Bonded by the Blues | A Sander Sides Book

Chapter 19 - Red Card and Purple Flower

This was toughie to write. Lot of starts and stops and shuffling segments around. Another intense chapter for you to agonise over. The pleasure's all mine.

--Virgil--

My stupid legs' got pins and needles. I didn't wanna topple over the deck of the water tower, or else Mr Saviour Complex here will jump right after me. Wait... he'd probably pull me back before gravity pulled me down to the ground far down below... I pushed the thought away and sat down next to Roman, sticking my legs through the railing. My sneakers might have bumped against his boots, but I didn't feel it coz my foot was totally dead now.

Roman raised an eyebrow at me, but didn't say anything. Huh. What did I expect? A fanfare? He probably had a trumpet somewhere on him. I placed my right against the top bar of the railing. My eyes settled on Roman's square profile.

A curl of wet hair hung limply on his forehead, a droplet of water dancing on its tip. It shivered in the slight breeze for a second, and finally broke free. The droplet landed his right eyelash, where it glowed like a star, reflected in his bright eye. Roman blinked, depositing the sphere of water on his cheek. It lazily traced a path over his smooth skin, caressing. It paused at the first line of late night stubble. Roman swiped his hand across his face, and flicked the drop over the railing. Thus ended the voyage of the brave little water droplet.

"Did you notice how weird the rain's been acting?" asked Roman. "I mean, it was a drizzle one second and a torrent the next."

"Didn't notice. Too busy not dying," I muttered.

"I guess it's stopped for now," he replied.

We were in that awkward phase when you suddenly run out of things to say, even if you've been talking and doing stuff together non-stop all this time. Who was gonna say the next line? I guess it's gotta be me. What can I ask him?

· Why aren't you running away from me screaming after what just happened? Nah. Too personal.

· What's your surname? What's this, a job interview?

· When did you shave last? He'd probably find that super random.

· Why am I so weird? Like the rain? He definitely wouldn't know the answer to that. Or worse, he would.

Thankfully, I was saved by Roman suddenly groan: "My bike! It's gone now! Oh why oh why oh why? That bike was such a good buddy! Now we are parted for ever."

I rolled my eyes. "Cut the skyward wails, drama queen. It's probably back where you left it."

"But it was at the lake! I'm such a bad master, leaving my baby out to die. The mist must have eaten it!"

"Breaking news: A miracle to beat all miracles, mist eats bike of local clown."

"Hey!"

"We'll go look for it in the morning."

"Oh My God your such a good friend!"

"Whatever. Why did you even like that piece of junk anyway?"

"It used to be troupie's!" Roman's strained chuckle filled in the night air.

"Thank you, that explains everything."

"Hm? Oh yeah so the dude who trained police recruits back in the academy had this weird name with too many consonants, so we just called him troupie. I wanted join the police or something, so I went there straight out of school."