The perks of being a superhuman: hunger wasn't often a problem. Boredom, unfortunately, was. It was most prominently a problem, if you were with someone as dead on the inside as Everest, who was currently walking ahead of me.
683Please respect copyright.PENANAtZbYwVRdsN
"So Everest, what's your last name?" I asked. It was a brand new day, and which meant brand new ways for me to torture some answers out of the cold-blooded rogue.
683Please respect copyright.PENANA7yR8keVIQd
Nonetheless, I received no reply.
683Please respect copyright.PENANATYMkJJ5622
I rolled my eyes even though he couldn't see. "Really? You're not even going to give me that?"
683Please respect copyright.PENANAMr5Nw06xOd
Silence.
683Please respect copyright.PENANASodECXrzdv
"You're so boring."
683Please respect copyright.PENANAT7SYfUlKfc
"I'm not here to amuse you," He finally spoke.
683Please respect copyright.PENANANUGCael5L1
Ah, I knew I'd crack him. "Hurray! He speaks!"
683Please respect copyright.PENANAPqJC2tBR7Z
"Of course I do," a pause. Then: "Just not to you."
683Please respect copyright.PENANApBCti9idwK
I raised an eyebrow, even though he couldn't see it. "See, that's how you know that there's something wrong with you. Everyone speaks to me. I'm so speak-able."
683Please respect copyright.PENANA62M2qoDIZW
"Outgoing," He corrected.
683Please respect copyright.PENANAsj8vhe8QnD
"You think I'm outgoing?" I gasped placing a hand on my chest.
683Please respect copyright.PENANAyH5nsH8QzL
"And annoying," he added, walking on.
683Please respect copyright.PENANAHP80SAcyCt
"You're annoying."
683Please respect copyright.PENANA2ahoSVGpDk
He stopped, turning around. "How?"
683Please respect copyright.PENANARYUHxRErZr
"To me you are. You don't speak, and I find that annoying. You don't answer my questions; I find that annoying. You show zero emotions, and I find that annoying. I don't know you, Everest, and here I am following you like a lost sheep, and sure, one could easily say 'well if you hate it so much, why don't you just walk in the opposite direction', but I can't!" I exclaimed, pointing in the direction we came from. "Because in the opposite direction there's the Front. I can't go back there. I have to depend on you. I find that annoying.
683Please respect copyright.PENANAY7Vxhaj0YH
He gave me a long look.
683Please respect copyright.PENANAPoAqvg7VRY
Perhaps I should I have stopped at the zero emotions part.
683Please respect copyright.PENANAyEAeaWvqYI
In the duration of this long look, I observed how his facial muscles relaxed the slightest bit. But doing nothing more, he turned around and advanced on.
683Please respect copyright.PENANAUsTkuqYqra
As for me, I couldn't exactly advance forward as easily as him, thanks to this god-forsaken dress. I had told Amanda that it was a disastrous, over the top, unimaginably maddening piece of, piece of—
683Please respect copyright.PENANAJQ0BGghczi
"What? It's perfect!" She exclaimed, delightedly. "Oh, the photographers will be all over you."
683Please respect copyright.PENANA6ICSYquEYN
"So you want me to be blind?" I
683Please respect copyright.PENANAe0zsuR2wmm
"Stop being so cynical, Emerald. This dress is a Madame Brodeur's!"
683Please respect copyright.PENANAKezsp36V1M
"Whatever that means," I muttered.
683Please respect copyright.PENANAg25fMZp7UF
"That means, when you step out in this dress, you'd make every individual in the fashion industry bow down to you. You see, Madame Brodeur has not released a dress in two years. This dress itself is supposed to come out next spring. Do you know what that means?" Her brown eyes glimmered.
683Please respect copyright.PENANAPsafpyBVCl
"That the Front made a time machine?"
683Please respect copyright.PENANAVk0QRXYr1E
"Emerald, be serious! Madame Brodeur is high in demand. Rosalind had to bend over backwards to get this dress!" She lectured me like she always did, addressing my stylist. Why I needed a stylist was beyond me. Surely a young adult should be able clothe themselves?
683Please respect copyright.PENANAyCEWycfpY1
"So Rosalind is a time traveller?" I joked again, much to Amanda's dismay.
