Black Knight

by Svetlana Ivanova

  "Not all guys are like that," I commented. "There are plenty of the good ones out there, too."

  "Aren't you supposed to hate men or something, Nina?" she asked.

  I put my sandwich down for this was one of the facepalm-worthy moments with Piper.

  "What? You think there has to be a clog in my brain to prevent me from appreciating good people with the Y chromosome?"

  "Well, that's not what I meant, but—you know—lesbians?" she said.

  "Piper, you say 'lesbian' one more time and you'll never see your grilled cheese sandwich again," I said and reached out to take her plate away.

  "Hey, no!" she cried, coming to pry my hand from her plate. "I'm sorry! I won't say it again."

  "There's a lot you need to learn about homosexuality," I said and let go.

  "I know, sometimes I wish I were a les—I mean—gay. They seem pretty chill and lovey-dovey-gooey when they're in love. I want a relationship like that. Maybe things would be so much easier."

  "Right, except for the hate crimes, bullying, higher suicide rates, workplace harassment and discrimination, possibility of being stoned to death or flogged in some countries, Russia's violent crackdown on gay people, assault, depression, familial persecution, having to come out every time you meet a new person, threats of being disowned by loved ones, and having to field the above questions over and over again until the day you die. Other than that, it is pretty great and you get to enjoy the Ellen show."

  Piper looked at me and didn't talk for a long time, which made me a bit worry at her unusual quietness.

  "Piper?"

  "Oh," she finally breathed. "Oh wow. It just hit me. That's scary. It must be so hard being you."

  "You have no idea," I said and gathered our empty plates to put in the sink. "Just stay straight if you can."

  But before I left, Piper grabbed my hand. I looked at my cousin again.

  "You are very brave, Nina," she said, "and very strong, too."

  I wanted to tell her that I wasn't, that I had things that terrified me, like losing my virginity to a hermaphrodite alien girl and having a hybrid child and dying of childbirth. But of course, I didn't tell Piper all that.

  "It's just worth being who you are," I simply said. "You love whoever you love, just sometimes they have the same body parts like you."

  Or sometimes they have same-same but different body parts. I thought to myself.

  "Yeah, although it's kinda weird to say this," Piper bit her lips shyly. "But who knows? If one day I meet someone I love, who happens to be a girl, my straightness probably goes out the window, too. I mean, hey, I was in love with a guy whose brain is the size of a peanut, so why is it harder to love a girl if she's everything I've ever wanted, right?"

  A girl who's everything I've ever wanted. Right, why is it so hard?

  Piper smiled at me, and I smiled back.

  "You learn fast, cousin."

  CHAPTER 19

  Piper seemed to be in a good mood, almost more than her usual good mood because she actually asked me if I wanted to ride with her today.

  "I just want to spend more time with you - that's all," she had said.

  We left the house together. It was sunny again after the rain. The grass looked greener with twinkling dew reflected the sunlight. I only dressed in jeans and a casual t-shirt. My hair was up in a loose bun since I expected the day to be foggy and humid, but it wasn't.

  Halfway down the driveway, I froze because a familiar shiny black car was parking in front of the house. My heart thumped and clenched at the same time. Piper turned to look at me when I just stood there then she followed my gaze.

  "Wow! What a goddamn car," she breathed beside me.

  The tinted window rolled down, revealing the driver with sunglasses. The smooth angelic face seemed to shine like a star from within the dark interior.

  "Is she here to pick you up?" Piper asked.

  "I—I don't know."

  Allecra did nothing but stared and stared. While I stood there like an idiot, looking back at her, Piper surprised me by starting to walk towards the car.

  "Piper?" I gasped, trying to pull her back, but she already bounced off like a perky schoolgirl she was.

  I had to trot after my cousin, not knowing what she was up to.

  "Hi!" Piper said as she casually stuck her head into the Lambo through the window with her hands folded over the door. I stood back, holding my breath. Allecra didn't seem to react to anything. Her sunglasses were metallic that mirrored back everything in miniature. She took off her shade and threw me a quick glance before directing her beautiful turquoise eyes to Piper.

