All Cloaked Up For You

Chapter 12 - Alexander

I hauled the last suitcase onto the van for Sophia. I get this feeling that I don't want her to go. I want her to stay. "Cloak Man?" she called. I turned around to see her. She was holding the copper rug. "Can I keep this?" she asked. I look at the rug. She wraps her arms with it. I look at her brown eyes. "Of course," I said. I helped her get in the van with her mom. The cleaning lady gave Sophia her clean uniforms. I hope she will remember me in there. 

It was daytime and the sunlight shined through the window and onto Sophia's face, I sat next to Sophia as the time went and went. She is still wearing her pajamas. As I got out my phone to play some games, Sophia watched. I smiled through my mask, I handed her my phone. "Do you want to play?" I asked. She smiled and grabbed my phone and I watched her play my games. The way she plays the game, it's like she never played any games. 

I watched her getting confused but learning how to play them quickly. I got that feeling—the feeling when you watch someone who doesn't have anything trying something new. "Woah," she said. I see her eyes widen like a kid entertained. I think I unlocked her inner child. She looks like a child, but you know she doesn't. She taps on the phone and cooed at every moment. Madeline would do the same. My heart sank. Madeline. 

As Sophia played games on my phone, I looked out the window of the car. I thought deeply about Madeline. Back at the lake, when she realized I kept coming to see her, she came every day to see me. I guess her heart couldn't take to just staring at me from afar. I watched her come closer and closer each time we visited, until one faithful moment we sat right next to each other talking about our problems. That's when I realized she was a wasteland girl.

At first, I was a bit horrified, then surprised. I thought she might be from Versalient. You know the way she dressed was more feminine than the girls in the wasteland. Also, Versalient shares Roddy Lake with Sterling. Every day after we first had a full conversation, I learned that she wasn't greedy like all the other wasteland girls. She wanted to be someone with political status to change the ways people live in the wasteland. 

All and everything about Madeline went so well for me. I remember me confessing my love for her. I wanted to hide that day but, I smiled it all away. I was at the point of panic. She looked at me with her piercing silver eyes and told me, "I like you too." The only thing is, people will judge when you are dating a wasteland girl in the city. I wore a cloak to the wasteland, hiding every inch of my body. She knows I am Cloak Man and she used C.M. also as my name. 

In the city, I make her dress nice so people don't think much about her. She fits in just well, almost too well. She makes good tea, bitter bit yummy to the taste. She always shares it with me. At a hotel, she would pretend that she was just a personal assistant to help me with my needs. My needs were a long big kissing session. I know what the risk is for having sex so I didn't do much with her but just cuddle and kiss. I know right? Boring.

At the point where she left me at the store, my life tumbled. You know when exes leave and you still love them. I do. I love her so much. I miss you, Madeline, I want you back to me. I want to see you one last time hugging me, kissing me, loving me. I let down a tear through my mask. Droplets fell through the eye hole of the mask and landed on my chest. Sophia just finished her round of games. 

As she passed me my phone back, I grabbed it from her. "I had fun, thank you," she said respectfully. She looks at my eyes through my eye hole. Her face went from happy to concerned. "C.M. are you okay?" she asked leaning in a bit. "Yes, I am fine" I lied. She looks at me like she knows I am lying. "Mhm," she said questioning everything about me. She places a bracelet on my hand. "Made it last night," she smugged.

She looks very proud of herself. I smile through my mask. This is the first time a girl made me something. The bracelet was green and had a black jewel in the middle of it. I thought it was very cool. I fastened it around my wrist. I took one stare at it. I love it. I got out of the van first and then I held onto Sophia as she was about to come down from the van. I smiled through my mask as she looked at me on the bridge that separated the wasteland and the city.

That moment was the moment I felt a stir. She was closer to me. Like 2 feet close. The thoughts and illusions of Madeline were appearing from that day on. I wanted to pat her head or just hug her because I was illusioned it was Maddie. I look at her eyes, those brown eyes and those black hair are going to make me miss Madeline forever. Reality came back to my senses. I'm still a dumb fool, Sophia is right in front of me not Madeline. 

"You know you are my first official friend right?" she said. I smiled slightly. "I didn't know until now." This will be Cloak Man's first friend. This hits differently. "I hope we hang out soon," she said. "Yeah." I waved goodbye to Sophia as she crossed the bridge. Looking back at it. I realized these past few days drove me crazy. Sophia reminded me of Madeline and I got perplexed. Why did I illusioned Sophia as Madeline? It felt weird to me.