Page 11 of Marginally Yours
"Well, I actually came up with an idea for a book I want to write. It's not much yet, but I've been working on that, mostly." My gaze drifts to Callie. She rolls her lips into a flat line and looks at the floor. I regret this decision immediately, but I don’t know why.
"Dude, that's so cool! Is it like a fantasy story or what?" I nod, and I know I've lost what little of Brendan's attention I had. The only fantasy he's interested in is fantasy football. He's scrolling through his phone now. Maybe if I downplay it, we can move on?
"Yeah, I came up with the idea at work and it all just flowed out into an outline before I knew it. I don't know if it'll even go anywhere. It's not that great yet, just a vague idea." Callie pulls her hand away and starts picking at her nails and my stomach plummets. I'm not sure what exactly I said wrong, but I can tell she's uncomfortable now. I give her shoulder a light squeeze and she looks up at me with a weak smile. I’ve got to turn this around or the ship is going to sink before it ever sets sail.
I'm spared the hassle of coming up with a reason to kick them from the party when Jay's phone starts vibrating on the table.
"Ah, shit," he mutters, swiping the phone from the table. "That's my girl. She must be coming home early. Time to go, B." We exchange parting pleasantries, but the relief is short-lived. Callie's still picking at her nails when the waiter stops at our table and deposits a plate of nachos the size of a hubcap infront of us. "Enjoy," he mumbles, clearly hating every second of his job. He slides a handful of wet wipe packets under the edge of the plate and then he's gone. I take my arm back and grab a stack of napkins from the dispenser.
"This looks so good, but it's about to get messy," I say, tapping her hand to get her attention. She snaps out of it a bit and agrees, picking out a nacho piled high with chicken and cheese and carefully taking a bite. I decide maybe the direct route is best with her. I've noticed that she's definitely got people-pleasing tendencies, and I don't think she's actually going to tell me what's wrong unless I ask.
"Hey, is everything okay? Sorry about the guys, it's hard to go anywhere in a town this small without running into someone you know."
"Oh, it's fine! I just get quiet around new people sometimes," she explains, but it still sounds like she's holding something back. "So, tell me more about this book." She shovels another nacho into her mouth and waits.
It's go time.
"Ok, so basically it's a classic D&D campaign-style fantasy. There's a party of adventurers and they come up to this little village in the mountains and the innkeeper tells them that they'll need to lock themselves in their rooms at night because there's a monster roaming the village after dark and no one can quite pin down what the monster is but they know it's taking people from their beds in the night and they're never seen again. There are no bodies, no blood, no traces of a struggle, nothing. They're just gone."
In the midst of my infodump, it seems like whatever was bothering her has faded. She's got her head resting on her hand while she listens intently, nachos temporarily forgotten, so I continue.
"The party agrees to investigate and kill the monster in exchange for food and lodging while they're in the village.They spend a few nights staked out and find that the monster is actually a woman, and she's not taking anyone. She's helping women and children escape from the village because a band of bandits has taken over the town and enlisted all the men to join them. It's no longer safe for those who can't defend themselves, so the woman, whose husband was murdered by the bandits because he wouldn't join them, is helping them escape into the next town over and she has plans to fake their deaths once she gets everyone out."
She still looks interested. Good, I'm not boring her yet. I feel like I'm word-vomiting and I'm not great at explaining things out loud, so I rush through the ending.
"So, the party agrees to help her take out the bandits instead. I'm still working on the fine details but I'm thinking the leader of the party is going to be a woman who took up adventuring after she killed her abusive husband and went on the run, so she's going to be extra willing to help. Maybe when they're done, they invite the woman to join their party."
She's quiet for a moment, and I'm about to open my mouth to tell her I know it's not that great, and it's okay if she doesn't think it sounds interesting and whatever other self-deprecating bullshit I can say to make her not feel bad for hating it when a smile splits her face.
"Holy shit, Devon. That sounds amazing."
My jaw drops. "You think?"
"Yes! I'd read the shit out of that!"
Now it's my turn to glow, and she leans back into my shoulder, so I slip my arm around her again. It's always felt awkward sitting like this with anyone else, but she fits tucked under my arm perfectly. It's like I was made to be wrapped around her. We both eat in easy silence for a few minutes before she turns enough to look up at me again.
"So, where'd you get the idea?"
Do I tell her the truth about the annotations and risk herthinking I'm nuts? Or do I lie? I don't think I could lie to her even if I wanted to, and I'm honestly not surprised to find that I reallydon'twant to, so here goes nothing.
"Well," I start, dragging out the word. "You know that book you set aside for me the other day?"
"Yeah," she nods, and now she's smiling. She has to know about it already, because the look on her face is purely conspiratorial. She must realize it, too, because she quickly shifts into an innocent smile.
"When I started reading it, I noticed that there was a bunch of handwriting in the margins.” I pause, giving her the opportunity to say something about it before I dive headfirst into it, but she just crinkles her eyebrows at me.
“There wasn’t anything written in it when I took it off the shelf,” she says mildly, but I can tell she’s full of shit. “Unless I missed it?”
“No, you definitely would have seen it. It’s on almost every page. It’s okay, though. I didn't think much of it because it was a used book, but then I started reading the notes and they were actually really insightful. I spent the whole night reading the book, and it was pretty good, but it was the annotations that gave me the idea."
I thought that would be the embarrassing part, but she nods like this all makes perfect sense to her. The anxiety over the last part is what's really going to give me a heart attack, though.
"Well, and... uh... and you kind of inspired it, too." Her eyes widen, and I rush to explain, looking down at the table before I lose my nerve. "The woman in the village, the one that's saving all the people? I don't know, I just kind of imagined her with your face. And things are rough for her now, but before the villains showed up, she was a lot like you. All sunshine and kindness. She's not all fleshed out yet, but I think she's going to have a flower andherb shop where she sold arrangements and remedies before everything went down. So, when they kill her husband and destroy her shop, they think they kill her too, but she uses her healing knowledge and survives."
She lays a hand over mine on the table, and I glance back at her. "She didn't need to be strong before," she muses. "So, she didn't know she could."
"Yeah," I whisper, because of course she understands perfectly. "And I don't know, I know I don't know a ton about your life yet or anything, but it just reminded me of you. You seem like the type of person who's stronger than you know."
