Broken Feathers

Hold Back The River

  

Chapter Thirteen: Hold Back The River (James Bay) 

  

"So...are you going to be on my back all night?" I asked Kalem, tugging the tie around my neck. Beside me, Kalem grumbled, his features clouded over and a mood settling over him like a dark cloud. 

"I like it less than you do," he rumbled, the solemn expression on his face similar to that of someone attending a funeral, rather than a school dance. If anything, I would have thought doing something social would have lightened him up a bit – he was always moaning about how I never left the flat and as soon as I did something and invited him, he was in a bad mood! There was just no winning with this guy! 

"You could...just not come with me?" I suggested hopefully. "Old enough and ugly enough to go out on my own!" 

"You can't be trusted on your own!" Kalem exclaimed, looking at me as though I was completely stupid. Alright. So maybe on the odd occasion I had slipped off without Kalem noticing, I'd managed to get into a few fights. And there was the time when he'd come storming in when I'd had that girl in. But apart from that, I was practically...well, an Angel.  "I go off on my own frequently," I reiterated, checking my reflection in the mirror before heading for the door. There were a lot of things that I wasn't, but I was damn good looking in a suit.  "I know!" Kalem called after me. "I've seen the fucking scripture!" Oh hell, and didn't

I get moaned at when he saw that there was another one on my back. Sometimes, I could see him looking when I got out the shower, his eyes narrowed as he tried to spot a new one that had sprung up.  

"You're going to be bored," I pointed out lamely, walking down the street and towards the Prep. Hell, if he thought he was gatecrashing what was promising to be a very rewarding evening with Star, then he had another thing coming. I had a plan that would keep him out of the flat all night if it paid off.  

"Don't care as long as it stops you from fucking up." 

"I'm not gonna fuck anything up," I told him, glaring at him in the moonlight. As much as it was deserved, Kalem's lack of faith in me was sometimes a bit more stinging than I wanted it to be. He was very good at cutting me down to size with a matter of choice words. 

"Yeah?" Kalem scoffed. "I think I'd call getting your hands all over the Faol Righ's daughter, fucking up!" I wanted to call him out on that. I wanted to slam him up against the nearest wall and make it clear as day that I was not fucking up what I had with Star. Instead, I merely shrugged my shoulders, trying not to let his words mean anything 

"Trust me," I muttered. "That's the least fucked up thing in my life at the moment..." I trailed off, looking up at the brightly lit Prep that was just starting to come into view. "Not when he kills you for it!" And there was a singsong quality to his voice that I wanted to smack out of it. It wasn't often that I wanted to cause harm to my best friend, but his talking shit about my relationship – my first and only relationship – was doing my last nerve in. 

"You need to chill, Kal," I muttered, clicking my tongue. "You're starting to do my head in."  

"Your head?" Kalem hissed. "Your head? Try being your bloody lookout, pal!"  

"Kal, man, you are would so fucking tight. When was the last time you got laid?" I quirked my eyebrow at him. It was a serious question. I was pretty sure that old Kalem still had his VPlates intact. Whilst I had been out at the tender age of sixteen, serenading the ladies with my art skills, he had sat in a corner, snapping and snarling any anyone within a two foot radius.