C:
After I left the St. Vincent's, I returned home. All that physical exertion had my muscles sore, so I had Paris draw me a bath. For once, she obeyed my wishes and didn't join me.
I got dressed and came downstairs to dinner. Paris had prepared a dinner in the family dining room. For whatever reason, she sat herself all the way on the other side of our large formal dining table. The table was well-prepared with white linen and nice silver utensils. That's why I was surprised when she brought out the food.
"Is that… Chinese takeout?"
"Yes, it's your favorite."
Corporal Chang's Pork was my favorite, and I beamed when she shoved some onto the family's finest plates.
Paris held the table to keep from shaking as she sat down. I saw her lips move as we ate, so I knew she said something. But whatever she said got lost over the expansive table.
"Paris, did you say something? Can you speak up? This room is kind of big for just us, isn't it?"
Come to think of it, I couldn't remember the last time the two of us had sat in here. We usually reserved it for the rare times my parents were in town.
Paris cupped her mouth and tried yelling across the table.
"Have you picked a major yet? I mean, for college."
This time I heard her, but I didn't want to have the discussion by yelling back and forth. I picked up my chicken and sat down next to Paris on the other side of the room.
She was taken aback at first, but seemed to calm down.
"Andy, I have something to tell you."
"Okay. Go ahead."
I continued to eat the chicken as I waited for her, but the words seemed stuck in her mouth.
"Did you want to ask me something?"
She looked at me with a hint of wonder. Then she took a deep breath.
"You've changed a lot, Andy. I don't know if it's that girl or what."
"I've been hearing that a lot."
"Special people can do that for you. And that's part of what I wanted to talk to you about."
At that point, a terrifying thought jumped into the back of my head. I was certain she was about to jump into some cringe-inducing life lesson about "the birds and the bees" or some other euphemism for sex. I braced myself when she continued.
"It's… I've met someone."
She stared at me and read my face for a reaction.
"Oh, that's good."
"I mean… I told your parents that I need to be with him."
She stared more deeply at me, but nothing she said had registered with me yet.
"I mean… I told your parents that I need to leave the Mann family and live with my new boyfriend."
At that point, it hit me. First, it was just a wave of shock. Paris had been the one constant in my life. I'd never even considered the thought of losing her. I just assumed she'd stay here when I went away to college, or maybe come take care of me in the dorm.
The idea of losing her now, when everything was already so stressful, was devastating.
But then she continued. The next thing she said brought a tear to her eye.
"They told me… that I didn't have to leave. They told me I could let Raymond live here with us! Well, at least until he got a job, or something. Your mom and dad are so nice, they weren't too particular about any of that."
What she just said blew me away. As weird as this all was, I saw an opportunity to get ideas for how to ask out Marla.
"He's your boyfriend? How did he ask you out?"
Paris pulled her head back in surprise.
"I… well… that's… I should say…"
The way she started squirming around gave me the idea there was something she had to say. Eventually, she just started talking.
"You see, Andy, when you get to be a certain age, your options are limited. It's not like I'm in school like you, where I could meet nice boys my age that weren't completely jaded. And all-day I'm out here working in the suburbs… you must understand it's natural to resort to these things."
"I… I don't get it."
"Okay Andy, give me a break! I'll tell you. I met him… on a… on a… I MET HIM ON A DATING APP, OKAY?!"
When she said this, she grabbed her face and started bawling hysterical tears.
"Hey, calm down. It's not even a big deal. I will not judge you for something like that."
Paris calmed down a bit after I got her some tissues.
"He got kicked out of his parent's house, so he thought it was time to move to the next step."
"Still lives with his parents?"
"He's only 30, okay? He's still figuring stuff out."
"Wow, which app did you use?"
"RejectMe, that new one by Andrew Jordan Paul."
"Is that the one he said would, "show guys what losers they are"?"
"Yes, that's right. They put all male photos into a pool, everyone votes on who's too ugly to be on the app, and they get kicked off. I think it's fair."
"Wait… did this guy ask you for money?"
"No… none other than for the plane ticket."
"Plane ticket? From where?"
"Albuquerque, New Mexico. That's where he's from."
"New Mexico? That's a terrible sign."
After that dinner, I was not optimistic about whoever she was about to bring into my house. I just hoped he wouldn't impede Gaia Defense Force Club activities.
