Bird Wings

Chapter 21

"It's nice to see you happy again."

The girls were at Clay's house this time, to make clothes. Currently, Wren stood on a stool while Clay pinned up the hem on a new skirt.

"I know I've been neglecting you since Hawk came."

Clay winced a little. Wren had told her, finally, who Hawk actually was, and she was struggling to be happy about it. At least she hadn't rushed to the town leaders in a panic, which is what Wren had been afraid of.

"It's nice to see you happy again," she repeated, "but I'm still not sure how I feel about that guy. Can't you see that it's all kind of creepy?"

"Yeah, it is." Wren flicked a piece of lint off her hip.

"Well, at least you're aware, I guess."

"It's better than living without him, which is what I would have done if he hadn't moved into the cave years ago and started that whole sinister pattern of behaviour." She shrugged. "Can you think of a normal way we could have met?"

"We've been over this logic before," Clay sighed "but while I'm criticising, I might as well point out that you didn't know you were living without 'the love of your life' until after you met him. You could have been perfectly happy if he hadn't butted in."

"Perfectly content, maybe. I never could have been happy."

"You're so romantic."

Wren stood still, thinking.

"I think that I wouldn't regret anything even if I hadn't fallen in love with him. If I had only learned to see him differently, and not judge so quickly, it still would have been worth it. And I'm not just grateful for the way I see him, I'm also glad I'm looking at the whole village differently now. I might never have known how loyal you can be, for example."

"I still would have been a good friend even if I never got tested, Wren."

"Yeah, but the other girls wouldn't have been, and without that test I might never have seen how different they are from you."

"I'm not sure I can value cynicism the way you do. I like being able to like people."

"You want to be able to like people who don't deserve it? At someone like Hawk's expense?"

"How is my liking anyone hurting Hawk?"

"Because they say that you can't like him! Not the real him, and they'd punish you somehow if they found out the truth. Their love is conditional, and he's kept out."

"Wren, you're being conditional too."

Wren always found herself back here in conversations like this. Her anger against harshness inevitably spun around to an accusation of being harsh herself getting levelled at her. It was impossible to explain the way she felt without sounding like a hypocrite.

"I just don't know how to get past how much he suffered."

Clay smiled up at her.

"You love him so much, and that's sweet. That's what everyone does, I think. We all just want the people we love to be treated better than anyone else."

Wren didn't think that was it at all, but peace had been offered. She smiled back.

"So how did yesterday go?" Clay turned the subject.

"I was going to ask you that, actually. Have people been talking about it?"

"Oh, have they? Everyone's all up in arms. They're acting like he proposed marriage instead of just visiting for dinner. Maribly is especially salty about it because she invited him over yesterday too, and he told her he 'might already have plans'. That's not first come first served at all." Clay laughed, "You realise that this is the second time in a row a new boy has picked you over everyone else, don't you? No one knows how you did it."

"All they know is he came over! He could have been invited by my Dad."

"That's the current speculation actually. Or that he doesn't know yet that you have that 'dark past'."

"I guess someone's going to take it upon themselves to tell him all about it then." Wren rolled her eyes "I'd love to listen in on that conversation."

"Are you going to marry him?"

"Oh, a quick subject change. You and I get along so well because neither of us bothers with segues."

"I just got curious. You are, aren't you?"

Wren rubbed the waistband of her skirt thoughtfully.

"He hasn't said anything yet."

"Well if he keeps visiting you he won't have any other options. Nobody wants the monster girl's leftovers."

"Ew, he's not interested in anyone else! We just haven't talked about it yet."

"It would fix a lot of problems for you, you know." Clay reasoned. "You could move out of your parent's house, and being married all respectably and whatnot has got to lessen some of the stigma around you. Also, and this cannot be overstated, maybe if you were with him all the time you'd be able to go five minutes without making out."

"You only walked in on us that one time! It's because you didn't knock you know. I'm unrepentant."

"I'm just saying, maybe I wouldn't have let you use my family's shed for a clandestine meeting in a rainstorm if I knew you were going to be all scandalous about it."

"Do you know what 'clandestine' means?"

***

Fun fact: I used to think the word 'segue' was actually just 'segway' and I assumed people started using it to mean a bridge between topics because a seamless transition feels as smooth and graceful as driving a sick Segway from room to room would.

I was also pretty sure this must have started out as a mall cop meme of some kind, or possibly family guy.

-Laura