Savior [Completed]

Savior: [Eight]

Eight - Nick

I’m not sure what the right word is to describe how it felt to see Lani in a more-personal-than-school setting. There was a little apprehension because of all the tension that had been going on between us, obviously, and her words still stung, but seeing her was also sort of nice. What she’d said had almost ceased to exist.

Almost.

How she’d turned so venomous all at once was still a mystery to me, and the awareness that I didn’t know her as well as I thought I did was unsettling.

“Hey there,” I greeted her cautiously, still uncertain about how to act with her, “all ready to go?”

“I got to the door even before you managed to park. Yeah I’m ready.”

I smiled involuntarily. This was the girl I knew - not the serpent who’d told me she hated my best friend.

“So I checked out what’s in theatres,” I said once she was buckled in, “and basically, nothing impressed me.”

“Which means what? Do you not want to watch the movie with me?”

She’d tensed up, and I needed to choose my words carefully. “No,” I started slowly, trying to keep my voice pleasant, “it means we’re going to have to go there and pick something without planning, and so there’s a very high chance it’s going to suck.”

She was silent for a few minutes, and the tension started to grow. I’d known she was trying to be alright, just like old times, but what she’d said still lingered in my memory and she could sense that. “I thought that the company was more important,” she said softly, “but I guess I’ve messed that up, haven’t I?”

I wasn’t sure how to react. Was she indirectly apologizing?

The normal thing would be to be all, ‘don’t worry about it’, but somehow, I couldn’t get that out. I still didn’t know what had transpired that day, exactly, and it was important for me to know. I couldn’t just let it slide, even if it meant fixing everything up again.

 “I do not know what to say,” I chose to be honest eventually, “and it’s not like I’m trying to be mean to you or anything, but…like, what was that about? Why didn’t you ever just talk to me about it?”

“No, even if you’re being mean, I deserve it.” She shook her head in that resigned way that people do when they’re not wanting to argue. “But I did try to talk to you – and you tried to make us get along, but…”

She didn’t want to say it, but I understood. “But he wasn’t very receptive, I know. But why did you think you had to go away?”

“It’s sort of the normal reaction when someone doesn’t like you.” She bit her lip. “But, I need to be completely honest. All that stuff I said about him…I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean it.”

I wasn’t sure whether or not she was just saying that. If she didn’t really think that way, then why did she explode on me? And how had she managed to get all of that animosity in there, if she hadn’t meant it?

“I don’t understand.”

“That stuff was just an excuse. I-when I’d go and stuff, it’s not like I felt I was being deprived of you or anything. That day I was just upset and you know how when you’re mad, everything about a person manages to tick you off? Well, I sort of vented that out by picking on Max. I don’t think that way though, honestly.”

She sounded sincere enough, but her ‘explanation’ was incomplete. “So why did you get upset in the first place? ‘Cause I gotta tell you, from the way you were so angry, I’m pretty sure it was because I was spending all my time on him. Which is true and all on me.”