I’m King

12) nights with Gia

Kiki sat in her big room in the house. Gia had never told any of them exactly what dream she had when she had a visit from her demon, but by the way she screamed, it couldn’t have been pleasant.

She'd had her own dream before The Blackout. It was nothing scary. She had been lying – flat on her back- in a field on her grandfather's farm land in the middle of the night looking up at the stars. Her mom was singing somewhere in the distance – a soft, old song. A small star started to drift down from the heavens. Kiki reached out to touch it. It tingled under her finger tips and coated her hands and glowed. A soft voice whispered into the night.

Glowing star, you are going to bring power to Africa. Light up their sky like the stars light up yours.

She felt so much comfort and warmth in that moment as the star shone so brightly it took over her sight. She had never slept that well in her entire life.

She missed her mom when she thought about that memory. Kiki hadn’t been able to fall asleep but she continued to try. Eventually she decided to get up and make something warm to drink.

The house was mostly quiet. Everyone except Gia was awake. She sat on the couch with Jared's head in her lap. Kiki often forgot he was a whole year younger than the rest of the council. He struggled a little more than the rest of them. He was lucky, they all were, that G would set aside her personal issues to help the rest of them. She wasn’t perfect though. She could be difficult when things didn’t go her way. Her social battery also tended to drain very quickly. This meant that living with her was not the easiest thing all the time. But Kiki supposed no one was the perfect roommate.

“Can’t sleep?” G asked from the couch. They hadn’t spoken since the CD incident a few weeks ago. It scared Kiki – the thought that something scared Gia. For all her flaws, she was brave.

“I tried but...” Kiki shrugged and started to boil the kettle.

“I feel like we haven't really seen each other,” G said. Kiki could feel her stare but refused to look at her. She just shook her head.

“I’m sorry if I freaked you out,” Gia’s voice was so genuine it made Kiki’s heart break with guilt from avoiding her friend.

“I didn’t mean to,” she continues, “But everything is fine. Nothing’s happened since then. So... everything is fine.”

“What about the CD?” Kiki dared to ask.

“It’s still in the boardroom.”

“Is that why we’ve had our council meeting is the other room?”

“Yup,” Gia was quiet. Kiki finished making her tea and went to sit on the couch opposite Gia’s.

“It’s just,” Kiki curled up and started talking softly to not wake Jared, “difficult to see you that rattled. You are so brave and when something makes you that upset, it makes me worry.”

“I get it,” Gia watched her fingers run through Jared’s hair, “But I’m only human. And my nightmares need to stay in my head. Otherwise, I truly am screwed. I love you all too much. I couldn’t cope if I knew that those things were actually happening.”

“What things?” Kiki dared to ask.

“If I tell you, you really won’t sleep.”

“How do you?”

“How do I what?” Gia looked up at Kiki, “Sleep?”

Kiki nodded and Gia kept talking, “I barley do anymore. Not because of the nightmares, but I just find it difficult to switch off.”

“When did this happen,” Kiki leaned back in the chair and sighed, “When did we grow up?”

“I don’t think I have,” Gia’s voice held something Kiki couldn't place, “I don’t think anyone really grows up. But maybe one day we’ll all be sitting around, looking back on our lives, and realise just how young we are now – too young to have this much responsibility.”

~

“Can we please talk,” Kat sat down at the kitchen table. She disliked living in this house. It was too big and had too many people in it. This was not how she pictured her life. She was going to be a teacher after matric – she had been provisionally accepted into Tuks university. She was going to do her degree, find a nice (preferably rich like Conrad) man, get married, buy a house and have kids. That was the plan. But now, everything was upside down.

“What’s up?” Gia was digging in the freezer. Kat was dreading this conversation but knew it needed to happen. She chose the middle of the night in the hopes of avoiding the ears in the walls.

“You know you said you have nightmare?” Kat started, “What are they like? How did you know they were the nightmare?”

“Uhm,” Gia straightened and turned towards Kat, “are you having nightmares?”

“I don’t know,” Kat admitted.

“Well,” Gia leaned against the counter, “my nightmares are different. If you think you might be on the council you should talk to one of them about what they went through. I know Kiki and Aly didn’t even have nightmares, just prophecy dreams as Kiki calls them.”

“They're definitely nightmares.”

“Why don’t you speak to Conrad about it?” Gia suggested, “of all the people he’ll probably be able to help the best.”

“I can’t talk to Conrad,” Kat looked down at her hands. How was she supposed to admit to her perfect boyfriend that she might be crazy.

“Well then,” Gia went back to the freezer and pulled out some ice-cream, “Lay it on me.”

“This is very personal,” Kat whispered and looked around.

“We can go to my office if you want but everyone’s asleep.”

“Okay,” Kat took a deep breath, “It happened a few weeks before The Blackout. I was in a classroom full of children. It was a normal school day and we were busy with maths. All of a sudden children started to falling to the ground or dropping onto their desks. They were dying right in front of me and I couldn’t do anything to help them, save them. Once they were all dead a man walked in, I think he was the principal, and said that it was up to me to save these children. He said that I would be the one to lead the children into the future and save them from their stupidity killing them. I only had the dream once.”

“It sounds like you are our Head of Education,” Gia kept eating the ice-cream like she hadn’t just said that.

“What?” Kat jumped, “Me? I don’t think so! I'm not leadership material. I was hoping you would just say I'm crazy, not that I'm a head of anything!”

