asylum [kai parker] editing/rewriting

Twenty-Eight

S I M O N E
Kai has been returning the silent treatment for the last hour or so. Being on the other end of it isn't as much fun as I'd thought it would be. But as we're driving, it's almost like he explodes.

"Okay! I get it, you don't want me killing people. But I've had it up to here with this silence. If you're mad at me, you yell at me!" Kai says suddenly, almost hitting the steering wheel.

"I have nothing to say to you." I say with confidence, but that confidence is slowly waning.

"Anything. Please," his voice cracks and ends up making him flush. It's not too often I see that.

"Kai, just...let me think-"

"You've had the last week to think, Simone." This is the most he's spoken to me in such a serious tone.

"If you want my forgiveness you need to earn it," I spit venomously.

"How? Sim, I know I've done wrong. I won't do it again-"

"That won't bring him back." I cut Kai off, thinking of the family that the officer might have had.

Kai is insensitive. Merciless. Heartless. Cold. He worries me sometimes. When he's not around me I worry about what he does. When he is around me I worry about what he's going to do. It's like a constant never ending battle with him. "I know your birthday...never went as planned." Kai clears his throat, causing me to nod. "Maybe we could do something today, to make up for it?"

He's trying to mend the friendship. It's working. "You going to lure me into the woods and attack me again?"

"No, that only happens on special occasions." Kai assures, an odd glint in his eye.

I'm finding him even more irritating the more he jokes with me. He's already treading on thin ice as it is. "Fine," I mumble under my breath.

"What would you like to do?" Kai takes a sudden turn and sends me flying against the window.

"Fuck- ow!" I hiss, pulling my knees to my chest in the compact seat. "I don't know-"

"Someplace where I won't get noticed." He adds, tapping his forefinger on the steering wheel in rhythm.

Thinking for a moment, I sink my teeth into my bottom lip. What is there to do with Kai?
There's nothing I can think of. Most of my childhood was spent in my room where my dad was able to control my life. What did I ever want to do?

Then I say it. It comes out of nowhere. Almost from the very back of my brain, "I want to dance."

"Keep dreaming." He says automatically. But then the moment he says it, his bipolar issues cause him to change his mood. "Uh...I mean, sure."

"Why are you like that?" I ask without thinking of why I asked it.

"Like what?" He asks, turning down his music.

"You're so stubborn and hard headed one moment, then you just...change." He seems to know what I'm getting at, because he nods.

"Oh. Well, it's a long story." He takes a big breath of air before speaking. "My brother Luke, who was much like me, merged our powers."

I look at him like he's talking in another language. "Huh?"

"We merged. The stronger twin got the body and the other's power-" he waves it off and makes a face. "And I merged with him, won, and now in turn- I've received guilt." He rolls his eyes. "Causing my bipolar...issues."

I'm not interested in pushing it any further. There's more to it, that I'm sure of. But I don't necessarily want to know what he's hiding. One moment we're are close as we were in the lady's house on the counter, and the next we're both mute. "So technically I'm talking to Luke as well?"