The Relic (COMPLETED)

Chapter 10 (Suspicions)

I had invited Larry over for dinner. I needed someone to talk to, at least to rid my mind of the earlier events of the day. What had happened to me was unimaginable, even to me, so I wondered how best to tell him.

What if I tell him and he thinks I had too much to drink. I didn't know what to think anymore.
So after inviting him into my home, I got a bottle a couple of beers from the refrigerator and handed one over to him.

He just kept staring at me, almost suspiciously.
"What?" I asked after letting a breath loose while relaxing into my dark Cuban couch.
"You look like shit." He said then took a gulp from his bottle.
"Did you just come up with that one, or was it inspired by your newly found sense of stupidity?"

Larry and I always come up with ways to tease each other, it was our own little way of saying 'hello'. But my reply seemed to have hurt him.

"Ok...it seems someone is not in a happy mood. Did the pizza guy run away with your money again?" he asked enthusiastically.
"No...but I definitely can't wait to see that bugger again. I would make sure to stick a pipe up his ass." Larry laughed.

He looked carefree. It was all I wanted. I didn't want to bring any of my personal problems towards him. I feel like I should in a way because we are friends but it feels different when am with Larry. It feels like I have seen him somewhere, but I couldn't tell exactly where. But knowing Larry, he would find a way to bring it up.
He stopped laughing and continued looking at me.

"Larry, what is it?" I asked
"When you get nervous about something, your hands start twitching, just like now." I looked at my hand but didn't notice anything. All that came to me was the moments in Dwayne's apartment. I didn't want him to know.

"Is everything ok?" he asked.
"Yeah, I'm just tired that's all." Larry's face had gone from the happy and smiley mood from earlier into an investigative and cunny mood. He was trying to figure out what I was hiding.

"I saw you leave for work but didn't see you get back. How is that?" I was beginning to feel my hands twitching. He just didn't want to let this go. Why couldn't he just do that, it wasn't very hard. I wasn't very good at lying, but I had already proving myself on one friend, perhaps it could work on another.

"Well...I went through the back door." He dropped his face in disbelief so I knew I had to do better. "A colleague of mine dropped me off, she was moving up here so she decided to stop at my house on the way." I was now sitting upright staring at him. In my mind, I wanted him to just give up.
He only kept staring at me for a moment longer before turning away.

"Fine, whatever you say." Then I started feeling bad about it. Why didn't I want him to know, he is my best friend. As he stood up from where he was sitting, I interrupted.

"Larry wait, I...I didn't know how to tell you this because I'm still trying to figure it out myself" I said, deciding to just come out with the truth.
"Hey, you know you can tell me anything. I'm always here for you" I nodded in acknowledgement. Then we both returned to where we sat.

I took in a deep breath then I began.
"Well, you know my mom is dead right?" He nodded in response. "Well, apparently she was not who I thought she was." I said staring blankly at space.

"Wait, not who she was,. How is that possible, you told me..." He was saying when I interrupted.
"That she was sweet, caring, loving, understanding and would not hurt a fly! Yes. But apparently that is not who she was."
"Who told you this?" I continued looking concerned with burrowed brows.

"A guy. His name is Dwayne. He came into my office this morning and began giving me a lecture on my mother's history. He said she was a badass" I made sure to leave out the part where he appeared into my office without using the front door.

"Badass huh"
"Yeah, Apparently she was this awesome Relic who could take down an army using special abilities"
"Wait a minute, Relics and special abilities. Are you sure this guy is not from a comedy show or something" he said.
"The thought did cross my mind but everything just became so real all of a sudden."

We both relaxed and took in a deep breath.
"You know what, I got about two hundred bucks today, how about we order a pizza, all on me." He said with his usual happy face.
"Oh no, am not going to let you do that, you earned that money and you should enjoy it." I replied rubbing my already clouded eyes.
"And that is exactly what I am going to do, enjoy it by spending it with you."
"You know sometimes, I don't know what I'll do without you."

He made a funny face that made me laugh. And I was happy I did. My mood was changed immediately. "I'll pay you back and you refuse it, ok?"
"Ok" he laughed. "How about you pay me by telling me where this guy lives" he said.
"It's enough just being a gentleman, now you want to be a hero" I said as I walked back towards the fridge to get another beer.

"Being your hero is all in the schedule of being your gentleman. And I can't have some guy treating my lady with some fantasy." He said. I gave him another bottle and sat back on the couch.
"It's the story of my mom, and to me, it felt like the truth." I said. I was right about him not believing the story. You don't just drop something like that on someone and expect a positive result. Maybe something Dwayne should have thought of before doing the same to me.

"Ok...but to anyone else, it sounds like fantasy."
"Ok then Bruce Wayne, if I tell you where he stays, do you promise to drop it." He raised his hand acknowledging what I had said. "He stays in brazil."
"Oh come on Sophia, really?" I was already bursting with laughter. "Perhaps, if you lead with that, I wouldn't ask."

I know I was determined not to tell him but I figured, since he stays in brazil, there was no way he would do anything, "I serious, that is where he stays." I said trying to make him believe me.

I gave him the address to Dwayne's place with the knowledge that he was going to be very far from where Larry could get to. For as long as I had known Larry, he had never lost a fight before, but I had a feeling that Dwayne would have been the one to end his circle of terror.

The pizza delivery came and the both of us sat on the floor close to the television with two boxes of pizza opened on the floor and beer in our hands as we watched the new season of the game of thrones.