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Chapter 7

“So I’ve fallen for a Goddess. How typical of me,” Michael finally whispered, and then started smiling darkly. This was the exact opposite of the reaction I had expected. I thought he’d be freaked out to the point that I would have to move halfway across the world, after removing all trace of my existence from everyone’s minds.
I was staring at the table, keeping my eyes from Michael’s face. I avoided his gaze, afraid of what I might find there. Folding my hands and resting them on the table, I started remembering the few weeks I had spent with Michael a year ago. Nothing too significant had happened to an outsider’s perspective, but to us, the whole world shifted. The first day I was back in Midnite from the trip, I watched him. I watched him for a month. I saw him attempting suicide, because someone told him that I was dead. I saw him spiral down in misery. After that, I couldn’t take it anymore; I couldn’t see him like that. I stopped watching him. I forgot about him. I banished all thoughts of my time spent in the human world from my mind.
“Ahem, here is your lunch,” the waiter announced, putting a plate in front of Michael and I. Then he set down two hot mugs of liquid in front of us. Our lunch was silent, only the small clinking of forks and plates colliding provided any sound at our table. I finished quickly, so that the moment he was finished, we could go.
Michael stood up and I followed suit, and we went to pay at the counter, leaving a $5 tip on the table. When Michael stopped in front of the door, I glanced up to see him gazing at me, with love and acceptance plastered all over his face. I let my shock show through my blank expression, and he smiled and took my hand and opened the door.
Outside, it was like a fairytale. Everything looked like it had been covered with cotton balls, since the snow was so thick. Even though we had only been in the restaurant for less than an hour, there were 5 inches of snow on top of Michael’s car. The snow was powdery looking, but actually quite hard. I found that out the hard way. After taking a step into it, thinking that my boot would hit the pavement, I slipped on the hardened snow. I went sliding across the parking lot, arms flailing everywhere. My face seemed frozen in shock, but somehow I managed to get a laugh out. I fell down on my butt and started sliding some more until I hit the wheel of Michael’s car. Hysteria broke loose. I couldn’t stop giggling. When Michael finally got over to where I was, I was curled up in a ball rocking back and forth, holding my sides and crying because of laughing so hard.
“Wow, it’s almost like you’ve never had this much fun in your whole life,” Michael chuckled, pulling me to my feet. Being my clumsy self, I slipped and fell into his chest and accidentally knocked him over to where I was lying on top of him on the icy parking lot asphalt. We both broke out in laughter simultaneously.
“Oh, goodness… I’m…sorry…” I managed to say through giggles. He just smiled at me and rolled over to where he was on top of me and I had extremely cold ice touching my bare legs. Wow, I wasn’t very smart to wear a miniskirt during winter. Then Michael got off of me and pulled me into his arms.
“Hmm, your nose is red and your lips are pale blue. We should get your crazy self out of this cold. I mean seriously, who wears a miniskirt in the dead of winter? Your whole skin has a blue cast to it. I wonder, do goddesses get sick?” Michael teased, and he opened the passenger door and sat me down in his car.
“Of course I can get sick. Course, I can also get much different illnesses than you Humans. And all Human illnesses are highly contagious to me. So if you have a cold, I’m going to get it. And, obviously, we can also get cold and turn purple and blue,” I told him. “Now, do you have a jacket or blanket or something in here that I can wear, I think I might freeze to death.”
“Well, you can have my jacket for now, but I’ll need it back, you know.” He shrugged out of his jacket and tossed it to me. Then he turned up the heater and drove out of the parking lot back to school. We didn’t say much on the ride back, and the only sound was the chattering of my teeth. I couldn’t stop shivering and I couldn’t control my jaw. Every now and then Michael would glance over at me and reach to turn the heater up.
When we got back to the school, there were only 2 cars in the parking lots. I saw on the marquee that school was closed for the day, due to all of the snow. Michael was looking confused at the lack of cars, so I pointed out what was on the marquee. He just nodded and made a u-turn and headed in the opposite direction of the hotel I was staying at.
“Um, Michael, where are you taking me?” I asked worriedly.
“Oh, to my house. Unless you want to go somewhere else,” he replied and turned down a street filled with huge houses. I gasped when I saw that one of them had a sapphire front door with diamond windows. It reminded me of the entrance to the council chamber. That’s when I thought of Serena, how she was doing and if she might be on a mission.
“Serena,” I whispered, then moaned. I wrapped my arms tightly around my chest, trying not to cry. I am such an emotional Shinigami, I thought to myself. I shook my head, attempting to shake the thought of Serena out of my mind. Even though she wasn’t very accepting of me, I still loved her.
Michael cut the engine in the driveway of a huge, gorgeous house. My eyes popped out of my head. Wow! He’s a rich one! There were flowers of every color and shade in the small front gardens in front of a huge porch. I saw a small pitch black cat streak across the ground and jump into Michael’s arms. Then a pure white one followed, pouncing into his arms right next to the little black kitty. He laughed and kissed both of them on the tops of their heads. One batted at his hair and he chuckled, pulling it away from his long hair.
“Haha, no, stop it Serjie. Nahh, not you too, Rennie. Nuh uh,” he laughed, then set them both down on the ground. The white one looked at me, cocking it’s head to the left like I do. It had bright green eyes and pure white fur, and a cute little pink nose. The black one was a bit bigger than the white one, and it had crystal blue eyes and a black nose.
