AllFreeNovel
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Fine? The universal rule of relationships is that when someone says everything is fine, it is anything but.
“Why don’t you want to meet my friends?” He squirms but says nothing. “Is it your parents? Is it because I’m a… human?”
“No. Nothing like that. They told me they liked you. My mother…”
“What?”
He shakes his head.
“Never mind about her. She likes you, I swear. I just think… Don’t you think we’re moving a little fast?”
“You’re the one who invited me to meet your parents.”
He walks away from me and slumps down on the edge of the bed. Like all of the furniture, it is Kiphian sized. Once when the heat to my apartment was out, Silvy let me stay in one of the rooms for free. It was like sleeping on my own continent.
“Say something.” Inside me, something is straining. If it breaks, I’ll die. I don’t know how I know I will, but I do. “You feel it, too, I know you do. Why are you fighting it? It’s destiny.”
“No.” The ferocity of the word makes me flinch. “I decide what my life will be. Me. None of this fated garbage.”
“Garbage.” I can’t believe it. Tears form in my eyes, but my temperature immediately soars to boiling and they evaporate. I turn to leave, and he leaps off the bed.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.”
“How did you mean it?”
How I manage my icy tone is a mystery. Inside, a volcano is rising.
He rubs his face and sighs. “I care about you. A lot. More than I ever cared about any –”
“Any other garbage before?”
He winces. Good. “Stop. Look, I’m sorry I said that. It wasn’t about you. I just need more time.”
“How much more time?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, that could be a problem. I’m not going to wait forever.”
“Mira, please.”
“You have some thinking to do. And so do I.”
I turn to go. That taut string inside me on the verge of breaking won’t let me. Not like this. I need to throw him – us – a lifeline. It can’t end like this. I turn back.
“This is what I need.” I say it like I’m ordering a sandwich. Not like the rest of my life depends on it. “You need to be open with me. You need to tell me what the problem is.”
He looks at the floor. Fine.
“You’re either all in or this is over. I’m going home. You know where to find me. I’ll wait for a while. Not forever. Think about it.”
Then I walk out with my head held high and hold back the tears until I get home.
20
RENXEL
Ibring my hand up to Mira’s front door and hesitate, my heart pounding. I climb icy mountains for a living, but this is the most terrifying thing I’ve ever done. Funny how life works like that.
