Frigid Flora

twenty-three - the intervention

Chapter Twenty-Three

Time tends to feel incredibly long if you're expecting to get something by the end of it. Take, for example, an answer. Anticipation and dread are one in the same if you're restless. Waiting makes it feel as though lightyears have passed, especially if its in silence. It's like someone stretching a lump of toffee; you want to tear it in two, not have this useless bit in the middle. You want to ask a question and receive an answer, not have to wait an eternity of awkward silence and subject changing to get it.

I knew firsthand what it felt like to have to wait in suspense for answers I'd only get if I persisted on repeating my question and persevered until I got it through numerous attempts to distract me from the topic at hand. It was almost a daily occurrence with my mother thinking me to be too fragile to hear things. Those things, those squirrelled away subjects, would always revolve around me. Personal information, my information, that both my therapist and mother would discuss with each other before consulting me first. Wasn't that illegal? (With my luck around law, probably) It was because it was information about myself that I thought it so important to know.

It was to a certain extent that I could understand Axel's frustration about my vague answers that actually answered nothing, sounded more like riddles, and skirted around the subject he was inquiring about entirely. I'd been in his shoes and knew how frustrating it was when you just wished a simple answer. What I couldn't understand, however, was why he was so adamant about knowing this answer for it had absolutely nothing to do with him and was entirely to do with me. In other words, he had no right to know and I shouldn't have been empathising.

We were in my living room, Parker and I, when things started going rocky. Initially the day was set out for a mad game of Just Dance with Parker so that I could prove that swivelling hips weren't everything and I could in fact wriggle like a snake shedding its skin when given the right song. The battle had just been about to commence - we were positioned in front of the television and poised on the dance mat -  when in tumbled Matthew, Axel, Topher and (much to my surprise and dismay) Hayden from the window, one after the other like some sort of synchronised act. I was past the point of caring about intrusion and simply applauded the show. Matthew took a bow and Topher sent a wink. 

Then came the intervention.

"Put away the mat," Axel immediately instructed. "No time for dilly-dallying."

I pointed toward the television which had just turned black, the jazzy background beats having disappeared along with the picture. "But we were about to throw shapes."

"So sad, too bad." Topher said as he leant against the wall and swung my TV's plug around in his hand with a casual indifference to possible electrocution.

"Nobody told me our weekly book club was today, what a pleasant surprise." I said sarcastically.

Matthew, who had been licking on a striped Popsicle, froze and looked at each of the boys in turn with an awe-struck face. "Guys! You finally agreed to my idea? Did you read The Host like I suggested?"

"Why am I here?" Hayden asked the heavens. "Someone find me a steady beam to jump from."

"I wouldn't argue. I'd tie your noose for you." Topher stared at him through eyes like slits, and if that didn't confirm that things weren't quite peachy with them all just yet, I didn't know what would.

"What's going on?" Parker was glaring at his friends which didn't come at all as a surprise. Normally I'd tell him off for being so rude toward them just because he was hyper-aware of my presence, but I felt like letting him off the hook this time. After all, breaking and entering was one thing, but breaking and entering in the midst of an almost dance-off was another.