Always Been You- Eli Moskowitz

Chapter 14- Soul Sisters

"Come,
let us be friends,
you and i,
and love each other so deep and so well."

-Sarah Lee Brown Fleming

~~*~~

The twins found themselves sitting on the floor of the dojo stretching together while they listened to Kreese talking about his time in the military. Eli and Aisha hung onto every word as if their lives depended on it.

"...warlords controlled whole swaths of the city. My team and i were charged with cleaning the place up."

"How many warlords did you kill?" Eli asked excitedly.

"You keep track of every ant you stomp out?" Kreese replied.

Both Eli and Aisha looked incredibly impressed while the twins couldn't help but keep their distance from the man. There was something so off-putting about Kreese but Michelle couldn't quite put her finger on it just yet. He made her feel like something bad was coming and she couldn't understand why.

"...Rwanda was no joke," Kreese finished.

The twins looked at each other with confused expressions on their faces. Last time they checked, Mogadishu was not in Rwanda. Not even close. Miguel stood up, pulling Michelle up to stand next to him as they eyed Kreese skeptically.

"Don't you mean Somalia? Mogadishu is in Somalia. Rwanda is a whole different country," Miguel said to him.

Kreese turned to face Miguel slowly. He seemed to be calculating his next response after being corrected by a student. He turned back to Eli and Aisha as Michelle crossed her arms and tilted her head.

"Of course, Somalia. I've spent so much time in the sandbox, it all sort of bleeds together, you know," He said while letting out a nervous chuckle.

Michelle scoffed loudly and shook her head while rolling her eyes. He didn't really think they were that stupid did he?

"Is there a problem, Miss Diaz?" Kreese asked her.

"Oh, not at all. It's just that if I were going to lie to a group of the smartest kids in their grade I would at least try to get the facts straight before talking out of my ass," Michelle put her hands up slightly as if surrendering and started to turn and walk away from the group. "But that's just me."

Miguel turned to follow her quickly. He grabbed her shoulder and tugged lightly, causing her to stop in her tracks and turn to face him.

"So, you think something is weird about that guy too?" Miguel asked his sister.

"Yeah. I don't really like the vibes he's giving off. And to be honest, he seems kind of dangerous," Michelle replied. It was no lie that Michelle was pretty skeptical of everyone around her after getting cheated on by He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Mentioned, but this was real. And she felt comforted by the fact that Miguel felt the same way.

"Listen up! I see we've got some new recruits. Everybody fall in. In neat rows and lines. Time to see what you're made of," Johnny said to the class.

Michelle walked to her usual spot at the front between Eli and Aisha. Things between her and Eli were a little weird after the Valley Fest demo. She tried to get his words out of her head but she couldn't shake them.

"...you're worth may more than he could ever afford to give you."

They hadn't spoken since then and for good reason. As much as Michelle wanted to just run to him and tell him that she wanted to be with him, she knew that she couldn't. Miguel said no and that was that. Besides, its not like he's tried to speak to her since then either. Not a single call or text from Walter Hawkmann. Not to mention he still had a girlfriend. But it was now time to focus on the lesson.