  "Hello," Allecra responded in the silkiest voice that sent a chill through my spine. I bet Piper also got the same effect on full blast. My cousin looked stunned and her playful daredevil demeanor suddenly vanished. Piper leaned back from the car a little and blinked a few times as if to get her mind working again.

  Oh my goodness, even Piper, the straightest of the straight girls, wasn't immune to Allecra!

  "Well—mmm—I just—wanna ask if you're here for my cousin," she stammered out. Her cheeks suddenly looked redder.

  "Indeed, I am," Allecra said and then flashed her perfect smile at her. The smile though was Piper's undoing. My cousin's jaw seemed to drop slightly as she looked at the blonde girl. Then Piper snapped herself out of it and stepped away from the Lambo as if it was hot. She turned to me with a troubled, almost panicky look on her face.

  "Oh wow...this is weird," she mumbled to herself and grabbed my hand. "Nina, I think we don't get to ride to school together today. You can go with her. It's cool. No prob."

  "Wait, what?"

  "See you later!"

  "Piper, wait!" I called after her, but she already jogged away.

  I swirled myself around to look at Allecra with a frown. The corners of her crimson lips turned up in a smirk. Then the passenger door lifted open for me. Before I could let myself think twice, I stepped into the black car. It was filled with her exquisite scent. I noticed Allecra was wearing a black V-neck t-shirt and a black leather jacket with sleeves covering her tattooed arms. Everything Allecra put on looked just right all the times. She dressed better than all the guys I had seen and still managed to look feminine enough to draw air out of my lungs.

  "I hope I'm not scaring your cousin or anything," she said in an apologetic voice. Her eyes still gazed at me, observing me. "I just couldn't wait to see you again."

  A spontaneous blush rushed up my neck. I cleared my throat in an attempt to distract myself from everything that was Allecra Knight.

  "That's—alright. You probably just messed up her straightness a little," I said then averted my gaze away from that Vogue cover-worthy face.

  "I did?" Allecra asked in surprise.

  "As if you haven't done that to anyone before," I murmured back. There was a tone in my voice I didn't recognize, and I wasn't fond of the feeling I was having either. It made the throbbing in my skull worsen. I rubbed my forehead to ease the pain and wished I hadn't ignored taking the medicine earlier.

  "Are you okay?" Allecra asked softly.

  "I'm fine."

  "You don't look fine to me," she said with her eyes shining with concerns.

  "Just a headache." I shrugged.

  "Then come here," Allecra said. I looked back at her in shock as she began to lean in. Her long hands went up to both sides of my face and pulled me to her.

  "What are you doing?!"

  I put my hands on Allecra's shoulders to stop her advancement. Those perfect brows creased into an annoyed frown at me.

  "Don't worry Nina, I'm not gonna do anything with you in my car," she scoffed at my nervousness.

  And before I could say anything else, Allecra's face was barely inches away from mine. The look of a strange focus in her eyes made me stay still. I gazed back into the stirring galaxies that began to glow in a bright greenish blue. I gasped, but the glow dimmed back. The dull pounding inside my head slowly lessened and dis
appeared. I shook my head a little in surprise.

  "What was that?" I breathed. "What did you do to me?"

  "Relax," Allecra said and pulled way with an easy smile. "I was just regenerating your brain cells."

  "What?" I squeaked.

  "What? You don’t know your brain gets a little wonky every time you get drunk?" Allecra said as she started the car's engine.

  "Said by a person who has tattoos and drinks like a fish," I said which made her laugh. Her laughter was as pleasant as a morning bird's song. It left me tongue-tied with joy just to hear that.

  "Just so you know, the patterns you see on me are not tattoos," she said. I shot her a questioning look, but she didn't explain.

  We drove through the sun-bathed streets in silence. I kept looking at Allecra. I thought about how she had acted last night. When all her solid walls crumbled down, she had let a flood of hidden emotions spinning around me like a whirlpool.

