Fascinating Villains

{46} - Boyfriend

I know Colin hates tomato soup, but he did not mention it at the store when he asked me which blend I wanted or when he offered to make it, although I attempted to steer him in that direction both times. However, his thoughts confirmed my knowledge while we ate; the mere smell gave him nausea. After mentioning twice how delicious the soup was and how lovely he was for making it for us, I finally asked him directly about the soup.

He outright lied, telling me I was right and it tasted amazing.

I honestly thought I had inadvertently bullied him into that false reaction by gushing too much about tomato soup. I was, in fact, feeling guilty. Even if his thoughts read that he enjoyed my company, I felt terrible for hammering his eardrums in with my specific nut standards and forcing him to eat a soup flavor he loathes.

I felt crippled by how selfish I had apparently been acting, so naturally I let him choose the movie when we settled to watch one in his living room. My boyfriend tried to let me make the choice instead, he even claimed to be too indecisive for the task, which I knew to be a lie.

Our exchange was light-hearted, but I remember feeling strangely tense.

"Colin, I won't throw you out of the window or jump out of it if you choose a bad movie. I won't judge you."

"It doesn't matter, I don't care what we watch."

"Neither do I. Choose anything!"

At last, he chose a movie that, in hindsight, I realize I told him I was intrigued by a year ago.

The memory leaks into the ground, fading away into a frothing lake. Cheryl and I are back in our bodies, standing next to each other on a road in Gotham City. The bubbling puddle reaches my knees and it is adopting a satisfying tint of turquoise blue as the remnants of the memory are floating to the bottom, out of sight.

I glance around us, ordering the puddle to vanish, which it does.

This is not just any random Gotham street. It is the intersection, Nightingale and Harbor, where I first met the vigilante.

Sounds of the bus crashing and of screeching tires echo in the air, causing the sky to suddenly darken.

"I'm getting tired, can we..?" I begin, hesitantly.

/As you wish, Tanza. It's your mind./

A suction noise accompanies my grasping of our senses, and we are tossed back to Earthly reality.

I expel a loud heaving sigh of relief.

"Are you okay?"

The brunette bounces swiftly on my bed to kneel at my side, keeping her hands firmly pressed above her thighs once she has reached her destination.

Breathing raggedly, I wipe my forehead and upper lip with my wrist, feeling beads of sweat on both areas of my face.

"Yeah, yeah..." I mumble.

My bedroom tilts hazily to the left, and I clumsily grab my headboard behind me for support, leaning my head back against the wall. I attempt to steady my heavy breaths, hoping I do not faint. The room is dark, but not because of the sparse spots that cloud my unstable vision. We began our exercise in the early afternoon and, quite bluntly, night has fallen. This is usual, these immersions often last multiple hours.

I sense my friend's delicate fingers inching my head forward, cool against the nape of my neck. I feel cold glass on my lower lip. I almost spit out the water when it hits my tongue to ask her when and how she poured me a glass of water, but I decide to drink it instead. I was dangerously dehydrated.