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Surprise!
:D
Before we get started, I want to thank everyone for the reviews, you have no idea how much they mean to me, and they motivate me to continue the story. If it weren't for you guys, I wouldn't have gotten to chapter 12.
Thank you guys soooo much!
Shaelyn's POV
I have no idea what the hand thing was about. Part of me keeps forgetting how dangerous it is for me to be around this boy, but I don't think I've had this much fun in a long time, so it's been easy to push unsettling things away. But of course, I didn't have the luxury of forgetting something like this. Only bad things could come of that, and I wasn't about to let that happen.
As Piper and I walked towards the bridge, with Piper going on about how cool it was that I had a map to a small area of the Farside, I made a mental note that I would have to make a list of things I could not allow myself to do. I wouldn't like it, but it was something that had to be done.
"Shaelyn?" I snapped out of my thoughts at the sound of my actual name.
"Don't say that too loud!" I hissed. Piper rolled her eyes at this, but didn't say anything about it.
"You just looked like you were spacing out. You okay?" I nodded, a little too quickly. She was harder to lie to, mostly because she payed much closer attention. I had already told her a lot today, and despite how well we hit it off, I wasn't willing to tell her anymore.
After what seemed like an hour, we got to the bridge. I hadn't noticed that Aerrow had been so close behind us until he popped up alongside us at the door. For a split second, I wondered if he knew about my name, but decided to let it go. I was starting to care a lot less about it. And Piper had a point. The name 'Shubbz' was...pretty weird.
"Uh, Shubbz?" Great, spacing out again. I looked up to see Aerrow staring at me as if expecting something. I had to admit, he was easy on the eyes. I had always had a weakness for people with lighter eyes to, so of course I would find myself ogling him from time to time. It was all I would let myself do. That hand touch, or whatever you could call it, was dangerous territory that I wasn't going to let myself step in. No matter how much I wanted to.
"Shubbz!" You've gotta be kidding me.
"Sorry. Kind of...tired." I said awkwardly as I realized we had been standing in the bridge for about a minute now, with everyone staring at me. Radarr was sitting over at the table playing some weird card game with Finn, while Junko leaned over them as if spectating. Stork still had his back turned, his hands gripping the wheel. Piper only smiled though.
"It's okay. I'm good with maps, so you can go take a nap until we get there. That sound okay?" That sounded more than okay to me.
"Sure, I just need to mark where this place is." Pulling out the folded map from my pocket, I unfolded it and set it flat down on the table next to Radarr and Finn, who had stopped their card game to look at the map.
"Alright." I pointed to a spot on the map between two pictures of hills, each sliced into different colors, which represented the different altitudes on them."These two hills are important. I found that the only safe was through here. I know it's a small fit, but trust me. The ways around the mountain are filled with those flying creatures that knocked me around earlier." I could see the wallop cringe at this, but I continued, trailing my finger along the right path. "This is the best path to take, since it seems to repel those creatures. Don't know why, but it does." Right at this time, Piper came out with a pen, which I took and put an 'X' on another multicolored hill. "That, is where you want to go."
I looked up to see Stork, his face about an inch away from the map, his face set in a cold glare. "How do we know you're not leading us into a trap, huh?" He raised an eyebrow at me accusingly. His suspicion didn't phase me though.
"I guess you don't. You'll just have to trust me on this. Or you can starve to death. Your call." His eyes narrowed even more, but instead of a retort, he slinkered back to the wheel, grumbling. (A/N, my spell check doesn't think slinker is a word, but I'll use it anyways.)
"Don't mind Stork. He's a little...paranoid." Aerrow said this as he leaned on the table, smiling. I only shrugged. I didn't exactly care who liked me on this ship. I seemed to gain the approval of Piper, Radarr, and Aerrow, so I was fine with that. I don't think Finn minded me that much either.
"Well, now that we've got the map, you can go rest for a little while. You look like you need it." Piper said as she rolled the map up. I couldn't help but look into one of the many reflective surfaces of the bridge to see that I had dark circles under my eyes that made me look like a raccoon. I definitely looked like I needed it. I was about to leave when Aerrow's voice stopped me.
"Maybe you should find a better place to sleep instead of the floor in the Hanger bay?" He looked over at Piper with a raised eyebrow, hinting at something. Piper seemed to get it.
"You can always sleep in my room." She didn't seem to mind the idea, in fact she looked excited, like a girl about to have a sleepover. I would have said yes, but the memory of Aerrow finding me screaming my head off made that yes out of the question. I must have made a face, because Aerrow's stare hardened. I looked back at Piper, who was still smiling, anxiously waiting for me to say yes. The two of them basically had me cornered. Well that, and the fact that I would much rather sleep on a carpeted floor than a hard steel one.
"I guess I cou-" Piper locked me into a hug, cutting my sentence off, while squealing in delight. It was like she had never had a girl stay over before. Thankfully, she let go before I lost my patience. I wasn't a fan of hugs. I could see Finn sitting over at the table, glaring in annoyance at Piper.
"That;s great! Oh my gosh, this will be so much fun, I know it!"
"Uhh, Piper?" Stork called from the helm, looking more irritated than usual.
"Oh, sorry! I almost forgot." She turned to me again, suddenly very calm. "Just go rest for now, and I'll come get you when we arrive." With another giggle, she turned and joined Stork by the helm.
