Disclaimer: So my birthday is coming up. If I wish hard enough, do you think I'll finally own Darkest Powers? …Yeah, I didn't either :p
Thanks to anyone who's reading and to anyone reviewing-it's encouraging.
Walk to Hell-I mean Andrew's
SPOV
"Tori!" I shouted, pounding on the bathroom door. "You can only do so much in a public bathroom! The bus is going to leave if you don't hurry your ass up! God, you're so-" I was cut off as the door suddenly flew open, smacking me in the head to reveal a smirking Tori.
"Finally," I muttered.
"What?" she demanded. "Have you finally realized that you need my help? Well, too bad. You made it perfectly clear that you didn't want before so now you have to be a big boy and deal with the consequences of your actions."
She was still angry and her eyes were red, not as if she had been crying, but as if she had rubbed them frequently in the past five minutes. I wanted to be big about this. I really did. I wanted to be able to look past the front Tori put up and acknowledge that she was the way she was for a reason. But she made that so damn hard. Choosing to go down that path, I said instead, "Like I said. The bus is going to leave if you-" my voice trailed off as I saw her eyes widen in what could only be described as panic. I spun around just in time to see the bus pulling out of the parking lot and back onto the road.
My eyes were still fixated on the spot where the bus had been when Tori shouldered past me-hard-and said accusingly, "This is all your fault."
I took off after her and stepped in front of her, cutting her off. It was odd; I wasn't that tall-only 5'7-but I was still taller than most girls. Tori, however was my height, almost exactly, and we seem to be built quite similarly as well. I did my best to stand my ground under the circumstances.
"My fault? How is this my fault? You're the one who disappeared into the bathroom doing God knows what. If you had gone before instead of bothering me, we'd be on that bus and not stranded."
"Ha," she barked, "God Simon, when will you learn to take responsibility? This is your fault. If you had been big enough to admit that you needed help as opposed to getting all defensive and macho, you wouldn't have spent fifteen minutes unproductively and we'd be on that bus."
I didn't want it. I fought against it. But, in retrospect, she had a point.
"Simon," Tori shouted, walking into the forest that lined the truck stop we were currently at. I swore under my breath, my concentration broken, the chance of the locating spell working disappearing like Chloe and Derek.
I sighed and stopped pacing. "What do you want?"
Ignoring the question, she said, "Have you made any progress?"
As dignifiedly as possible I replied, "Not really. I thought I had something a couple of minutes ago, but then-"
She cut off my rambling, "I could help."
"What?"
"I. Could. Help." She said slowly, clearly enunciating every word. I rolled my eyes and she narrowed hers.
"I heard you the first time. I don't think you could help, though. You don't know the incantation and frankly, you've known about your powers for what? A week? They're probably unreliable. I've been practicing this spell for months and it's still tricky and I'm more experienced than you."
At first, she looked outraged, like my words had somehow offended her. She opened her mouth to say something, but decided against it at the last minute, deciding to stay silent-a first and probably a last. Her expression took on a calculating look before unveiling a hint of indecision, as if she was unsure about something.
She took a deep breath and said, "Look Simon, I'm not going to beat around the bush. I've seen what you can do. I know what I can do. I could help. Trust me. Just teach me the spell. We'll never know until we try and since you're obviously not making any progress, it would only be beneficial if you had a second person helping out."
What she was saying was reasonable. That much I could admit. But, right now, it didn't matter. I didn't know if it was because she had referred to us as a we and it was undeniable that we were, for the moment, just that, or if it was because she had tacitly implied that I wasn't the greatest spellcaster, but I just couldn't take her any longer.
"Tori, you won't be able to help. And you're not doing anything by standing here, wasting my time and breaking my concentration." I snapped.
Something flashed in her eyes, a distant memory, before she pushed it down. I was agitated and something happened: I gave her a small mental shove. No incantation, purely induced by adrenaline or pure mind power. She stumbled back and her eyes flashed. Next thing I knew, I was flying through the air and landed solidly on the ground. Her fists were clenching and unclenching rhythmically and her fingers were glowing dangerously.
"What the hell?" I roared, partly in anger and indignation and partly in fear. She was a witch, not a spellcaster. Witches do binding, we do knock-backs. She should not be able to do what she just did.
