Time Warp: Not Scared of the Elements

[Danielle Cooper]

June 2015

When the rain started to pour down, Dani immediately took hold of her friend’s hand and started to run. Only thirty seconds before hand it was warm and sunny. Thank you very much, Vermont weather. Regardless, it got the electrokinetic laughing as she pulled both herself and Lany to cover under a large tree by the lake.

Despite how quickly they managed to find shelter, the rain had come down pretty hard on the pair, and had gotten decently wet. She turned to Lany, flashing an apologetic grin to the other, as if it were somehow her fault it started to rain.

Her free hand moved upward, fingers running through her wet hair as she glanced out at the lake and the threatening clouds above it. She was fairly certain the weather didn’t call for rain, let alone this storm that seemed to be coming down on them.

“Sorry,” Dani apologized, unsure why she felt the need to. Her dark eyes moved back to Lany, “This kinda ruins our walk, eh?” She couldn’t help but to glance down at the hand she held, only then realizing she was still holding onto it. Reluctantly, she began to pull away. “Do you want to stay here until it blows over?”

[Lany Bishop]

Lany trailed, hand in hand, as the sudden deluge plastered her hair to her cheeks and made the fabric of her skirt stick to her legs. When Dani let go, she did too, tucking her hand behind her and glancing down at her feet.

She’d spent one last year at Hammel and she was on the verge of graduation. It was funny: she didn’t feel like she should be graduating at all. She was soft and small and short, and she was quiet; her parents still treated her as a child, and so did many of her siblings, and so, too, did strangers, all thanks to her ‘young face’. It had gotten to the point where she believed it herself. The fact that she was actually about to get out of high school seemed a summer dream.

Much of her last year had been spent with Dani. They’d been inseparable: she had seen her nearly every day, in class and out, and she remembered spending early morning hours on the phone with her and wishing that (though her place had always been in the Bishop home) she had lived in the dorms, too. But there were ways to circumvent that. Her parents allowed her to sleep over. To them, they were only good friends.

Lany gave her a smile, but a weak one. “I guess so,” she replied.

She’d suddenly stopped returning Dani’s texts since last week. She seemed tense around her. She acted suspiciously like she was avoiding her. Even now, Lany could barely meet her eyes, and while everyone knew her as quiet, she was normally quite chatty around Dani. Not so today – or seven days previously. Her reply (dramatically short, hesitant, even curt) fit the recent trend.

Her dark eyes slid to the side, behind lashes dotted with rain drops. “We should’ve stayed inside.”

[Danielle Cooper]

Dani felt her fingers twitch as Lany, too, let go, but as the aerokinetic’s fingers slipped away, she pressed her hands to her wet jeans, fingers drumming against her thigh. The year had gone by quickly, considering Dani had been held back for power training. Honestly, she couldn’t blame them. Causing a blackout for all of Pilot Ridge was a good reason to keep her. The electrokinetic was actually glad to have stayed, because she had become closer with Lany more than ever.

But things were off. And they had been off. It was impossible to ignore, and now was no exception to that fact. Her smile wasn’t its usual one. It wasn’t as bright as Dani knew it to be, and it caused her own to falter, despite how hard she tried not to make it evident.

Over the year, Dani had fallen into a routine that very much involved her aerokinetic counterpart, so when it changed, it threw up a red flag. Talking to someone every day and then having that suddenly stop was disorienting to say the least. For a week she let it ride out, unable to find the means to ask just what was wrong, because Dani normally knew. She could normally figure it out before she had to ask. And this time she couldn’t.

“I mean, it’s not that bad.” She tried, but Dani struggled to find the means to sound as positive as she normally was. She paused a few moments before taking in a deep breath. Okay, she had this. “What did I do?”

[Lany Bishop]

Lany played with her fingers, idly crossing them over one another. She wasn’t looking up when Dani asked her what she did, but soon she would, with a look of trepidation on her face.

It wasn’t like Lany thought she was being subtle, exactly. She was aware that, if hiding her affections had been her intention, there were probably better ways to do it. But it hadn’t been her intention. She wasn’t sure she wanted Dani to find out, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to keep it from her, either. There were a lot of things she wasn’t sure of. For Lany, it was easier to tuck them away, so she wouldn’t have to think, or say anything.

But she knew that her silence hurt Dani. “N-nothing,” she protested. It wasn’t very convincing; she knew that, too.

Lany reached up to thread her fingers through her hair. Her lips parted just so, revealing a slight rim of white teeth. She’d taken care to style it this morning, so her hair fell down in gentle waves. Before Dani’s eyes her cheeks grew pink, then flushed a darker red.

“You didn’t do anything,” she repeated, slower this time.

Before Dani could press her for details, she went on, looking down again, at her feet. “…I’ve – been thinking.” She hesitated. “About…uh, I was wondering about –“ Lany wasn’t sure how to say it. “Us?”