TWO “A pool?” I lift my eyebrows as I stare at the sparkling blue water in some random person’s house. Raph shrugs, his hands still holding the steering wheel, I figured it was for precaution, just in case we’d need to make a run for it. I mean, he is planning to jump in a stranger’s pool. “It’ll be fine,” He tells me as we both sit in the dark inside the car. “Raph, it’s a beautiful pool, but I don’t think you consider it a place to bathe.” I say back, “It’s fine,” He presses, “An old couple lives here, harmless.” “I’ve never done this before.” I tell him, Raph smirks, maybe even smugly, “Well, now you can.” I watch him as he opens his door and climbs over the fence of the house, the pool just sat there, waiting to be violated. I’m waiting for someone to suddenly stop him and arrest him but it never happens. It’s getting late anyway, hardly any people in sight. “Come on,” He mouths as he motioned me to follow after him. Let’s be honest, cold night, invading someone’s pool, I do feel the adrenaline. I open my doors and I am chilled to the bone the second I put my foot on the sidewalk. I leave my shoes and watch as my breath is visible in white puffs of smoke. I see a smile on his face as I follow him out stupidly. He doesn’t shout as he jumps into the pool. I cringe as that splash could be heard by the whole neighborhood. I hop over the fence and feel the little bits of water on my feet on the pool’s tiles. I sit at the edge and wave my feet in the water, the temperature makes me shiver. I stop myself from whining as I let myself slide off the edge of the pool. The cold water encloses me. For a second, I felt like drowning until I resurfaced, meeting Raph’s wet face in front of me. I move my hair to the back of my neck. The coldness strikes me there. “And when did you start doing this?” I ask him but my voice wiggles, making me laugh. It’s so cold, I bet even my hair was shaking. He laughs back, his chin under the blue water. “I don’t know,” He shrugs, “Enough, I guess.” We laugh at each other. I notice a darkish shadow looming in the water beside his arm, and that’s when I figure that it was the dried blood, washing out of his wound. I look at mine and rub my hand on it a little, the dark blood fading into the water like drops of pain dissipating. It’s sick but I found it beautiful. ~~~ “Do you even remember school?” I ask him as we lay together on the tiles, our cold bodies side by side, our feet splashing in the pool, the blood of my waist swimming off into the pool through the cracks of the tiles. “Yeah, I guess.” He shrugs, “I kinda’ miss Math class.” He says, I almost vomited, but that was true though. Raph doesn’t just fight, he’s incredibly smart, you just don’t expect it because he doesn’t wear big round glasses, and that rugged handsome look of his is not a very usual stereotype for nerds. I sigh, breathing through my nose, “I always hated Math.” “Yeah?” He asks, as if he hadn’t noticed that before. I nod twice, “Remember Mrs. Cleveland? I hated her.” Raph chuckles at the memory. “Always humiliating me in front of everyone.” I say, Raph chuckles more. It was all true though, but those days, Raph and I weren’t friends yet. We were only classmates in some subjects. We met thanks to certain events that clued both of us in on what we both really were. I recall this one time at the school’s basketball game; Raph was hit in the face by this guy’s elbow. Hard. His nose and mouth bled of course, all over the place. After a while, he got up and wiped it all off. His cuts closed quickly. He didn’t even need medical attention and was playing again right after. The guy who knocked him in the face was lucky. Since Raph was still able to play, he and his team wasn’t fouled or anything. To anyone else it might have not been a big deal, but I knew exactly what it was. “Do you remember how we met, Raph?” I asked him, “Because I do.” Raph cleared his throat and looks up. He tells the story as I recall them vividly. That day, I had just avoided a vehicle heading straight for me. My freak powers took over all of my thoughts and suddenly, I just found myself on the other side of the vehicle, not a single scratch. No matter how much I tried convincing myself that it was just nothing, that it was just a plain miracle, I still knew that my body had controlled itself when that happened. So that afternoon, I “played around” on the roof of the school. By that, I meant I ran everywhere, jumped everywhere, it seemed like I was already a gymnast without even trying. I had quick reflexes. While my grades were failing, I was breaking things. I guess what I lacked in school was put into my “freak” abilities. Let’s say I was solitary. A lion roaming alone. Don’t get me wrong, being alone is great if you think about it. It’s better than being treated like a freak anywhere else. And all I had to please was myself, no one else. But I ran into Raphael Sinclair with his ripped jeans, broad shoulders and black hair. Apparenty, I hadn’t been the only one using the school roof as my own private thinking place. We stand staring at each other. We were both outcasts, but together, I guess. That was when I asked him about his freak accident regarding his nose and mouth. It seemed like he didn’t even have an accident at all as he stood there with me in the hot sun. And that’s when we started talking about when we discovered, how we discovered. We even tested ourselves, we fought right there in the hot sun, forgetting that we were still on top of the school. Teachers noticed the