Tale Zero: Screaming Scorpion (10)

Hopefully, this second chance wouldn’t go wasted…

My train of thought was interrupted when Emma stopped walking to stare somewhere across the street. Following her gaze, however, I could see nothing of note except for a small ice cream shop. I could vaguely remember having eaten one of their ice creams, though I couldn’t say for sure, my memory wasn’t exactly the greatest ever for these kinds of things-

“Hey, James.”

“What’s up?”

“Wanna eat one of those?”

She said, pointing at the sign where all the store’s variety of ice cream was proudly advertised.

“Sure thing. Which one do you want?”

“Hmm… I’m not sure, I’d have to check. What about you?”

She shot the question back at me as we crossed the street in our way to the shop, but I also had no clue what I’d order.

“Uh… I guess I’ll be eating either a chocolate or lemon flavor… though vanilla is also nice, and it’s been a while since I last had one of those. Eh, I’ll just toss a coin.”

“Coins don’t have three sides last time I checked, James. Why don’t you order one of those with multiple flavors? That way you don’t have to choose.”

“Nah. Choosing and sticking to your choice is part of the fun. Also I’m not hungry enough to eat three whole balls of ice cream.”

“Ah, yeah, I forgot you’ve had the luck of eating proper food for a few days now while I was still stuck with that flavorless junk.”

She pretended to put on an annoyed face, but it didn’t last more than an instant before she broke into a grin. My face was probably giving away the fact that I had actually been eating very little for the past few days. More precisely, whatever leftovers I found at home for breakfast and dinner and whatever cheap crap I could find around the neighborhood for lunch. Did a premade sandwich and a bag of Doritos count as having lunch? Probably not.

…In the end, I ordered the vanilla ice cream. I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d had one of those, and the moment I tasted it I wish I hadn’t waited this long. I didn’t remember liking it this much.

Emma, however, decided to take her own advice and order a big two-flavored cup of ice cream, her flavors of choice being strawberry and mint. Pretty solid taste if I do say so myself, not that I’m any kind of ice cream connoisseur but I do pride myself on having tasted close to a hundred different flavors of the thing over the course of my life.

“Will you even eat the whole thing? Come on, the hospital food might be bad, but it’s not like they don’t let you eat at all, if you told me you haven’t eaten in a day I would let it slide but this is insane!”

I said to the void, because in the time that it took me to construct and pronounce that sentence Emma had already eaten a quarter of her ice cream – which, just as a reminder, was double the size of mine.

Oh my god who even was this girl.

As I stared in amazement and terror at the human vacuum cleaner sitting in front of me, I slowly consumed my delicious vanilla-flavored chunk of bliss. Unlike some people, I had managed to actually taste the thing.

Each of us paid for their part – she insisted on not letting me pay, and I did the same when she tried to pull a reverse on me – and we once again started walking towards Emma’s home. Her mood had improved even more.

It was impossible to think that the girl in front of me and the one I'd first met on that hospital room were the same person. And in a sense, they really weren't. Even though at their core they were the same, something had visibly changed – but more importantly, something invisible had changed as well. She no longer felt like a burden, she could stand by herself at my side as an equal. And that ability, being able to love herself if even the tiniest bit, not needing to put herself down when compared to anyone else – ironically enough, that made her immediately better than me, her ‘equal’, who still wasn't able to achieve that much.

Somewhere along the way my thoughts about Emma and myself stopped, and gave way to an appreciation for the otherwise mundane and boring streets of this town I knew like the back if my hands. That day, though, at that moment, I felt like I was seeing them for the first time.

The longest street in the whole town – which, for starters, would be better classified as a small city rather than a town proper – filled with shops and restaurants of every kind, sometimes taking up all the space in the narrow street and making it hard for anyone over the age of ten to walk past them. That was the place we were now walking through, the same street Claudia and I had gone through in our way to the abandoned warehouse.

That time, though I'd claimed to appreciate the scenery, I had been lying to myself – I had been looking, but only now was I seeing. Maybe Emma wasn't the only one to change during the last few days.

The cars passing in both directions, middle-aged couples sitting at bars as their kids played around without a care in the world… People going in and out of shops of all kinds to buy anything you can possibly imagine, teens laughing as they threw insults at each other only for the receiver to respond with an even bigger one – the town was alive, and for the first time, I wasn't just spectating. I was part of the atmosphere, part of the city.

The sun was slowly starting to disappear behind the city's familiar landscape, and with it went the sunlight, so abundant at this late an hour that some people who weren't used to living here would doubt their wristwatches.

Which finally reminded me – I was supposed to get Emma home before the night. We'd been walking at a pretty slow pace so far, and I had absolutely no clue where her house actually was. So I was just about to ask her about it any moment.

“Don't worry, James, we're getting pretty close already. No need to get stressed, just enjoy the walk.”

“Did you read my mind right now?”

“Why would I need to? Just looking at your face tells me anything I could possibly want to know.”

“That's some crazy skills for reading people you got there…”

“No, what I'm saying is that you're as hard to see through as an open window.”

“Ow. That kinda hurts, man.”

“It shouldn't, it's not necessarily a bad thing. Except I imagine you ruin every surprise and secret that ever crosses your ears.”

“First, that wouldn't be many at all; second, I'd rather you not assume I can't control my body language when absolutely needed.”

“Oh, can you? That's a surprise.”

“Shut up.”

She smirked widely before the conversation moved into other topics. As promised, it wasn't long before she stopped in front of a two-story house in a smaller street parallel to the one we'd been going through for the majority of the time.

“It's here. This is my house.”

“I see. Well then, seems we did manage to get here before dark. Your brother can probably afford to trust us both a bit more…”

A slight smile appeared on her face as I said that.

“Forgive him, he's just worried… but yeah, he really has no reason to, has he.”

I laughed as I waved at her, already turning around to go back home. It was getting late and I wasn't good at going without sleep.

“James!”

She stopped me though. I turned around.

“Do you want to come in? M-my parents are gone, so maybe that's an issue, but uh…”

“…”

“I-I'm sorry if this is out of place, I just… I thought you'd rather not go back home.”

“What do you mean? Why would you think that?”

“We've talked about our lives for hours at this point, but you somehow have managed to avoid saying a single word about your family.”

“Huh. Funny thing, I really wasn't doing it on purpose. But yeah it's okay, there's nothing for you to worry about. Just rest and we'll meet tomorrow or whenever you want.”

“… Yeah, that's perfect. I'm sorry for making assumptions.”

“Why would you apologize? It really must've looked weird if I've managed to not mention them even once before. I have no idea how it's happened either.”

I said that with a smile on my face as I left, but I could have sworn she tried to reply.

“You're such a bad lia-”