Overlap

Chapter 108: Fear Factor

<02/04/2014 - 09:00 | Cage High School (World History), Austell, GA, USA>

As much as I wish I could control the temperature outside, I kept all thoughts of Lumina to the front of my mind. Today would be another day I'd have to spend without her, all because of the inconsistent weather here. At the same time, I agreed that this would be a good opportunity to keep myself relaxed, so that I may recover from what I went through days before. I was doing much better already, my exhaustion nearing its end while my sleep cycles were returning to normal.

But I wasn't entirely back to normal just yet. My mind wasn't at its usual hyper-drive speed, and any alertness I usually had about me was still absent. Despite how I felt, all appearances about me revealed that I was entirely exhausted, and it drew me some attention from the others around me, others who noticed how much worse I was on Friday.

"You alright?" Yet poking into my business again, Kate, who sat beside me made her basic inquiry.

I must still look exhausted for anyone to ask me that. "I'm fine now."

"What happened to you Friday? Everyone said you looked sick or something."

Part of me wonders why Kate even cares, while the other part worries about why anyone else bothered to spread word. The entire school knows by now how I can be with my headache situation, so it's unfortunately normal for all to assume that is the core of my problems. "I was recovering from something that happened the day prior. It turns out I'm not as invulnerable as I thought." I wonder how many teenagers have said this before.

"Why? Did something happen?"

I stared at Kate for a long pause, wondering why she would ever put more than two seconds of focus on me. After I got into high school, most of my old acquaintances who I nearly mistook for friends stopped paying much attention to me, including Banarus. I assumed Kate and everyone else followed the same kind of behavior, likely to keep some level of popularity, since I'm known as the weird one. But was I wrong to make these assumptions? Is Kate only curious right now because she is bored, having none of her usual friends in the classroom, or is she actually curious about other aspects of my life and what I get up to? "Nothing much. Lumina and I just messed something up; that's all." It's not really in my interest to lie to anyone anymore; it doesn't mean I have to speak my truth.

"I forgot you're still with her, aren't you? How long have you been together now?"

My eyes lifted some at the attention she was giving me. I was certain this was only spurred by the fact that Kate had no one else fun or interesting to talk to in this class, but despite that, the long awaited feeling of human conversation felt too refreshing for me to ignore. How long has it been since I spoke real to anyone other than Lumina? "Let's see... We got together 2011, so a little over three years."

"That's amazing! And it's such a long time too." Kate nearly made me chuckle at her ridiculous standard for a long lasting relationship, for in my opinion, three years was nothing compared to the eternity we would share forever.

"Yeah, it's been a good run. We've done a lot together, and been through much more too. I guess I can scratch nearly dying off my bucket list."

"You what?! You almost died?"

Oops! Probably should have censored that in hindsight. Humans make a bigger deal about death than I do, since I would have two chances of life anyway. "No... I mean, kind of..." I couldn't look her in the eyes when I said that, and Kate was now staring me down in shock from the unusual news. I didn't want to tell anyone about what happened to me last week, especially because it wasn't easy to explain. Feeling pressured, I had no choice but to face her and elaborate. "Look, it wasn't her fault. Lumina and I were doing something, and, well, things just happened."