In the Skin of Dragon

Chapter 4: Unpleasant meeting

“Ah, this is dreamy.” I was literally melting, floating freely on my inflatable mattress in the water. “For you maybe.” Kendra complained with her hat deep on her head and her black sunglasses trying to avoid the sun as much as possible. “Come on. It is not that bad.” I told her, splashing a bit of water on her. She avoided the water that I had aimed at her face like the plague.

 “Hey, not in my face, or else we are going straight home.” She said angrily, I knew she wasn’t joking. “Alright, alright. I am sorry.” I told her with my hands up and she used this opportunity to flip me over so I ended up completely underwater.

“Wow. Thanks so much.” I said as I tried to get the salty water off my face and especially out of my eyes but since I had been underwater there was no way I would not feel this sticky salt everywhere now.

“You’re most welcome,” Kendra replied sheepishly, making her way out of the water so she could sit under the umbrella in the shade again.

I climbed back onto the floating mattress so I could relax. To my disappointment, I was flipped over again as someone bounced onto me. “Oh, sorry there. Are you alright?” Said the most handsome and husky voice I had ever heard in my life while I spat water out of my mouth once again.

“I am alright. Thanks.” I replied shyly. It was the first time Andrew actually talked to me. This kind of thing never happened to me before. “Do I know you?” He said curiously and confused and I felt a sharp pain deep in my heart, I never imagined it could feel like this. I could liken it to the pain when a needle is piercing your skin except, I thought there were like thousands of needles right going straight to my heart.

“From school. We attend the same school.” I wanted to tell him that I am his sister’s friend but then I remembered that he is ignoring her as if she doesn’t even exist. I completely forgot the meeting at the parking lot yesterday too.

“Ah, right.” He replied. “Who are you talking to Andrew?” A very familiar high pitched voice came from behind Andrew and I quietly hoped that maybe she would flip over something in the water and simply drown. Finally, I had my time with Andrew and the chance to talk to him, and the only person that has to come ruin it is Emily.

“Someone from our school. I guess she might be in your class.” Andrew replied to her and out of nowhere a smile appeared on his face while he turned to face Emily. “Oh, let me see,” Emily said but the moment she saw me behind Andrew her face showed everyone present that I was not the person she wanted to see.

“It's you.” She said annoyed, turning her gaze back to Andrew. “She is your sister’s best friend.” She said knowing exactly the effect this may cause. Everyone at our school was aware of the relationship between the two siblings.

“I see.” Was all he said before turning his back to me completely leading Emily away from me to their end of the beach. I looked around making sure that I hadn’t somehow ended up at their end but to my disappointment, I was just still at my end. I looked again at Andrew’s retreating back and noticed that they were playing volleyball in the water not too far from us and then I noticed that Andrew was holding the ball. They must have thrown the ball too far and the wind brought it to this side. They were almost gone and sadly I took the floating mattress and headed back to Kendra, out of the water.

“What’s with that face. What happened?” She asked me and I was curious as to whether she just missed the whole situation with her brother or if she simply wanted to tease me and make me say it out loud.

“I had the opportunity to talk to your brother and Emily,” I told her sarcastically. “Lucky you.” That was the only thing she told me before turning on her belly so she could sleep. “Hey. That’s all?” I told her poking her in the ribs. “Ow. What are you doing?” She shouted at me, turning on her back. “I just told you that I met your brother and had a chance to talk to him and you don’t even care? What kind of friend are you?” I almost shouted at her. Right after I said those words and saw her stern expression, I wanted to take it back. My anger was not towards her but Emily and stupid Andrew.

“What kind of friend am I? Let me tell you exactly what kind of friend I am. I am the friend who takes her bestie to the beach even though I hate beaches. I am the friend who fights with her brother just because of his stupid attitude and doesn’t want my best friend to be drooling over someone who doesn’t deserve even a single look because of his hypocrisy. I am the kind of friend who would rather care and spend time with my best friend who is worth everything in this world than say a single word to the person who can’t even accept his sister because she has dreams of having something better and wishes the same for her best friend.” She was bombarding me with words without taking a breath. At least it looked like she was not breathing at all while giving me a speech.

“I am sorry. I was angry but I should not have taken my anger out on you.” I gave her a stupid and plain apology but I could already see that what I said had hurt Kendra. “You are my bestie and you always will be. You know, that right?” I hugged her tightly. She was acting tough and hard at first and refused to hug me back but in the end, my snuggling would not allow her to be cold for long and she hugged me back.

