Chapter 22

He didn't like having to walk home with Deliah, but he was happy to not have to walk home alone while he felt so horrible.

~*~

The sun shone on the camp while the campers snoozed in their tents. Alex had gone camping with Miranda and Timothy a few times, but he'd never been this sore from sleeping on the ground. Maybe it was his age catching up to him. His brain could usually forget he was pushing 30, but his body couldn't.

Ashton rolled over in the tent as Alex crawled out of the flap. The fresh air was a blessing, if chilly. He stretched and felt the bite of cold air as his shirt came up and a strip of skin was exposed to the air. He rubbed his face and felt his scruffy beard scratch his hands as he tried to wake up his facial muscles.

No one else was awake. The camp was silent, and the fire was dead. The sun was just barely poking over the hills and the dormant trees didn't hide the view of the surroundings much. Nothing but the squirrels and birds stirred, and they were so quiet they may as well have been sleepy too.

Alex walked over to the campfire ring and picked up some firewood. People would wake up if they smelled the fire and heard the crack of flames, and though he didn't know what time it was, he knew it must have been time for people to be waking up. He heard Arhun snoring quietly in his tent. How Miranda and Timothy had let him and Maria still share the same tent was beyond him. There was a strict no hook-ups rule, and they had obviously broken that rule.

If they were going to be split up, that meant that the roommate roles would have to be shuffled around. Did he have a chance to room with Gloria?

"There's no chance in hell that anyone would think that's a good idea, besides you,"

Alex jumped as the spellcaster Midshore soundlessly stepped out from behind a tent. "How- what?" he asked, his voice cracking from breathing cold air all night.

"No one would think that you and Gloria sharing a room would be a good idea besides you. It'll never happen, you'd just have another Maria/Arhun issue again," she spoke softly and with wisdom, but also an edge of judgment.

"But that doesn't answer the how," Alex said. "How did you know what I was thinking?"

"You think in pictures, it was easy to see," she said while circling the fire to sit opposite him. "I have many powers, most of which you have no comprehension or imaginings of. You have magic, Gloria has told me and I can sense it, but I've seen birthday party magicians with more use of their power than you," she sat down, back straight. "You need to find a teacher."

Alex blushed and blinked a few times. He wasn't used to being insulted. He decided to try and take the high road and try to not let things devolve into an argument. "Gloria has taught me how to make plants grow. I think she's a great teacher and-"

"-Gloria is a child." she spoke sharply but didn't raise her voice. "She has only recently learned to embrace her powers and to use them comfortably, she couldn't possibly help you learn to control whatever power you may contain. To consider her as a teacher is incredibly selfish. I can see why you'd want her to be your teacher. So the two of you can get closer? What do you hope to achieve, Alex?"

"I just-"

"You want to see how far you can push things until she falls for you and leaves her boyfriend," Midshore smiled a condescending smile. "You think I would let that happen? To a child I've watched grow? I was there at her birth. I taught her to use magic. I was there when she defeated Illia, and I was there when she resurrected Seneca, the man she loves. You have no chance,"

"Then why are you so scared?!" he nearly shouted out of frustration. This woman, who he'd only met briefly the day before, was telling him he had no chance with Gloria. This woman could see visions in his head as if it were a movie. "If you weren't scared, then you wouldn't be trying to ward me off. If there was no chance, you'd let me try in vain knowing that she would never show affection for me. You'd let me burn myself out. Instead, you act like mama bear, swooping in to save your girl from making what you consider a mistake. Which means I have a chance,"

"You make a lot of assumptions for a young man who can't read minds," Midshore said. She unconsciously glanced to Gloria's tent.

"I'm a bartender, I can read people pretty well," he quipped. "You're scared of what you've seen, not only in me," he stared at her face, examining her. "You're scared of what she thinks too. Does she know you're reading her thoughts? She seems pretty private, I'm not sure she'd appreciate that,"

"I don't have to read her mind to see what she thinks," Midshore retorted. "I've known her her whole life. I know what she's thinking based on the expressions on her face. How she speaks and what of. I know her the way normal people do, through past experience and visual cues,"

Alex leaned back and smirked. Alex had called her bluff and she'd fallen for it.

