by Alexia Purdy
“You know, you could come with me,” Brisa, Shade’s friend, inquired. “I don’t have a roommate yet. You don’t have to stay in this ho-hum town, Shade. Why the hell would you want to stay here anyway?”
Brisa pushed the bowl of chips toward Shade. She grabbed a handful and munched on the salty bits. Shade was trying to avoid Brisa’s constant badgering. She’d told Brisa everything that had happened in Faerie, but it was all so beyond her, it was no surprise she didn’t understand why Shade wanted to stay. Brisa was headed to UCLA after the summer was over, and Shade had decided to stay put in their hometown and attend the local community college. Well, maybe she hadn’t really decided on what she wanted to do with her life quite yet. Finding out you’re a part-faery changeling, along with being a fire-resistant human, does kind of change things a lot.
“Look, Shade, I know you want to go and ‘find yourself’ and all, but you have to come with me. What am I gonna do without my BFF to rule the campus alongside me?” Brisa stared back at her. Shade’s silence was more than she could bear. Brisa sighed while grabbing her sketchbook and pen. Her eyebrows furrowed as she scratched the pen on the paper. She didn’t know what to draw; she just knew she had to draw something when she was frustrated.
“Brisa, I can’t go, you know that. There is so much I don’t know about everything right now, and I can’t find out anything about myself if I’m hundreds of miles away from here. I have to do this, for my own protection at the very least.” Shade crossed her arms and let her head drop back onto the edge of the bed as she sat on the floor. She didn’t feel so vulnerable and open there. Closing her eyes, she took a breath in and tried to think of something else they could talk about. The tension between them wasn’t so bad, but it got thicker whenever Brisa tried to lure Shade out of the city. It just wasn’t going to happen right now.
“I really wish you would change your mind,” Brisa mumbled back. “I just don’t think staying is what you should do. It’s dangerous out there. Why would you want to risk yourself in the lands of Faerie? I sure as heck wouldn’t want to. You hated it out there, remember? All the dirt, bugs, and crap! What did it get you? An array of scars and some really sore muscles. Plus you almost got yourself killed, not once, but several times! Come to college with me, it’s nice and safe.” Brisa was furiously scratching at her drawing pad now, her olive complexion burned red in frustration and her dark hair fell into her eyes.
“Brisa, I wish you could understand. It’s really weird, but even though I hated it out there, in the wild, now I feel compelled to go back there. Maybe I draw my energy from the land… I told you, my powers were stronger in Faerie than they are here. I guess it’s something I need to be near.” Shade slumped as she yawned and stretched, already sick of the subject.
“Well, at least that Dylan guy is pretty cute,” Brisa said as she gave Shade a smug grin. “It might be worth it if everyone in Faerie looked that good. So, is he like your boyfriend now or what? You take him to all the parties, but you definitely don’t get all touchy-feely with him. What’s going on with you two?” Brisa chewed on a sour twist candy she’d swiped from Shade’s nightstand as she waited for an answer.
Shade sighed. Pressing her lips tight, she could feel her face run scarlet. “No. For your information, Dylan is not my boyfriend. He’s like my bodyguard. He’s bound to protect me since his brother tried to kill me. It was the only way Queen Gretel would let Darren live. Otherwise, he was screwed. I have to figure out how to dissolve this bind before anything else, too. I can’t have a Teleen Warrior ‘guarding’ my body all the time. Especially not at college… though I do really like him.”
Brisa giggled and made smooching noises with her lips. Shade just rolled her eyes. “Well, he can ‘guard’ my body anytime he wants to. If you don’t want him, I mean,” Brisa added.
“Stop that!” Shade threw an empty can of soda at Brisa, which she promptly dodged. Both girls laughed as they began to smack each other with Shade’s bed pillows.
“Are you girls okay? What’s going on in here?” Shade’s mother, Jade, pushed the door open and scanned the room, finding them both frozen in swinging positions. She shook her head as her eyebrows rose in a suspicious arch.
“Shade, how ‘bout tidying up your room while I make us all some lunch? Brisa, you can help her, and I’ll make some for you, too. Sound like a deal?” The girls nodded and quickly began to reassemble the trashed room as Jade turned away and disappeared down the hall.
“Your mom is so cool, Shade. My mom would’ve told me to get out of the house for that. Anyhow, I’m starved. You’ll figure it out, Shade, you always do. That’s why you’re queen of this castle… besides your mom, of course.” Brisa snickered as Shade rolled her twinkling brown eyes back at her, letting her pillow bounce once more off of Brisa’s head.
