Through Fire

Chapter 10 - The Pillarless Knight

Wim invites us all back to his place that evening after our day on the reservoir, not being too keen on spending any more one-on-one time with Gen today. As ever-oblivious as Genevieve is about being the butt of our jokes behind her back, I tend to feel a bit guilty the more it progresses. I keep getting the urge to make Wim just send her off, and put her out of her unknown misery.

Though, I think Roman likes how she keeps Wim preoccupied and away from me. His gratitude towards Wim is slowly but surely regressing, he and I are pretty friendly toward one another. I keep telling Rome he has nothing to worry about, in the same joking way that he suggests Wim’s a bit too friendly with me, and claims even though he saved my ass, he still wants in my pants.

While at Wim’s, we sat around his living room and socialized in front of a movie, after we had a cookout with his parents. Upon seeing the size and quality of Wim’s timeshare, Kait demanded to know what horrible character flaw or hidden physical defect Wim had to have, to balance out his utter perfection. I told her she was exaggerating. He really did seem a tad too good to be true sometimes, and even I wondered if he had a bad side, or if there was a downfall to his picture-perfect existence. I’m sure they’re there somewhere, but rarely does the thought cross my mind.

Back at the upper cabin where we are now, Kait and I lie sprawled on my bed. My hair is still warm from blow-drying it after my nightly shower, which I was doing while Kait took hers. Her hair is gathered up into a towel.

“Ugh, I finally get a steady boyfriend, and Sir Perfect, King of Scotland rears his gorgeous, foreign head,” she groans, referring to Mr. Mcknight. I chuckle.

“Fate doesn’t want you to be content.”

“No kidding! Christ, I should’ve just weaseled my way here from the beginning,” she teases as she sits up to pull the towel off her damp hair. She works at rubbing it as dry as she can for a moment, before I speak up to break the silence.

“So, when are you thinking you have to go back to Worthing?” I ask, “Do you still work at King’s?” She gets up to hang her towel on one of the hooks on the back of the door, next to mine.

“Yeah, I even picked up another job at the gas station, now that you mention it. But I took the week off from both of them. Sage said he has to go back home again next week to finish up his physics project, and can take me with him.”

“I have one whole week with you?” I exclaim, clasping my hands over my chest to emphasize my exaggeration. Propping her hand on her hip, Kait makes a dismissive gesture.

“Allie, baby, you gon’ be sick ‘a me!” she says in a southern accent. I laugh as she sits back down.

“So, you have two jobs, huh? Workin’ girl.”

“Yeah. Pretty much all of it is going towards my car payments. By the time summer’s over, it’ll be all paid off.” Kait’s been working like a mule ever since she turned sixteen, first to save up for that old ‘stang, and now to fulfill all payments as quickly as she can. She’s pretty economically wired, and I praise her work ethic when it comes to employment. She shares those types of traits with Roman, and they remind me of him. He told me once that he has an awesome job working for a bed and breakfast at home during the school year, and that the owners make sure to hire him again every year after summer because he’s so well-acquainted with them. When the weather’s warm enough, he also works for construction companies. That always makes me think back to when I saw him working the stop/slow sign before school got out, and he had stopped me just to talk. I’ve never really had a job before... but I feel like this year’s the year, and that I should really start earning some cash for college. Roman told me he can probably get me hired at the bed and breakfast once we all go back home.