"Which isn't to say Gloria's drawn to you!" she covered too late. "Only that I know Gloria's patterns,"

"But you didn't correct me in saying that you're worried about what she thinks, and that was the tell. I'll talk to you later, Madam Midshore," he stood up and walked to the trail, hoping to get his muscles warmed up before whatever Miranda and Timothy had in mind for the day.

~*~

The movie ended and Seneca rubbed his eyes, trying to line up how the movie could have ever been considered the same as the book. They cut huge, important pieces out of the plot!

"There's no way that was the same plot. Did they read the book before writing the script? Who wrote this?" Seneca asked, turning the DVD case over. "THE AUTHOR wrote the movie?! How- was he in a ransom deal or something? Did someone have a gun to his head?"

"I didn't expect it to be so... different," Nora said as she leaned over and set her mug down.

"I think you mean bad," Seneca snorted and picked up the dishes from the table to take them to the kitchen. "That movie was a train wreck,"

"It definitely didn't live up to the book," she looked at the clock. "Oh my! It's quite late, how did that happen? We should really call it a night," she stood up and did a small stretch.

"That's a good idea, I'm pretty tired," Seneca agreed. He was feeling a bit light headed and woozy with sleepiness. As he turned to move to the door and fetch his coat, his foot caught on the rug by the sink and he nearly tripped, catching himself on the counter's edge. "Whew, that was pretty close. You're sure you didn't spike those sodas?" he laughed.

"Please, I don't have anything stronger than cough medicine here," she chuckled uneasily. "You're sure you're alright? You seem a bit off. Maybe your food didn't sit right with you?"

"No, I'm just a tad dizzy is all. I feel fine otherwise. I'll just walk home and I'll feel better in the morning. You don't have to worry about me,"

"I worry about everyone, it makes me a good teacher," Nora added, but she opened the door for Seneca as he shrugged on his coat. "Text me when you get home, then I'll know I don't have to worry anymore,"

"Yes, ma'am," he rolled his eyes and shuffled down the hallway. His head was feeling better already, and he was wondering why he'd even stumbled to begin with. Maybe the rug was oddly shifty and caught on his foot? Maybe her cat had lumped it up and he'd tripped because of that?

He made it out the front door of the building when his stomach started to turn. Whatever Chinese food he'd had wanted to abandon ship, and he searched for the closest bush. He was sick, and while he was busy ridding himself of his dinner he realized he hadn't been ill in a long time, not since he'd met Gloria and she'd been able to soothe his times of sickness. He didn't know what stage the moon was at. Was it a full moon? He was usually sick the morning after dreaming on a full moon if Gloria wasn't able to help him.

This felt different. His monthly illness used to feel like his whole body hurt, this was just his stomach. It was probably food poisoning. Ope, here comes another round of sick-

"Seneca, are you ok?" a small voice asked him. "Do you need help getting home?"

Seneca turned his head as his temples pounded and his stomach did somersaults and he saw Deliah standing on the corner. "Deliah?" he asked, quickly spitting out anything that was still in his mouth. "What are you doing here?"

Her grip on her bag tightened as she made some sort of resolve. "Do you need help getting home? I was going that way anyway,"

"Did you follow me?" he asked.

"Follow you?" she laughed nervously with a bit of a shiver to her voice. She looked cold. "Please, like I don't have better things to do with my time. Now come on, it's freezing out here and I want to go home. You're worse for wear and I can't just walk home and leave you here."

"I guess you're right..." he said as he took a napkin out of his pocket and wiped his mouth. He straightened up as the ground pitched like he was at sea, and started down the hill towards their house. "What were you doing over here? Seems like more than a coincidence that you found me,"

"I was- going to the library. I needed a new book to read and I had to access the database,"

"Isn't the library on the other side of campus?"