Nothing Less than Extraordinary

xx2xx

That night, and the next two days, I couldn't sleep. For the most part, I couldn't eat. And I definitely wasn't up for this adventure off into the world to find the hidden students from the Academy. But I had to hide it from the boys. I couldn't sleep because I was worrying about everyone and everything; I didn't want to eat—just in case there was still something wrong with me. It wasn't helping that the only other people here didn't even talk to each other out of mutual hatred. It was nothing but real and the setting proved it. It was an absolutely quiet train ride.

I was comatose with my arms folded in front of my face as I stretched out on one side of the cabin. If I slightly opened my eyes to where no one could tell, I could see Tyler sitting against the huge window revealing the scenery. But with the slide of the cabin door, I heard and smelt Cheshire come in with food from the buffet. He even took a seat at the end of the cushions, lifted my feet, and rested the warm plate on my legs as a table with maybe a complimentary blanket over them. He seemingly scarped it down quickly because I felt him move the plate soon after.

"What?" Cheshire suddenly hissed to Tyler.

"Nothing. I'm just glad that someone's noticing that she's starving herself and acting upon it by taking her share of food," Tyler retorted.

"It was a buffet," Cheshire tried to humor and there was a long silence. "Look. You're not so high and mighty because you've known her longer," Cheshire started. "I care about her too and I get that she's sick—"

"She's not sick—"

"—but what else is there to do?!" he finished, frustrated.

"We need to find out what's wrong—"

"And as much as you'd like to know that, we have other tasks at hand," Cheshire cut him off. There was a brief silence.

"So what you're saying is that I'm the only one here who cares about her and her health," Tyler assumed.

"No. I'm saying that you're the only one here that doesn't know about her or her health," Cheshire said and then it even confused me. I slightly cracked my vision and saw a twisted look on Tyler's face, but then closed them when he looked over at me.

"Meaning what?" he asked in an offended hiss.

"Meaning, she's going to be alright," Cheshire sighed.

"But how do you know that?" Tyler asked.

"It's obvious to those of us who aren't you," Cheshire stated. "You've been out of her life for two years and you don't know what she can do. Neither does she, but at least I've been there to piece together that..."

He stopped himself.

"That what?"

"Never mind," Cheshire said in a stammer.

"Cheshire," Tyler muttered and I felt that it was serious. "Please. You have to understand that I can't sit back and let all of this happen to her without any assistance...Whether it's good or bad, I have no part in this and this is the girl I've given my life for. You have to understand that."

"I understand something..." Cheshire replied. "I understand that while she's the center of your life, she has someone else saying the same and that person happens to be the new center of her life—"

"I don't care if it's you, but—"

"Dude," Cheshire addressed. "We both know that it's not me."

"Well I don't know. You could have a thing for her and she—"

"She knows very well who I'm in love with and she also told me what happened on Sunday, so don't act like you didn't see her and..."

I think they figured out that I was awake when my whole body stiffened and then I realized my breathing was sped up. My eyes opened and I sat up, feeling my lungs compressing as if I was having what most would think of as an anxiety attack. Cheshire's eyes connected to mine and before he could put images to calm me down, I slowed my breathing, but I felt offended.

"You don't need to pacify me," I told Cheshire.

"I'm not."

"You are!" I insisted. I looked over. "Both of you are. I know that you are because you think you have an obligation," I pointed at Tyler. Then I moved to Cheshire, "and you are because you don't want to admit to it."

"Admit to what?" Tyler asked. "I don't know what either of you are talking about, if not each other."

"Stop lying," Cheshire snapped before I had. Emotions ran high in that room, conflicting and all, and they were each taking a presence on Tyler's face as his jaw ticked. And then suddenly, with an incredible speed, he disappeared. Cheshire looked over at me. "He's just being a coward."

"Is he?" I asked. Who knew? He was running away (literally) from every problem he had when I secretly knew what exactly it was.

=XXX=

"Two days later and the boy is still missing," Cheshire commented as we exited the train in San Francisco and it was now Saturday morning. We hadn't seen Tyler since the other night and—unlike Cheshire—I was worried. Maybe he wasn't the Tyler I thought of. Maybe he was still on the enemy side and was leading us into a trap. So as worried as my sympathetic side made me feel, there was always a point in my mind that was mocking me because I was too stupid to believe Tyler had changed just like that, with Jase out of the picture. "Maybe he ran all the way here."

"That's not funny," I grumbled. I felt the nearly-autumn air and as Cheshire thanked the servicemen who helped with our bags, I noticed something changed on his face. But he was questioning me with his eyes when he looked down at me. "You okay?"

"Y-yeah," he stammered and then nodded to the side, rolling his suitcase and carrying my tote bag towards the exit. When we got out of the train tracks area, we stood in the grand lobby, and before stepping into a city we didn't know, there was a normally-dressed man standing with a sign that read "Duchannes & Nichols". Hesitantly, we walked up to him and Cheshire stressfully sighed.

"What the hell is this?" Cheshire asked Tyler.

"This is me asking to start over," he sighed. He held out his hand. "Tyler Lane."

"This is me not caring," Cheshire assured before walking past him and smacking shoulders. I just looked at Tyler's green eyes. He produced a light smile and I held my hand out to him. The corners of his mouth turned up and then he shook his head lightly before lowering my hand and taking me into a hug. I wasn't feeling the same as usual when it came to him, but I was glad he was okay and somewhat back to normal. This was his starting over.

"I don't want to completely start over with you," he whispered in my ear, contradicting my thoughts. I pulled away, slowly, and looked up at him. "I want to go back to how things were."

And although he wanted that, I don't think I could genuinely remember how that was. All I knew is that it wasn't what I wanted. Not after what I had been through and the people I had been through it with.