City of Magische Geschöpfe [Complete]

Chapter Sixteen: Explain Yourself

"What I would do to take away this fear of being loved; alleigence to the pain." - Never be like you (Flume ft. Kai)

Taylor:

I stretch my hand out, and then ball it into a fist, flexing the muscles in my arm, and checking which ones where dibilitatingly sore. When I notice that none are out of commission and I could move like a normal person I almost wept with joy. Being unable to sit because your ass is so sore or unable to drink because you can't lift the damned glass is a goddamned pain.

"Taylor," I hear, accompanied with a knock on the door.

I don't even go to answer because in a minute . . . The door flies open and Roman steps in. I look at him through the mirror, expectantly waiting for him to accounce whatever he had to say and leave.

He stands straight in doorway, decidedly uncomfortable. "The water isn't going down the drain and now it's overflowing."

Well would you look at that. Here's an actual disaster for once. He didn't come here to berate me for being lazy. Lazy my ass.

He's the one who gets to sit around all day while I work my ass off doing my routine and trying to cover a lot of the things Jay did around these parts. Man this just confirmed that I would never be able to live alone.

"Right. I'll be down." I nod, still not turning to face him.

"I'll go and try to turn the tap off then." He stands in the doorway, watching me for a few seconds before turning around and striding off.

"You go do that then," I mutter, wondering why the hell he didn't do that first thing.

I follow, close behind, and stop short when I see what he was talking about. It sure was a mess. Damn. Soapy water filled up to the brim, some landing on the floor, and spreading all over the counters.

I step forward, wincing when the water soaks into my socks. If there's a sensation that feels more wrong and gross than wet socks, I would sure like to know. I just have to check that Roman didn't just forget how to use the sink. Reaching one hand in, I try and pull up the plug, displacing more water in the process.

Nope. The plug was up. It really was just clogged or some malfunction. Damn. Really? On a school morning and when Jay couldn't just magically fix it using some gadget. Fantastic. Fabulous. Great.

Perhaps under the kitchen sink? I crouch down and check. Garbage bags, plastic bags stored in other plastic bags, extra sponges, soap, and a suspiciously long brush. I grab that and stand up again.

"Alrighty let's try this," I say to myself.

"If that works." Roman replies. "What an odd-looking device."

I shove it in, wiggle it a little around. Then pull it out and . . . And like magic the water swirled down. How amazing. How beautiful the sight of water going down the drain was. See? I could totally do this. I could totally like alone and not burn the house down or die.

"Hmm, not bad." Roman gives his unnecessary comment.

I turn. "Not bad? Not bad? I'm goddamned amazing. I fixed it." I laugh. "Damn." And I spot the clock. "Damn, I'm late."

"Late? For what?"

"School." I remind him. "I have school, remember?"

He waves me off, already disinterested. "Ah right. You humans still have school at this age."

"Hey," I say indignantly. "Uncalled for."

"I only speak the truth."

I grumble, but give up the fight. I refuse to believe that I'm inferior for that. Yeah, sure, the school system tough nothing that was generally important for adulting. Still.