Page 14 of Poet & Protector

“I’m not sure how we should get started,” I said, idly flipping through the pages of the anthology. “Did you have any ideas?”

He didn’t reply and I looked up to see him scribbling in his notebook.

“Neville?”

He mumbled something and I swallowed a growl of irritation. Could he make this any harder?

“What was that?”

“Nev.” He stopped writing and glanced at me. “If we’re going to work together, I’d rather you call me Nev.”

“Is that what your packmates call you?” I asked, surprised.

“Yes.”

Nev. It suited him more than Neville.

“Okay, Nev,” I said. “Do you have any ideas about our assignment?”

“That depends,” he replied. “Can you write?”

“I’m pretty sure I know how to write.”

“That’s not what I meant,” he said. “I want to know if you can write well.”

I was not a fan of that question. My knee-jerk response was to say ‘yes,’ but I knew the real answer was more complicated. I wrote well as far as the usual assignments went: research papers, short essays, textual analyses. I could handle non-fiction prose. Poetry was not that.

“I’m doing fine in class.”

He pressed his lips into a flat line.

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t know, Nev. I’m not a poet. I’ve never tried writing poems.”

“That’s what I thought,” he said, not bothering to hide his annoyance.

“Do you write poetry?” I snapped.

“Yes.”

I blinked at him. “Really? Like, a lot?”

“It depends on what you consider a lot,” he replied.

My eyes darted to the notebook open on his lap. “Can I read some?”

“No.”

“Why not?” I asked. “There’s no reason for me to believe your poems are good.”

“Maybe they aren’t,” he said coolly. “It doesn’t matter. We’re writing this new poem together, so whether or not my poems are good doesn’t factor. Writing alone isn’t the same as collaborating.”

“If how you write alone doesn’t matter, why did you bother asking if I can write well?”

“I probably shouldn’t have.”

“All right.” I barely held back a snarl. “Since we wasted time with that circular exchange, can we talk about what we’re actually going to do for the assignment?”

“It wasn’t that circular,” Nev muttered.