"Damn it!"
Victoria awakes with a start. Something that sounded like glass fell to the floor and shattered very loudly, right outside her door. She listens to the female voice that now joins the swearing male one.
"Good morning to you, too, Charles."
"Shh. Not so loud."
"You think that didn´t wake her up already?" Raven says in a whisper, pointing to the mess on the floor.
"I wanted to bring her brea+++++++kfast."
"I can see that. Charles! You like her!"
"Shut up. She might hear us. No I don´t like her, I´m intrigued…"
"Which is the same thing!"
"No it´s not."
"Yes it is, and you know it."
Victoria listens to them arguing. She can´t help but smile: Charles wanted to bring her breakfast to bed. What a nice thing to do, she thinks.
"He is intrigued by me," She whispers to herself. "Is that a good thing?"
She hasn´t got time to decide whether she likes what she heard because Raven opened the door without knocking and pops her head in.
"Good morning, sunshine!" she says in a sing-song voice.
Charles enters after Raven with closed eyes.
"Is everyone decent? Can I look?"
"It´s alright." The girls laugh.
He opens one eye first and then the other.
"Good morning. Sorry to wake you like that."
"He wanted to bring you breakfast!" Raven announces mockingly.
"Oh! How nice of you! What happened?" Victoria askes like she doesn´t know already, looking at Charles with a smile.
"Well, you find your breakfast on the floor, just outside your room. Raven startled me and I let go of the tray." He admits in shame.
"That´s because he wanted to sneak into your room." Raven whispers in Victoria´s ear so only she could hear her.
"Hey! What are you whispering?!"
"Nothing, nothing. I´ll leave you two to it." Raven jumps up, winks back at Victoria and leaves the room with the door shut behind her.
They are both dumbfounded and just look around the room. After a while Charles starts to feel weird, just standing in her room without saying anything, so he clears his throat.
"Well, since the breakfast didn´t make it to you, would you like to go to the breakfast? I have got leftovers in the kitchen?"
"Sounds like a good idea. Let me get dressed first."
"Oh, oh, sure! I´ll be outside cleaning up the mess."
After a while she opens the door and finds Charles leaning against the opposite wall. He obviously just finished cleaning, the floor is still wet.
"Ready?"
"Yep, let's go."
They walk silently down the hall when Victoria remembers their talk from the prior night.
Make me feel something.
She still doesn´t know if she would at least try it. She doesn´t really believe in his theory that there is more to her. Charles is looking sideways at her, considering whether to try and read her mind again. But he decides better not to, he doesn´t want to make her angry or lose her trust.
When they reach the kitchen they set the table together and have breakfast while talking about trivial things. Just before they finished Raven enters the kitchen. She looks a little disappointed seeing them out of her room but sits down with them anyway. After they cleaned the table and did the dishes Victoria feels like she overstayed her welcome.
"Well, I guess I better go now. Have some things to do, you know."
"You don´t have to. You can stay as long as you may like." Charles tells her.
"No, no. I have to get home."
Charles nods, "I understand."
He and Raven walk her to the door when Raven decides she wants to go with her.
"I am very capable of going home alone, Raven. It´s not even dark." Victoria laughs, but Raven insists on coming with her. Victoria doesn´t mind her company and agrees.
The women walk along the street sharing an umbrella. The rain is heavy and they have to avoid huge puddles every now and then. When they finally reach a bus stop they have to run to get the bus. Out of breath, wet but laughing they sit together.
"So, what do you think of Charles, Vic?"
"Excuse me?"
"Come on! You like him, don´t you?"
"I haven´t thought about it."
"He was lonely for so long. You are good for him."
"Oh, no. Come on now. Don´t be ridiculous. I only know him like… a day?"
"I know. But still."
"You really think so?"
"See? You DO like him!"
"I admit I find him quite attractive. But right now I am far more interested in his knowledge than his looks."
"What do you mean?"
Victoria takes a deep breath.
"He is the only one I´ve ever met who could tell me at least a little bit about who I am. I was abandoned by my own family, for goodness 'sake, bullied by other children because I scared them. For a very long time I was scared of myself, too. Now you two come along, and you are the only people I ever came across who are at least remotely like me. I won´t risk this for a stupid, immature crush."
"You have a crush on him!"
