Page 42 of True Sight
“I have fun. I have fun all the time, thank you very much.”
“Oh you do, do you? Because you act like you’ve never even heard of the word ‘fun’ sometimes.” I’m only joking but there’s a noticeable shift in his demeanor. He looks like he’s sucking on a sour grape or been punched in the gut. “Hey, I’m only joking. I know you have fun, I’ve had fun with you before.” I bump my shoulder with his but he pulls away quickly.
“I’m so tired of people telling me to lighten up or to chill out. I’m really not trying to be such a fucking burden to everyone in my life,” he mumbles and I realize I’ve touched a nerve.
“Conrad, mate, I’m really?—”
“I’m trying, okay?” he snaps. “I’m trying to not be so uptight and controlling. I started therapy, I got the dog, I said yes to coming here with you?—”
“And I’m glad you did,” I soothe, stopping in the path against Annie’s will. I reach for his arm and hold it so he can’t walk away. “I’m glad you said yes to this morning, I’m having a really great time with you, promise. I’m sorry for making you think I wasn’t.”
He doesn’t look at me for a few moments before mumbling to the ground. “I’m having a good time too.”
“Then let’s keep having a good time before Annie loses her ever loving mind since we aren’t going anywhere.” We both look at the dog who is now spinning in circles and trying to run around us. We both let out a laugh before looking at each other. When he nods, I let his arm go and we continue down the path.
“I’m horribly terrified of storms. So much so that there have been times where I’ve been found curled up in my bath trying to hide from the thunder and lightning,” I announce after a few moments.
“What?” He tips his head towards me, confused.
“I can’t stand when someone doesn’t steep their tea long enough. Your tea should always be strong enough to knock you on your arse.”
“Why are you?—”
“And I get irrationally upset when someone judges another person for who they are, what they do with their lives, or who they love. I’m not one to get angry, but that will make my insides hot in an instant.” I wave my hands away from my waist, already angry thinking about the things my parents said to me when I told them I was more interested in boys than girls.
“Why do I care about any of this?” Conrad sneers, scrunching his nose up at me. I can’t stop my finger from reaching out and running it down the bridge of his nose to smooth it out. He flinches for a moment as my hand gets closer, but lets me complete the task.
“Maybe you don’t care, and that would be fine. But I want you to know that the people who care about you, the people who love you, will see that you’re trying and notthink of you as a burden. We all have things we’re working on and trying to improve, you aren’t alone in that.”
He stares at me blankly for a second before blinking a few times. We’ve stopped in the middle of the path and are facing one another. He takes half a step closer to me and I feel my heart jump into my throat thinking something is going to happen when a couple of joggers come up from behind us and run between us. We both jump back to our own sides of the dirt walkway. He clears his throat loudly and shakes his head, swinging his ashy blond hair out of his eyes.
“Thanks,” he mumbles to himself just loud enough for me to hear.
“For what?” I ask, following him as we start walking again. We’ve finally hit the final bend of the path that will lead us back to the car park.
“For getting me out of the house. For bringing me here. For saying what you did…” his voice trails off as his eyes cast down towards the road we’ve finally reached.
I hand him Annie’s leash as we reach his car and grab his arm like I did before. “I like hanging out with you, I really mean that.”
His eyes scan mine and the corner of his mouth twitches slightly. “Yeah, I like hanging out with you too.”
“So then I guess your open invitation to ‘hang out’ still stands?” I tease, sitting down into the passenger seat since he’s opened the door for me. I don’t even think he noticed he had, but I did, and my heart is somersaulting in my chest because of it.
“Don’t push your luck, sweets,” he calls out before slamming the door. My eyebrows meet in the center of my face as I wait for him to get in next to me. Annie is lying down in the backseat, successfully worn out.
“Sweets?” I ask once he’s in the driver’s seat and fastening his seatbelt.
“HenryBaker? Baker, sweets? Get it?” He looks at me as if I should have caught on sooner. “It just felt right, especially for someone like you.” His eyes burn into me and I can feel my cheeks flush. I bite down on the inside of my cheek in an attempt to hide how happy the silly nickname makes me the entire ride home.
19
CONRAD
1 New Message: Dungeons and Dickheads
Kolbi:
I don’t know if you’ve all seen but we’re supposed to get a really bad storm by the end of the week and throughout the weekend. It’s supposed to flood pretty bad downtown so no one go and do anything stupid.
