The Perfect Wrong Turn - Cae

[Deleted]

Three minutes multiplied by how many ever times he pissed added too..how many fucking days had it been? He did not know because the truth was that at the end of the day it had driven him to a point where he had said nothing and more than that he had not showed up for them like he needed to. Then slowly as if he had did no wrong he came to them and they told him it was okay. They said that they all needed time to process so in a way that he had did them a favor and he felt better. "So you really think that this will stay wrapped up? You know how people get when you give them a gift. They tend to get anxious and that is not good because I finally found the way to make it perfect and if it's opened before I'm ready, it will not be and I do not want that at all."

"Well," Ribbon said as she looked at him. "I mean considering it's made of the ribbons from my scales no matter how much anyone tugs it's not getting opened until I am ready so please calm down and just breathe," she said as she patted him on his back. "Considering that is on your back you really need to look into practicing it Micah." She knew why he was worried because perfect had became his obsession and now that it was so close she could tell that her brother was going to be the first to break. "That includes you Micah, if you tug before I am ready I will smash this gift and then you will have to start over."

"I'm waiting," he said as he looked at her. "Turn around, let's get you up." She turned and held up her right arm so that he could grab it as she spoke. "This is not anything that is coming out of the blue," she said as she watched the colorless ribbon turn blue and she smirked at him. "Got that locked into your sights Micah?" He looked up for a total of three seconds and then began to wrap up the box. "Yes, I was only ever half deaf in my youth never half blind Ribbon." She laughed. "I remember," she said as she held up her other arm and watched as the blue faded. "That always made me green with envy of you though if you want to know the truth," she said as she looked at him.

"Blah," he said. "I hate when you change colors like that on me," he said as he grabbed the green and shook his head. He stared for another three seconds and then looped the green under the blue and spoke. "I like the blue and green so we can leave the red off for now," he said as he looked at her. "Nope," she said. "However I left it somewhere else because I have to go see Mila and you..well the way I see it..you will see when you get there and remember always take three lefts and two rights," she said as she spoke. "Never ever get caught red handed either," she said as she watched the blue fade and the red come in as she turned him around began to wrap his eyes up. "You can do it, I'll meet you in the middle when it's time."

"Ribbon!" he said because he did not like this at all. "It's not going to stay wrapped up if you make me leave out now!" There that bass was in his voice. "It will, trust me. I'm your sister I would never steer you wrong." She said as she pushed him out despite his protests. "Ribbon, Ribbon!" He sighed as he held onto the box. Three lefts and two rights later, he knocked box in all of it's glory in hand as he looked at the ribbons that adorned it. He could not help but give it a slight tug as he felt the wonder about ribbons fill the thoughts in his head and then he smiled because this.."Finally perfect," he said as he went to go knock on the apartment's door and took a minute to look around the edges of the door's frame. "It's wet," he said as he backed up and noticed the slosh sound that was now underneath his sneakers. "Oh fish and some crackers," he said as he looked at the box. "One ribbon gone still means that it's wrapped," he said as he pulled on the blue ribbon and backed up a little more and noticed the window. He sat the box up and threw the ribbon out the window and looked down. "Shit," he said as he grabbed the box and gently felt himself glide down. Once he hit the ground he pulled out his phone and started walking as he spoke into a voicemail. "Ribbon, where you at? I think that I made a wrong turn, either that or I left Trove by herself too long. Let's go with wrong turn though, also just to clarify as long as the box stays wrapped we're good? I mean it's not like Trove has ever been known to wrap up everything else she's been doing and completely focus anyway so we're.." He felt that blue ribbon snap from behind him and he screamed into the phone. "Oops, look don't freak out but the blue ribbon snapped but I still have two so we're still on track. See you soon right in the middle as promised!" He turned and looked back at the trail of blue ribbon and sighed. "Come on, I know you heard my footsteps."