"Watch it, Simon," she warned, her voice low.
"Or what? Are you going to bound and gag me next?" Her eyes widened and without another word she spun around and walked to the bathroom, leaving me to feel like a failure and an asshole.
"What are we going to do now?" she demanded.
"We'll just buy two more tickets and wait for the next bus." She looked as if she was seriously questioning my intelligence.
"Was there a money tree in that forest that I don't know about?"
"What's your point?"
"My point is that we need to think this through. Like I said before, our resources aren't unlimited. Who knows if we'll even find your friend and if we do, we don't know if he'd be willing to help us," I was about to protest when she held up her hand. "We don't know how much longer we'll be on the run and we still have Chloe and Dog Boy to think about. We need to be smart about how we spend our money."
I couldn't believe that she was actually thinking about someone other than herself, but she misinterpreted my look and snapped, "I'm not stupid."
I rolled my eyes. "I never said you were."
"Good."
"Fine."
"Way to be a big boy."
And we were back at square one. I couldn't seem to help but always want to strangle Tori.
I crossed my arms and said, "So what's the plan?"
"Seeing as how you made us miss the bus, why don't you think of that?"
I dug my nails into my palms. "We don't have a lot of money to spend and we don't have any other means of transportation."
"Evidently."
"I guess we have to walk," I concluded, rubbing the sudden onslaught of tension out of my neck as I thought of walking all the way to Andrew's. With Tori.
"Of course," she muttered. She brushed past me and walked into the mini mart. I followed and we silently picked out what we needed to refuel. Right before reaching the cash, she grabbed a map of New York from a nearby stand.
As the guy behind the counter was ringing up her things and staring at her boobs, she opened the map and quickly scanned it.
"How long will it take for us to walk here?" she asked, pointing to a spot that I guessed was near Andrew's house.
"About two and a half, three hours. But why walk? If you wait around for a couple of hours, I could take you there," he drawled.
I wanted to vomit for multiple reasons. First, he was so pedophilic. And second, why would he be hitting on Tori? If he had been younger-significantly younger-I would have warned him that that was a road he did not want to go down.
"In your dreams, pervert." She retorted, grabbing her bag and marching out of the store. I quickly paid for my stuff and hurried out after her.
TPOV
"You like Oreos and peanut butter?" Simon asked disbelievingly, as he saw me reach into my bag and pull out the mini container of peanut butter I had bought. People thought it was weird, I knew that, but I was getting tired of the sound of Simon's voice. I was tired of this misadventure in general, but Simon was here and so he would be the target.
"Is that a problem?"
His eyebrows scrunched together in a rather cute way, but I quickly pushed that thought aside. Yes, Simon was attractive. But that didn't matter. There were a lot of attractive people in the world. And a lot of people with the same qualities he has. He's just not the person I'd look for them in anymore. I mean, I have self-respect, if nothing else. What kind of young woman would I be if I continued to pine after a guy who made his disinterest in and dislike of me frequently known? Plus, Simon was kind of… young, I guess, would be the right word. It just took me to be off the meds to realize it.
"I love peanut butter and Oreos." He said, his tone implying that he couldn't believe we had something in common and that, because we did, I wasn't supposed to like it anymore.
I ignored him, choosing instead to enjoy my snack, the one guilty pleasure I allowed myself.
Every few seconds, he shot glances at me.
"What?" I finally demanded, exasperated.
"Aren't you going to offer me one?"
"Gee Simon, let me think. No? Do you think I want you to go into a diabetic coma?"
"Listen Mom, I don't want that either. It's all about moderation. I know what I can and can't have. And I can have a cookie." He held my gaze for a few moments before I relented and passed the bag over to him. It wouldn't be my fault if his blood sugar went skyrocketing. I tried to warn him. He took three cookies out of the bag and shushed me when I tried to protest.
"Derek never lets me have these. Please let me enjoy them in peace." He said with his eyes closed. I rolled mine and sighed. When he was done chewing, I asked him what I thought was funny but I knew would just bother him.
"Don't you find the irony comical?"
"What irony?" he asked hesitantly.
"The fact that Dog Boy has you on such a short leach?"
"Tori!" he exclaimed.
Using the fact that he was at a loss of words-for once-I snatched my bag away from him and continued on the way.
R&R :)
