Manipulations
1554 Words
He continuously watched on in anger and frustration while the young man glared at him in return.
There was Alpha in his blood-no doubt about that and he an uncanny resemblance to his father. So, there was definitely not a shadow of a doubt that when Aurora called him brother, it wasn’t for show. There was something different about him though; something in his blood that was different than hers. As if it had been tampered with; just as Aurora’s had no doubt been tampered with, however, in a different way.
All of that aside, though, there was one thing that Azul knew he didn’t need to question about this boy. He would definitely be a problem in the grand scheme of things.
Azul, greatly annoyed, watched Aurora storm off of the field, curious as to where she was going yet doubting that she had left completely. Or at least he hoped that it wasn’t the case; the girl was an enigma after all. She had obviously just had a heated argument with her brother and Azul knew that he was part of the tension. Her brother obviously didn't appreciate the idea of his twin dealing with him. Any other rebellious sister would have run straight into his arms, Aurora, however, did the complete opposite, deciding that she'd prefer herself to either of them.
His desire to follow after her was almost desperate in a sense, but he knew that she wanted to be alone. Besides, Azul knew by the look of her brother’s expression that had he gotten up to follow Aurora, her brother would definitely go after him. So, for now, he decided that he'd bide his time and wait for the right moment when he’d make a move to find Aurora. After all, he had a feeling that the girl that seemed to be obsessively watching Aurora's brother from afar wanted his attention off of his sister as badly as Azul himself.
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“Hey, babe. You alright?” Jennifer asked as she approached an enraged-looking Jeriko.
“Yeah.” Jeriko almost absentmindedly replied, his gaze still on the stranger that was sitting in the stands, not once breaking eye contact with him. “Did they find out why the barrels exploded?” He asked though he had already known that he was the reason behind it. The concern just wasn’t anywhere near as important to him at that moment as the situation of this strange man following his sister around like a lost puppy.
Jennifer shrugged. “They think that it may have been faulty or maybe the sun overheated or...I don’t know.” She veered off. “All of the reasons that they have given just doesn’t seem that plausible to me.” She said. “I mean, it is a little sunny and warm for an autumn day, but surely not hot enough to make the Gatorade dispenser explode.” When Jennifer noticed the silence, she finally seemed to realize that Jeriko’s mind wasn’t on what she was saying at all. “Babe, are you sure you’re okay?” She asked again, the words barely left her mouth when she realized the fact that Jeriko’s very concentrated and penetrating gaze was zeroed in on one person in particular. “Jer, who is that?” She asked.
“I don’t know,” Jeriko answered after a long silence, his thoughts too full of paranoid questions to answer right away. “But I have a feeling that he’s up to no good.” He muttered to himself more so than to his girlfriend.
As if the man heard him say those words, he scoffed and stood from where he sat to finally leave. Jeriko already knew where he was headed.
“Why do you think that?” Jennifer’s question hardly registered in Jeriko’s mind.
Jeriko knew that this man was going after his sister. He wasn’t about to stand around and allow this, not knowing what his intentions were. It was hard to trust any guy with Aurora considering how adamant the Zodiac seemed to be in hurting her and with the newly recognized power that Jeriko just found out Aurora had, he was even more afraid of and distrustful of the situation. He immediately started to go after him and his little sister.
Jennifer halted Jeriko before he could fully depart. “Wait! Where are you going?”
“Where do you think? I’m following him so that I can confront him for stalking my sister.”
“No, you’re not,” Jennifer demanded frustratedly, stopping him again. ”The game is about to start back up. And besides, how do you even know that he is stalking her anyway?”
“Guess there’s only one way to find out,” Jeriko said, only concerning himself with the last part of what his girlfriend had said.
“Jeriko, wait! The team needs you.” Jennifer stood in front of Jeriko trying to reason with him.
“Yeah, well my little sister needs me more.” He gently, with slight assertion, moved Jennifer to the side and started to follow after this man once more, when Jennifer stood in front of him again. “Move, Jen,” Jeriko frowned, his patience wearing thin with his girlfriend at this point. He walked past her.
Jennifer then grabbed his arm. “Jeriko, the team needs you to-”
“I don’t care what they need from me!” Jeriko finally snapped. “There are more important things in life than your and this town’s stupid and mundane ideas on the school curriculum, Jennifer!” He could feel himself losing control again after not fully reeling himself in just moments earlier. “And my sister is one of those things.” He snatched away from Jennifer. “You need to understand that, Jennifer.” He hissed and started to walk away.
“Oh, I do,” Jennifer replied, Jeriko could feel her eyes on him as he walked away from her. “Which is why I so wish, that I did not have to do this.” She mumbled the last part.
Jeriko heard what she had said, but didn’t care, as his sister and what she had potentially gotten herself into with this mysterious man following her, concerned him far more.
“Whatever, Jen-” The words were suddenly cut off as he froze in his steps, a near trance taking ahold of him. Jeriko couldn’t move, he couldn’t think, he couldn’t even see. Everything was suddenly blank.
“The team is your priority. It is what is more important-the game and I am more important.”
The voice echoed through his mind-the words almost blinding him to anything else as what was spoken was gradually becoming his main concern.
“Not the stranger and certainly not your selfish, self-entitled sister.”
All of a sudden Jeriko’s eyes blinked rapidly before they stay open, and he suddenly couldn’t remember what happened before that moment. However, it was in a way that didn’t seem to concern him much. He looked down to see Jennifer standing there with concern on her face.
“You alright?’ She asked.
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” He asked. While he didn’t remember what was going on just a moment ago, he knew that it had something to do with Aurora.
“Well, you just got into an argument with your sister and was going to go after her.”
“Oh, was I?” As Jennifer brought this to his attention, the thought of how selfish and self-entitled his sister was, suddenly came to mind. And the more that his mind lingered on this thought, the more frustrated he became concerning the idea of even going after her. “Whatever it is, she can wait,” Jeriko muttered to himself. He turned to Jennifer and kissed her. “I have a game to win.”
Jennifer watched her boyfriend return to the field. There was a mix of triumph that her power of mental manipulation was still strong enough to get Jerirko back to her rights. Though a part of her felt that hint of guilt because of having to exploit his mind in the first place.
She sighed and followed after him. "Hopefully we won't have to do this too much longer," She muttered as she went after him.
"Do what?" Jeriko asked.
She seemed to have temporarily forgotten about his bionic hearing but quickly recovered. "Oh nothing, just thinking...the quicker we get this game over the quicker I'll have you all to myself," She wrapped her arms around his, as the thought of a bigger game at play ran through her mind.
"Well then be sure to have my back on sidelines and I'm sure I'll get through it...pull a win out of this helmet of mine," He smirked.
Jennifer gave him a small smile. "I'm sure you will,"
- Writer
