For A Star To Fall

Chapter 9: Useless Banter

Chapter 9

“I-I, um,” Jordan stuttered and scratched his head.

Emyle’s ebony gaze was as hard as ever when it landed on his face. Jordan stepped backwards, still holding his ice pack, feeling rather intimidated, but Emyle advanced on him, her face merely an expressionless mask. She noticed his reluctance to respond, and modified her questions. “When did you tell him?”

“When h-he came here, to my room a few hours ago and thanked me for showing you around. He said you were too quiet, that he was becoming concerned about you. Dr. Valin asked if you had said anything about yourself, whether you had opened you to me. So I told him about your hobby, of sorts,” Jordan blurted, words almost rushing out of his mouth.

Hearing this, Emyle’s face suddenly twisted, lips flattening into a thin, grim line. “I know what you told him. I want to know why.”

With a barely concealed flinch, Jordan backed away a few more steps, and this time she did not bother to approach him again. “Well,” he began, “Dr. Valin is technically my boss, and I kind of work for him. And...and after I left home, I had nowhere to go. He was the one that was kind enough to take me in and give me something to work towards, something to strive for. I don’t really know if you understand this, Emyle, but I owe him for that.”

Emyle looked at him, her gaze unwavering, as if she was indeed calm, like she truly still had her composure. But there was a crack in her facade—her black eyes were like twin shards of obsidian, cold and burning at the same time, unblinking as they stared out at him. Finally she exhaled, just a soft rush of air. “Yes, I do understand. You owe him, yes,” she nodded and continued, her voice sounding softer. “What else did you tell him?”

Shaking his head as best as he could with the ice pack on his jaw, Jordan gave her a tentative smile, hoping that she was done trying to freak him out. “No, nothing else. I figured that you wouldn’t want me telling him about how much you miss your dad.”

She gave a bitter, hard laugh as she told him, “Dr. Valin already knows.”

“W-what do you mean?” Jordan was stuttering again. He could see that Emyle’s eyes were back to their previous cold blankness, freezing ebony pools empty of emotion. He just had to hope that she would not turn those eyes on him again. Feeling himself start to freak out all over again, Jordan breathed in and shook himself mentally. He was too manly and tough to be freaked out by such a petite girl, who was actually almost two heads shorter than him. No, he was a surfer—meant to be blond and blue-eyed and masculine and strong, with nerves of steel. One tiny, strangely beautiful girl could not creep him out, right?

When Emyle did not respond, instead staring at something in her hand, Jordan prompted her. “I mean, Dr. Valin told me that your dad was his good friend, and that he was missing now, which I already knew. But, apart from that, I really don’t know much.”

Looking up at him, she choked out another laugh, this time one that was less harsh and more amused, her hands curling into a tighter fist. “You are too curious for your own good, Jordan. The less you know, the safer you are.”

Jordan felt his mind wander a little off topic when she said his name. It kind of rolled off her tongue really smoothly, sounding a bit strange, just like Emyle herself. Why hadn’t he noticed it before? Jordan thought. But the other times she had said his name, it had never been with such softness. Ever since he had met Emyle, her tone always had a perpetual cold detachment, a certain kind of aloofness no matter who she spoke to. And now there was a sudden yet slight change in her voice and her eyes, though her face remained as blank as ever, kind of like a canvas that awaited an artist’s paint.