683Please respect copyright.PENANA02bTe53Urq
"Emerald," she sighed and gazed at me intently. "You need to understand that your life is going to be in the spotlight after next week. You should have been in the spotlight the moment you were born! You're the cure for cancer for crying out loud, but your parents didn't want it. However, as soon as those first snaps of photographs go off when you step on that stage, your life is going to change. You have to be serious about it."
683Please respect copyright.PENANAlkUQe4jWE6
"I am serious about it!" I protested.
683Please respect copyright.PENANAs6OLRH3XIw
"Well, the way you're behaving about something as small as a dress proves otherwise."
683Please respect copyright.PENANA8eynxr5VBI
"That's because I don't like dresses."
683Please respect copyright.PENANAEPEjCGTOFj
"After the launch evening, you are going to be having dinners with presidents, you will to be meeting royalty, you are going to be invited to red carpets and awards shows, and it's going to be shown everywhere! This dress is just the beginning. After the launch evening, we're talking Elie Saab, Chanel, Gucci, Louboutins—"
683Please respect copyright.PENANAD94uPSFa3c
"No," I interrupted her. "That's not me."
683Please respect copyright.PENANAEarEfyzGEt
If she had listened, I would be walking in front of Everest instead of the other way round. I looked down at my dress and then back at Everest. Must be nice, trekking through a forest in joggers and a t-shirt, instead of a Madame Broduer's next year springs master piece.
683Please respect copyright.PENANAiSgA0YgEOn
"Walk slower!" I ordered, more than asked Everest.
683Please respect copyright.PENANA58Dz0Dg1DI
"This is my average speed." He replied subtly.
683Please respect copyright.PENANAJVyFB4jjWE
"Just because it's your average speed, it doesn't mean it's my average speed. And why couldn't you have just given me something else to wear before we left the Front?"
683Please respect copyright.PENANAWcNjD5k6Se
"Of course. Because we had time for a costume change." Was that sarcasm, I heard in his voice? My, my, I did not know this Everest What-ever-his-last-name-is was capable of such fine art.
683Please respect copyright.PENANAffZpmxWPCc
"Maybe we would have found the time if you had saved yourself all the cold glares." I shot back. Oh, that one was good!
683Please respect copyright.PENANA5twKbrMqQp
"You are intolerable." He stated.
683Please respect copyright.PENANAyafovOoWRw
"You are insensitive." I fired back.
683Please respect copyright.PENANAFYZQX7u547
"Your opinions mean next to nothing to me." Next to.
683Please respect copyright.PENANAe1eiD8LkBC
"No, seriously, you really are. You're not the one in this unbearable dress, so the least you can do is slow down a few kilometres-per-hour. But no, that's too much to ask of his Highness."
683Please respect copyright.PENANArNY6xO5wCO
"If you dislike the dress so much, why don't you just take it–" He stopped mid-sentence, realising the reality of his words.
683Please respect copyright.PENANA716TWqMjBy
I smirked. "What? Take it off? It's not a hoodie for one to easily take off when they feel like it, Everest. I'm wearing close to nothing under this."
683Please respect copyright.PENANAEXtYxMG5Ov
"I didn't mean–"
683Please respect copyright.PENANADCYuHAPaVb
"Of course, you were just self-assertive as usual." I teased.
683Please respect copyright.PENANA4RUDGAIrXF
"No–"
683Please respect copyright.PENANAdi2iETfxl2
"Don't worry, I always expected it from you."
683Please respect copyright.PENANA5r1LTY4QJn
He gave me a bitter stare.
683Please respect copyright.PENANAD6OSGcxnMB
"Relax! It's a joke." I laughed.
683Please respect copyright.PENANAHY6jQ6p4x9
He did not return the laugh.
683Please respect copyright.PENANAH6Nr9onNrK
My own laugh dissipated. "Oh come on, it's funny. And anyway, you brought it upon yourself."
683Please respect copyright.PENANAEG10K2UFbU
His face remained unmoved. "Like I said; intolerable."