D:
By midnight, I still wasn't asleep, so I snuck out to test what Cole had taught me. Seeking to conceal my identity in case anyone saw me zooming around, I donned my Alias of Lumenknight.
The area around our estate was scenic and wooded, so I planned to just hop around there for a while and burn off some steam.
It was pitch black outside of my room, so I had no problem blending in as I leapt between the trees. The amount I'd learned in my session with Cole was amazing. I was moving at a soaring speed, leaping from tree to tree and branch to branch like Tarzan. It was movement like I never imagined.
At first, I'd planned to just stretch my legs a bit and then head back to the house, but then I heard something. Not too far in the distance, I heard a woman's voice scream. It was a scream of terror and I knew she need help. The scream was toward a much more densely wooded area. I hoped she wasn't headed in there because she'd become much harder to spot.
From the top of a tree, I saw the woman running a full sprint below me. And chasing her was some man with a handgun in his right hand. It was obvious I needed to intervene in whatever was going on.
To get a full look at the area, I'd placed myself high above the ground as I jumped between the treetops. Unfortunately, I was so high up I couldn't just jump down. I'd intended to leap from lower to lower branch until I made it all the way down, but I landed wrong on one tree limb and ended up falling to the ground.
"Hey, who the F*** is that? Back off, she's mine!"
I heard a gruff voice call out from a head and I knew the man had spotted me. Then I heard the woman call out.
"Whoever you are, please help!"
By the time I got back out, both of them were out of sight. I ran in the direction I thought they'd gone and hoped for a lucky break. That was when it hit me. The sensation of two nearby Astral Signatures came into my awareness at once. The Signatures kept fading in and out, but I marveled at how my Astral Sense had developed. Even without the System, I could distinguish the energy of the man's malevolence from the energy of the woman's distress.
I followed the two Astral Signatures to the two of them. In a grassy and wooded area, the man had the woman tied up while he went through her belongings. The man was still brandishing the gun, so I moved as stealthily as possible. I got back up one of the trees and moved into position to drop on the man. He was just finishing his rummaging through her purse and gloated a little bit.
"Haha, well lady, looks like whoever you had following us gave up."
"I don't know what you're talking about. Please let me go!"
"Argh... whatever. Listen lady, you're broke. I was hoping to get at least a necklace or some cash outta this, but you've got nothing. Oh well, I guess I'll take my payment some other way!"
Now the man started grabbing on her and I swung into action. I leapt down from the tree and landed right on top of the man, sending him tumbling. However, he hit the ground and rolled to not drop his gun. I saw this and went running towards him. Then he started firing. I activated Rosewings. Time felt slower. I just hoped it would be enough to avoid gun fire.
I was looking into the barrel of that loaded gun when he started firing. I watched it exploded a few times and marveled as the little bullets flew out of the chamber.
He shot at me three times and I dodged each time. The robber was so stunned by my movement that he just stared in shock instead of reloading. In a few moments, I was crushing his nose with the fist of my right hand.
The impact when my knuckles connected with his face was massive. There was a crack like another gunshot, a brief delay, and then he went flying into the base of a nearby tree like I had shot him out of a cannon.
I turned around to check on the woman. She was still tied up, shaking in stunned silence.
"It's okay."
I untied her and then wrapped the criminal up in his own rope. They patrolled this land every day, so I figured someone would find him in the morning, probably.
Naturally, the woman was still stunned after everything that had happened. There's no way to say this without sounding conceited, but in my Lumenknight attire I looked like a super hero to her.
Because I'd used Rosewings that night, I had used a lot of my AL. Still, I had plenty left to cast Heal on the woman. Maybe there was something about the blue glow that Heal covers people in, but that was when I noticed that the woman was good looking. Obviously, I wasn't going to be a weirdo, especially considering how traumatic her night had already been.
I gave her a piggyback ride back to civilization. She let out a couple hollers, and I could tell she enjoyed the jumping between tree limbs. I'll admit I showed off a bit, but I felt like it would help brighten up her awful night.
She had me take her all the way back to her apartment, but when I left, she grabbed my arm.
"How can I thank you?"
I said nothing, and she pulled me in for a long, passionate kiss.
Before it got too heated, I left. If I was to follow through on my plan to ask out Marla tomorrow, I needed as much sleep as possible.