11 - Good News and Bad News

     Even though I did the right thing about the journal, I had put the rest of my family in danger as well as endangered Eva, so to start off the consequences of my childish actions, Baddo grounded me. I was to remain in my room unless I was eating, at school or at work. Every interaction with anyone outside the family was up to Alan or Baddo to approve or not. The thing was, I still had Seraphina recovering in my room. She resisted almost every attempt to be moved back to her own home, even after her mom came over to bring her back. Sometimes a natural recovery was just as good as a magykal one, I guess.

     With nothing else to do, the two of us talked and actually got to know each other as she was recovering. Sera told me how Silas came into her life, and how her mom had encouraged their relationship, unaware that Silas was basically extorting her mom.

     Sera finally was cleared to return home after about two days of recovery, leaving me to my thoughts and isolation. So it was to my own great surprise, however, was the good and bad news I received by an unexpected visitor. After about a week of going stir crazy staring at the walls of my home, Arthur showed up, and with his slime Mr. Zippers! Mr. Zippers was the good news, obviously. Just kidding. Arthur and Mr. Zippers were the good news. He almost made the bad news tolerable.

     “They’re leaving!?” I exclaimed. Mr. Zippers had been oozing contently in my hands, and popped back to his normal gelatinous mass at my outburst.

     Arthur nodded. “I overheard her mention it to one of our teachers,” He continued. “She was asking where to send homework, where it can be picked up, and that her dad was taking her on some business trip for a long time.”

     My fists clenched, and Mr. Zippers barked in protest as he was accidentally being squeezed. I quickly relaxed my hands, allowing the remis to vibrate peacefully again. “Sorry little guy,” I murmured, “Did you hear where Eva is headed?”

     My book smart friend shook his head to my dismay. “I don’t even think she knows,” he replied. “It sounds like Mr. Tufa arranged everything.”

     Mr. Zippers sproinged to the floor from my arms and began to inspect the room. I hoped he wouldn’t make too much noise and attract any unwanted attention. Arthur had to sneak up the second floor by scaling the wall to my window. Who knew the library boy was jacked; not me!

     “Who was the lady tending to the gardens outside?” Arthur asked. “She looks amazing!”

     “Oh, that’s Mara,” I said off handedly, focusing on the slime. “Baddo’s new helping hand.”

     “Ah, is she single?”

     “Trust me, dude, she wouldn’t be interested in you even if she was available.”

     A thought hit me, the seeds of an idea. After Arthur left, I checked out the window, and was relieved to see Mara still in the gardens. “Hey, Mara!” I called out, waving. “Get up here, I need to ask you something.”

     The skinwalker morphed into a little bird, flying up to my window and doubled over, shifting back. It looked painful. She took a moment, heaving and gasping for breath curled into a ball before sitting up under the windowsill, grinning weakly like she hadn’t just put herself in immense pain.

     “What’s up?”

     “How are you settling in?” I asked innocently. “Everything going well? Anyone giving you any trouble?”

     Mara smiled thinly, and she rubbed the back of her head. Her skin turned oily and slits appeared along the sides of her neck briefly as she chuckled nervously.

     “Oh, yeah, I’m doing great,” She said sheepishly as the gills faded away. “It’s, uh, well, it feels surreal. Being accepted and all. But it’s going good. Going well, I mean.”

     “Clearly. Any complaints at all? Baddo isn’t working you too hard around the house?”

     Her cheeks grew even redder, and the rest of her turned just as red as her maid outfit. Honestly she was more vibrant than a ripe tomato, it was kind of cool. “Oh! Uh, no. No complaints.” Mara stammered. “Shaddy said I could speak with him about anything.”

     “Shaddy?”

     The heat radiating from Mara’s embarrassment could have lit a wet candle. I filed that away under information I wish I could delete from my memories. Did… did they have pet names for each other? I had noticed some odd glances between Mara and Baddo, but I hadn’t really thought anything of it. Baddo always was so busy, always on the move. He always kept himself busy after Madda passed in any case.

     “Um, nothing!~” She said quickly, her voice rising in pitch. Mara cleared her throat. “Well, um, was that all you wanted to talk about? Because I really should be–”

     “– Yeah, there was something else,” came my interruption. “I need a favor.”

     Her bashfulness turned to confusion. “Excuse me? Um, what can I do to help?”

