The Fifth World

Bo: I am back at Derek's house. I can hear him crying quietly in the lounge and I curiously walk over towards the house and peer in through the window. He is holding an ice pack over his nose and there is blood on his hands. I can't help but smile softly. Gosh, I'm so massochistic. I look around, expect to see Cynric not too far away but he is not there. I realize that I am standing outside, in the freezing cold, half naked with my clothes in my hand. I quickly slip them back on and teleport myself home. I appear in the kitchen much to Mum's surprise and I pour myself a glass of water.

"Where have you been?" she asks me. Her voice is toneless, lifeless. There is no life left in her these days.

I sigh, pour the glass of water down my throat and turn towards her. Her red hair is tied in a messy pony tail, the ends are split. Her face looks like it belongs to a fifty year old even though she is only mid-thirties. I feel for Mum and I help her, but right now, she is the only one who can help herself. "I was on a date." That's half true.

She stares at me, "with who?"

I shrug, "Derek Brown."

"Oh," she says as if she knows him but she doesn't, she doesn't know anything about him, "did you have a good time?"

That is when she sees the black eye, my black eye. I had tried covering it with make-up before Cynric and I had left to go to Derek's house but I guess it came off. I watch how Mum's eyes widen and I turn away from her quickly and use my black hair as a curtain to hide my face.

"What happened?" she demands, "Who did that to you, Bo?"

"It's nothing, I walked into a door."

She comes towards me, takes my face into her hands and pulls it towards her, "Did that boy do that to you?"

"No."

She stares at my face as I try to pull her hands away from me, "Mum, let go of me, please. It's nothing. It's nothing."

I finally escape and I run from the kitchen, run upstairs and lock myself in my room. Cynric is there waiting for me. He sits on my window sill and the moonlight shines onto his skin. I sigh, sit on my bed unhappily as he stares at me.

"How long was I gone for?" I ask him. Sometimes I am somewhere in time for seconds, minutes, days, and when I return to the present I was absent for a week, a few seconds, a few minutes or twelve hours. It is always different.

He sighs, runs his hand through his blond hair, "a few hours."

I look up at him and whisper, "you never told me."

"Told you what?" he asks me.

"You don't remember? Four years ago? I was seventeen, you were nineteen."

Recognition appears on his face and he sighs deeply. There is no love in his face. He just looks as if he has made a stupid mistake and is disappointed in himself. "We could get in a lot of trouble for that."

I ignore his statement, "but you never told me. You could have told me. You should have told me."

He shook his head, "that won't happen again." But it does. It does for me. The Cynric in the past, the one I had been kissing tonight, he told me that he sees me when I'm seventeen, when I'm eighteen. I'll make sure I'll kiss that Cynric. This Cynric, the one in the present, the twenty four year old, he is reserved and he will follow law. I close my eyes and sigh. I want to travel back in time again.

"How many times did it happen?" I ask him. "For you?"

He shook his head, "I can't tell you that."

"Why?" I am getting angry now.

"Because," he shrugged, "nobody knows exactly how time traveling works. If I tell you, it might never happen."

I look away from him, crawl into my bed and pull the blankets over me. "Leave, please."

"What?"

"You heard me," I hiss, "go now or I'll scream."

And with that he does leave and I don't see him for another week.

The weekends ends quickly. On Monday I get to school, fetch my books and go to class. I walk into a what was loud classroom but on entry everybody turns to stare at me, it is silent. I look to the back of the classroom and spot Derek Brown with two black eyes and some adhesive tape over his nose. I smile softly and go to my seat. People still stare and some of the girls even whisper things to me, thank me, say they're proud of me. I feel proud of myself and I feel thankful for Cynric - even if I am mad at him.
The day goes by quickly. I spend my lunches with my friends, making the most of lunch, letting my friends hurry off to their lockers quickly so they're not late for class. I wait five minutes or so till I know that the corridors will be clear, I teleport myself to my locker, grab my books and then jump to my next class. I'm always the last person to walk into the classroom but I am never late.
School ends and I take my bag from my locker, get my homework, go to the bathroom and teleport to Adam's primary school. I always teleport into the bathroom there and I appear in the same cubicle. One time I teleported and I realized I wasn't alone in the cubicle. There was a little girl who was just flushing the loo when I arrived. It was quite embarrassing. She screamed and I teleported again into the cubicle beside her. I waited till she cried, left the bathroom and ran to Mummy.
I waited outside Adam's classroom for him to march out and meet me. There are many parents around, all of them happy, waiting and gossiping with other parents about current events. I am the only sibling waiting for their sibling. I sigh and wonder when my mother will do this again.
"Hey, Bo," I hear a voice, turn around and see Jonathan.

He is beautiful. I've known him for years. He was my neighbor till I was about eleven and then his family moved to an even bigger house. He's a year older than me but is still at school, he stayed down a year or something. He doesn't speak to me much but when he does he is always kind and polite. I used to think he had potential in being my boyfriend, I mean he is very attractive, intelligent and kind, but I don't think he's interested in me. Plenty of girls are interested in him. He is always going for the gorgeous girls. I stare at his chocolate brown hair, his bright blue eyes and his porcelain skin. He's so attractive.

I smile at him, "hey, Jonathan. How are you?"

"I'm alright, how are you?"

I shrug, "okay, I guess." He looks at me strangely and spots my black eye.

"Oh, god," he says, "what happened to your face?" At first I didn't realize he was talking about my eye, I was about to crack the shits at him. Why would you say that to someone? But then I remembered... Derek Brown. Ugh. I put plenty of foundation on it this morning, I guess it's coming off.

"I walked into a door," I mumbled. It's a weak lie. Anybody can see through it.

Jonathan was doubtful, he sighed, "I heard about Derek, I'm really sorry about what he did."

I looked at him curiously, "why would you ask me what happened if you already knew?"

He shrugs, "I just didn't think the injuries would be that horrible. I really wanted to speak to you today - if Derek does anything ever again, let me know and I'll handle it."

I laughed once, "you'll handle it?"

He nodded his head, "Derek may be a good friend of mine but that doesn't mean he doesn't
do my head in. I wouldn't mind giving that tool a pop in the jaw."

"I think someone already beat you to to it. I heard he broke his nose." I said to him.

He laughed loudly, "good, he deserves it."

The children suddenly all came running out of their classroom. Adam was first. He's a fast runner. He ran towards me and I scooped him up into my arms and kissed his cheek. God, he's heavy. I also know how Adam hates it when I kiss him in public. He gets embarrassed. Jonathan's brother wasn't too far behind Adam. I think they're friends.
After saying goodbye to Jonathan and his little brother - named Max - Adam and I walked home. He told me about his day, how he got twenty out of twenty in his spelling test and how he got a chocolate bar for doing so well. He's a star student. I then began to wonder about Cynric and how he's doing back in the Fifth World.