Page 104 of Cerulean Truth
“Who the hell are you to dictate how I should feel?” she whispered, her voice dripping with burning rage.
Fuck, she looks hot when she’s angry.
“You've got a lot of nerve, barging in here today, telling me how to feel, how to act, when you’ve acted like you don’t give a shit about me for weeks on end and shut me out like I’m nothing but a nuisance to you! I had to say goodbye to everything and everyone I cared about, you were the only one I had any sort of…whatever with, and you shut me out!”
A tense silence lingered before she delivered the final blow. "Just becauseyouhave never experienced the depth of genuine connections, doesn't give you the right to ignore or judge the pain I feel for leaving my loved ones behind!"
My jaw clenched. That was a low blow and this woman was pushing all the wrong buttons.
“You think you’re the only one who had to endure any crap? You are drowning in self-pity and honestly, it’s not very becoming,” I retorted harshly, hoping to jolt her out of it.
“Oh, that’s rich, coming from the golden boy,” she snorted, her tone dripping with sarcasm. “You have no idea what it feels like to fail at anything, let alone at everything! Since I’ve come into Cyclos, I’ve been nothing but an absolute failure, whereas I was on the top of my game back at home! You have no idea what that feels like, so don’t you dare judge me!”
I laughed bitterly. “You think I don’t know how it feels like to fail? Let me tell you something, I wasn’t born a success story, I worked my ass off for it every single day since I got here and for years, I was still only met with loathing and despise.”
She rolled her eyes dismissively. “Sure you were.”
“You don’t believe me?”
"What you're trying to sell me isn't very believable, mister ‘Leader of Cyclos’," she spat. "I mean, as far as I understand, you are a brilliant Offensive, hot as hell, and popular beyond anything, if not even famous. I think there's a clear difference with my current status."
A strange warm feeling crept into my gut when she called me "hot as hell," but I needed to stay focused.
"You have no idea what I went through... the despise, the exclusion… There’s a reason they put me in Offensive training, and it wasn’t because I was good at using my words” I said through my teeth.
She looked straight at me, visibly torn between responding rudely or succumbing to her curiosity. In the end, curiosity won out.
“Why? What wereyoudespised for?” she asked reluctantly, her disbelief evident, fueling my frustration.
“Mostly for beingancientby the time I was retrieved,” I snapped, “Even at six years old, I was deemed… ‘magically challenged’. No surprise though, considering we live in a society where extraordinary powers usually manifest in babies at three months.”
I gazed at her expectantly, waiting for her response.
"So, let me get this straight..." she began, her voice tinged with accusation, "being a maga at twenty-three isn't just unconventional, it's grounds for judgment? I'm ridiculed by everyone here? Even despised?" She paused, her eyes widening. "Is that why they call me the granny?"
Fuck. I hadn’t seen that curveball coming.
“No, I?—”
“Look, James, thank you very much for all that insight,” she interrupted sarcastically as she stood up, “but I'd appreciate it if you didn't push it. I’ll figure it out myself, and I surely don’t needyouto tell me what to feel or how to act.”
Really? I just told her—well, not everything but a lot, and this is how she chose to respond? By dismissing me?
I glared at her in disbelief, got off the bed, and stormed out of her room without uttering another word.
As I portaled out of there, my mind started reeling.
I peeked around the corner and saw everyone all squished together on the couch. They looked like they were playing a game, but their faces were all crinkled up like they'd eaten something yucky. The grown-ups were there too, their voices all stern and business-like. They were always like that. Except for nurse Lucy. She wasn’t like that. She was actually nice.
Nurse Lucy made everything better. She was like a superhero with a smile that could light up the whole room. But today, she wasn't there.
“Nurse Lucy isn’t coming back.” I jerked my head to the right. “Why not?” I asked.
The boy next to me wiped his eyes. “She left us. With them.”
It was like someone had turned off the lights and left us in the dark.
The other kids were crying and hugging each other, and I knew why. Nurse Lucy was the only nice person we had. We were all left by our parents and now even Nurse Lucy had gone and done the same thing. So everyone cried. But I didn’t want to feel it. So I just stood there, feeling all squished up inside.
