Prego and the Phoenix 🐇↩️✔

Bourne - Nine

Stupid people don't get colds. Or so the Japanese say. They also say that when a butterfly flaps its wings in the west a tsunami happens in the east. Well, butterflies have to get to where they want most of the time and we don't hear of tsunamis twenty-four hours a day. So... riddle me that Japan.

I have never felt so horrible in my life. It came on me all of a sudden like a ton of bricks. Sure the cold front for New York came in a little sooner than usual, but I can usually withstand it until it gets really close to November and December and all that. But it's only October and I feel like shit. I wake up with a throbbing behind my eyes. I put my hand to my head and groan a little, sitting up in the bed. I know I have to pick up Arabella but whether I will be able to go the rest of the day? That's for my body to tell me and I've learned over the years that it's best to listen to your body rather than how you think you feel.
There is a knock on the door and Ma looks in.
"Bourne? Are you alright, miel?"
"Yeah... Just got a headache."
"A headache?" she says, walking in and putting her hand on my forehead. "Aye Dios mio! You're burning up!"
"Ma, I'm fine." I insist, getting up. "I have to take Arabella to school."
"You can't skip out?"
I shake my head and go to the closet to get ready. Ma-Ma sighs and leaves the room. I sniffle a little and rub my nose. It's just a little cold, it's not like it will make anything happen.
All the way to get Arabella, it seems that the migraine is getting worse and worse. Instead of getting out and going to the door as usual, I rudely just honk the horn and she comes out. When she sees me, a panged look gets on her face and she asks if I'm alright. I tell her I'm fine and head to the school. We get into a bit of a tat on the way there and I fear that maybe I have done something to make her mad. But when she gets out of the car, she comes over to my side of the car and puts her hand on my forehead.
"Bourne, you really do feel overly warm. Too warm to really be at school."
"I'm fine, I promise. Just do your thing and if you don't see me at lunch, then you know I went home."
She gives me a worried again and I melt a little inside. She has given me all this time to prove myself to her and in all honesty, I don't feel like I'm making progress. She's too self conscious about her baby to see that I truly love her and her child. I would raise it as my own... I think she's so beautiful and she just... doesn't see... I decide to try and show her that I am ready for her and that I love her. I bend down and give her a small kiss on the cheek. She gasps a little.
"I can take care of myself, Arabella. If I feel sick enough, then I will take care of it. I know how my body works and will do what it tells me."
Arabella nods a little and I smile to give her reassurance. We walk toward the school and I happen to catch Trevor staring at me from his perch where he and his friend, Dylan or whatever, are camped out. He looks at me like he knows something about me. Like he knows all my secrets. Since I'm pretty blatant about my staring, I give a nod and he corner glances me suspiciously. It's pretty annoying.

My head still hurts but I haven't been nauseas or anything, so I take that as a good sign. As I wash my hands in the bathroom and look in the mirror at the way my face looks a little pale, the stall opens behind me. Trevor walks out, zipping up his pants and I make a face, for the timing of his 'arrival' is a little too perfect for me.
"Were you waiting, pervert?" I ask as he walks next to me to wash his hands as well.
"You're radiating." He says nonchalantly.
I lean away from him. "What?!"
"The body heat from you is radiating like a fire from the flames. No, I'm not gay and no, I'm not hitting on you. I'm taking the observation of your body temperature. Should you even be at school with a fever that bad?"
I give a growl and slam the faucet off. "For your information, I happen to be feeling great. Besides, what gives? Ever since that night at Arabella's you've acted like you know me or something. I've never met you."
Trevor gives that haughty little smirk again as he calmly finishes washing his hands, slinging the water off casually.
"I wasn't born in the US, but legends travel far and fast. You, Mr. Gorilla, are a legend that I have heard of but I haven't actually seen in person. Winter isn't your strongest season, is it? And by 'strongest' you know what I mean." I narrow my eyes at him as he locks his hazel eyes with mine. "I would appreciate you not being around my child. It's easy to pass along what you have, don't you know? If it wasn't so easy, you wouldn't have obtained it."
"Stop acting like you know me when we just met two days ago. And to hell with you on hanging out with Arabella. I've tried long enough to be her boyfriend and I'm almost there. I want let some stupid foreign asshole get in my way."
Trevor shrugs. "Suite yourself. But your kind has all different ways of doing what they do. How do you do it, and will she accept it? Abenaza..."
He walks out and I stare after him, wondering what exactly he thinks he knows about me. Because whatever it is, it's cryptically close to reality.

Humphrey is waiting for me in the hallway when I get out of third period to go to lunch and he scrunches up his face when he sees me.
"You don't look well, Red. You need to go home."
"I'm fine, Gargoyle #1." I snarl, brushing past him.
He follows in step with me with his hands in his pockets.
"You can't fool me, Boss. Lochner is a little bit slow up there but I'm not. You know what's coming and you want to risk it all for the sake of some pregnant girl? She's nice and all but are you willing to let her see it? All this work for rejection?"
I stop but don't turn around. "I was hoping that if I accept her for all she is, pregnant, big, or whatever may happen, that she would accept me too."
"That didn't happen last time. You got your heart stomped on pretty bad and then we had to move. I still hear rumors of it even here in New York. Bourne," I turn, for it is very important if one of the twins ever calls me by my real name. "You're like the third brother we never had. It's us plus you, you're like a triplet to us. Lochner and I aren't exactly on the same page as everyone else but we are intuitive and in tune with you. Stop while you're ahead. We can't see you like you were before... You hurt us when you're depressed."
I breathe in, knowing he's right, but knowing that I have to try. I have to try and get past this. My mother did when she had me and so did my father. There has to be someone who could as well and I am determined to find her.
"I have to try." I say, barely above a whisper.
Humphrey comes around and looks me dead in the eyes with his sea green ones. Gold and jade, locked together.
"But are you absolutely, positively, 100% willing to bet it all on Arabella Rickward? This girl has got you in ways I've never seen a girl do; you're head over heels for her. A thousand times more than the other girl. You told her that you loved her, Red. That's bold for only knowing her for three weeks. If this girl destroys you, you haven't seen what us 'gargoyle twins' can do."
And I knew that he meant every word. If Arabella hurt me, emotionally, they would cause her hell. Even if she didn't accept me as I am, I couldn't let them do that to her. They don't know her like I do.
"You can't hurt her."
"Never... not physically."
"Humphrey. No."
He gives me a look and it feels like my migraine just increased about sevenfold.
"You know what? I think I will go home."
I turn around and head for my car.

When I get home, my body is boiling like I've been sitting in a sauna all day and no one has given me a drink of water. Ma is in the kitchen when she hears me come in. She pokes her head out to say something but sees me walking briskly to my room and puts her utensils down to follow.
"Miel, are you alright?"
I grab at the collar of my shirt, sweat dripping down my face.
"It's so hot... I can't breathe... I feel like I'm suffocating..." I say in gasps.
Ma nods and rushes away as I rip off my shirt and lay on the bed over the covers, wiping the beads of sweat from my brow. Ma comes back with a big bowl of water and a rag, to which she dunks and then puts on my head.
"The cold front came early this year, mi amor." she says, placing the cool rag all over my face and my neck. "I'm sorry, querido. I'm so sorry."
I know it's not her fault. It came with my father's blood; how could she stop it?