Chasing Imagination

Casper

Amy and I sat together for a little longer, until I finally suggested we go and get something for breakfast.

When we got there, I saw Imogen, which I was essentially pleased about, but as another figure moved out of the way, I could see, like a nightmare looming out of the darkness, Matt, who sat beside her.

‘Dammit,’ I muttered quietly, ‘I almost thought she was alone.’

Amy nodded in a perfectly friendly manner, but said nothing. It didn’t take a genius to notice how she seemed a little green with envy every time I talked about how much I liked Imogen. However, it really was nothing more than a friendship. Any more was well and truly in the past, and that had never come to anything anyway.

‘Hey,’ Imogen said cheerfully as we went to sit down with them.

‘Hey,’ I replied, putting on a friendly mask for the duration of this breakfast which I almost certainly wasn’t going to enjoy.

‘You alright, Casper?’ Matt asked in a casual way. ‘You look a bit...grumpy.’

I had to physically bite my tongue to stop myself from shouting at him. It was ridiculous; we’d always got on, even if not completely smoothly, but now, things felt different. Since the other day, when I’d had success at the train station and even been commended by Nightshade, I felt I was beginning to redeem myself in Markus’s eyes and show myself to be a true fighter. But just when I had hope, he went and dashed it all by choosing Matt to lead an expedition ten times bigger than mine!

‘I’m fine,’ I said quietly.

‘It’s just,’ Matt looked awkward, which was an expression I hadn’t seen him wear for a long time, and also didn’t particularly suit him, ‘you seem to have been in a bad mood for the last day or so. You’re not...y’know, insulted that I didn’t invite you on the trip to the Marauder base, are you?’

This time, biting my tongue didn’t cover it.

‘No, I’m not insulted,’ I replied, having to speak through gritted teeth. The words came out sounding venomous. Imogen, who had evidently been unaware of my ‘bad mood,’ shot Amy an alarmed glance, which I didn’t fail to miss. ‘I just...not feeling great.’ I gestured wildly, hoping that it made him unsure as to whether I was talking about my head, my stomach or pretty much anywhere else on my body.

‘Oh, well that’s a shame,’ Matt said.

‘What’s wrong?’ Imogen asked. Funny; I’d always thought of her as being pretty clever, but she had to be pretty unobservant not to notice the truth behind my ‘illness.’

‘Headaches,’ I muttered. ‘I think I haven’t been sleeping well.’ I knew I was a better liar than Amy, but I also knew that I was far from foolproof. I would be really surprised if Matt couldn’t see through it, despite giving it everything I had.

‘Aww, that’s a shame,’ said Imogen sympathetically, leaning across the table to delicately pat my hand. I continued to play the part of someone who was feeling just ill enough to be in a bad mood, and pulled a slight face at her.

Thankfully, the conversation moved away from me a little at that point. As soon as Matt and Imogen became engrossed in talking to each other, I purposefully gave Amy a knowing glance. She returned one, to show that she was in on the act, but sensibly kept quiet. Hopefully, she would get better at lying over time, but for now it really was not her forte.

Five minutes later, I conveniently spotted Felix, Jay and Wolfie walking in, all still looking dazed as though they’d only just woken up—which, to be honest, they probably had. With perhaps a little too much eagerness, I got up and went to see them.

‘Well, look who it is,’ said Jay enthusiastically, so that my eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

‘Casper, man!’ Wolfie said, just as upbeat.

‘What?’ I asked, glancing around at all of them. ‘What have I done?’

‘That’s what I was going to ask you,’ Felix said. ‘Last night, I returned to my bedroom, only to find that I heard voices. Female voices.’

‘What, me and Amy?’ I asked. ‘That was, like, eight o’clock in the evening!’

‘Yeah, but you were in there for a little while weren’t you, door shut and everything,’ Felix jeered, probing for information that was sadly misleading him.

‘Do tell, Casper,’ said Jay, as though he was a teenage girl digging for gossip.

‘Seriously guys, nothing happened,’ I said truthfully. ‘What do you want me to tell you?’

‘Well, it sounded pretty, y’know, intense,’ Felix said, erupting into barrels of hearty laughter, causing Jay and Wolfie to do the same as though it was contagious. How I loved to hate someone like Felix...a best friend and a damn good enemy in one!

‘You mean, you were eavesdropping?’ I asked incredulously, but also bursting into laughter with the rest of them.

‘A little,’ Felix said with a shrug, never one for dignity.

‘Trust me,’ I said as the chuckling died down, ‘nothing happened. We were talking, that’s all.’

‘Ooh, talking,’ Wolfie said, echoed by Jay.

‘Yeah, talking,’ I said. ‘That’s all.’ It wasn’t a lie. I just wasn’t going to specify on the intensity of said talking.