“I guess we can’t really blame him,” she reasoned, allowing her head to tilt to one side. She always did that, as if her neck were somehow attached to the scales within her mind weighing the outcomes of every situation. “Even we’ve been acting a little odd, trying to adjust to life without her.” Her hair fell back in front of her face again.
This time, he pushed it back for her. As he did, his finger caressed her round, pale face, making her quiver. He looked down into her eyes, his height and her lack thereof making him almost have to bend down to do so. “It’ll be okay. It’s over now. Things can only get better.”
“Yeah, right,” she said bitterly as she rolled her eyes, turning away from his touch. “Things can only get better. It’s always darkest before the dawn. The glass is half full. That and countless other clichés that I’ve heard a billion times a day for the last month.” She huffed, plopping her slush down beside her, sending pink liquid sloshing over the sides. “I am just so sick of everyone telling me that things can only get better. Things aren’t really that great and they’re not getting any better, in case you haven’t noticed.”
Mike cast his eyes downward. “I’m sorry.”
She said nothing, barely even making eye contact with him as she stared blankly at a Beatles poster that always managed to catch her eye.
“I know things are bad. Xander’s trying his best to get control of this thing and I don’t know if he can or not. I don’t know what it means if he can’t. What we’re supposed to do. But you know all that. I shouldn’t sugar coat it for you. It’s patronizing and I’m sorry.” He paused, running his tongue over the front of his gums. “I just don’t like to see you hurting.”
She felt a grin twitch at both sides of her mouth even though she didn’t want it to, then turned back to face him with a full-fledged smile. She tilted her head up and gave him a kiss, light with levity, on the lips. “I’m sorry too. I know you’re trying to help; it’s just that, when everybody tries to help, it only reminds me that I need the help, which makes things worse.” She sighed, taking a moment to go over what she had just said, her lips moving a little as she did. “Did that make any sense?”
“Not really, but I think I got the gist.” Mike smiled, leaning his forehead against hers so that their noses touched. “But - -”
His sentence cut short as the front door opened with a bang, letting a fresh gust of fall air in for the space heaters to combat.
“How’s it going, guys?” Derek Smith said cheerfully as he walked in, making his presence known to the room as usual. His spirit was amazing. He had lost nearly everyone he was close to in the ‘party massacre’, yet he’d kept his morale high. He was a person all the other kids looked up to now, wishing that they could have even a percentage of his strength. His beady eyes, which were almost always holed up into a squint, had an exuberance to them that was only added by a childish grin and long, sloppy brown hair. There was an excitement and an energy to his every word and action, like a kid on Christmas morning. He scanned the room quickly, nodding politely to Jennifer and Randy before laying eyes on Mike. He snapped his fingers instantly, pointing at him from across the room. “Dude, just snuck out of Miles’ class and need to get it off me. Wanna have a game of Granite Gladiators?”
Mike chuckled to himself. He had been wrong before. This was The Factory. No matter what was going on outside these walls or in your own life, it all stayed outside. It was like a bomb-shelter for stress more than a club. He turned his head towards Cathy, his eyes as big as he could make them.
She laughed at him. “Begone,” she said dramatically, tapping him twice on the chest and then waving him away. “Just don’t beat him too bad, sweetheart.”
“Okay, man. How’d you wanna play?” he smiled, getting up and walking over to the game.
“Tag team, not as enemies,” Derek announced, wrapping his index and middle finger around one another in a gesture Mike could only assume reflected their partnership.
“Cool,” Mike nodded, fishing a quarter out from deep inside of his pocket and inserting it into the game. The CHOOSE CHARACTER screen came up onto the display, filled with colourful, mean looking animations. “I pick Stonehenge.”
“Don’t you find him hard to use? His moves are so slow.”
“Not once you get used to it. What was so bad about class?”
“I’ll pick... Chip. Nothin’ really, just bullshit. Talking about how animals don’t change what they do, humans do. How you can make it change, blah blah blah.”
“You keep notes?”
“Yeah, I’ll get ‘em to ya.”
The battle screen appeared, basking both of their faces in a multicoloured glow.
From her chair over at the bar, Cathy picked up her slush-puppy again, sulking briefly over the bit that she had spilt. As she watched, a smile spread over Mike’s face. It was the first real smile she’d seen on him in almost a month. He was even showing teeth.
She grinned to herself as she watched, then gazed past her straw and into her cup, deciding it might be half-full after all.
CHAPTER TWO:
REFLECTION
“Ugh,” Mike grunted,
