Forty-five
Bradley stared at us, with one eyebrow raised. He hadn’t expected us to be so open towards each other. I wondered why.
"Hello, Beth," Zane said, I hadn’t seen her walk towards us. I stifled my frown. She took my hand in a firm handshake. “I’m Zane, the brains of this family.”
Everyone groaned.
I smiled.
They seemed so natural – so human.
“Rebecca.” Rebecca said stiffly nodding at me, not daring to come closer.
I nodded back suddenly remembering her peculiar gift, or curse as they call it. I didn’t want her close to me either; I was truly scared of what she could do.
“It’s nice to meet you all.” I mumbled.
“Thank you for coming.” Zane said admiringly.
I nodded my head staring admiringly at the Fareast wall lined with top to bottom paintings in various shades of colours. This was how I’d imagined an art gallery would be like.
“Do you paint?” Christopher asked noticing my preoccupation.
“I shook my head. “My drawing expertise are limited to circles, somehow my squares manage to look like triangles with ears.”
Bradley snickered.
I shot him a glare.
He laughed; Christopher smiled warmly at my life-mate.
“That’s Bradley’s collection.” Victor mumbled.
“Oh. You collect art?” I asked.
“Actually, Bradley painted those himself.” Zane was almost smug.
“Really?” I asked with awe, walking toward the wall, Bradley was half a step behind me.
In the top corner was a pencil drawing of Christopher but in the picture he had wings, a tail and horns.
“You like it?” he asked.
“Christopher approved of this?”
He laughed. “He loves it actually. I drew it three decades ago.”
“Oh?”
There were hundreds of pictures – Carrie in the meadow, Victor sitting under a tree reading a book, Zane smiling with Rebecca sitting next to her on the bench – that was my personal favourite. My gaze lingered on it. Bradley noticed.
“This was in fall nineteen-eighty-nine.”
“They looked so happy.”
“They were. We all were.”
“Who’s this?” I asked pointing to a picture I’d seen him draw at science class the first month he was here. The girl was so beautiful, her red curls framing her heart shaped face perfectly.
“Beautiful isn’t she?” he asked, staring at the picture with so much love my heart twisted in envy.
“Yes.” I mumbled.
“I can’t seem to get the eyes quite right.” He mumbled his face pulling up in frustration. “You can never capture such beauty, such perfection in a piece of paper.”
“She looks so perfect.” I mumbled my voice raw with jealousy. I felt my heart break. No one had a right to be so beautiful; her full lips were twisted up in half a smile as her green eyes stared longing at something in front of her.
“She is, in every way possible.”
I sighed.
“This is you, my very first sight of you.”
I shook my head, I couldn’t speak. He’d captured me so beautifully. It was in science class, I’d been looking at him.
“You’d only looked up at me for a brief second.” I complained. “And yet you got every single detail right.” Except the beauty. It was exaggerated.
“After that second there was nothing else worth my attention.” He breathed. “I couldn’t concentrate on anything else for the rest of the day, I had to see you again, I deliberately came late to class I was hoping we get sent off to detention, I wasn’t ready to say goodbye – even momentarily.”
I threw my arms around him with enough force to knock a human over. For a second his breath stopped.
Automatically his arms wound around me. My grip tightened.
“Beth, are you crying.” He asked worriedly.
“No.” I sniffed as my tears bathed his jacket.
He drew circles on the small of my back.
“I love you so very much Bradley Carter.” I whispered my voice cracking at the edges.
“You’re the one thing that matters to me now, the only thing that matters to me ever.” He gulped. “Promise me tomorrow.”
“I promise you forever.”
I suddenly remembered his family was in the room with us. I backed away from him to see his family staring at us, their faces unreadable but smiles planted on their faces.
“Thank you.” Carrie said coming to stand in front of me. “You don’t know how very long I’ve waited to see that look on my son’s face. To look into his eyes and see the reflection of someone else.” She kissed my forehead. “…son.” She nodded to Bradley and carefully placed her hand on his cheek. So many words were spoken in that simple gesture.
Everyone else disappeared and soon it was just Bradley and I.
I raised my eyebrow questioningly.
“They’re giving us some well-deserved privacy.”
“Oh.”
“My parents approve. They all do.” He mumbled. “My mother has been… worried the most. She didn’t like me wondering this world alone.”
“You love her.” I observed.
“You can’t imagine how much.”
“How old is she?” I asked.
He looked at me sceptically. “She had me when she was three hundred and one.”
“Oh.” I stared intrigued, “And your brother?”
“Victor was born in eighteen fifty.”
“Doesn’t it get boring?” I asked. “Living for that long?”
“We ran out of things to do.” He mumbled. “I have to go back to high school every ten years. I usually do three years full time in college and then work for six years and then it’s back to hell.” He glanced briefly at me and then at the painting of me. “I can never get bored again. I have you now.”
“What do you study in college?”
“I’ve studied law, psychology, medicine, drama, linguistics, mathematics and science.”
“What will you do now?”
“Depends.”
“On?”
“You.”
I frowned.
“I’ll probably stay here, and be your driver.” He whispered. “It would physically hurt me to leave you.”
“I wouldn’t want you pardoning your dreams over me.”
“You’re my dream now.” He smiled. “I want to be happy. You’re the only thing that makes me happy.”
“Do you know how much I love you?” it was clearly a theatrical question but he smiled back teasing me.
“No, how much?”
“This much,” I said stretching my arms out. “And just pretend I’m some mythical creature with an ability to elongate my arms indefinitely.”
He laughed. “I enjoy your company way too much.”
“All I ever do is ask you questions.” I protested.
He rolled his eyes. “I don’t care what you say; actually, I just enjoy hearing your voice.”
“I enjoy your company too.”
“So do you want a tour?”