Chapter sixteen

"Oh, what I would give to listen to music right now," Bryony said, flopping dramatically onto the bed with a sigh.

It had been at least ten minutes since Marjorie left, and she hadn't come back yet. Bryony was starting to wonder if she even was coming back. Maybe something happened and now it was taking longer for her to get Elon and come back.

Bryony was bored. She rolled over and lifted her head up from the comfy pillow to look over at Aven. He was preoccupied with some books he had found. He was sitting on the floor crosslegged, leaning forward a bit as he read whatever the book he had was. Devlin was curled up on his lap sleeping, so the book was lying on the floor in front of Aven. He was stroking Devlin's soft fur with one of his hands, while the other was holding his face up as he leaned on it to read the book better. His face looked kind of squished from leaning on his hand, but it looked cute.

It was like Aven could feel her eyes on him, because he looked up at her, and she quickly looked away, flopping back down onto the bed. Please he didn't see me. Bryony thought. Please! She heard him turn a page from the book and she quietly sighed in relief. He didn't see her, or he didn't care that she was watching him. He was too preoccupied with the book, he seemed really interested in it.

Bryony sat up again and looked over at him. He could read? How come he knew how to read, but didn't know almost everything else? Did he learn how to read? Or did he naturally know how to when he was born? What was he reading anyway? Was it good? The book looked big, not one of those short childrens book she had always read to Greta and the twins. She hated reading those books, they were childish. She liked adult books, ones that were horror and fantasy and mystery-thriller. But her favorite book genre to read was romance. She always loved reading romance books. Amara always teased her because of it, because to her, 'romance was too cliche and boring', but Bryony didn't care, some cliches were actually cute.

Bryony just then noticed that Aven was looking at her, and she blinked and shook her head. Had she been staring at him that whole time? She was thinking of books, it probably looked like she was just staring at him or thinking of him. Bryony slapped herself and groaned. Why did she have to go deep into thought and not notice what she was staring at?

"Yeah, I'm definitely going to die of embarrassment one day," Bryony said, shaking her head. "I'm sorry, I was just thinking of books. I didn't mean to be staring at you."

Aven didn't say anything, he just nodded and then turned his attention back to the book. Well, at least he didn't care. Or he was too innocent to think about or know what that kind of stuff was. Bryony felt a little better now.

She stood up from the bed and walked over to her backpack and picked it up. She hadn't went through it yet since Aven had given it to her when Auntie Collette packed stuff for her. Bryony still couldn't get over the fact that she knew. She knew! Did she know Bryony's parents were taken too? Did she know they were protectors? What did she know? Did she know everything?

Bryony sat back down onto the bed and opened her backpack up. She dumped everything in it onto the bed, and that caught Aven's attention, because he looked up from the book to look over at her. Bryony looked up at him. "Sorry, I'm just going through this stuff."

Bryony turned back to the stuff she dumped on the bed. There was the first aid kit Auntie Collette always had on hand just in case something happened to her or her kids. There were a couple flashlights and some extra batteries, a couple water bottles with a few granola bars, some rope, and a sheathed dagger. Bryony wasn't even going to ask where she got that, she probably had it since forever. There was some sunscreen, a bandana, which Bryony had no idea when she would need that, or what to do with it, and a compass. At the bottom of the pile of things sat Bryony's phone and earphones, and she squealed when she saw it, and quickly grabbed it.

She turned her phone on, but there was no data or connection to anything.

"Darn it," Bryony groaned, throwing the phone onto the bed and folding her arms. "Why did you pack my phone when I can't even talk to you?"

Bryony picked her phone up to see if it would work again, but it didn't. She sighed, finally giving up. She found her music app and immediately looked up at Aven and smiled. He didn't see, he was still reading the book and not paying attention to her. Bryony stood up and skipped over to where he was at and sat down, scooting the book away from him. Aven looked up at her with a confused look, but she shook her head and held up her phone and earphones. "You ever heard music before?"

Aven shook his head.

"Oh, you're going to love this," Bryony said and plugged her earphones in her phone. She put one of them in her ear and then handed the other to Aven, who took it and just stared at it with a half confused and half curious look. She scrolled through her music. "I'm going to show you my favorite song, one moment, I have so many songs, it might take me a while before I find it."

After a few moments she found it. Someone to you by banners

Bryony smiled and looked up at Aven and was about to ask if he was ready, but stopped when she saw him holding the earphone she had given him up and staring at it in confusion. Bryony laughed a little. "It goes in your ear. Here, let me help you."

She took the earphone and brought it up to his ear, but he flinched away and gave her this look, which only made her laugh again. "It doesn't hurt, don't worry. See?" She showed him the earphone that was in her ear.

Aven let her put it in his ear, but he made a face when it was in. He wasn't used to it.

"Okay, you ready now?" Bryony asked him and he slowly nodded, kind of unsure.