"Did you even listen to a single word I just said?" Victoria laughs.
"No. Not until you said "crush"." Raven laughs, too.
When the bus stops they have to get out in the rain again. They get under the umbrella again and walk into a side-street. A few meters in Victoria turn left and Raven follows her up some steps towards a bedraggled door. They enter and walk up a staircase until they reach the door to Victoria´s flat. The walls in the hall are grey and covered in graffiti.
Victoria´s flat only has one room and a small bathroom. It is very dark for there is only one tiny window. She is a little ashamed for where she lives but Raven can see that she tried to make the most of it: There are some colourful flowers on a small table and a beautiful painting of a rose garden is hanging on the wall. Some pretty cushions decorate the two chairs by the window, and a bowl of fresh fruit sits on what seems to function as a kitchen counter.
"Please, sit down." Victoria offers Raven one of the chairs, "Would you like something to drink?"
"Yes, please." Raven answers while sitting down in one of the chairs.
Victoria comes over with two glasses of very cold water and hands one over to Raven. When Raven looks at the glass in surprise Victoria grins suspiciously.
"You chilled that, didn´t you?" Raven figured out.
Victoria nods and they laugh again.
"It´s amazing. Do you really think you can do that feel thing, too? The one Charles talked about?"
"I haven´t tried it, but I don´t think I can."
"Try it!" Raven rolls up her sleeve eagerly like she is about to donate blood. Holding it out to Victoria she expectantly looks at her.
"I´m not sure…"
"What´s there not to be sure about? Try it. If it doesn´t work you´ll at least know."
Victoria knows she is right. And Raven does, too. She stretches her arm so far towards Victoria she has to sit on the very end of the chair.
"Fine. But please relax. If you fall off the chair you will feel pain not caused by me."
Victoria waits for Raven to lean back into her chair, then gets up to push her own closer to her test object. When she sits back down she reaches for Raven´s wrist and carefully places her hand on it. She can feel her pulse, her heart is racing.
"If you are afraid we don´t have to do this."
"I´m not afraid! I´m excited. Come on, try something."
"Okay, say stop whenever… if ever it is too much for you."
"Okay."
"Close your eyes."
"Okay."
Victoria waits a minute or two until she feels Raven´s pulse slowing down. She then closes her eyes, too, and tries to concentrate. The first thing that pops into her mind are Charles´ words.
Make me cry.
She concentrates on sad moments of her live, which she has many to choose from, and tries to transfer that feeling to Raven. After a while she starts to feel stupid and wants to stop when she suddenly feels something somewhere near her heart.
Like a drop of blood froze over and is now pushing through her veins. Ice cold. She can feel it flowing through her chest into her arm, down to her elbow, past her wrist, leaving a cold trail. When it reaches her hand it feels like it is building up. The next moment Raven´s arm twitches beneath her fingers. The coldness has entered her body and is sending a shiver down her spine. But Raven stays silent and doesn´t pull her arm away or even open her eyes.
Victoria opens her eyes to see how Raven would react to what just happened. She doesn´t feel the cold anymore, so she pulls back her hand. When she looks up into Ravens face her mouth falls open. A tear is running down her cheek.
"Raven?"
Raven opens her eyes. More tears are gathering in the corner of her eyes, spilling and leaving a wet trail down her face.
"Oh god, Raven." Victoria pulls her into her arms.
"I am so sorry. What have I done? Are you mad at me?"
"Are you kidding me?" Raven pulls out of the embrace and looks at Victoria in disbelief.
Victoria feels like crying herself, thinking that she just drove away her only friend.
"That was amazing."
"It was?"
"It felt so cold on my wrist, but then it flooded my whole body and I felt so…so sad. How did you do that?"
"I don´t know. I just thought of something sad and suddenly something cold moved from my heart towards my hand."
"Charles was right. He was right."
"What do I do now?"
"Tell him." Raven pulls out her phone, types something and holds it up to her ear.
Victoria, suddenly realising what Raven is doing tries to stop her.
"Don´t call h…"
"Charles. It´s Raven. Victoria here has something to tell you." Raven then throws the phone into Victoria´s lap. "Tell him. Now."
"He…Hello, Charles?"
"Yes. Victoria. What is it? Are you alright?"