Primal

Chapter Twelve

*********

Chapter Twelve

 

You can be the moon and still be jealous of the stars. ~Gary Allan

****

She looked guilty. When she was talking to her winged friend, her eyes met Aeron’s briefly and they were full of secrets. He wanted to know what she was hiding, but there was nothing hinting towards the answers he was looking for. What was Noor hiding? His fingers twitched, tapping at his legs frantically, his muscles tensed under his skin as he watched her talk to him. She talked to him with such comfort, and Aeron couldn’t help but allow his mind to fill with jealous thoughts. She was never that comfortable with him. It was sickening, his stomach aching in disgust.

 

Tilly sat next to him, her gentle hand rubbing the back of his tapping hand. There was no pattern to his movements; every one of his moves could be described as nothing but chaotic. “What’s wrong?” She whispered, unknowing of the situation playing out in front of her.

 

It would make sense for her not to know. There would be no reason for her to see how he viewed it, but he still felt annoyed by the simple question. “Nothing is wrong.” He spit out, his eye glancing at her quickly before looking forward once again. They all went quiet, their breathing the loudest thing for miles.

 

When they were done eating, Aeron was still focused on Noor. “Can we just go?” He asked, gesturing towards them. “I mean, are you two done eating? Is that a better way to ask it?” He didn’t mean to be rude, but the words just poured out of his mouth without a filter.

 

Noor looked taken aback, but she eventually nodded. “Oh. Yeah, I guess so.” She stuttered, stumbling to her feet uneasily. Zander stood up with ease besides her, and Aeron could tell that she let him have most of the food. A spark of anger lit within his heart, and he had to forcefully clamp down on the inside of his mouth to not lunge forward.

 

Zander stood up as well, following Noor along a worn out dirt trail. The path was probably made by a pack of wandering animals, their feet marking out their path of migration. Aeron and Tilly walked behind them, their feet trudging along. No one wanted to travel any longer; their bodies were worn by exhaustion. “Do you trust him?” Aeron asked Tilly, his voice hissing through the air towards her. “I don’t trust him.” He knew he sounded jealous, but he truly wasn’t. His new goal was to keep her safe, and Zander was a new wall between them.

 

“I trust him. He seems like he cares about her.” Tilly said, smiling over at him. “Is that why you don’t care for him?” She always was able to figure him out somehow, and Aeron actually hated it. She grabbed his shoulder, her fingers wrapping into his skin. “Aeronelle, you are so jealous.” She laughed, her carefree sounds filling the empty space around them.

 

Aeron scoffed at her, a frustrated frown pulling at his lips. “You are absolutely ridiculous.” He muttered, shoving her hand’s touch off of him. He started to walk forward, wrapping his rigid arms across his chest. He could hear the giggling sounds float back to him from the Nocarae, and he felt a sharp pain hit his chest.

 

From far away, if he didn’t know better, Aeron would have seen them as a couple. Noor looked up at Zander with these bright eyes that he had never seen anyone use in person. He thought that type of idolization was only in stories, but there it was in front of him. He groaned, running his fingers through his hair as he glared ahead. “Noor.” He called out, and suddenly her face broke out of its trance. He waved his finger, gesturing for her to come towards him. She told Zander to keep walking along the path, slowly moving back to walk alongside Aeron. She raised an eyebrow towards him questioningly, wondering what he could possibly want. “I…I just wanted to ask you something.” He struggled, forcing his words out as he tried to spin together some kind of question.

 

“And what would that be?” She asked with a smile, glancing up at him with gentle eyes. He didn’t have anything to ask her, the silence between them passing as they shared a gaze with one another. He tapped the top of her head, bending down softly to whisper.

 

“What is Zander to you?” He asked, his free hand scratching at the back of his neck. “A brother? A neighbor?” He questioned, none of them triggering a response from her. Her eyes just watched him out of confusion, pondering.

 

“He was Yuna’s.” She said softly, trying to stay strong. He could still detect a hint of sadness that trickled into her tone.

 

“That isn’t all he was, was it?” He asked, his words even softer than they were with his first few questions. “He was something more to you.” He thought over his words, his mind going into overdrive as all of the possibilities wandered through his head. What were they to each other?

Noor looked up at him, her eyes finally filling with the sadness she had been trying to hold back. “He was mine before he belonged to her.” She admitted, her voice barely coming out as more than a scratch.

 

Aeron said no more, his hand finding the top of her head gently. “He doesn’t have to be here.” He said, his lips grazing against her forehead. “We can send him back home. We can send Tilly away too. We only need each other to successfully save you, you know that, right?” She nodded, sending a sad smile his way.

 

“Zander!” Noor called out, her fingers rapping on the door that led into her friend’s house. “Zander, Yuna and I want to play! Come on!” The door cracked open and Zander’s head peaked out, a single eye staring at her. He told her that he was sick then, saying that he couldn’t leave the house today. There was a slam behind him, a large crash following, the sound of a long stream of curses floating out of the door. Zander gasped, shutting the door quickly. Noor was left outside, standing out in the rain as she listened to the arguing inside of the house.

 

She went home then with her head hung low, her arms sadly swinging back and forth as she walked. There were good days, where his family would let him come outside with her, but there were also bad days where he would be punished if he left. They never knew what to do to help him, and their parents were no longer around to instruct them. When she opened the door and Yuna realized that it was a bad day, her excited face dropped almost immediately. That night their home was silent, and each of the few words that they shared hid a sad tone within their voices.

 

Noor wasn’t able to be there for Zander when he actually needed her, so she didn’t want to push him away now. If they told him to go, he would never forgive her. “That doesn’t mean I necessarily want him to have to go though.” She responded, sending a sad smile in his direction. “We need all the help that we can get.” No more words were shared between them. He got the point that she was trying to make, that she still had lingering feelings towards him, and he left everything at that.

 

Backing away from his feelings was much harder than he thought it would be; especially when he had to allow the other male in their traveling group have what he had wanted most for years. The way he looked at her was sickening, and he didn’t know if his attentions truly seemed false or if his jealousy was showing off its ugly head. The two of them were now following Tilly’s lead, and he stared at the back of their heads with a harsh glare. They never noticed his gaze or his harsh words, the two of them lost in their own little world.