Benign -
"No! I--uh--I mean...Don' go to bed yet, Brooke...I mean, it's--uh, it--looks like it's too early, and, I...um...Dad and Pop just fell asleep...and...um..." I looked down shyly, all nerve I thought I had blowing away in the chilly, midsummer wind. I risked a glance up at my older companion's eyes. She was watching me expectantly, something between amusement and endearment in her deep-set eyes. "I...uh, just like talking to you is all..."
Uh, shit. Way to go, me. Now she thinks you're, like...a freak or something. Or at least terribly, socially awkward. And that is so much worse.
A few weeks ago, Dad and Pop had decided to leave the farm, my only home. Brooke had come along, which only seemed natural. I'd known her for years. She was he closest friend I'd ever had, and I missed talking to her.
I looked up when I heard something like a light chuckle. The corners of her mouth were lifted ever so slightly; very encouraging, I knew, so I chanced an awkward grin, very much like my Poppa's. "So, yeah." I finished lamely.
Che. For a fifteen year-old, my social skills were kind-of lacking.
Brooke was half-smiling now, though, so I grinned wider when she conceded, "Alright, then, Benign. What do you wan to talk about?"
"Anything." I blurted, more than willing to converse for as long as Brooklyn would play along. My lack of hesitation was enough to make me flush and approach the subject more calmly. "I-um-mean...hah, well, no: anything. The moon, you, he trip, why we left...Haha, um, ah, well, I, uh, really do mean...uh, anything." I stammered out, cursing my lack of articulation. Good eye, me. She wont find you unintelligent at all.
Brooklyn, to my great relief, moved on as though I'd given a sufficient answer. "Oh? Well...where to start? Hm, the moon is full, as you may have noticed, it's quite bright out here--and myself...well, what is there to talk about?" she chuckled dryly, so unaware of how much I looked up to her, how much there was to talk about.
She continued, fixedly, "I think this is the...hm, fifth week we've been on the road, so to speak? About a month, and we've run into only one halfer. I know you don' really get it yet, bu a few ears ago...when you were about four, probably--you couldn't walk two feet without running into one pack of halflings or another. It's...weird. Really odd." It took a minute for Brooklyn o find her way out of her own thoughts, bu I was patient, and she snapped o attention with, "And you...we left because...ah, you could call it controversy, perhaps. Racism? Maybe. German is insecure." her voice was stiff, as it got when she was uncomfortable. "And Calamari was willing to make sacrifices for him. For you, and for the little family you all have made out of this." She finished, looking tired.
My next words leaped from my lips before asking permission, "Our family." I blushed as she looked taken aback, and moved on quickly, "I mean...you're just as much a part as everyone a the...'farm' was...Idunnoprollymore." M face was beet red, neon in the light of an unforgiving full moon. "Okay. Well. Um. Bed. Night." I stuttered out awkwardly, shrinking into a mouse and scurrying to a comfortable-looking tuft of grass.
"...Night, Benign." And I prayed to a god I didn't really believe in that I wasn't imagining the smile in her voice.
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Continue? xD
