The Fifth World 2

Bo: "I will not bring along a drag, Bo," Johnson says to me.

Gosh, at the moment he is sounding a lot like a father. I shake my head and feel my eyes narrow... he isn't my father. I refuse to think of him as my father. My father died.

Johnson and I are standing in the kitchen, the doors are closed but I am careful knowing that my mother is near. I look over at her, she is now awake and sitting on the couch painting her fingernails a tomato red. She is surprisingly normal but I know that she is becoming suspicious of all of the male friends I am bringing over. First there is Jonathan who clearly is my boyfriend, then there was Cynric at Christmas, then Johnson after Christmas and earlier today came Derek and now Johnson again. She must think I'm a slag.

"Johnson," I say his name angrily, "Derek will not slow us down, he could help us if anything!"

I look over at my mother. I have to be careful. Just by looking at her, I can tell that she hasn't heard a word yet but you always must be cautious... I mean, she's a mother, they always find out the truth when you're lying - one way or another. If she found out it would just reveal everything... ruin everything and probably make her upset.

"Bo," Johnson says my name with very much authority, "for the last time; we go alone."

I feel my eyes narrow at him, "fine, then I'm not going."

He sighs deeply and glares at me, "I have no time for your childish stubbornness."

"Then leave," I say rudely, "I may not be in the Fifth World but I am still an Angelican. I am naming myself as Derek's Angelican."

I know I am being rude... and childish and stubborn... but I cannot help it. I have taken on some kind of sympathy for Derek Brown. He needs help. Maybe, just maybe it is because I already know a Thorne who is kind and gentle... maybe if I help Derek I can take some evil out of the world and make life in the Fifth World and this world just that little bit better.
Derek walks into the kitchen with a nervous expression on his face. School ended a few hours ago and Derek and I both left early anyway. We had been talking for hours... we were just trying- or I was just trying to get down to the bottom of this. I needed to know all about his family and by the sounds of it, I guess his father is a Thorne. Johnson was over not long later and while I have not said much to him about Derek, he does know the basics.

Johnson completely ignores Derek, "Bo, you do not have the authority to do that. The Academy does that as does the government."

"Well," I say loudly, "he has no Angelican. Nobody has come to see him. The least I can do is help him-"

"Bo," Derek says quietly but loud enough for Johnson and I to hear, I turn to face him, "I need to speak to you."

I almost refuse him but before I can get a word out his arm is at my wrist and he is pulling me into the foyer by the front door. We both sit down at the bottom of the stairwell. I watch him sigh and wonder what is running through his head.

"Don't bother," he says quietly, "it's obvious your... your father cannot afford to have me there. I'll be fine."

It does affect me when he calls Johnson my father. I can tell that it is hard for Derek to say, mostly because he has barely come to grips with everything, but it is also hard for me to hear someone else say it.

I touch his shoulder in comfort, I am so surprised with how trusting I am in Derek, "No, I cannot leave you here by yourself..."

He shrugs my hand from him and then sends a glare my way, it pierces me like a thousand knives, "Why are you helping me?"

I stare at him, a little hurt by his choice of tone. I wonder, myself, why I am helping him. I have every reason not to trust Derek. He is a Thorne and most definitely an unstable one. He is confused and angry and sad. His parents are or were alcoholics and I know that that certain trait - if you can call it one - has rubbed off on him. And as well as that long list... he hurt me, he hurt me bad.

"Because," I whisper, "nobody deserves to be alone during a time like this."

And that is true. The time in a Fifth World Humans life, if they are a half cast, can be on the hardest times ever.

"Were you alone?" he asks me.

I almost shake my head but I stop myself, "no," but then I think of all the times when Cynric was never there, when in reality I had to jump back and forth from time to time wandering the two different worlds and wondering when the hell I would return to wherever the hell it was. I was alone. "Actually, yes, I was."

There is a long and silent pause. The air is still. The night is quiet. I can only hear my breathing and Derek's. I can't even hear Theresa in the lounge nor Johnson in the kitchen. Derek and I do not look at each other. A sharp knock at the door finally breaks it and I immediately get up and zip on over to answer it.
I open it to see Jonathan.

"Jonathan," I say with a surprised smile, and it isn't a fake one either, believe it or not, I'm glad that he is here, "Hi."

He stares at me with empty eyes, "You didn't wait for me after school and then I thought you were probably mad so I tried calling your phone but you weren't answering..."

Oh, boy.

"Sorry," I apologise whilst leaving only my head in between the tiny space of the door and the wall, "I didn't hear it ring."

"Can I come in?" he asks me and I unwillingly look behind me to see Derek standing up and walking over to the door.

Oh, boy. I don't get enough time to even try to stop Derek. Before I know it he has pulled the door almost entirely open revealing himself standing right beside me and in my house. I watch how Jonathan's face changes from almost nothing to one of the worst expressions I have ever seen. I have never seen him look so angry and so hurt at the same time... ever. I can imagine what this looks like.