“Yesterday when I said that you deserve better, I meant it. You don’t know him the way I do. He is not good at all.” Kendra told me but even though she may be right I didn’t want to accept it. Or maybe I didn’t want to see it, I don’t know. I just knew that I loved him and dreamed of the time we could spend together, and have a life together.

“I can’t help it, Kendra. I do love him.” I pushed away from her a bit so I could see her face. “I know. But this life is not suited for you. I am sure there is something more waiting for you.” She told me with a serious expression and I could see that she really believed what she was saying.

“I don’t think there is anything more for any of us Kendra. We are human and sooner or later we will have to face the fact and stand proudly while accepting our working appointments. We don’t have the long lifespan of the elves, the strength of the dwarfs or the power of the dragons. In their eyes, we are just bugs that work for them and their comfortable lives.” I told her my thoughts. I know I was running away from this truth as long as I could but since next year would be my last at school I have less than two years left before my life would become the same dull grey as every other adult human in this world.

“I don’t believe that and I will never accept that.” She told me and pulled me back into the hug. “I know you can’t feel it or see it but since the first day I saw you at school I saw something around you. I saw something in you and since that day I knew you are way more special than you think. Sooner or later you will see it for yourself. Since that day I knew I wanted to be by your side to see this world finally change.” She told me and I felt warm tears falling on my shoulder. She was crying.

“Why are you crying?” I asked her. Knowing that she was crying hurt me just as much as when her brother showed me that he had no idea I even existed until now. “because the moment you know that you are special, we will be separated and I will most likely never see you again.” She told me and then I could understand the pain she felt. Just thinking about it broke my heart too.

“That will never happen. Even if I were taken away or something, I will always find a way to get back to my bestie. I promise you that.” I said seriously and I meant it. “I am afraid that might not be within your power,” Kendra said, drying her eyes on her shirt sleeves which she put on after coming out of the water. I didn’t understand how she could handle layers of clothing during hot weather like this.

I didn’t know what more I could say or do. This beach day didn’t end up as I had planned or dreamed. I wanted a calm, relaxing day at the beach. I wanted to enjoy the sun, sand and warm water but instead, I got an unpleasant meeting with Emily and a painful conversation with Andrew and as a dessert some weird predictions from Kendra which made me sad.

“Maybe we could go home today. Stop at the shop to get some microwave popcorn and ice cream and I think we could start our movie evening earlier.” I eventually said since I was no longer in the mood because of everything that happened.

“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.” Kendra pushed me away to see my face and I saw that she managed to dry up all her tears. We collected our stuff and simply left the beach,  first going to the supermarket to buy what we needed for our movie night and then straight home.

It was just around two o'clock in the afternoon but to my surprise, mom was already preparing food for us and by smell of it, I guessed we would have spaghetti today. “You are home early girls. Did something happen?” My mom asked worriedly seeing us in the hallway. I tried to put a smile on my face but as hard as it was, I was sure my mom would see through it. I was also sure she would not make me talk unless I felt like I wanted to talk.

“No, Astrid, we were just tired of the sun, sand and especially the hot weather so we decided to get popcorn and some ice cream and spend the rest of the day watching a movie. Will you join us for some nice horrors?” Kendra spoke very freely with my mom and since my mom loved her, she dealt with her as if she was another daughter. I even remember my mom telling Kendra to call her mom just like I did. I think it was when we were around ten but Kendra politely refused at that time saying something like that would be not polite towards her mom. My mom was so moved that she hugged Kendra for almost ten minutes straight. To be fair as a ten year old girl I was even afraid that my mom would try to trade me for Kendra with Kendra’s mom.

“You know I would not miss any horror movie that you’ve brought. You have the most delicate taste when it comes to horror movies.” My mom winked at her happily. This was the only thing I did not have in common with my mom. She loved horror movies as did Kendra. I was the only one who would rather watch some cartoons and animated movies instead of real actors. The fact is that I hated movies with live actors because they always made humans look stupid and especially in horror movies they were always the ones who died first and had the most horrible deaths. If someone survived or saved the day it was always an elf, dwarf or dragon. Humans were never heroes or brave and this made me so angry with movies that simply I stopped watching them completely. “Oh, thank you. Finally, I feel appreciated.” Kendra replied to my mom smiling. “Alright girls. Take shower so you wash the salt off of your bodies and I will finish the food in the meantime. After food, we can watch movies all day long.” My mom told us and we did as she said.