Accessory Wars

Chapter 54-Ki

            Six hours. Six. Bum. Numbing. Hours. Why we decided it was a good idea to drive all the way out to Whales is beyond me.

The entire trip was so spur of the moment I didn't give the car ride a thought. Jay called me Thursday night asking me if I wanted to drive out to Whales after he finished class on Friday. I was surprised he wanted to go, especially since we didn't have the greatest luck when Elicits were fighting. He told me my promise to take him out to Serenhe in October breathed a new sense of energy into him. That and Friday was also the last day of finals and he wanted to be as far away from school as possible since it was graduation weekend.

Graduation. The word hit me like a brick and I sat dazed as Jay rambled on about hotels. Jay was graduating. Derek too. They were both done with their degrees. Undergrad degrees, at least. Jay was going to go to grad school while Derek went on to play professional football. And here I was sitting with half a degree washing dishes four times a week. It made me feel so behind.

Jay must have sensed my negative energy because he was knocking on my door, I kid you not, thirty seconds later. I completely spaced out his half of the conversation so I didn't even know he was heading over. We propped ourselves on my bed, Jay wrapping himself around me like a cage with his lanky limbs. While I may have been behind on my career, Jay was making sure I kept pace with him in life. It took all my will power not to tear up, especially when he kept pressing kisses to the top of my head.

And thus, that was how the agonizingly long car ride came to be. I didn't look forward to the trip back. At least Jay refueled my exhausted brain with a snuggle session when we got to the hotel. For as lanky as he was, he made a comfortable cushion to lean on. Either that or my fat made me impervious to uncomfortable snuggles. Ugh...I don't even want to mention the scale.

The morning of the tournament, I noticed Jay put on a lot of bracelets to help hide the bands on his wrists. Something else I noticed was the decrease in scabs marring his skin ever since I took him out to Lestho. Once in awhile, he'd wince but I only had to fetch paper towels for him once. The discord in his heart was straightening and I was sure as soon as Jay was given freedom of his Elicit powers again, he'd master his Gravitation.

Hopefully.

Three more months and he'd be free again. Now that he was done with school, he'd be spending all his free time fulfilling his community service. Que me being jealous over my lack of quality Jay time. At least the ERT was nice enough to give him permission to go to Whales. I didn't think they would, especially after what happened in Bailey, but turns out I was wrong. Even Jay was surprised when he got the go ahead. He still had an hour of security check-ins when we arrived. By the time he got through, I'd already bought and drank an entire coffee. A very overpriced coffee, I might add. I was already dreading the prices for Mondue's tournament. I mean the tickets were close to two hundred a piece so I can only image the food being three times its normal price.

We wove through the throngs of people and spotted Kami's dark outfit sticking out amongst the crowd. We tried to sneak up on her and, of course, we failed. Her face broke into a grin and she crushed us both in hugs. Jay's back popped so loud I feared she broke his spine.

"Why didn't you tell us you were coming?! You guys are so sweet," Kami exclaimed as she released Jay. A step behind her stood Felisa and she stared at us in awe. When the reality of our presence sunk in, she smiled and waved at us. Her other hand interlocked with a sandy blonde male standing beside her.

"Surprise," I said with some jazz hands. I jerked my thumb at Jay. "You have him to thank."

"I thought you weren't going to come because of the drive," Kami said.