Pirate By Blood

Chapter 8: Attack

CHAPTER 8

Attack

Maleen’s thoughts continued as they carried on their journey. Simon kept asking whether she was alright, which only made matters worse. He was only asking because it was polite – because he felt he had to, rather than wanting an answer. His false care only made the knot in her stomach grow tighter.

He tried making conversation with her a few times to, which she was grateful for – even if she didn’t reply very enthusiastically. Silence still seemed a difficult situation between them, but at that moment, Maleen would have rather been alone with her thoughts.

“Weather’s nice, don’t you think?” He had said at one point, as they walked next to the river. Its waters flowed past gently, with a bubbly noise.

“Yeah, sun – like most days. Nice.” Maleen had replied, bluntly, shrugging.

Silence.

“How’s your throat feeling, after yesterday’s mishap?”

“Okay. Getting better.”

Silence.

“Let’s hope we don’t run into any more creatures, hey?”

“Yeah.”

“Those lizards didn’t look nice.”

“No.”

Silence.

It was driving Maleen slowly insane – and only getting Simon more and more anxious and annoyed himself. The continuous questions were like gun shots, and Maleen was dodging getting caught up by any of them for very long. Simon, on the other hand, was becoming short of things to say. He had tried everything he could think of and yet he still hadn’t got a decent answer from her.

“Are you sure you’re alright?” Simon asked for the thousandth time since they had set off.

“Yes,” Maleen replied, sharply – perhaps a little sharper than she had intended, “I’m fine, okay?”

“Sure?”

“Yes,” She said, looking him directly in the eyes, “I’m fine.”

“Because I’ve already said...”

“That I can talk to you about it if I want to,” Maleen finished for him, “but I don’t want to talk about it, Simon, okay?”

“So there is something up?” Simon said, triumphantly. His lips twisted into a smirk as he stared on ahead.

“So what if there is? I’m still not going to talk about it.”

“I’m just saying...”

“Well you don’t need to be ‘just saying’,” Maleen said, her voice softening, “I’m fine, honestly. And, if I decide that I want to tell you, I promise; I will.”

And with that, the small argument was over.

Just like that.

‘Why can’t he just leave me alone?’ Maleen asked herself, in thought, ‘isn’t it obvious that I don’t want to talk?’

Luckily for her, Simon did leave her alone after that. He no longer tried to start a conversation every five minutes and he no longer kept asking her what was wrong. He had given up trying to get the truth from her. If she wanted to bottle it up until she exploded, then he wasn’t going to stop her. It was her choice and he could do nothing about it.

Yet, there was still a small part of Simon that made him glance at Maleen every so often. He saw her sad, thoughtful expression and had to clamp his mouth shut in order to stop himself from asking her whether or not she was alright, again. She looked so...confused.