The Hopes of Many, the Fears of All

Chapter 4

I closed my mouth again, going to the couch while he sat at the table. I laid down on the couch and decided that I wanted to try to control my powers that I had discovered only earlier that day. Closing my eyes, I concentrated on bringing it to my fingers. When I opened my eyes again, there was blue dust hovering and moving around through my hand, as though it were alive. I tried to touch it, but it moved away when my hand got close to it. I laughed, completely stunned that I was able to even do that.

"Hey." Said someone behind me. I jumped, scared, sending my dust flying somewhere. I turned around to see the boy in the sunglasses behind me, holding his nose.

"Oh my gosh! I am so sorry!" I said, embarrassed. "You scared me."

"Yeah, understandable." He said, tilting his head back, as though trying to get rid of a bloody nose.

"Maybe try to sneeze?" I suggested bashfully. He was already in the process of sneezing, and when he finally did, fire came out of his nostrils, singing a corner of the couch I was on. My eyes widened as I looked at the burn.

"Wow. That's never happened before." Said the boy, amusement in his tone as he let a small smirk crawl on his face. "I'm Aiden by the way."

"Thought you were just along for the ride." I said accusingly, crossing my arms at him.

He rolled his eyes. "I was about to apologize for that if you let me."

I hesitated for a moment before answering. "I don't see why not. Go on."

"Sorry for being a jerk like that. I'm not used to social interaction like that." He said, rubbing the back of his neck.

I immediately felt bad. "I accept your apology." He gave a relieved sigh. "Now if you don't mind me asking, why are you wearing sunglasses at night?"

"I don't like people looking at my eyes." He said, sitting down on the couch next to me.

"Why?"

"Because of this." Aiden took off the glasses and opened his eyes. They were a deep gold with red flecks that looked like burning embers.

"Wow." I gasped. "Why would you want to hide that? It looks like fire. It's amazing."

"Hm. I couldn't imagine wh. Oh wait! That's because it's my ability."

"Really? That's so cool!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah." He responded back, smiling. He held out his hand as a ball of flame came to his palm, dancing around as though it were alive.

"Does it hurt?" I asked, curious.

"It did at first. But I got used to it." Aiden said, extinguishing the fire. "What do you do? I mean, other than throwing stuff up people's noses." He said laughing.

I laughed along. "The dust that went up your nose. I can do things with it, but I don't know how to control it yet."

"Well that explains it."

We sat there for a while, silence all around us. I looked around the RV, watching everybody. I wondered how they got to where they are now. That made me think of my parents. They used to point out homeless people, asking how they got to where they were now. I felt a tear slide off my cheek thinking about it. From the corner of my eye, I saw Aiden looking at me.

"You all right?" He asked, concerned.

"Yeah." I said, wiping the tear away. "It's just been a rough day."