Ch. 36: The Waking of Ally

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX:
The rest of my morning went by pretty uneventfully. Well, other than me taking much longer to move around with these crutches. Sean walked with me nearly everywhere though, so I was not lacking company. I swear, he nearly picked me up a few times. It took a lot of convincing for him to tone down his worry. It was lunch now and I was sitting out with Marsha, Ally, and Maxine, they were catching me up on things I had missed. I had caught up with Kyle earlier at break and he had filled me in on some funny things in his unusual way of storytelling. He was still keeping Vance at bay and I was so grateful.
Thankfully I hadn’t missed the big fall event, Food Fest, which was tomorrow. We had shorter class times and a few events throughout our breaks that I was looking forward to. All the clubs in Pacific would have booths and would be raising money for their clubs and the school in general.
Sean came back to the bench and sat on the floor by my leg.
“What are you doing?” I asked him.
Ally was telling Marsha and Maxine something to my side.
“Protecting your foot,” he said simply, like it was obvious.
“Sean, get up from there, my foot is perfectly fine. Look,” I motioned around, “free of danger.”
He rolled his eyes at me then asked, “Well fine. But can I get you anything? Ice pack? Ice cream? Something without the word ‘ice’?”
I laughed at him and insisted again that I was totally fine.
“Well, if you’re so ‘fine’ does that mean we can go out again tomorrow after school?” he asked, a thousand-watt smile and all.
“Yes, but,” I paused, “minimal walking?”
He grinned, “Of course.”

Sean insisted on giving me a ride home so I didn’t have to deal with the bus. He was being sweet and so overprotective, it was boarding on amusing. We talked a little on the way home and of course belted out songs that came up on his playlist. His exaggerations made me laugh. Sean helped me up the stairs to the first floor landing then, against my protesting, and scooped me up to carry me fireman-style up the rest of the way. I beat softly on his back the whole way up insisting that I could do it myself just fine but he didn’t listen.
“See, no harm in getting this done way faster,” he announced, easing me back onto my good foot.
I balanced on it and held onto him for balance while he handed me my crutches back.
“Keys?” he asked me.
“I’ve got them,” I said and fished through my pocket, pulling them out. I put my key in the door and pushed it open. He followed me in. Sean was in my house.
“Where can I put this?” he asked me, lifting up my backpack which he insisted on carrying since we left the car.
I pointed ahead, “Dining room, on a chair is fine.”
He walked ahead and through the kitchen and put my bag down.
“Where are you headed? Can I help?” he asked eagerly.
“Bathroom - and I think I’m good,” I laughed. I made more progress towards the bathroom and told him to make himself comfortable.
I came out to find him on the couch, scrolling on his phone with the TV on.
“Whatcha watching?” I asked, making my way towards the couch.
“Hmm?” he looked up, “Oh, no idea. I turned it on for background noise I guess. Do you want help?”
I sat down slowly on the couch and he was already up and taking the crutches from me. He leaned them up against the wall by my seat.
“Sean, you don’t need to baby me so much, I’m fine. Really,” I implored again. I was perfectly capable of moving my own crutches.
He bent down in front of me and pulled me close, kissing me slowly. Electricity flew across my skin and down my spine. I was buzzing all over. He pulled me closer and my legs wrapped around him. The kiss deepend. The buzzing became stronger. His tongue entered my mouth and I jolted from the sensation. I felt like I had been zapped.
“You okay?” Sean asked, eyes searching mine.
“Yeah,” I said breathlessly, “I don’t know what that was, sorry.”
He pulled me into a hug and breathed in deeply, head in the crook of my shoulder.
“Nothing to be sorry about,” he responded. He pulled back and I fully expected him to kiss me again but he abruptly stood up.
“Can I assume you’ve got ice cream in your freezer?” he asked, wicked grin and all.
I laughed, “Yes, of course. Grab me the pint of coffee, will you?”
“What?” he asked from the kitchen, opening the freezer. “No bowl?”
“Just a spoon, please!” I called out. “Drawer closest to the fridge!”
“You rebel!” he exclaimed back.

Ally ~
I don’t know what it was about Sean, but the more I looked at him the more something seemed to be not quite right. I kept glimpsing darkness or a shadow or something in his eyes, especially when he smiled. I couldn’t be totally sure but I was starting to think he could be something different too. How many of us could there be? With my grandmother being our only connection to the supernatural world, my mom and I didn’t know much about what other sorts of beings there were in this world. We knew about witches like my grandmother obviously, and she had told us tales about running into werewolves and vampires. But she never mentioned much else. She was pretty selective about what she told us. She would only share stories, never answer questions.
I wasn’t sure what Sean’s intentions were, if he were something else, but I was starting to think I needed to dig into it. I was becoming sure I was going to have to come forward to Rachel about what I was soon. Especially if she was in any kind of danger.
My phone tinged and I saw a message from Joey. There was something like that going on with him too, and I had noticed that he was often talking Sean up. It was weird. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that he had been doing this for as long as we had been dating. How come I hadn’t noticed before? Was I just so distracted that this good looking guy was into me?
I watched Sean escort Rachel to his car and I tried to enter my meditative state while watching him. But all I got was a big bowl of nothing. Which was weird. When I had been practicing doing that with others I was able to feel a real time feeling of theirs. Not him though. Maybe he was too far away. Maybe it was something else. And if it was something else, that really worried me.
“Ally, you alright?” a voice asked, I turned to see Kyle.
He came closer and eyed me. I saw something there - light. And it wasn’t coming from the sun. He turned his head slightly as we studied each other for a minute.
“Are-” he paused mid-question, “You are.”
“I am what?” I asked, he seemed to realize something.
“You’re a witchling, aren’t you?” he asked, lowering his voice. My eyes widened in surprise.
“What?” I looked away in a small panic, “I don’t know that you’re talking about. This isn’t funny.”
He said nothing for a second then dropped his hands at his sides loudly.
“We should sit,” he insisted, and we made eye contact once again.
Something made me sit. Maybe it was my curiosity. Maybe it was this growing feeling that we understood something about each other.
Kyle turned to me after looking around us, his eyes glowed. Like they literally were glowing. I sucked in a breath. He was different for sure. But what was he?
“I’m fae,” he proudly said in a hushed tone.