Morana knows she's different from other people in more ways than one. Firstly, she's sixty-seven years old but stopped ageing in her twenties. Weird things have also happened around her right after she's wished for it. But most importantly, no matte...
The day was excruciatingly long and awkward. I refused to talk to Dereck unless work required me to, and he kept on trying to apologies any chance he got. I wouldn't listen. He clearly had some sort of issue with Alejo, though they had barely met each other, and that irritated me and made all the apologies seem fake.
It was more joy than usual when it was finally time to leave for the day, and that joy was strengthened when I saw Alejo waiting for me outside. It had all been such a crappy day, and I wanted nothing more than to be at home in front of the TV with Alejo. Maybe watch him watching a romantic comedy again, or curl up to a horror movie.
I hurried over to him and hugged him. I leaned my head on his shoulder and soaked in his presence. It was a purely instinctive action to hug him, but I was happy I did. Being close to him like that really washed away all the tension the day had created.
"Are you okay?" he asked as he returned the hug.
"Now I am," I mumbled as a response.
"Does the fact that you weren't okay before have anything to do with that your colleague is trying to kill me with his eyes?"
I let go of Alejo to turn and sure enough, Dereck stood by the entrance to the store glaring at us.
"He's been ridiculous all day," I answered. "Come on. Let's get going."
I tried to make Alejo walk to the motorcycle, but he wouldn't budge. When I looked back around, I knew why, and it was the last thing I wanted.
Dereck had started to walk over to us.
"Let's just leave," I tried to urge Alejo again, but it was futile. In a last desperate attempt to stop the fight I assumed was coming, I took a few steps towards Dereck, to make him stop a bit away from Alejo. That only resulted in Alejo following close behind me.
I opened my mouth to say something to ease the tension, but I didn't know what to say and I didn't have time as Dereck beat me to it.
"Can I have a word with you?" he said, looking straight at Alejo and although it was phrased like a question, there was no hint of a question in his tone.
"Sure," Alejo answered.
"Alone," Dereck added and cast me a meaningful look before meeting Alejo's eyes again. I opened my mouth to speak again, to protest, but that time Alejo was the one who was faster than me.
"Anything you have to say to me you can say in front of Morana," Alejo said, and, though the situation frustrated me, that response made me feel slightly better. In part, I was worried about what they might do without me standing between them. But mainly it felt good that Alejo had no intention of keeping secrets from me.
Dereck opened and then closed his mouth. He seemed deep in thought for a moment, but then spoke with certainty.
"I just wanted to warn you. If you ever do anything to hurt Morana, I'll make sure you regret it," he said and there was something menacing in his voice I had never heard before and that I didn't like. Alejo, though, just laughed at it.
"You've gotten the wrong idea, dude. We're just friends. That's it. And if anything, our relationship is more of a sibling relationship than anything else."
Alejo's words seemed to calm Dereck down. He still looked harsh, but some of the hardness melted away as he nodded. Me, however... It felt like my heart broke a little.
Just friends... That's it... Sibling relationship...
I hadn't really completely allowed myself to consider what type of relationship I had with Alejo. Or rather, what type of relationship we were developing. But it would have been a lie if I had tried to claim to just view him as a friend, even more of a lie to claim I viewed him as a sibling.
I was physically attracted to him. And that, together with how comfortable I felt around him, made me hope, though I hadn't even verbalized it for myself, that we might be heading towards more than friendship.
Apparently I was alone in thinking that.
It had probably been close to fifty years since the last time I had had a crush and, of course, it had to be a one-sided crush I would have to swallow.
"Okay," Dereck said, bringing me back to reality. "That's good. As long as you treat her well, we won't have any issues."
"The same to you," Alejo answered and in my sadness, I got annoyed with how they talked about me. As if I was fragile and weak and needed their protection. But I was anything but that. I had spent my whole life protecting myself in various ways and all I needed and would ever need was myself.
"Fucking fantastic," I scoffed at them. "You both done measuring your dicks? Or maybe you should actually go somewhere private so you can whip them out."
Dereck's mouth hung slightly open while Alejo stared at me with wide eyes. I didn't care about either of their reactions, but started walking away from there. Alejo reacted almost immediately though and grabbed hold of me.
"Hey, wait! I'm driving you back," he said, but I pulled my arm from him.
"I'd rather walk," I snarled and kept walking.
I expected Alejo to come after me, to try to stop me some more. A little part of me hoped for it. But he didn't. I imagined how he just shrugged about my random behavior and then went to drive home, not caring about what could have upset me. I imagined him being annoyed, if anything, over having driven there to get me, only to have me yell at him and walk away. I imagined his feelings of friendship and siblinghood dim slightly. But I didn't turn around to look to get it confirmed or denied. The thoughts of that my behavior was likely pushing him away already were painful enough, and I really didn't want to risk getting my suspicion confirmed.
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