Chapter XIV: A Normal Life?
The landspeeder cruised along a near empty street of Gevest as its driver frantically checked the chrono in front of him. The red vehicle slightly skidded in mid-air as it's nervous driver took a right turn a little too fast. The skid would have probably caused a normal driver to spin out of control, but the occupant of this vehicle wasn't normal. His quick reflexes managed to right the car onto its correct course on the expressway.
"I can't believe I'm running late! Of all the days for a major crash on the way to Gevest… Makes me wish I had an airspeeder instead."
Jorec Merridon slowed his landspeeder down and prepared to turn as he reached his exit, hoping that his haste to make it in time would actually pay off. He quickly checked the device on the dashboard of his landspeeder as his destination approached too slowly for his liking. He nervously checked the chrono again, and let out a curse when he realized that his speedy efforts were in vain. Even though he had managed to get a hold of Lia when he had encountered the wreck on the way into Gevest, he had a feeling that showing up late to a first date was not a good way to start a potential relationship.
A row of apartment buildings finally alerted Jorec to his impending arrival, and Jorec was amazed at them as they raised twelve stories above the ground. To Jorec, this was one of the tallest buildings meant for habitation he had seen since Coruscant. He parked his vehicle in one of the few empty parking spaces in the parking garage adjacent to the building, and silently cursed his luck as he was forced to park near the very top of the garage.
"I have a feeling she's not going to be happy," Jorec said as he hastily walked to the lift. "Could this get any worse?"
It's worse, Jorec thought as he stared at the interior of the first floor hallway. It's worse because I have definitely seen this layout somewhere before. Jorec reached the lift and hesitated as the door opened, remembering the ominous dreams of his life being in danger in a hallway extremely similar to this one.
He started to turn around and head back out of the door, head back out of the door and never return to this place. He took a step towards the entrance of the building and stopped.
Jorec immediately thought about how ridiculous he looked as he pondered events of a possible future in the middle of a hallway and in front of a closing elevator. Despite them being events of a possible future, Jorec thought, they still should be heeded.
"I'm just paranoid," Jorec said under his breath as he turned around to quickly stop the elevator's door from closing. "It's just that I've never really willingly trusted another person before."
He entered the elevator and watched as the doors closed around his last chance to return to a life of paranoia and loneliness. Despite of the visions of danger he had had previously, Jorec felt surprisingly good about his decision.
The elevator doors opened up to the second floor a few seconds later and Jorec quickly walked into the hallway. He steadily moved throughout the hallway until he reached Apartment 249. He hesitantly raised his hand and chimed the doorbell, hoping once again that he wouldn't make a fool out of himself somehow and that she wasn't that mad about him being late. A few seconds passed by, making Jorec even more nervous, before the door finally opened revealing a nicely dressed Lia Garent.
Jorec lowered his head as head as he saw the look of displeasure on her face. "I'm sorry I'm late, Lia. Traffic on the way over here, and the parking situation here."
"Let's just go," Lia said as she closed her apartment door and walked out into the hallway.
From her tone of voice, Jorec had a feeling that he didn't make that much of an impression on his first date. He mentally cursed himself as he led her to the elevator. If the way this date started was going to be any indication of the rest of it, Jorec had a bad feeling about the rest of the day.
"So, have you been on Selvernos long?" Lia asked as she cut the meat on her plate into an edible size.
Jorec paused slightly, quickly remembering the cover story he had invented for himself several years previously. The perfect mix of facts and half-truths that blended into a story that was almost never a full truth, and never was a complete lie.
"Not really," Jorec said after taking a drink of water from the glass in front of him. "My family moved here from Coruscant when I was about 13."
Lia suppressed a laugh after hearing this. "What made them want to move out of the core and into the Outer Rim?"
"The Clone Wars mainly. After a droid starfighter crashed into our house, they thought it really wasn't safe on the planet anymore." Jorec said.
"So, they moved onto a planet with a battle raging on it?" Lia asked, thinking of the possible insanity Jorec's parents must have been going through to go from one hotspot to another.
Jorec chuckled as he mentally cursed himself for this plothole in his cover story. "Nobody said they had good choices in places to live!"
"I'd agree with that. So, you don't like Selvernos?"
Jorec shook his head at her question. "It's not that, it just wasn't a very good place to live at the time. Thankfully, Mt. Sentiss was far removed from the actual battle itself. What about you, have you lived on Selvernos long?"
"All my life," Lia said before eating a piece of the meat. "Lived in Gevest my whole life, too."
"And attended the University here?"
Lia nodded. "Yeah, graduated a little over a year ago. Only reason I'm working in Kraat's store is that there are no jobs currently available in my field at the moment. And there hasn't been for about two years! Can you imagine spending most of your life training for something, and having the skills you learned be useless?"
That sounds very familiar, Jorec thought as he swallowed some type of green vegetable from the Mid-Rim. "Yeah, I think I can emphasize with that."
Lia continued talking for a few seconds before abruptly stopping. "I'm sorry, I'm rambling."
"No, no, no. It's OK. I'm not usually a very talkative person anyway," Jorec replied.
"Well, you do work for the hunting tourism company… What's that like?" Lia asked as she tried to steer the conversation Jorec's way.
"It's interesting to say the least," Jorec replied after taking another drink of water. "A few days ago, one of the guests wandered off without her beacon."
"What happened to her?"
"She ended being all right, it just took about four hours for me to find her. It's an OK job with an OK paycheck."
"What did your parents think about it when you entered? I think you mentioned that you started that job when you were kind of young."
"It was fine for my mother," Jorec said. He felt slightly uncomfortable having to bring up the next half-truth that was coming up, despite it being partially true it still felt like he was lying to her about his past. It was also necessary, he thought, he needed some reason to explain the emotional scars he still had when they would eventually come up. "My father was murdered soon after we moved here."
A look of concern crossed over Lia's face. "I'm sorry, Jorec. I didn't know."
"It's OK, I just don't like to talk about it much."
The sun was setting behind the distant skyline of Gevest, and one of Selvernos' moons was faintly showing in the eastern sky as Jorec's landspeeder stopped in front of the apartment building. Jorec watched as Lia opened the door of the speeder and stepped outside.
"So, you'll call me in about a week?" Lia asked as she reached to shut the door.
"A little earlier, I have a group I have to lead through the forest," Jorec replied. "I really enjoyed talking to you tonight."
"So did I, see you soon." Lia shut the door on the landspeeder with a smile and walked into the building. Jorec waited until she entered the building safely before driving off.
As he accelerated his landspeeder onto the highway back to his home near Mt. Sentiss, Jorec had to think about his first date. Despite the bad beginning with him running late and the severe déjà vu of entering the apartment complex, it seemed that the rest of the date moved pretty smoothly.
I wish I didn't have to lie to her, Jorec thought as he pulled into the parking lot near his apartment about fifteen minutes later. All that stuff about my true past, I wish she didn't have to hear half-truths and certain points of view. If we do start a nice relationship, I would eventually have to tell her the real truth. How would she react? How would I react if someone I cared about revealed that most of what they told me wasn't really true? I swear, sometimes I still wish I wasn't born Force-sensitive…