"I'll just go get the stuff from the Hangar." I said, eager to leave the room and get some peace and quiet. Aerrow only put his hand on my shoulder, stopping me.
"I'll help." Uh, no you wont. I didn't need help carrying a few pillows and a blanket.
"It's fine, I can do-"
"I'll help." he said again, more forcefully. I got the feeling he wanted to have a talk with me. Oh joy.
As we both left, I could hear Finn yelling at Radarr for cheating.
Aerrow's POV
The walk to the hanger bay was painfully silent. I had so many things I wanted to ask her, but right as we walked through those doors, my mind went blank. I realized that she kept her distance from me, more than she usually would. I could tell something was off, but how to bring it up? She seemed pretty intent on keeping her secrets, much to my dismay. As I glanced over at her, I remembered hearing something from Piper earlier.
"So, Shaelyn?" She cringed.
"Great. You heard that."
"I don't know why you care. I don't see anything wrong with that name." Personally, I thought that name suited her much better than 'Shubbz' did.
"I just don't like it."
Well that conversation ended quickly. I decided to try a more direct approach.
"Why do you keep so many secrets?" Okay, that came out bad.
"Why not? You don't need to know every detail about my life."
"Secrets about your name? Where you're from? Your nightmares?" I added in the last quietly, but she heard. She turned her head away from me, making it obvious she didn't want to talk.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing."
"Bullshit." She looked back at me, angry, but surprised.
"Fine. I've got some issues at the moment. Doesn't mean you need to know about them." As she snapped this at me, I could see how exhausted she was. She was too tired to keep up her casual attitude, but not tired enough to give answers. She looked ready to collapse, but she walked even faster to the hangar, wanting to keep a large amount of space between us. I was starting to get irritated at the behavior.
The rest of the walk was silent. Even as we got the Hangar, it was silent. She grabbed the blanket while I picked both pillows up and waited for her by the door. As she walked over, I glanced over at my skimmer, which Shaelyn had put back together yesterday. I was supposed to put more crystals in the fuel tanks, but I had forgotten to do so with all that was going on. I would have let it wait, except we were running out of them, and Finn had picked up a habit of using them non-stop to power up the stereos for his guitar.
"Damnit." I said out loud. Shaelyn only raised an eyebrow and kept walking. "I have to go put some crystals in my engine. Are you okay to-"
"I'm fine."
Okay then...
Shaelyn's POV
Finally. I was able to get away from him. I was even more aware of how tired I was, and his questions did not make me feel better. He still wondered about my nightmare last night, and I should have expected him to, but a huge part of me was hoping he would have let that go. But of course not. He had to interrogate me. I don't know why I keep secrets, I just do. I didn't feel like explaining my personality or my life's story to him, and I never will.
I got to Pipers room just in time, because thinking about what had happened just made me angry. I didn't mean to get defensive about it, but I did, and now he had even more reason to suspect things.
I couldn't stay with these people. I thought I could stay with them a long time, but I now knew that it wouldn't happen. If I wanted to keep my secrets, I would have to leave them as soon as we found Cyclonis.
As I dropped the blanket onto the floor, I saw a pad of paper and a pencil on her desk. Grabbing both, I sat down on the floor and wrote the list.
Aerrow's POV
It was a good idea to get the crystals when I did. There was just enough to fuel up my Skimmer. I was hoping that the place we were going to would have some crystals as well, although I doubted it. Still, it was good to hope.
After fueling up my Skimmer, I picked up the pillows from where I left them, and continued on to Pipers room. I was still wondering if I should try and get some answers again, but that didn't go at all like I had hoped. The only thing I found out about her today was her name, and that was because I heard Piper say it. I had a feeling that I wasn't going to get anything from this girl, and the thought aggravated me. I didn't like that I knew so little about this girl. It made it harder to trust her, and I hated being suspicious of people. It looked like her and Piper got to know each other really well, so why wasn't she talking to me? Why had she all of a sudden started avoiding me?
These thoughts didn't go away as I approached her door. Though when the door opened, I realized I wouldn't be able to ask her anymore questions now.
Once again, she had fallen asleep before I got back. I was fine with that though. I still didn't have answers, but I didn't expect her to stay awake that much longer. She looked half asleep on the walk to the hangar bay anyways.
The blanket was under her, meaning that she hadn't meant to fall asleep yet. Kneeling down next to her, I picked up her head again, less cautiously this time, because I knew now that she was a very deep sleeper. I grabbed one pillow and slipped it under her head, before slowly letting it rest on the pillow. I left the other one next to her, again just in case she wanted another one. I decided she didn't need the blanket as badly, since Pipers room was much warmer than the hangar bay. I was just about to stand up again when I noticed she held a crumpled paper in the hand next to her face. A pencil lay on the the blanket next to her, so I assumed she fell asleep while writing something.
Normally, I would leave it alone, but my curiosity was too much for me to ignore. Trying to be as silent as possible, I lifted the paper from her hand, and slowly unfolded it. It was a list.
Things I cannot let myself do:
-Get too close with ANYONE.
-Tell anymore secrets.
-Forget.
-Be near Aerrow. At all.
I cannot let my nightmares come true. I can't let him be hurt.
I dropped the paper from my hands.
WOOH FOR CLIFFHANGERS. And I'm gonna be doing the pairing, although the story isn't going to focus too much on it. It will be a subtle pairing, mostly because I don't like sappy romantic stuff. xD
Okay. That's it. ._.
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