Not that I actually went over to talk to her, of course.

I was out with my friends, but I also had the distinct feeling that she wouldn’t talk to me.

And so, the days passed. My only regret was that I couldn’t talk to Iraklis. Our schedules didn’t match and, honestly, I kind of felt like he wasn’t putting in enough effort to make them match. Not that I blamed him. Being in one of the top hero schools, one that even slightly surpassed Atlantis, probably led to him meeting new friends.

Better, less…like me…friends.

And so, it was Friday. Not the one that Sofie and I would meet, but the one before, and I was out in the track field, waiting for Maria, Beatrice, and Madame Where to join me. In all fairness, I had gotten here early, so that was on me.

I couldn’t stand being in the same room as Sadid for some reason. I felt both a sense of anger and guilt whenever I saw him, which led to a bunch of not-so-kind thoughts about him, and later on myself.

So I decided instead of sitting in my room and messing with the seams of my gloves while stewing in those thoughts, I’d come out here do the exact same thing but with fresh air hitting my face.

Not exactly my smartest call.

“Hello, Alexander” I heard Beatrice say behind me. I turned around and she was heading to me all dressed up in standard Atlantis clothes, and alone. She bowed at me. I smiled back at her.

“Hey,” I said, taking off my gloves. It was getting easier and easier to do that. As much as I hated to admit it, using my power actually helped me get better at controlling it. “Sorry if I’m too early, but I just-it’s a long story.”

“One I hope you’ll tell me, caro,” she said, her permanent smile becoming a little smaller, a little sadder. “I noticed you’ve been off these few weeks. Anything I can help with?”

I sighed at the question. Beatrice was someone I found I confide in easier than most. We’d gone through similar experiences, but there wasn’t anything to say here. Just a general sense of being lost, almost like everything is…slightly different.

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“And everything’s alright with Maria?” she asked, now looking more serious than before. “You didn’t have any issues with your power, did you?”

“No issues with my power, no.” I couldn’t help the happiness that got in my tone with this. It was more than just, ‘well done Alex, you didn’t kill anyone.’ It was like a new beginning, one where I could be a hero. “As for Maria, I-I don’t know.”

“Go on.”

“I don’t-I don’t know where we stand,” I said, thinking about the last words she said to me. About how she lived. Everything she lost because of me.

She was right to not forgive me but she also seemed to want to leave it all in the past. I-I didn’t know how to explain that, but I was happy about that. Although everything else she said–I often thought about late at night whether I was in my room, or Sofie’s.

“I-I can’t make it right,” I ended up saying. “No matter what I do, where I stand, I will always have taken away Maria’s childhood. Her-her every chance of being even a little normal. And I don’t know how to deal with that.”

For some reason, that made Beatrice smile. It was small, but it was there.

“You’ve gotten better at expressing yourself,” said Beatrice. “Jensen said you kept everything inside when he knew you. Like you were afraid of what’ll happen if you’re, well, you. You need to learn to accept yourself before it’s too late.”

It sounded nice, what she said. But I couldn’t do it. If I did-if I ‘expressed’ myself I didn’t know what would happen. I looked down at my hands. What was there to accept?

But hold on a bit.

“Who’s Jensen?”

Beatrice’s eyes widened.

The lines in her arms glowed and she rushed at me. I barely managed to dodge. I backed away, trying to read her. She stood completely still.

And then, almost faster than I could see, she touched the ground, melting everything in my direction, but I answered by touching it myself, and destroying a bit of the field between us and stopping her advance.

“I thought I was supposed to go on the offensive in these sessions,” I said lightly.

“Brace yourself,” said Beatrice. “I wish there was another way, but I’m afraid there isn’t.”

The lines in her arms glowed once more, this time followed by her eyes and hair.

I sidestepped her next rush, while also managing to touch one of her arms. A red line went through it, and it exploded, releasing steam everywhere.

Before I even had the chance to feel bad about that though, Beatrice’s good arm came through the fog, grabbing me and shoving me to the ground.

I tried to grab that as well, but I also felt a sudden burst of heat in my chest. My shirt was burned off, and a light pink hand mark made itself home in it.

Σκατά.