     “Eva is leaving Havenwood. It might be my fault she is. I want to see her before she does.” I explained, feeling oddly vulnerable and more invested than I really should. Should I be this invested? She was my best friend, so I guess it made sense. And I wanted to talk to her about what happened back at Spotter’s Landing. “Could you pose as me for just a little while so I can say goodbye?”

     Mara shifted back to her original form, crossing her legs as she thought about it. It felt like my anxiety was rising with every second waiting for an answer.

     She sighed. “Okay.”

     Did I seriously just ask the ancient monster that has questions about her own existence and calls my Baddo ‘Shaddy’ to pose as me while I try to see my best friend one last time?

     Yes, yes I did.

     Am I ashamed? Maybe a little.

     But will I regret not apologizing for what happened between me and her at Spotter’s Landing? Absolutely.

     I tried not to feel guilty asking Mara for this favor. If Baddo checked the room and she couldn’t keep up the deception, he might punish her as well as me. And that wouldn’t be fair to her.

     In spite of my urgency, a feeling of paranoia convinced me to first check the mining company in the unlikely event Edgar was there with Eva. It was a perfectly safe assumption to make, after all, Eva’s dad would be working right now if it was business as usual.

     Unfortunately, searching Mythril Mines Manifest for either of the Tufas was a fruitless endeavor. All I found was Seraphina, fully recovered and back to work at the company.

     “Adan, what’s up!” She called after me as I whizzed past. “Where’s the rush?”

     The only answer Sera got was my dust trailing in the air.

     Eva and her dad lived at one of higher end hotels tourists normally book, expenses paid for by the company called the West End Resort. While most other tenants come and go, the Tufas were allowed to decorate their living space to their liking for the duration of their employment, so it was pretty swanky and not at all basic like when on vacation. I almost preferred it to my own home, but Eva would always insist on not hanging out around the resort.

     Tourist season was almost upon Havenwood, if the influx of visitors was any indication. Men and women with all sorts of appealing and tacky clothing of various prices and textures blending together into a sea of bodies. I tried not to pay them any mind as I waded through them, trying to find my way through the crowd to the hallway where Eva often took me when I got to visit.

     “Hey, watch it!” a particularly tanned and weathered man exclaimed as I cut past him. He grabbed my shoulder, halting my progress.

     “You watch it!” I growled back, returning his glare with my own. The man was adorned in finery worthy of a lord. Monogrammed on his lapel were the initials LDHO. Probably some rival hotel or something.

     I didn’t bother to see his reaction as I continued on my way to Eva’s place. Room number 112. It was actually 109 but we kept stealing 112 from the actual room and putting it over 109 until management gave up trying to stop us. The idea of no longer being able to do stuff like that…

     Oh woops, that got depressing quickly. Time to repress that.

     Their door was already open. By the door frame was a hand truck with some boxes ready for transportation. As I approached, Eva exited, carrying a box of her possessions that she placed on the dolly. The look Eva gave me as she ignored me was heartbreaking.

     “I heard you were leaving,” I called after her. “Can we talk?”

     “What’s there to talk about?” she answered brusquely, but stopped at the door regardless. “We had a fight and now Dad is taking me back home to meet my siblings and extended relations.”

     “I thought you were an only child?”

     Eva glared back at me. “That’s what I thought. Dad said it was time to meet my family, and he wanted to train me personally since I’ve always been so gung ho about becoming a merc like him. Now he’s taking me back to Zul so I won’t get distracted.”

     The subtext was clear: Now I can’t get into more trouble hanging out with you.

     “I’m sorry.” Was all I could say.

     “Sorry won’t change what happened, Adan.” Eva said simply.

     “Do you know how embarrassing it’s been for me? Coming up with more and more extreme ways to say I liked you?” Sparks flashed across her eyes. “And you didn’t notice!”

     I guess apologizing wasn’t going to fix everything.

     “I wish I could take everything I said back,” I blurted out as she was about to close the door on me. Somehow it worked. “I just want to say… I’m going to miss you.”

     Eva sighed and looked back at me. A faint smile crossed her face. “Yeah. I’ll miss you too.”

     Before either of us could say anything else, Edgar arrived to take the dolly outside. “Adan,” He said curtly. “Staying out of trouble?”

     “I think you’re taking all the trouble with you,” I answered automatically, and instantly regretted it.

     Eva’s father glanced at his daughter, then eyed me up and down. Rather than contest the statement, he just shook his head and pushed the hand truck down the hallway.