ruckus, suspended us both for violence. We got to know each other that whole week. But, yeah, it was okay. I beat him on that roof, by the way. I look beside me and at his shoulder to see Raph’s gun wound free of blood and already closing. I lift my top to look at mine and see nothing but the clean and closed slice. The black blood wouldn’t wash out of my top though. Raph’s wound? He was hired by this old man who had had enough of these pesky teens trashing his backyard, vandalizing the face of his house, turning the trash bins over, leaving bottles on his yard. Well, Raph got rid of two of them, the other had a gun. And well, there was the end result. When you think hard about it, we are blessed. But it makes me wonder sometimes, what if we were massacred. I know, I know, just thinking, just a wandering thought. If our bodies were sliced up, would we still be alive? Now I don’t think I’d want that. More reasons other than just because it’s gross. But, what if . . . Would our freak powers be that . . . freakish? “I have nothing to wear.” I tell him after the huge cloud of silence drops. I don’t go to the club to dance but I should at least look presentable to sell myself. “I know where we could get you something.” He says. I already feel worried about that. ~~~ The same house only we’re violating it even more. He broke the glass of one window from the poolside wall of the house. At this point, I don’t know how that old couple still isn’t awake. “Are you sure about this?” I whisper, He didn’t respond, but most of the time, that means he’s sure. I feel around to find my way in the dark. I caught his arm and he led me through. I felt his hand take mine. I stumble and kick things around as I followed his lead, and soon enough the lights were turned on. I find myself in front of a set of old wooden stairs. Yep, this belongs to an old couple’s home alright. Looks old, smells old, it’s colored old. Raph was already far up the steps, his feet leaving damp marks on the wood. “Where’re you going?!” I hissed at him. “Just . . . Just follow me.” He says, his eyes evade mine as he directs them at the top of the steps. Have I ever told you that Raph’s not so good at being quiet? That’s because he doesn’t try to be because a lot of the time he isn’t scared. He’s got this strong and silent, come what may, attitude to him. I’m attracted to it. “Here,” He points to a door in the old hall. He seems to know more about this house than I originally thought. “Have you been here before?” I ask him just before I get into the room. “Shhh,” He puts his finger over his lip. He’s not telling me something. He’s told me a lot of things. But the way he knows the way around this house, I doubt it was just instincts. The room was lit by the timid glow of the night outside. The wood floors were blue until Raph switched the light on in the room. He gently closed the door. The room had an eerie feel to it because of how old it looked. But Raph seems to know what he’s doing. I’m gonna leave it to him to handle if we do get caught. He’s Raph. He always knows what to do. Without a word, he walks to the large cabinet in the corner, the only thing inside the empty room. Dust flies out as he opens it. He grabbed a hanger and closed it, covering his nose with an arm. “Here you go,” He says with a little cough. He stands in front of me, watching, waiting of what I’ll think of it. From under the dusty plastic covering, I think I saw black dress. “Wow,” I forced myself to say, I don’t know if I’ll be thankful or regretful. I pick out my clothes for myself obviously, but since I don’t have that many, maybe I shouldn’t hesitate to try this one. ~~~ Raph was waiting outside in the hall, standing guard. But I stand here, in front of the large mirror on the face of the dusty cabinet. I guess I couldn’t believe my eyes. You could say it wasn’t me. The girl I saw with her combed out hair and her body in a black apple-bottom dress. She looked like a girl who was normal. Beautiful. Innocent. She’s killed no one. No blood on her hands. It’s like I entered a different universe as I stood in front of myself. But then the girl standing in the mirror is temporary. I had to remind myself that this beautiful, normal looking girl, wasn’t me. She’s too beautiful to be me. And I’m just . . . a freak. I swallowed as I held the door knob. I’m . . . worried. What would Raph say about how I looked? I mean, he was the one who picked out the dress but . . . still. I still shook when I thought about what he’d think. Well, I had to get it over with. After all, Raph has been . . . there at times that I looked my worst. Today was just one of them. I see his back turn around as the door creaked open. I shyly step out in front of him, biting my lip. I don’t know why I’m suddenly acting like this. Like a . . . girl. Worried about what people thought about what I wore. It’s such a burden. I’d rather go into that club buck naked. But I doubt that would get me any positive outcomes. Raph’s mouth did a half smile. Was that a good thing? What’s more embarrassing, I explode in this wide smile, while he’s so calm and stiff that he just walked past me. Well, business is business. We sure didn’t come here to get me dressed for a date or anything. Raph and I, we aren’t capable of that. Of . . . romance. I mean, what would he like about me? We’ve known each other for long enough to just be . . . friends. And we’ve always been. Best friends in fact.
Posted on: Sat, 10 Aug 2013 14:25:15 +0000
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