LXXX
After watching a movie together, Eleven accompanies Mike to the threshold.
"Mike… Thank you. Sorry if… If you felt uncomfortable…"
The boy shrugs and leans in to give her a chaste kiss; Eleven closes her eyes and kisses him back.
"Don't worry about it. I was expecting something like that." She scowls at his words. "Okay, maybe not the talk about demons and all that," he admits with a sigh, "but I did expect him to try to intimidate me or something.
"Did he… manage to?" Eleven asks half-jokingly.
Mike smiles. "Not enough to keep me away from you."
That's good, Eleven doesn't say out loud, but instead lifts her face and presses her lips against Mike's.
The door opens with such force that it ends up slamming against the wall.
"Oh, so Mike has already left?" Henry asks without even glancing at Eleven, focused as he is on the spider that walks on his hand while he remains seated on a cushion.
"You… You—"
The man suppresses a sigh and returns the arachnid to its jar before turning to look at her. "Me what?"
"Why are you like this?" Eleven questions, and Henry then notices the red spots on her cheeks and her fists clenched at the sides of her body. "Why is it so difficult for you to be… to be… I don't know, decent?"
"Hm. I'm of the opinion that 'decent' is just another way of saying 'mediocre'."
Eleven watches him open-mouthed. "Henry—!"
"Before you continue," he interrupts her as he stands up, "I want to make it clear to you that just because I accept you having friends or… boyfriends, or whatever, doesn't mean that I have to like them, or they me. That said, I think I've behaved much better than decently, don't you think?"
"But Max does like you," Eleven replies. "And I think… you… like her too…"
Henry shakes his head. "Ah, but Maxine is a special case. She is a very intelligent young lady, whose thoughts are… curious. Intriguing, so to speak. Mike, on the other hand? I have seen deeper puddles."
Eleven's chest swells as she attempts to calm herself by taking huge gulps of air. "Wow, Henry. Seriously?"
"Seriously," he confirms with total sincerity.
"I told you… not to read minds anymore…"
"Maxine's, yes." Henry puts both hands behind his back and tilts his head. "And I have kept my word, haven't I?"
The girl purses her lips and crosses her arms. "If I ask you to… Will you leave my friends' minds alone?"
"I can promise not to read Mike's mind again," he tells her, "but I refuse to make such a general promise." At Eleven's confused expression, he elaborates: "I need to be aware of possible dangers. Since I've already seen what I needed in Maxine and Mike's cases, I have no objection to your request. But friends or acquaintances of yours whose intentions I do not know? No. Impossible. I must make sure you're safe, do you understand?"
Eleven exhales loudly. "I do…" She brings a hand to her forehead as if trying to soothe an invisible pain. "But, still… Why did you try to scare Mike?"
Henry raises an eyebrow. This conversation is starting to irritate him… "Scare him? No, I just wanted his thoughts to focus on my family; I wanted to know how much he knew." His words are half-truth, half-lie.
"You didn't do the same to Max…"
"Because I had no reason to doubt her; I saw the sincere affection towards you in her mind."
Eleven stiffens at his choice of words. Belatedly, Henry realizes that he has said something inappropriate.
"But… not in… Mike's mind?"
Her brown eyes shine with something akin to fear. Henry hates that look on her. He could tell her the truth: that Mike appreciates her, yes, as much as a hormonal teenager can. That he thinks she is pretty and interesting, although quite common and ordinary.
That he doesn't see her the way he does, as his equal, as the only person who matters in a world full of scum.
However, that would hurt her, so he lies: "Of course I also saw his affection towards you. He was naturally nervous, though, so his thoughts came to me in disarray… That's the reason I forced him to focus on what interested me."
Eleven's shoulders relax as a relieved smile escapes her. Henry bites his tongue so as not to ruin it.
"Oh… So it's like that… I understand." Apparently, that's when she remembers the central point of the conversation. "Uh… So… Can I invite him… more often?"
It's her way of asking if he accepts him. And he is aware of the fact she knows his answer: after all, he has welcomed him into their home, he has talked to him, and he has even left him alone with the most important person in his life.
However, he assumes she wishes to hear it from his mouth, so he smiles as he responds: "Of course."
"But… will you act like a normal person?"
Henry chuckles softly and nods. "I'll try," he promises. You'll have to content yourself with that."
If Eleven's smile is a reliable indicator, she's more than content with it.