“So, who’s who?” I asked, quite curious. The white one mewed and started twisting around my legs, meowing sweetly. I giggled, her long tail tickling my legs. I was a sucker for cats, so I picked up the white one and caressed it in my arms.
“Hm, Rennie seems to have taken a liking to you. I’m not surprised, since you two have the same names. And this black one over here, he’s Serj.” He bent down and picked up Serj and beckoned for me to follow him into his house.
“You named her after me? Or did you have her before you met me?” I questioned, trying not to flatter myself.
“Yeah, I named her after you because you have the exact same color eyes. And when I first met you, your hair was white blonde. I thought it was only fitting,” he mumbled, slightly embarrassed.
“Aw, that’s sweet. Serj almost reminds me of you. Black hair, crystal blue eyes,” I told him, smiling. “So, do you have some coffee by any chance? I’m still kinda frozen. Or apples… that would work too.” The truth was that I could feel icicles on my toes and my hands were still blue.
“Oh! I’m so sorry, of course. Come here, I’ll get you a blanket. You must be frozen, you’re still blue,” he said, dragging me quickly to a room that had a couple of leather couches and a quilt in the corner. He unfolded the quilt quickly and wrapped it around my frozen self. I shook off my boots and pulled my knees to my chest so my toes would be covered too. Michael came back into the room and strode over to the fireplace, opening the grate and lighting a match to light the wood with. After about striking 10 matches with no luck, I got up and walked over there to help him.
I stuck one of my hands out and summoned my energy, focusing on fire. I had never been very good at summoning fire, but I thought why not? Heat rushed through me and a floating ball of green and silver fire appeared. I smiled and directed it to the logs, and commanded it to stay there, providing heat. I grinned even wider when it obeyed.
“Aha! It worked!” I said proudly. I turned to Michael and he was standing there, staring at me dumbfounded. I asked him, “What?” tilting my head to the left.
“How did you…do that?” he asked, trembling. His hands were shaking, so I pulled him over to the nearest couch to the fire and sat him down.
“Simple, I summoned the flame and directed it into the fireplace. But I normally never have that much control over it,” I told him, matter-of-factly.
“But, it’s not red or orange or yellow like a normal fire.”
“That, my friend, is because in Midnite, that is the color of fire. You see, everything down here seems to have strange colors, and everything that I show you that come from Midnite are strange colors to you. That’s just how it is,” I sternly told him, trying to get it into his head that things were much different here for me.
Then he stood up to go somewhere, so I just watched him stalk out of the room, his face brooding. I was staring at the door way which he had walked through, waiting for him to come back through it. I sensed someone behind me, so I looked up into the face of a lady that looked like she was in her early 40s. I used my Shinigami eyes to find that she was 43. Who was she? She was peering down at me very confused, and her eyes narrowed.
“Michael Thomas Chandler! Get your butt in this room now; I know you’re here, your car’s outside. GET IN HERE!” She yelled in a commanding voice. I shivered and she gave me a stern gaze and sat in the couch opposite me.
“Hey, Mom, what’s up?” he asked, innocence covering every feature on his face. His mom? But they didn’t look anything alike!
“Who the hell is this and what are you two doing here? You should be in school!” she demanded.
“For one, school got canceled because of the snow. And her name is Serenity Black,” Michaels said coolly, his face composed.
“So this is the girl you were miserable over for such a long time. Well she has got some explaining to do!” then she turned on me. “Why the hell did you make Michael so happy then leave him without any means of communication, without telling him where you were going to be? That is utterly despicable! I shouldn’t even allow you in my house!” she demanded, screaming in my face. Since she was so close to me, I could feel heat coming off of her. Mrs. Chandler’s face was bright red, and getting redder the madder she got.
I sighed, “I didn’t even know I was leaving. My parents just told me we were moving to India the moment I got home and I had to get on a plane an hour later. I didn’t have the chance to call him because I dropped my phone accidentally in a pond. And since I didn’t know your address, I couldn’t send letters.” Wow, I came up with that one fast. Michael’s face was surprised, so I winked at him, trying to convey to him through that wink to play along with the story. Understanding washed over his face and he started nodding.
“Oh, well then, I’m sorry for taking my frustration out on you. By the way, I’m Melissa Chandler, Michael’s mom,” her face softened as she said this. Wow, mood swings are so unpredictable and amusing. I could see that this is where Michael got his mood swings from. She got up and left the room, and Michael came to join me on the couch. Just then I heard footsteps and saw a little girl running to hug Michael.
“Mikey! You’re home already! I missed you!” she said in a high voice, hugging Michael tightly. She hopped up and sat on Michael’s lap, and then noticed me and whispered to him, “Is that your girlfriend, Mikey?”
“No, silly,” he chuckled. I saw sadness in his eyes. Girlfriend. Why would she think a thing like that?
“Well… who is she? Is she a long lost cousin twice removed? Huh huh huh?” the little girl persisted.
“Goodness Kasey, she’s my best friend, silly goose,” he murmured.
“Oh, well then, that’s not very exciting. I guess I’ll just go finish my make-up work for school then. Bye!” and she left the room.