  "How are you feeling now?" she asked suddenly. I paused to think for a moment. My mind was clear and refreshed. My emotions were somehow stable. If I didn't count the messy part that involved Piper and Allecra earlier, I almost felt terrific.

  "Good," I said. "And you?"

  She smirked. "Never better."

  I frowned. "What brought you here today?"

  "I don't want to let you know how much power you have over me," she admitted and my heart seized at her words again. Allecra turned the corner leading in the school's direction. I didn't know what to say. I wondered if whatever she said was true or just the lines she repeated every time she met a potential one.

  Soon after, we parked in the student lot and got out of the car. Allecra walked towards me like a professional catwalker. It was still a wonder watching her move. Allecra was tall, but not by far, lean but not bone skinny. I was too busy being caught up in all the impacts and amazement that I hadn't gotten the time to really observe her properly. An ancient goddess coming down to earth wasn't an exaggeration after all.

  "Do you remember that today we have science together?" Allecra asked with an impish smile. She reached her white hand out and ran her delicate fingers along a strand of my hair, wounding it away from my face. I could feel the heat spreading across my cheeks.

  "Oh." I nodded. How could I forget? She was the one who hardly ever showed up. She came to place a hand on my lower back. I felt the familiar chill shot through me again. Allecra seemed to notice my discomfort and removed her hand.

  "I'm sorry if I'm getting too close," she murmured. I almost protested that it wasn't the case, but I kept my mouth shut. Maybe it was better this way. We strode towards the school building together.

  I heard a soft hissing of a bike and looked up to find Allecra's siblings. Xenon got off the motorcycle with Triton as the rider following after. I didn't know much about bikes, but the one they rode was so big and futuristic. Triton flashed a smile and waved at us after taking off his helmet. For some reason, he seemed pleased. Xenon hadn't bothered to glance at us. Her jet-black hair was longer now, almost reaching her shoulder blades as she turned away.

  "Your sister doesn't like me, does she?" I said to Allecra.

  "She's just curious, that's all." Allecra shrugged.

  "Curious about what?"

  "Let's talk about it later," she sighed and led the way. We arrived to class together, which was already filled with students. All heads turned towards us as if we were some sort of celebrities. I tried to convince myself that it was just the person walking beside me they were looking at.

  Soon after, Mrs. Cowell entered the class. The students directed their attention back to the teacher. Mrs. Cowell then started to roll call and prepared her slides. Allecra sat silently beside me, but this time, she kept a certain angle of her torso turned so that she was always facing me. I looked straight ahead; otherwise, I would start hyperventilating.

  "Class!" Mrs. Cowell started after she flicked off some lights in the room. "Tell me how many people live on earth now?"

  "That's too easy," Michael said. "We all know it's seven billions."

  "No, it's 7.125 billion people," Mary Jone corrected him.

  "Ugh—who cares?" He made a face at her.

  "Alright kids," the teacher raised her hands up. "If you couldn't be in the same room together without fighting, the good news is that there may be a planet out there just for each of you."

  A round of laughter echoed in the class.

  "Given that there are just over seven billions of us on this planet," she said again. "That means there is a planet for each of us plus some spares for your annoying neighbors, a vacation planet for your parents."

  "You mean in the Milky Way?" a student said.

  "Well, there are more than ten billion planets just like earth located in our galaxy," she said. "So what do you think?"

  "I bet aliens do exist," Michael said with a vehement look. I glanced at Allecra and thought if only they knew that some already walked among us.

  "Is that true, Mrs. Cowell? Because I can't wait to move out of this planet. Humans suck."

  Some more laughter rang from the students.

  "I don't know about that. But when you look up at the thousands of stars in the night sky..." she clicked on a starry image, zooming it in slow-motion on planets of various kinds on her computer. "...you might see the nearest sun-like star with an Earth-size planet in its goldilocks zone. Some of them are probably only twelve light years away and can be seen with the naked eyes. Isn't that amazing?"

  Afterward, we were asked to watch a NASA documentary. While everyone was engrossed in it, I turned to Allecra again. She was now very close to me that I could practically hear her faint breathing. Her delightful scent almost gave me a crazy impulse to inhale her like a fresh daisy.

