Welcome to Upside-Down Falls

Part 13: Invisibili-tea

(This is a work in progress.)

"Hide and seek?" I ask incredulously. "You were playing hide and seek? With-"

"Ashton. Yup, that's what I said," Will confirms. "And then I saw you in the forest and, well... I was curious."

We're sitting at a small, round kitchen table in a cosy cottage nestled among the trees. The scent of freshly brewed coffee mingles with the earthy aroma of the forest wafting in through the open window. Will, with his black hair and soulful eyes, smiles too widely and far too often. His smile should be charming, but I refuse to let myself find it attractive. 

I don't! Just stop!

"Fine, so just who is this Ashton then?" I look down at my coffee mug, trying to avoid Will's infuriatingly charming smile. That smile is so irritating that I feel the urge to throw the mug at his head, but I won't because it's my favourite one. Okay, it's not really my favourite mug. I left that one at my apartment. This is my 'other' favourite mug, and I don't want it to break against Will's not-attractive-at-all head, okay?

Why am I being so mean in my head to a guy that didn't do anything to me?

"He's a kid... uh, sometimes," he says, pausing to take a sip of his coffee while I wait impatiently for him to continue his story. "Sometimes, he doesn't feel like doing his chores and runs into the forest to hide. He usually reappears when he gets hungry or thinks his mom might have forgotten about the chores she wanted him to do."

"Okay, so why were you looking for him when he usually comes back?"

Will's smile falters a little. "Because he recently learned how to turn invisible, and, as you can imagine, this makes things a bit difficult. His mom thought that I might be able to sniff him out."

The kitchen is a warm, inviting space, filled with soft morning light filtering in. Ysolde sits on the table, seemingly engrossed in something on my phone. If it weren't for the sight of the tiny reptile lounging there, giggling like a teenage girl, I would probably laugh at the ridiculousness of it all.

"Wait, you can, uh... turn into a cat and not a bloodhound, or can you-" I reach for a plate of biscuits that Ysolde found in one of the cupboards, now arranged prettily on a plate with a floral-patterned border.

Will holds up his hand, laughing. "No, just a cat. I'm a good hunter, though, and my sense of smell is heightened when I'm a cat."

"You hunt?" I gasp, and Ysolde snorts next to me. I glare at her, and she gives me a sidelong glance.

"What? The story is so funny. Tanner calls Willow-" my glare intensifies. "You know what? You can read it later."

I turn my glaring eyes back to Will, and I think I'm really mastering the glare because he squeaks, "No, I don't hunt! Ew!"

I narrow my eyes at him a bit more. "Good, right, okay. I'm glad we cleared that up," because I can't date someone who hunts tiny defenceless animals. 

What am I even thinking?! There will be absolutely no dating!

Will tilts his head to one side and realizes that I'm completely destroying the poor, defenceless biscuit I took from the plate a minute ago. Its once-perfect form is now reduced to crumbs scattered across the table. I am a hypocrite, chastising Will while pulverizing this innocent biscuit with my anxious fingers.

"Won't Ashton just go back home anyway? And maybe uninvisible himself?" I ask, uncertain if that's even a word. It's probably not... or it wasn't. It's a word now and I'm going to use it as often as people make themselves invisible.