“The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.”
-Socrates.
       Cody. The boy that’s been worrying my brother and boyfriend. The boy that Bella says was over dramatic about when his best friend, Marcus, moved and when they broke up. The boy who is basically the brother of my best friend Dawn. The boy that I can somehow feel what he feels.
I watched as he ran off, the clouds breaking. Hunter spoke up.
“Well, we might as well go to my apartment now.” To his words, I was about to deny, until realizing he was talking to my brother. “You can come too, Myrah.”
Ajax looked me in the eyes as if begging me to say no. “Nah, I have to work on my homework.” Hunter smiled politely before following Ajax as my brother turned.
Great, Tyler was at football practice, not that I would want to hang out with him right now. Don’t get me wrong, I loved him, but I needed room to breathe. I just wanted to hang out with my brother, but he was always with his boyfriend.
I fidgeted and went to spin the promise ring Tyler had given me, only to remember we had broken up last week. We had been dating for about two years by now. He was sweet, and we haven’t told our friends we broke up, it just never felt right. We were still good friends, so that made it easier to pretend.
My dream came back to me in full tide, the voice sounding deep within my eardrum.”There will come a day, young Myrah Fallow, where you will need to assist a hero on his mission.”
And, like a normal person, I kept it as a dream. But it felt so real. Then I begin to vividly feel my friend’s emotions? Weird. The more time that passes, the more I believe it.
Running for cover, seeing as I didn’t have anything to cover my head, I caught my reflection in a puddle. Raindrops rippled through it, warping the image. Not before I saw my copper skin and brown curls. Resent shot through me. That dumb scar. It was the reason Ajax found it hard to look at me. Not that I blame him.
About seven years ago, when I was nine, my sister and I, Sarah, were playing outside. We might be in the city, but we didn’t care. It was late and we were in one of the less busy streets. Then a car came hurling towards us. It didn’t hit us, but the glass of the store it hit did. Sarah was our big sister. Ajax’s favorite. It went right into her chest. A shard cut beneath my left eye. I had passed out and only woke up after Ajax and our dad got home and had taken care of it. Sarah and the driver were already gone.
To top it all off, I have crystal blue eyes with amber flecks. Ajax used to joke that it was a birth defect. I’m not entirely convinced he was joking. All they did was call attention to the scar.
Leaning against the brick wall of the dollar store, I stared at the clouds. My goal was to get home as soon as possible. Make some food. Read a little.
A silver truck pulled up in front of me, snapping me out of my haze. Glaring at it, I lowered my hand to my pocket. What for? Maybe a particularly sharp pencil, not exactly sure. A person exited the car. “Wow, those eyes really are intimidating, My. Like my new car?”
“Dawn! Back from Paris so soon?”
Dawn rolled her lemon eyes before pulling me into a tight hug. “You mean Paris, Texas? Couldn’t have come back fast enough.”
“Really? That bad?”
“Nah, just boring,” she hummed, tilting her head so her persimmon-red curls bounced off her shoulders.
“That’s what you get when your mom does military recruitment work, I guess.”
“I guess… need a ride?”
“Need my best friend.”
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