Chasing Gemini

Crimson Eyes

She stood silently at the podium. The millions of unusual and piercing eyes watching her as they wait. She calmly takes a deep breath, noticing the blood rushing to her ears. Mouth dry and hands sweaty she prepares herself to speak. Before she is allowed to say anything an older woman in a blue tweed vest interrupts her.
    " Amelia Whitewood, you stand here as the lone survivor of the horrible Tinishi Massacre. We understand that these past few months have been a particularly challenging few but all that we ask is that you go over the event that presented themselves from the time you realized your powers to the time you were found."
    "I will happily oblige but only under one circumstance." she mutters quietly into the microphone before her
    " Which is?" the older woman inquired
    " I am not the sole survivor. My friends were not among the bodies recovered. So until we have evidence that says otherwise, I consider them to be alive, kidnapped, but alive" she mutters into the mic.
    The older woman nods and gestures for Amelia to begin.
    " I believe I should start at the beginning. My high school. A hellhole but no different from any other."
    " Amy Amy Amy Amy Amy"screeched a blonde haired boy across from me.
    " Jordan what in the world could you possibly want? " I said, he tensed up at my accusing glare.
    " Just an answer"
    " To?"
    " Charlotte is having a party today and she wants to know if you're coming. You know table placement and all that, name cards, seating charts, flower placement..."
    " I  told her I wasn't gonna come. I've gotta help my grandma with some stuff. We've got family crafting tonight. She's gonna teach me how to make a pocket square, but Jordan you can go by yourself if you want to." I explained patiently. My words dripping with disinterest.
    " This is why we never get invited to any parties, cause you're a grandma in a teenagers body" Jordan says quietly
    " I heard that, and I will ask my grandma if I can go. I wouldn't get anyone's hopes up though, she's a tightwad."
    "Come over to mine if you can, I'll see you later."
    Quietly I looked up from the book in my lap as my blonde haired friend walked away with a little less pep in his step than when he had arrived. Slowly I felt my mind drift away to the possible events of the party, my imagination forming the dancing bodies, bright lines race across my mind somehow shaping the music. Laughs and cries radiate through the entirety of my body, with every inhale comes the smell of sweat and alcohol. My eyes wrap around the silver blonde locks of Charlotte's hair. The screech of a young girl behind break me from my trance. I jerked my head to look as Charlotte walks towards me. My moment of peace, ruined.
    " Hey Ames, what's up girly", the silver haired girl says loudly. Her teeth glimmering brightly in the sun. She's wearing the same boring Pinewood Academy cheerleading uniform as every other girl who circled the school. I alone was the only person who hadn't busted their butt to make it on the team
    " Enjoying the silence", the annoyance very clear in my voice.
    " Anyways... so what I came here to do is be a true friend. We've all been pretty worried about this sudden midlife crisis-",she begins.
    " I'm fine Char. Really I am.", the timeworn lie spilling out of my mouth like venom.
    " We thought that maybe you've been just needing some time away from the world, you know. So we gave you that time and now it's about time for you to... like float back to earth.So Brent and I decided to throw a party. Tonight?''She suggests.
    " I heard and I don't need to go to a party."
     " You should go anyways. You're disappearing and we kinda need you to get over what happened, like everyone feels for you but we miss you!"
    "I'll ask but like always can't promise anything."
    "Look  we get it your mourning, you lost you're parents, but that's no reason to stop you're life. I've been for you through all of it. I just...don't want you to come to the assumption that no one cares"
"I said I'd come already, you can stop hounding me."
" Alright alright I got it. I'll leave you alone to your quiet contemplation, but you know we're all rooting for you. We all want to see you get better."
" You mean like there's something wrong  with me, dear God I'll go to the stupid party, just please shut up."
Her eyes rolled toward the sky, a look of annoyance passing her face. Leaving as fast as it had come.
"It starts at 10. Sharp, so don't miss it."
She saunters off her pleated skirt hiking up in the back revealing a, very bright, neon pair of purple underwear, with the words Sweety Pie scrawled across the back. I chuckled to myself, debating whether or not I should have told her, but from one second to another she was gone. The air where she had been standing was now polluted with the intoxicating smell of her perfume. Although the fruity smell of it was a nice contrast to the usual sweat and throw-up smell that floated around Charlotte during the drunken stupor of a party.
My grandmother, though incredibly old, has never been "old fashioned". She didn't mind me getting my bellybutton pierced or having my first boyfriend at 15. The only thing about her personality that seemed to remind you of her age was her bigotry. In her mind, my friends were disrespectful and awful in all sorts of ways. There is no doubt in my mind that she respected me less for not staying away from them. She always told me that a death in the family is no excuse to go down the wrong path. The thing that always struck me as odd is that , these people were my friends before the incident with my parents. I don't understand what hanged. One day she was the fun loving grandma who made quilts, and tried to feed you too much, or who insisted on giving you any amount of money that you needed. Now she seemed hollow, cold, and most disturbingly, untouched. I always understood why. I lost my parents, but she lost her children. Yet despite her new hardened shell she didn't hesitate to let me go to the party. As if tonight was the night that she needed me out of the house and out of her sight.