t think Angelo had been that smart, let alone been able to use a cell phone.
              “You’re spying on us!” I accused him.
              “No, I’m not! I was coming walking home when this happened!”
              “Ya, whatever,” I replied dully.
       “I’m serious. I hid in the bushes when he when he walked past the neighbor’s yard. He said something about ‘it being too hard’”
              “I don’t believe you.” I refused to believe him. Angelo would have never lied to me; would he?
              “I’m not lying, Hope! I think your little friend is holding a big secret!”
              A very big secret, I thought.
              “Okay, so what if he is? You shouldn’t be nosing in other people’s business, Kevin.” I scolded.
              “Ya, I know, but—“
              “You don’t have to explain yourself.”  
       “Hey guy!” Dad called out, as he entered the room, groceries in his hands. I peered over to Kevin, giving him a nasty glare. He chuckled nervously.
              “Hey, dad,” I replied, turning to see him. He nodded in recognition and then headed off to the kitchen.
              “Hi,” Kevin greeted a little too late. Something must have been on his mind.
              “So what’s this for?” Dad asked, peeking through the entry way. He had an amusing smile on his face.
              “What do you mean?”
              “You two—same room,” he laughed.
              “Oh this, haha. Ya, Kevin was just telling me about his baseball game down the street. Weren’t you?”
       “Ya, the baseball game,” he lied. Kevin was good at lying. In fact, he seemed to lie a lot. So, I wasn’t worried about this little problem.
              “How was that, Kev?” Dad asked. He was half distracted. A can had just made its way down on the floor.
              “It was awesome!” was all Kevin could interject.
       Dad wasn’t listening because he then made a request I hoped he wouldn’t make. “Hey Hope, do you think you could watch Kevin for a few days? I have a big convention to attend. It’ll only be a few days, I promise.” Convention…rally…in other words, he would be spending his days in a luxury hotel, sipping cocktails next to a pool, with his coworkers.
              “Sure, dad!” I exclaimed. I couldn’t tell you how much it sucked to say that, but I did and I knew it made dad happy.
       “That’s great, Honey! Amber could help out if she wanted to. And Kevin is old enough to help around the house, so it’d be an easy job.” Wow, dad seemed excited. I was right—luxury hotel.
              “Don’t worry, dad,” Kevin cut in, “I’ll behave. It’ll be fun too, especially with Amber here.” He smirked.
              “I don’t owe you anything!” I whispered at him, hissing.
       “Oh yes you do. I still get that kiss from Amber.” I had a curious itch to wipe away his grin. “If I hadn’t picked you up, you would have laid on the ground until dad came home, and then you’d have to explain why you were on the ground.”
              That’d be easier than getting Amber to kiss you, I thought.
              “Fine, just one kiss; no tongue--just a short peck--you here me!”
              “Sure, sure,’ Kevin answered, waving it off.
              And all I could think of was how the hell I was going to get Amber to go along with this…
              
      
      
      
      

Author's Note

Rough draft