CHAPTER THREE: I Did?
After dropping Camilla back at her apartment, Tahno drove around for a while in his Sato Truck. He kept smiling to himself, replaying the conversation he and Camilla had just had in his mind.
"What was that back at the restaurant?" Tahno began.
"What do you mean?" Camilla questioned, acting oblivious.
"Oh, you know…when you quoted a special someone…verbatim."
She smiled. "Oh, THAT. Well, it was a good line! Why not use it?"
"Yeah, it was, wasn't it?" He sighed in content. "I'm a genius."
"Pfft!" She scoffed. "Now YOU'RE the delusional one!"
And all was well with the world as their laughter blended together in his truck. Or, at least… so he thought. He was stuck in the tar pit between cruel reality and La-La-Land at the moment.
Tahno always took a cruise in the raggedy metal heap when there was a lot on his mind. He'd make multiple stops too; the gas station for snacks, the park because it was calming. But no other place seemed to bring him back to Earth more than his favorite pond, which formed next to Yue Bay. Whenever it would rain heavily, Yue Bay would over flow a bit and the excess water would pour into a huge muddy ditch. The water in it would never evaporate completely before the next rain, so Tahno could always come and find refuge there year-round. It was actually more like a swamp, what with seaweed and moss coating the surface of the disease green water, but to Tahno, it was perfect. A dreamland. But even he would admit that it looked best at nighttime, where the stars and night sky reflected its true beauty.
He'd loved that pond for as long as he could remember. He'd gone there as a child; playing in the water, bending it into muddy little spheres that he would launch at his unsuspecting parents, angering them. He'd even come there before every probending match to simply relax. But of course that was no longer necessary. He sighed as he plopped down on the plush grass surrounding the body of water, but now, he scowled at the millions of glittering sparkles of light dancing on the surface. His large, thin hands cupped his face, completing the angry child look.
"So Pondy,' he uttered. "What do I do now? What do I have left? I'm different now you see; the last time I was here I had my bending, a solid job. I had a life. But now what? I've got no ego, no motivation, I'm about to lose my loft since the money's not coming in fast enough. I've got nothing!" He whimpered as tears started to build up in his eyes. I'm pathetic. Look at me. He grabbed the grass beside him with both hands, ripping and tearing it as his tears started to fall. "That low-life bastard didn't just take away my bending; he took away my whole damn life! I may as well be dead."
"No, no, Camilla wouldn't like to see me like this…" He fell back on the grass and closed his eyes, squeezing out the last of his tears. They left warm trails of water down the sides of his face. It was almost comforting to him. He felt the need to sleep weighing heavily on his body, but he was too tired to walk back to his truck.
Camilla fed Lucy, threw herself down on her bed, and smashed her face into a pillow. She felt something hard underneath her head. "Oh yeah, my journaaaaal." She yawned. She rubbed her eyes while opening the book, and grabbed a pen.
Journal Entry #13
Remember that total stranger I was talking about? Well, he's my boss now and he's AMAZING! His name is Tahno (yes, from the Wolfbats) and he's probably the nicest guy I've ever met. He's just great. But, he's broken. (Like, mentally.) I feel like I could fix him, if he'd let me, but… that's just wishful thinking I guess. *sigh* Did I mention that he's hot? Beautiful, even. He's just got these amazing eyes that- I'm getting ahead of myself. *ahem* Thank Spirits it's Friday, but he makes me look forward to going to work.
"What a schizophrenic thing to write." Camilla scoffed, reading over it.
She sat the journal on her nightstand next to the fishbowl, and peered up at the fish through sleepy eyes. "Don't look at me like that Lucy…" She switched off her lamp and fell into a deep, coma-like sleep.
Tahno awoke the next morning to a sharp crick in his neck. He hissed at the pain. Looking around stiffly, he quickly realized that he must have fallen asleep on the ground. He got up and started to massage hit neck muscles, but as he suspected, his efforts were futile.
"Ah, it hurts…" He trudged his way back to his truck, and found that it wasn't there.
"Wha—Where's my truck!? What the hell happened to my truck?" He swiveled around until he spotted it. It had rolled all the way down the hill until it hit a tree at the foot of the sidewalk.
"Damn it! I must've forgotten to put it in park." He kicked at the ground and ran to it, surveying the damage. There was none. "What? How?" He discovered a sticky note on the hood. He snatched it up and read:
"I think this is your truck so I… fixed it up!
-Camilla"
"Camilla?" He started to laugh. "What an angel! This is so great; I got to go thank her." He climbed into his truck and turned on the ignition. He carefully reversed the car while checking his side view mirror. Once he was back on the road, he turned the radio to the highest volume it could reach. The raven-haired teen started to sing along.
"It will bring you to your, SHA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA KNEEEEES, KNEEEEES! I wanna watch you bleed!" The song had never sounded so awesome to him.
Camilla awoke to a mish-mosh of noises. There was voracious 'Guns & Roses' music so loud it shook her entire room, followed by merciless horn honking and shouting.
"Camilla wake up! Wake up! C'mon wake uuuup!" Who else could it be? She thought.
She crawled out of bed and opened her window.
"WHAT!" She shouted through gritted teeth.
"I found your note! Thanks!" He waved it around like a flag.
"My…note?" Camilla's glare turned into a look of confusion as she remembered little fragments of a whole picture. Not believing that she did this again after all of these years.
"You OK?" Tahno asked.
"Uhh…I…don't know. This… I can't believe this."
What is she talking about? Tahno thought.