     “Can we at least not say goodbye here?” I asked earnestly.

     The silence as she thought about it felt like it was taking an eternity. Eva sighed again.

     “Yeah. Sure.”

     As much as I wanted to tell her I loved her, I knew it wasn’t the right moment. Not after what happened. The two of us drifted away from West End Resort and back to Spotter’s Landing. It was hard, walking without talking. Finding the words to say to each other. The heat brought all the animals out; at one point, a greater dragonfly stopped to hitch a ride on my shoulders, and only left once we finally arrived at the shack.

     We both sat down against the door.

     “I didn’t think it would ever come to this,” I said first.

     My best friend didn’t answer at first. Instead, we just watched as a larger remis began fighting with a smaller one. The little guy was trying to hop away, barking in distress, only for its opponent to cut it off at every attempt.

     “I thought we would be doing this forever,” Eva confessed as the larger slime began to overpower and absorb its prey. Rest in peace, little guy. “Adan and Eva, Eva and Adan. We’ve been doing this ever since I can remember. How long has it been?”

     “Thirteen years, seven months.” I answered a bit too quickly. My cheeks turned red as Eva laughed.

     “Any idea what’s going to happen to Mara?” She asked after a moment.

     As far as we knew, no one from Edgar’s security detail were asking questions. Edgar himself might have some suspicions, but it’s likely he was taking Eva away from Havenwood simply as a precaution. I don’t know if Baddo has talked with her dad or not. It’s not like I could have found out, having been stranded in my room for the past week.

     “Right now she’s helping around the house.” I answered breezily. “ A few days ago at breakfast, Mara was joking that she’s become a part of the family. And then Avan does his thing, and said, ‘well there’s one way she could really be part of the family’ and it made the both of them blush really hard.”

     “Wait, wait, wait,” Eva could barely hold back her laughter. “So your dad knows? And he’s into it?”

     “...”

     “By the Divines!” She exclaimed, and like a dam bursting, we both fell over to laugh at the situation.

     Just like that, we managed to continue talking like nothing happened. I wish it could always be like this. If I knew she was leaving, I would have treasured these moments so much more. It felt like no time at all had passed when Edgar had shown up to collect his daughter, and we had to say goodbye.

     “Do you know whenever you’ll be in town again?” I asked tentatively as the both of us got to our feet.

     Eva shrugged. “I think you know better than I do.” She confessed. “All I know is that we’re going East.”

     “Does this have to be goodbye?”

     “That depends,” She said with uncharacteristic nervousness. “Will I have someone to come back to?”

     “Always,” I told her with earnestness. “I’m always here for you.”

     She chuckled. “Not like that, man.” Eva let out a sigh, and even I could tell she wasn’t sure what to say next. “What are we?”

     “What do you mean?”

     “Us. You. Me.” She gestured with emphasis. Perhaps realizing the finality of the moment, she squared herself and looked me directly in the eyes. The fire in hers seemed to glow brighter than the setting sun. “We never put a label on our relationship.”

     “Oh…” The memory of Eva and Sera in the train station popped back into my mind. “I thought you said I wasn’t someone you could see yourself with?”

     Eva’s expression darkened and she glanced away with shame. “I didn’t mean it like that,” She said after a moment. “Seraphina just gets on my nerves. We’ve always acted this way or that, but never really had a moment to ask if we were a thing.

     “Is this our chance to?”

     I wanted to say yes. I desperately wanted to. But the words kept getting caught in my throat.

     “I’m scared,” I somehow managed.

     To my surprise, Eva looked like she understood. She leaned over and pecked me on the cheek. “Then how about you work on that until I come back?”

     Swallowing my doubts for the moment, I managed to nod, eliciting a smile from the girl I knew my entire life. I tried to memorize it, burn it into my memories. If this was the last time I would see her, I wanted this moment to be the one I never forgot. This promise was all I could give her, and it would be the one I intended to keep.

     Edgar huffed while we kept delaying the inevitable. With sadness in her eyes, Eva reluctantly joined her father. “Goodbyes don’t have to mean forever, just think of it as…” She pivoted to wipe her eyes with arms, then smiled. “Well, just think of it as the start of a new chapter. Our story isn’t over, not for a long shot.”

     I grinned. “Then I can’t wait for our next chapter.”

     The woman who had been my best friend for the past thirteen years walked off with her father onto a new adventure. Off to a new chapter.

     And it felt like mine was just starting too.