  She was watching the movie, pretending it was something interesting to her. Her gorgeous face seemed enticed by whatever it was on the screen. Her eyes somehow managed to shimmer. My mind began to jumble with the overwhelming needs to touch her. I wanted to stroke her perfect form, holding her elegant self in my arm and tracing my fingertips over her authentic tattoos. I was aching to do these things. The overflowing desire to feel Allecra up surprised me. And the dream about her last night kept floating back into my mind. I wished I could be fearless like I was in the dream. Maybe I wouldn't be so uptight with Allecra all the damn times.

  No, I was losing myself again. I had to get over this love-crazed phase. It was unhealthy. I tried to take a low deep breath and concentrate on the screen.

  Not until the movie ended that I could distract myself with other stuff.

  "Now I have a project for you to work on with your partner," Mrs. Cowell said, looking more enthusiastic than the majority of her students. "You are going to create your own planet and write about each factor that helps sustain life. You can make up things as long as you have good premises. You can use your knowledge of earth to help with your report."

  Allecra and I exchanged a look. Then she grinned, showing off her extra-white teeth wickedly. Well, needless to say, I was going to be stuck with an actual alien for this project.

  After the class was over, Allecra rose from her seat and took my hand. It wasn't like the last time when we ended up in the attic and her tonguing down my throat. It was a polite gesture, almost like courting.

  She fluidly walked me out of the class and into the hall as people continued to stare at us. Then her eyes shifted to a certain thing or rather a certain person. Jordan was looking at us with an unreadable expression. My heart dropped. I didn't know what to say to her.

  "Aren't you going to say 'hi' to your friend?" Allecra whispered low in my ear. I suppressed a hiss in my throat. Suddenly, she pulled me along by the hand. My eyes widened as I didn't know what she was going to do.

  "You must be Jordan," Allecra said in a polite tone when we reached my friend, who stood stiffly. My embarrassment began to strangle me little by little.

  "Hey," Jordan spoke at last.

  "I believe I might have
caused some sort of misunderstanding last night," Allecra said in her smooth voice. "So I want to apologize to you for my rude behavior."

  Jordan looked taken aback. Her eyes drifted between me and Allecra. After a minute, a look of disappointment crossed her face, but she nodded.

  "It's alright," she said. "I was just concerned about Nina."

  "I promise nothing bad will ever happen to her while she's with me. You can rest assured," Allecra said and gave a small smile before she turned to me again. "You might have something to catch up with your classmate, I suppose. We'll see each other again after school."

  With that Allecra walked away, leaving me somewhat perplexed. Jordan looked over her shoulder to the retreating blonde and back at me.

  "So," Jordan said as she puffed out the air from her chest. "You're still alive, hmm? I was so worried."

  My face crumbled in shame. "I'm so sorry, Jordan. I knew I should have called you last night, but I had too much on my mind. I don't know what to say except that I'm just so sorry."

  "Nah, that's fine." She waved me off. "I knew I shouldn't have pushed my luck with you. I should be the one to apologize, Nina."

  "Oh, no, Jordan," I said. "Don't say that. You just helped comfort me when I needed a friend. It was just a bad timing."

  "Yeah, it was," Jordan said and giggled a little. We stood there without saying anything for a while. People moved around us.

  "Can we just stay friends, Jordan?" I said, looking at her hopefully. She chewed on her bottom lip.

  "Does that include drinking vodka and eating pizza together sometimes?" she asked. I laughed, and a bright smile lightened up her pleasant face.

  "Of course!" I bounced off to give her a hearty hug, which she returned but only briefly.

  "Be careful! I don't want your girlfriend to tear me to shreds."

  "What? No—Allecra and I are not—" I tried to explain as we pulled away.

  "Oh, please, Nina," Jordan rolled her eyes. "Didn't you see the look on her face when I tried to kiss you last night? She was like a human hurricane ready to destroy everything in sight. I almost wet myself!"

  "Seriously?" I couldn't help giggling at her.