Page 40 of Sublimate
“Fairy eyes are yellow.”
“Is that right? I’m going to have to do more research,” he answered. “Maybe I’ll talk to Cadence at the library.”
“Maybe we should go for a run and I’ll tell you everything I know,” I said. The afternoon was much cooler and we had been heading out together almost every day.
“That sounds like a good idea. We’ll see if you can catch me,” Nolan answered. He laughed again and we went off together.
I shared my knowledge about elves and fairies as we went. Lately, my life did seem to have a supernatural tinge because it was so easy and boundless. That was due to Nolan, though. I smiled at him and felt like I really was flying.
Chapter 9
First of all, flying? It was spectacular.
“Nolan! There’s a lake,” I told him. The clouds had parted a little and I could definitely see a body of water far below us. “Not a Great Lake, right?”
“There are only five of those and they’re all much, much bigger than what you see down there.”
I could see everything from up here and I had been glued to the window since we’d taken off. I moved my head away from the glass so that I could polish off the mark from my nose and glanced over at him. “Don’t you want to look?” I asked.
There were plenty of windows available because we were the only two people in this whole plane. It looked a lot like someone’s living room—not Kolter’s, because nothing was broken and taped, and not Cadence’s, where there were no lights. I could have lived in Nolans’ airplane very easily.
“I can’t believe you have this,” I told him.
“It was my grandfather’s,” he explained. “He used to travel constantly for business and owning a plane made sense. I’m not sure that it does for me, but I’ve kept it and kept it up.”
“I would do the same thing, if I were you. You could go anywhere at any time! You have no boundaries.”
“That’s always been one of my issues,” he agreed. I continued to look out of the window, but I did notice how his eyes kept moving to a shiny wood cabinet that was built into the wall of the plane.
“What’s that?” I asked finally. I pointed at it.
“It used to be where I kept the liquor. I drank a lot when I traveled.” His eyes went over again.
“Are there still bottles in there?”
“I think that I threw them all away the last time I took a trip.”
Just in case, I went to check, but it really was empty. “I should have brought snacks,” I said. I’d made a big “happy birthday” breakfast for him today and we’d had fun going to the beach near his house to celebrate. We’d even gotten into the water, although I didn’t know how to swim so he was nervous about it. It was cold enough that I didn’t last long, but he’d gone back and forth a few times and I had decided to watch some videos to pick up tips for myself. I thought it had been a good birthday for him so far, but food usually made things even better.
“On our next trip, I’ll have the plane catered in case you get hungry,” he said. “We’ll be landing…” At that point, the pilot spoke on the intercom to tell us that we had already begun ourdescent because Detroit wasn’t very far away if you went through the air.
As I re-buckled, I was thinking of how Nolan had said “our next trip.” On a private plane, you didn’t need ID. And he wanted to go places with me? I looked over at him and smiled, and he smiled back. A very nice one.
There was a car waiting for us at the airport and as we drove toward the suburb where his parents lived, he gave me the rundown on what would happen. “We’re supposed to have dinner with them,” he said.
Good, because I was hungry. I really should have brought snacks. “Great,” I answered enthusiastically.
“No, it certainly won’t be. By this time of the day, my dad will be on his second or third drink.”
“I don’t think that you should be around that,” I said.
“I asked him not to but he didn’t respond to that text. We’re supposed to eat at seven and my mother will be late. She’s usually at her law office for a few more hours and she let me know that leaving early was something special she was doing for me. But she’ll still be late.”
“Couldn’t we have met at her there during the day? So she wouldn’t be inconvenienced?”
“Then she wouldn’t have had the opportunity to talk about how she was inconvenienced,” he said. “This way, she’ll be able to discuss the sacrifice, repeatedly.”
“Maybe the food will make her forget to complain,” I suggested. Eating always made me feel better and cooking dinner had been one of the strategies I’d used to manage Kolter’s moods.