683Please respect copyright.PENANA8rCeOdpnb2
683Please respect copyright.PENANAWM2xBvouPA
***
683Please respect copyright.PENANAhGaxHA4Ydg
683Please respect copyright.PENANAikYAKzxOKf
We walked another three – three! – hours, in absolute silence. Not one word was uttered. I'm sure it was easily managed for him, but frankly, I surprised myself by staying quiet that entire time.
683Please respect copyright.PENANAzlBWfv44FB
You may be wondering how I was able to calculate the time, having no watch. It was easy. The walk was so boring, that I counted the seconds. That's right. I counted down ten-thousand-eigth-hundred seconds. I needed entertainment, okay?
683Please respect copyright.PENANAf6WwfoLCW5
Somewhere along the ten-thousand-eigth-hundred-and-fifties, my brain felt like that of a university student during exam season, so I decided to stop.
683Please respect copyright.PENANAi9tq6xjbCa
To pile on, my walk eventually mutated into a series of stumbles, so much so that I wouldn't be exaggerating if I said, my legs were one more step away from falling off. I couldn't help it, it was the lactic acid that had automatically built up in my legs!
683Please respect copyright.PENANAPwGA8Zgcok
So yes, I became tired. Sue me.
683Please respect copyright.PENANAV1JYfsiAl9
When I explained this to Everest, breaking the silence, he said I should stop being tired because it was "pitiful" that I couldn't even make the remaining fifty-three mile journey on foot through a forest, without a break.
683Please respect copyright.PENANAJleahvqnEB
"Pitiful?! I beg your pardon?" I stumbled over the words, in a state of shock. Shock from his heartlessness, that was what it was!
683Please respect copyright.PENANAmcEzcoXMvl
"Then beg."
683Please respect copyright.PENANAK0ZxdVqL9X
My eyes flared. "Hydrogen, one; helium, 4; beryllium, 6.4..."
683Please respect copyright.PENANAdrHoU1siXG
"What are you doing?"
683Please respect copyright.PENANABK6dKDp9Eb
"Shut up. Sodium twenty-three..."
683Please respect copyright.PENANAh5hL8anBpL
"So you've lost your mind."
683Please respect copyright.PENANA4vJnCK7N0T
I took a deep breath, simultaneously fighting the urge to cut him with his own jawline. "Did it ever occur to you that some people having these things called muscles, that eventually stop contracting?!" I shouted more than asked.
683Please respect copyright.PENANAVcnly8LINT
"Your point being?"
683Please respect copyright.PENANAyIqA9TfdRR
"My point being, I've been walking for three hours; my legs ache!"
683Please respect copyright.PENANA5d41W4KdSc
"I could say the same to you, but do you hear me complaining about it?" He had a point there. But as if I was going to let him know that!
683Please respect copyright.PENANA1RDoaTOV2I
"That's–that's because you are inhuman. You're the incarnation of granite itself!
683Please respect copyright.PENANAHWo1vEEoED
"Really?" He sounded uninteresting. Not that he was ever interested in anything, anyway.
683Please respect copyright.PENANAG4foZxV8pa
"Yes! I thought I was inhumane before I met you. But, brother, you give me a run for my own money! All I'm asking for is a break, not one of your kidneys."
683Please respect copyright.PENANAa0bDGcZCFl
"I believe the past ten minutes we've stood here arguing is a break in itself. Let's move."
683Please respect copyright.PENANAkLzYEDVitq
This is ridiculous!
683Please respect copyright.PENANAWfKHrQhGrJ
"No," I protested.
683Please respect copyright.PENANANLVonxhdmx
"You constantly insist how strong you are, yet you can't even manage a hike through a forest."
683Please respect copyright.PENANAykGrihXSf3
Alright, he got me there, I'll admit it. And the feeling sucked: this foreign feeling of defeat. It was the kind of feeling that made me want to jump out of my body entirely just to avoid it. Hence, I made my way around him, determined to show him, how wrong he was.
683Please respect copyright.PENANAB4pOWh7wgI
I'll show him pitiful!
683Please respect copyright.PENANABIHoaO3fev
683Please respect copyright.PENANAaYtObwYGlq
Author's note:
683Please respect copyright.PENANAwV6Qnbi5sb
Thank you for reading, please vote comment and share.
683Please respect copyright.PENANAuQ7KcvASqe
And scene.