Loving Rain (Watty Awards 2011)

Chapter 17 - The Encounter

Loving Rain - Ch. 17

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After I was tired of sitting on the floor feeling sorry for myself, I decided to make my way to my bedroom where I could at least ponder my fate in a more private location. I quietly shut the door behind me, and wanted to make my way through the castle without attracting too much attention. My room was on the bottom floor, and I was currently on the third.

               I slipped down the first set of stairs without many hazards. A few servants smiled at me, and a face that I almost recognized from dinner winked before he walked right past me. I was halfway to the second stairway when I heard my name being called.

               At first, I didn’t stop. If I could pretend like I didn’t hear it, maybe whoever it was would give up. But they didn’t, and so finally, right at the top of the staircase, I whirled around.

               “What?” I asked, exasperated.

               Melvin almost didn’t stop; his momentum from trying to catch me would have sent him right into me if he hadn’t pulled back at exactly the right moment. As it was, he caught himself and we ended up face to face, noses almost touching. “I need to talk to you.”

               “Okay. Start talking.” This is so, completely, not what I needed. Melvin, of all people, questioning me like some sort of convict.

               “Are you really going to stay here for long?”

               “Harsh. I suspect that you want me to go ahead and leave?”

               “That’s what I call a subject change. Just answer the question.”

               I crinkled my nose at him. “I think I’ll pass on that.” I turned around to start down the stairs, but he grabbed my arm. “Uhm, Melvin? You should let go of me.” There was no way that I was ready for any kind of physical contact at all. And Melvin’s grip wasn’t exactly friendly, so I was getting more and more irked the longer his hand stayed right where it was.

               “Answer my question, Rain.”

               I clamped my mouth shut, but his eyes were hard and I knew that I wasn’t getting away unless I answered. “I don’t quite know, yet.”

               He released his grip, but he didn’t move. “What’s wrong, Rain?”

               “Nothing,” I said, trying to make my face firm and not show any emotion. “Nothing’s wrong.”

               “Yeah, okay. You know, you lie about as well as a two year old.”

               “You’re really a rude person, did you know that?”

               He shrugged. “Not usually.”

               I huffed and gave him a dirty look. “I have a headache, okay?”

               “Fine,” he told me, but his voice still held a vague touch of disbelief. Maybe, though, I was getting off the hook with him; at least this time. “Let me walk you to your room, then.”

               “I’m fairly certain that I can make it there by myself, thank you.” I didn’t need him traipsing around with me, just waiting for another opportunity to ask me some other question.

               “I insist. If you don’t feel well, it’d be irresponsible of me to leave you to make your way through a strange castle by yourself. You might faint or do some other girly thing and then I would be held at fault.” His tone of voice let me know that he was in no way being caring, but that he just didn’t want to get himself in trouble. My mouth opened to tell him to go away, but I wasn’t able to make a sound.