She pushed play, and immediately the music started playing into the earphones. Aven jumped and smacked the earphone out of his ear and scooted away from Bryony, who was laughing her head off as she paused the song. "I'm so sorry! I like turning the music up all the way, but then forget to turn it back down. I'll turn it down, I'm sorry that was too loud."

She held the earphone out for him, but he shook his head. She nodded and then unplugged them from her phone. "Okay, no earphones. Lesson learned. " She laughed again as she thought of his face when she played the song. His face was too funny, but she felt really bad for forgetting to turn it down. She always forgot everything.

Aven grabbed the book he was reading and started reading it again, so Bryony shrugged and stood up to sit on the bed. She layed down onto the bed and put her phone on her shoulder as she pushed play. She closed her eyes and listened to the song.

Music always helped her feel better. She always felt calm and relaxed whenever she listened to music. She wouldn't know what she would do if music didn't exist. She smiled as she listened to the words to the song.

If you feel the great dividing, I wanna be the one you're guiding, cause I believe that you could lead the way.

That's when the chorus hit and Bryony moved her feet to the beat as she started singing along.

"I just wanna be somebody to someone, oh I wanna be somebody to someone. Oh, I never had nobody and no road home, I wanna be somebody to someone." She stood up and started dancing around as the music got louder and more upbeat, and she pretended to be holding a microphone. "And if the sun's upset, and the sky goes cold. Then if the clouds get heavy and start to fall, I really need somebody to call my own, I wanna be somebody to someone. Someone to youuu! Someone to youuu!"

Bryony stopped dancing and turned to Aven as she saw him watching her. He looked confused, and slightly weirded out, and Bryony laughed a little. "I'm dancing."

Aven tilted his head, eyebrows furrowing in confusion. Devlin was awake now and watching Bryony too, his big eyes filled will curiosity as his tail flicked to the side. Bryony turned the music off and then put her phone back with everything else. She turned to Aven. "I'll get you to like music sometime, and maybe even teach you how to dance."

"Dance is weird," Aven said, shaking his head, and turning back to his book. Devlin closed his eyes again, and cuddled up against Aven to go back to sleep.

"Okay, but I was just dancing weirdly on purpose. That wasn't even real dancing," Bryony said, laughing a little.

Aven shook his head, still not understanding what she said. "No, dance is weird and music is too loud and hurts my ears. I'm sticking to reading. You can dance and music."

"And listen to music," Bryony corrected him, but he just shook his head, which made her laugh a little.

Bryony sat down next to him and crossed her legs. She watched him turn a page of the book, and that's when she noticed the book was in a different language. She squinted and leaned forward more to get a better look. She pointed at the book. "What language is that?"

Aven shrugged, continuing to read.

"You can read that?" Bryony asked him, slightly jealous now. "I can't read it, it looks like gibberish and it definitely doesn't look like a language I have seen or heard of before. I'm learning Spanish and French though!"

Aven looked up from the book with an eyebrow raised.

Bryony pursed her lips. "Sorry, I keep forgetting you don't know stuff in my world. Spanish and French are just languages some people speak."

"You speak it?" Aven asked.

Bryony shook her head and let out a dry laugh. "No, I'm speaking English. You are too."

Aven shook his head, turning back to the book. "You're not speaking English. You're speaking my language."

"Um, no, I'm pretty sure I'm speaking English. I wouldn't be able to understand you if we weren't speaking in English," Bryony said.

"Vos nescitis quidquam," Aven said, shaking his head, and turning another page of the book.

"I know plenty," Bryony exclaimed, offended now, as she put her hands on her hips and scowled at him.

Aven looked up at her. "See? You speak my language."

Bryony gasped, suddenly realizing he didn't speak English. "Wait what? How the heck did I know what you said? Wait, I'm confused. How? What?"

Aven just shrugged. "Your parents."

"Did they teach me? I don't remember, " Bryony said. "I only remember them reading those dumb books to me, and then being taken. I don't remember anything else."

Aven tapped her forehead. "It's in here. Buried deep."

"Memories, " Bryony whispered and Aven nodded.

"It's okay, " Aven said after a moment. "It'll take time to remember it, you buried everything deep, but you'll remember."

Bryony slowly nodded. "Okay."

Aven turned back to the book and leaned forward to continue reading, and this time Bryony didn't say anything. She let him read the book and just sighed, laying down on the floor, and staring up at the ceiling. Her head was barely touching Aven's knee, and she smiled when Aven leaned over her and stared down at her with a curious look. "I'm just relaxing. You should join me, it always feels nice."

Aven shook his head and turned back to the book. Bryony closed her eyes with a sigh and enjoyed the silence, and the sound of Aven turning the book pages when he was done reading a page. She could hear Devlin's soft and quiet breaths as he slept, and she smiled a little.

Devlin was adorable. He really seemed to like Aven.

