Wings in Alabama

Chapter 13

The door slammed behind me. The boy in the cage on he other side of the room did not move. I've either got a very, very self-absorbed roommate, or he's very tired. I looked on different sides of the cage, to see if he would move at all. He didn't.

I had nothing to throw at him to get his attention, so I just said what I thought sounded good. News flash, I don't really go for the old "what would Jesus say" bit. Or the "what would a cool person say" bit, cause I sounded like a total idiot. "Hey! Helllloooo over there?"

The boy moved his head, enough for me to see his nose and his dark eye-lashes. I barely heard a quiet and gruff voice say, "What?"

I let out an exasperated sigh and fell back against the opposite side of the cage with my arms folded over my chest. "Look, if you're gonna be a jerk and not even say 'hello' back, then I won't say anything else."

He turned around to look at me, his left hand on a silver metallic bar. When he turned around, I could definitely prove it was Ashton. When his eyes caught my face, his expression changed from annoyance to confusion. "Rylee?"

"Yes, oh smart one."

"What're you doin' here?"

"Same as you, being held in a great big lab full of kids by a phsyco doctor with his sights set on world domination." Ashton rolled his eyes and clarified that he meant in the same observatory room. "Oh. Well, I kinda grew something, did something bad, ya know."

Ashton's eyes lit up. I couldn't tell his he was happy that he had a roommate now (about time!) or something else. "You mean these?"

He stood up in his cage, and to my amazement, the bars of the cage fell. He too had the white jumpsuit on. He smiled a devilish smile - the one I gave the ignis-diabolouses, but not quite as cute as his - and wings unfurled themselves from his back.

His were a pure, beautiful gold color at the alula, that faded into a light gold at his secondary and primary feathers. Insanely cute guy just got hotter! He flapped his wings and started to rise off the ground, when suddenly, he was jerked back to the ground. He muttered something in Latin that I couldn't understand and stood back up, folding his wings back. It was like they melted into his shirt, which mine couldn't do. "What about you?"

I shrugged and let my own wings fully reach out. He smiled in approval and sat at the base of his cage, and the bars lifted themselves up. Man, this place is creepy, I thought. I folded my wings back and tried to get them to fold into my back like Ashton's had, but I ended up falling on my face. I heard a slight chuckle from my right side and picked myself back up. "It'll be a while before you can fold them in all the way."

"Oh yeah? How long has it taken you, what, six hours?"

He shuffled with his feet, almost like he was embarrassed. "I've known about mine for a long time. Like, since I was six."

"Oh," I answered. There was a long, awkward silence that kept us at bay for nearly two minutes. Finally, Ashton spoke up. "I didn't know about the world domination thingy."

I shrugged and answered, "I don't know too much, he just said that I wouldn't get in the way of his plans."

Another silence. This one was shorter, almost a minute and a half. I was on my 23rd second when Ashton broke the silence again. "Quick question."

"Yeah?"

"After you fell into the bush, why'd you run off?"

Shoot monkeys, I'd thought he'd forgotten! But really, it'd be hard to forget watching a friend fall into a bush and ride away on her bike with her tears catching the wind.

"Oh, yeah, um... uh... I got hurt. Like, really badly," I fibbed. Technically, it wasn't a lie, I had gotten hurt, just emotionally. And I barely knew why! This is probably the part where a parent would walk up and tell you something stupid and disgusting and completely pointless, but I'm not a parent. Emily, however, would have skipped circles around me and chanting something that was true and made my face hot when someone said it aloud. I just don't think it's true.

"But you wouldn't text me back when I-"

"I got hurt too badly! And listen to yourself, you sound like a desperate teenage girl!"

He shrugged and leaned back against his cage. Yay, more silence. How do we keep on doing this? I wonder. I can't take being stuck in the silence anymore (even though it was no longer that out last two silences). "Okay, my turn. Why is Latin so common in this place?"

He shrugged again. "The Director speaks Latin only to his pets, the ignis-diabolouses, and Latin is pretty much the only thing they speak, and the kids in cages pick up on it pretty quickly."

I nodded in understanding, soaking it all in. There really wasn't much to soak in. "Your turn."

"What, are we playing 'the questions game' now?" He said, a smile tugging at the corner of his cheeks. I could already see his dimples beginning to form.

"Yes. Now ask away!"

Ashton laughed. I think that's the only time I'd seen anyone laugh in this prison, or lab, or whatever it was. "Fine, um... let's see... okay, so what's your favorite food?"

"Caramel cheesecake," I answered. "Do you have a girlfriend?"

I think I pretty much ended "the questions game." Ashton was silent after I asked him that question. The silence seemed worse knowing that I'd created it. He finally answered. "Nah, we're through."

He tried to make it sound casual, but I knew he was hiding something. I got all guilty inside, and felt like I'd gotten punched in the gut.

"Oh," I replied softly. But the funny thing was, I didn't feel that sorry. I felt a twinge of happiness inside of me that felt fuzzy. Like a blanket. I twiddled my fingers and played a really lame and boring game of Thumb-War before I finally heard him speak. "Whadda 'bout you?"

My thumbs stopped wrestling eac.hother and I stayed perfectly still and silent. "No," I answered softly. Something else circled inside of me. I didn't know what it was. He answered me with an "oh", and then "the questions game" ended.

I'm sooooooo sorry I haven't uploaded in so long, I'm trying to get my head in the game. I'm pretty sure Chapter 14 is gonna be out after I get back from camp (whenever that may be).