Nova's Accomplice↠

IV↠

I wake up to extreme light. I can see the light through my eyelids. Groaning I sit up and open my eyes to find I'm not in my bed. And I'm not alone.

I jump five feet in the air squeeling in the process and landing on my butt. That's when I remember last night. Oh thank goodness. Standing up and wiping my butt I look at Andrew who's still sleeping like a... Something that sleeps a lot.

I decide to get to know the house so I put on my sandals and look to my left to see another door in the room. Curious as to what it is, I open it to reveal a rope and the downstairs floor. I look across and find a landing pad right next to the kitchen. With an excited whoop, I grab the rope take my feet off the floor and swing myself to the kitchen landing, again, on my butt. Totally worth it.

With a small smile I get off the floor AGAIN and find that the barn indeed does have electricity. It had a working water system and working kitchen necessities, but no light. I decided to ask Andrew about it later and make breakfast.

Andrew. I love that name.

I heard a grunt from the landing pad and I see Andrew laying there looking asleep wearing nothing but sweatpants. His chest looks chiseled, better than any sculpture I've ever seen. I can write a million poems about him but none can describe the way my name rolls off his tongue with that morning voice of his. I can try though.

"Nova." He grunts tiredly dragging out the last syllable and sitting at the breakfast nook. He shakes his head, as if to rid him of sleep and takes the juice I set on the counter for him muttering a quick thank you.

After we've eaten the cheese bagel I made, I'm about to ask him what we're going to do today when he asks, "Wanna see something cool?" With that cheeky grin of his.

Who am I to refuse spending time with an actual human? And a MALE at that.

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It turns out that Andrew's barn is powered by a water wheel generator right next to his house where another pond lays with much more ducks than the other one. Andrew actually found a way to get the closest houses water pipe rigged so whatever water they use is filtered so he can use. I was a little skeptical at first but he reassured me that everything was filtered and even showed me the pH levels.

He also has a bunch of wooden parts piled at the other side of the barn and when I asked him why, he replied: "I'm planning on making a tree house of some sort... Don't have it planned out yet but it's going to happen." That got me very excited. I've always loved tree-houses, but I've never built one.

"Can I help?" I ask kind of bashfully. He might of wanted it to be a self project or something personnel. But he just stared at me with wonder and amazement his mouth agape. I wasn't sure he was looking at me for a second, nobody has ever looked at me like that before.

"Sure. It can be ours."

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That afternoon we climb a tree to the very top. It's not the tallest,
But it was a far way from the ground. I had an earphone in my ear the other in Andrew's as we listened to "Medicine" by the 1975. It was sunset so everything above us was orange and everything below us dark.

"If you had one wish what would it be?" He asks spontaneously still looking out at the horizon with a pensive look on his face.

I think for a minute. Then another. What would I wish for. I'd wish for my dad but I can't tell him that. Not yet anyways. "I'd wish for a better life." I say softly looking down at the foliage below us and considering jumping off because I was sure he'd question or judge me. He opens his mouth to say something but I beat him to it. "What would you wish for?" I ask him his own question and he answers in a flash.

"I'd wish for a better world." He says, he says it like if he's telling his age like it's a known fact and he's so sure of his answer. "My dad, he owns a nuclear energy plant. I've never liked it, not even when I didn't know what that meant. Nothing ever sat well with me about my dad's job. When I went to school one day my teacher was talking about a plant that harmed the environment and then she said "Carter Energy", Carter's my last name, and everything clicked. I stormed home and confronted my dad. That was the first of many times he hit me. He became abusive after awhile and my mom couldn't handle it so she took off. She didn't even take me with her. She left me with him." He stops for a second shaking his head as if he didn't mean to get that much into it. "Long story short, I don't like how people trash the only world we have. The only world we probably will ever have. I tried to show my dad my wheel generator but he wasn't having it. So I ran away. The earth is my only family now. But I can't get over how my dad wants to hurt the world. Does it really hurt people to walk the extra step to out garbage in the bin or to stop putting spray paint bottles in garbage cans?"

He obviously has strong feelings for the world. It's so admirable, most guys out age are worried about sex and drugs and then here is Andrew, building water wheel generators and feeding duck.

I feel embarrassed to have such a selfish wish but he doesn't seem to mind. He seems to not be able to find the right words even though he's probably said it billions of times, he looks frustrated, so I help him out.

"I get it. Like if you don't appreciate it, get out of our planet peasant, ya know?" I mentally jump off the tree in embarrassment. I'm such a loser. Gladly, he only chuckles at my choice of words.

"You get it." He answers with a lazy smile and we sit in silence again staring at the now dark sky.

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"Thank you. For everything." I say softly then stand on my tip-toes to kiss Andrew lightly on the cheek. I stare at the stained rug of my apartment building shyly. Should I not have done that?

He grabs my chin and forces me to lock eyes with him. "Anytime." He says equally as hushed and steps back pulling his hood up and runs out of the apartment building.

I unlock my apartment and step inside locking the door behind me and slide down resting my back against the frame a goofy grin on my face sitting on the who-knows-what stained rug but the only thing I can focus on was the feeling Andrew's fingers left behind on my face. I'm such a loser.