"Hey," Aven said after a moment, and Bryony opened her eyes. "It's your parents."

Bryony immediately sat up and looked around the room. "Where?"

"No, in the book," Aven said, pointing at the book.

"Oh," Bryony said quietly, disappointed in herself that she was dumb enough to think her parents were in the house with them. She looked down at the book and stared at the page with the two faces staring back. She snatched the book from Aven and stuck her face in the book, staring at them.

"Why are they in this book?" Bryony asked. "What does it say? Tell me what it says." She shoved the book back into Aven's hands and pointed at it. "Read it." She was quiet for a moment, before she said, "please."

"Amos and Paola, " Aven read, before he looked up at Bryony.

"I know their names!" Bryony exclaimed. "What does it say?"

"That's what it says, " Aven said.

Bryony shook her head, grabbing the book from his hands again and setting it down onto her lap. "No, that can't be all of what it says. My parents are missing, it should say more about it. It shouldn't just say their names, I know their names already. It should say something I don't know about them, like if they're okay, or if they're being tortured, or if they're hiding something else from me I should know." Tears were forming in her eyes, making her vision blurry as she stared down at the book. "Did they even love me? If they did, they wouldn't have left me. They would have told me more and waited until I was old enough to understand before they put everything onto me to fix."

"I can't do this, I don't understand anything! They shouldn't have left. I didn't have my mother when I needed her, I didn't have a mother to talk to boys about, or about growing up and I didn't have the talk with her. I didn't have a dad who taught me to how to ride a bike or change tires from a car. I didn't have a father who would make me laugh when I was sad. I didn't have a mother who would hug me and tell me everything was okay when I got my heart broken. I... I didn't have parents. I grew up without them. Auntie Collette was there for me and did all that stuff for me. She may not be my mother, but she loved me like a mother. I miss my parents though."

Bryony started crying as she looked up at Aven for a moment, before shaking her head and looking back down at the book, and the picture of her parents. "You probably don't understand."

"I do," Aven said quietly.

Bryony looked up at him. "You do?"

"Just the part about being without parents," Aven said. "I didn't understand anything else."

Bryony laughed. "Didn't your parents teach you that stuff? Or teach you anything? I'm pretty sure when you were a baby or little, they taught you that stuff. You seriously don't know what a father and mother do for you? Usually the father is the fun, goofy, one who makes you laugh and teaches you lessons in life and how to survive if you ever get lost or anything. And usually the mother is the loving one who is there to talk to you about friend drama or boy drama, well not to you because you are a boy, but yeah. Fathers are loving too. They teach you the things in life as you grow older. When you turn thirteen, you're a teenager and they'll you teach you about the hormones you'll experience, and love, and marriage and..." Bryony trailed off as Aven just stared at her. He wasn't getting any of it. She waved her hand and smiled. "Nevermind, sorry, I'm just confusing you."

"How old are you?" Aven asked her. He obviously knew about ages. Of course he did who wouldn't?

"I'm sixteen, turning seventeen in a few months, " Bryony said. "What about you?"

"Sixteen, " Aven said.

"When's your birthday? I want to see who's older, " Bryony said.

"Um, I turned sixteen about three months ago," Aven said. "September."

Bryony gasped. "I'm older than you! Ha! Take that."

"When are you turning seventeen?" Aven asked her.

"March," Bryony laughed. "I'm like half a year older then you. Aw, you're a little baby to me. How cuuute."

"Hey," Aven said, which only made Bryony laugh more. "Six months younger doesn't make me a baby."

"But to me you are," Bryony said as she patted his head, and laughed as he swatted her hand away. "You're still taller, so that should make you happy. Not by much, but still taller than me. Actually, I'm pretty normal in height so you only being a little taller than me, that makes you short. For a boy at least. Usually boys are taller."

"Whatever," Aven said, shaking his head.

"Here, stand up. Lets see," Bryony said as she stood up. "I'm 5'5, lets see how much taller you are and I'll guess to how tall you are."

Aven stood up and Bryony stepped closer to him so the tips of their shoes were touching. "Stand up straight," Bryony said as she stood up straight and then looked up at Aven. When he stood up straight, she used her hand to measure how shorter she was to him. She put her hand to the top of her head and then slid it off to touch a little higher than the middle of Aven's forehead, and she smiled. "You're probably, like, maybe, 5'6 or 5'7 or something. I don't know, I'm just guessing. I'm almost to your height so you aren't that much taller than me, just barely taller. In fact, if I tip toe I'm taller than you."

Bryony laughed as she stood on her toes and patted his head again, which only made him swat her hand away like last time. "This is the first time I've met a boy who was younger than me and short. All the boys I have ever talked to were older and way taller."

"Nothing's wrong with me," Aven said.

"I didn't say there was anything wrong with you," Bryony said. "I think it's cute."

"Whatever," Aven said and shook his head as Bryony smiled at him.