Avatar Rose: Dusk

Ch.28: Nathan

Rose.... Why must you do this to me?

For the next bit of time, I spend with Evan as we swim in the pool downstairs. The hotel is practically deserted, so we get the pool to ourselves. It's a good environment to practice bending, and the air is just right for Evan to teach me how to turn moisturized air into water. Besides, I need something else to focus on besides Rose, my bitchy girlfriend.

"No no no, you dumbass!" He repeats the movement. "Like this. Keep your elbows slightly inverted, and then pull like your taring a curtain!" His voice echoes tauntingly throughout the room.

I repeat the move, stretching my hands towards my righthand side, then above my head, grabbing on to an invisible rope and then pulling down.

Evan just facepalms, squishing his nose into his pruned hand. "How can I be related to such a noob? You're moving like a waterbender, not sharply enough. Try moving like a metalbender, with defined gestures, not like some hippy octopus chanting 'Just go with the flow, man,' Instead, actually move with power!"

But no matter how many times I try, I just can't do it. By the fourteenth time that Evan tells me to not act like a hippie octopus, I'm furious. My hands bring into fists, and before my brain can protest for a single second, I find my hand heading in an arch in slow motion, as it soars, anticipating the impact from fist to jaw, and instead, I find my veins pulsing.

Evan...

I slip out of the grip and take a step back.

Evan is beaming, emitting an excited, happy aura. He almost seems... giddy. What the hell?

"I guess we've never 1v1'd each other without using blood bending," he remarks.

"And?"

"Why don't we change that?" he says. "You're angry at me and I think you're a selfish, controlling aggressive asshole, so why don't we duke it out?"

I groan.

"Fine."