The Waltz

SHIET

It was a normal day for me... so far. I was on my way to pick up some medicine for my mother when I saw Claire, wearing her stupid mask. 

"Claire! Hey!" I yelled, waving my hand at her. She turned to see me and ran away. What? Why "HEY!" Claire just ran even faster. I start to run after her. I hate to brag, but I'm a pretty fast runner. I haven't seen Claire ever since the hideout incident, which was like 2 weeks ago. A pretty long time if you ask me. I finally catch up to Claire and I grab her hand. I pull her back.

"Arthur, what are your doing, you stalker" Claire said, ripping her hand away from mine.

"Why are you avoiding me?" I asked. A little anger seeped into my voice.

"No reason" answered Claire.

"There definitely is a reason" I said, "is it about what I asked last time? Because you seemed really out of it after I asked. I'm sorry for asking about it, I'm truly sorry"

"Ok fine, we're good now, so let me go" said Claire. I let her go.

"Oh, I'm sorry" I said, "you must me busy too"

Claire looked guilty and said "No, uh, well I just don't wanna talk to you." 

"Ouch, that hurt my feelings." I said, "well if I'm annoying you with talking then go leave."

"No! I'm sorry, that was mean of me, I just- I don't want- I tend to-, ah I cant speak right now" Claire said, "what I'm trying to say is that we can hang out" I chuckle.

"Ok cool, do you wanna go to my hideout?" I asked. Claire nodded with a smile. We walked all the way to my hideout and sat in the grass. It was silent, but a comfortable silence where the quietness spoke and we would just listen. 

"So you wanna know about my gloves, right?" asked Claire, out fo the blue.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," I replied, "it's obvious that you don't feel comfortable talking about it"

"No, I wanna tell you" said Claire.

"Okay, then spill the beans" I said. Claire laughed and I just starred at her in admiration.

Claire takes a big breath and explained, "So, when I was younger, I would run away from home, a lot, I would stay out of home for days. My parents would send out search parties to find me. One time I ran and this guys found me. He was nice, we became friends. I should've known it was weird: this friendly guy finding me randomly and then offering shelter. He taught me how to sword fight. I knew how to before, but he taught he how to be good, really good. It was too good to be true. A non royal becoming friends with a royal. Ha, what a joke. He was sent to kill me. Made sense. He always seemed nervous after the first day, like he was waiting to do something. The third day we went out to duel. But it became violent. Too violent. Luckily, he taught me really well. All he did was cut a deep gash into my hand and ruined my clothes. I pined him with my sword. He laughed at me. Laughed! Can you believe that! We betrayed me, tried to kill me, and he laughs! The search parties found us and they arrested him. Before anyone could figure out his charges he escaped somehow." Claire scoffs, "stupid, it was stupid of me"

"It's not stupid, I know for a fact I'm more trusting than you, do you think I'm stupid?" I asked, then I suddenly realized what I asked and Claire gave me a look and I added, "actually don't answer that." We both start to laugh.

"God, that actually felt good to say out loud" Claire said.

"Must've, sounds like you kept that in for long time." I added, "you say it as if it isn't that important and that you're being dramatic, but you're not. At all. What happened to you is insane and shouldn't have happened, I'm sorry you had to go through that." Claire nodded. We stayed silent for a while. Looking around at the landscape. It was a cloudy day today, but the sun still was bright as ever. 

Weirdly, Claire was the one to break the silence, "So... you wanna see?" 

"Uhhhhhh, see what? W-wh, I'm sorry but I think it's too soon" I answered, a little flustered.

"NO NOT THAT! Who do you think I am?! No, I meant my scar, dumbass" Claire yelled. 

"Oh, if you want to show me, then yeah sure" I replied.

"I want to, but I also don't want to" said Claire. I gave Claire a confused look, "I mean, I want to show you, since you already know the story, but I don't wanna disgust you"

I usually don't scoff (that's Claire's thing), but in this case it was needed, "Disgust me? Doubt it, I'm the most disgusting person I know. Show me."

"Fine, fine, fine." Claire said. They slowly took off their gloves. They hesitated, but she took them off. They quickly covered their hand behind their back.

"It's not fair if you just hide it, Claire" I said.

"Fine." Claire answered. They quickly showed their hand for a millisecond and then hid it again behind their back. 

"Ok I couldn't even process that, that was so quick" I replied. Claire sighed and put their hand out. I put my hands underneath her hand, holding it.

"Does it still hurt?" I asked.

"Not really, but my hand can get super dry sometimes, especially because of the gloves" Claire responded.

"Then why wear the gloves?" I questioned.

"Are you joking me? Why does everyone say that" said Claire. She moved her hand away from me.

"Because it's not good for you to keep wearing these stupid gloves" I answered.

"I don't care" Claire said.

"I care." I said. There was a long pause. It wasn't uncomfortable, but it wasn't comfortable either.  "I'm gonna go get that medicine I should've gotten now, you can stay here all you want" I said. Claire didn't seem to care. "Oh yeah, also, your scar makes you look like a badass." I added before walking away. I look back and see Claire smiling at herself. Once I got to the store, for the medicine, I asked the person at the front for the prescription medicine. I then showed them the paper from the doctor for it. They nodded and went into the back for the medicine. It was not a cure for whatever my mom has, but it definitely can help with the pain and the coughs. They came back with a paper bag with a paper stapled to it. I thanked them and they nodded and I left. I ran home to my mom. 

"MOM!" I yelled once I got into my home. 

"Honey?" My mom answered. I dashed to her room.

"I got your medicine, here" I said, I put the medicine on top of her, she was in bed, like always.

"Thank you, can you get me a cup of water?" she asked.

"Yeah, of course" I said. I went over to the kitchen and got water. I walked back to my mom's room and set it on her night stand which sat next to where my mom lays. She thanked me and opened the medicine. It was wrapped in a light cloth and it was pills. She swallowed them with the help of some water of course. 

"Love you, Arthur" my mom said with a weak smile. 

"I love you too, mom" I said, my voice breaking up. I walked away before I bursted onto tears. I went into my own room and threw myself into my bed. I wondered what Claire was doing now, I wonder if they were still at the hideout. After a while I got bored. I got up and closed all my windows. I had to make sure no one would catch me. I pulled out a sketch pad and started to draw. I drew random characters and some objects around my room. Eventually I started to draw Claire. At first it was a mistake, I didn't meant to draw them, it just happened. But after I did, I couldn't stop. After 6 sketches of Claire, I finally fell asleep... on the floor.