“Calm down, Kat,” Gia reached across the marble counter and held Kat’s forearm, “It’ll be okay.”

“It won’t,” Kat started to hyperventilate.

“It will,” Gia rubbed Kat’s arm soothingly, “You’ll get an office and a department. You basically run education anyway. You’ll be fine.”

“I can’t be on Council,” Kat admitted, “I can’t live in this house. I can’t have people expecting things from me. It's too much.”

“Well,” Gia went back to her ice-cream, “You don’t have to live in this house – you can live wherever you want. And the only thing anyone expects from you is to keep breathing. Anything more than that is extra. We'll figure it out.”

Kat took a deep breath and relaxed a little, “Okay,” was all she could get out.

“So,” Gia leaned over the counter with her ice-cream and a curious voice, “Will Conrad also be moving out?”

“I don’t know,” Kat admitted for the first time, “I don’t think Conrad and I will be together much longer.”

“I’m sorry,” Gia was genuine.

“Me too,” Kat fiddled with the promise ring on her finger. This was not how it was supposed to happen.

~

“And that is why I can no longer eat pineapples,” Gia explained to Conrad as they walked through the front door of the house. It had been a long day and both had stayed late to finish up some work so they’d walked home together.

“She’s here,” whispers came from the living room. Just then, Matteo popped out from the kitchen.

“Gia,” Matteo greeted his sister with a hug, “How was your day?”

“Fine,” she hugged him back with a sceptical look around the room, “what do you boys want?”

“Funny you should ask,” her brother led her into the kitchen and sat her down in front of a bowl of flings. Bribery. These children were good.

“We were hoping,” Matteo continued, “That maybe, you could get us a PS4 consol.”

“You want a PS4?” Gia asked with slight disdain.

“Yes,” her brother said flatly.

“It’s the only console we don’t have,” one of his friends, Jeremy, piped in, “We tried to get one but they were all snatched up before we could get to any shop.”

“Then what makes you think I can get one?” Gia ate her flings.

“You could make someone give you theirs,” another one of the boys suggested.

“Or you could go out of the boarders to look for one?” another suggestion.

Gia sighed, “I cannot force anyone to hand over their PS4,” the boys all groaned in disappointment, “But, I will have a look in my calendar to see when ii can go looking for one.”

Shouts erupted in the room.

“Don’t get your hopes up, I might not be able to find one. But I will try.”

"Thank you,” Matteo hugged her, “And a few games if you could.”

Gia rolled her eyes and hugged her brother back, “Isn’t it past lights out?”

The boys all headed off to bed. Matteo left a list of the games they wanted on the counter. Gia just shook her head with a small smile.

“When will you have time for this?” Conrad asked with amusement in his voice.

“I’ll find time,” Gia popped another fling in her mouth and crunched on it, “Feel like a road trip?”

Conrad shook his head with a smile, “Always. But right now, I am going to bed.”

“Night,” Gia waved as Conrad headed upstairs. It had been a long, hard day. He was looking forward to a hot shower and getting in bed. Kat was sitting at the desk in front of the mirror doing her hair for the night.

“Hi,” Conrad went over and kissed her on the cheek. He could not remember the last time he had kissed her on the lips – or even hugged her.

“We need to talk,” Kat turned her chair to face the bed where Conrad sat to take his shoes off.

“Okay,” he leaned forward with his hands resting on his knees. This must be serious. Kat had never confronted him like that. Conrad had started dating her because of a mutual friend. He found her pretty and easy to get along with. He knew, even then, that their relationship would never go past high school. She was too... boring, to spend the rest of his life with. She was too sweet, too timid. She had very little substance. Or maybe she was just too submissive for him. They'd had s*x once or twice in their relationship. It always felt one sided, as if Kat was too scared of disappointing him to do anything. Their entire relationship lacked passion. After The Blackout, they neglected the scraps of the relationship they did have and now? Now they were here; sitting in the room they shared, getting ready to end it. If she didn’t end it, he certainly would.

“I’m not happy,” Kat started, “I don’t think you are either. I want to be in this, with you, but I can't keep doing this. I can't keep sleeping in a cold empty bed when you are supposed to be here. And even when you are here, you aren't here.”

“It’s not working anymore,” Conrad agreed with her, “we aren’t working anymore. We’re both so busy that we have no more space for each other.”

“So, what now?” Kat asked, “Do we end it? Or do we fight for us?”

“Fight for what, Kat?” he asked her honestly, “What is there to fight for?”

“Three years of my life? Of yours? A relationship that we’ve given so much too?” Kat had tears in her eyes now.

“I can’t fight, Kat. I have nothing in me to fight for a dead relationship. I have too much going on to do that,” Conrad was not sugar coating the truth. He was going to lay everything bare, “There is no point in dragging this relationship out. It would be best for both of us to end it and move on.”

“With Gia?” Kat asked angrily.

“What?” Conrad was caught off guard, “There is nothing going on with me and Gia. I have been faithful to you. I will mourn the end of our relationship before starting anything with anyone. For you to insinuate that lets me know that you never really knew me. ”

“Maybe not,” Kat stood, “I’m moving out so you can keep the room. I’ll collect everything tomorrow morning.”

Conrad didn’t know what to say as she walked out the room.

“Conrad,” Kat stopped at the door but didn’t turn back, “It might be over but... Thank you for being a really amazing first boyfriend.”

And with that she walked out.