He needed to keep his shoes on but they were soaked and he could feel the bottom of his feet beginning to do that strange thing where you knew that they were in water too long and it was going to cause the skin to peel. "I really hate when my feet began to peel." He tossed those shoes off and put the gift on top of his head in order to help him keep his balance. "Woo, come on Micah dare I say that you were created for this?" Gee, he was nervous but his perception was finely tuned and so was he at least he thought but water always had a way of either saving us or drowning us." "Please don't let those be tears," he said as he patiently waited for he was just as funny as his mother which was saying nothing. "I made it perfect!!" he yelled into the way that he had came as he went to go take a step forward and he felt that box on top of his head go to lean a little and he stood still as he calmed his breathing and closed his eyes for the one of the best sides of perception starts by simply listening to the world surrounding you.

Cae Mire

[Deleted]

1,225.

That looked more appropriate as she wondered just what the hell was going on this time but she was not curious like she had been before because all the memories that she had remembered had turned what was once love for him into a hatred that burned deeper than a fire on a cold winter's night and right now she wanted nothing more than to take that pretty face of his and rake it across some very hot coal but it was too bad that she had none. She turned and picked up the small cinnamon candle that burned and poured the wax out into the molder. She allowed it to cool and then she got up and watched. How many times she wished that he would just fall down from that ribbon and fall flat on his face was too much to count as she took the molder and set it down outside of the fire escape that lead back up to her apartment.

She finally stepped out of the shadows and looked at him. "Perfect is your code for bullshit it seems." She said as she looked him up and down and shook her head at his feet and picked up the broken ribbon and held it up. "Still playing with Ribbon's accessories I see Micah since that's about all that you are good for." Hate was more livid than love at every time. "I see two feet and yet I do wonder how you are still here and yet at the same kind I find that I don't care."

He had pushed her to that point. "Where have you been and why are you even" she could not even finish her question because she knew full well what she was getting into when she signed up for this. Her eyes went straight up to his head and everything angry in her disappeared. "YAY" she said as she took another step and grabbed it off of his head. "You came to apologize to me with a gift." Best on and off boyfriend ever. She looked it over a little more. "Oh my god let's just put this blue ribbon right back here with the rest and then I will open it. Here put your finger in the middle so I can open it properly. It is for me to open right" though she had no idea why she asked such a silly question because of course it was why else would he bring it. "Micah this makes those 1225 memories completely worth it."

Micah Nottingham

[Deleted]

He needed to be cautious because he felt that someone who just had a massive amount of memories flood back towards them was a bit unhinged but what did he know? The mind was such a wonder and everyone was different so maybe just maybe she was okay. Trove looked fine even if angry at first and yet that anger seemed to mellow out and simmer down when she noticed the gift so he said nothing as he placed his finger in the middle to allow her to grace the ribbon and wrap it around as she needed. "Who else would it be for?"

Wow he could not believe that something so materialistic could seem to change Trove's emotional state when it came to him but right now he needed that as he looked around the dark alley way. "You know me," he said as he smirked. "Always late but then again always on time when it matters the most." It was his way and he could blame it on other things but at the end of the day it had became something that had shaped him and yes it was true that he wanted to be better but it was not happening at the moment, maybe next year though.

"Anyway I..just wanted to come and bring it to you but listen Ribbon was very particular about.." He paused for a minute because he was not sure what to say and then he decided to bend the truth a little since he did not exactly see it as a lie. "She simply sends her best regards and says that you do not need to shake it and one should never open a gift too early just yet so you should wait until it feels right." Let the memories play in the sea that was her mind and then let them settle like the formation that was the land around and make them strong. "So you've been well then, not pissed?" He had to know exactly what he was dealing with as he took a seat in the middle of the alley way. "You should sit, gift in hand, for we have a lot to talk about I'd assume for 1225 memories is a lot to get through, but just the basics if you please."

Cae Mire

[Deleted]

"Well per the usual it always started with me not being able to sleep" she said as she shrugged because the truth was that every time that it seemed like they got past that song and dance her sleep somehow interfered. She wanted to refer to them as nightmares but she just was not so sure so she shrugged. "To be one hundred percent honest I found myself even flushing through some anger but then I got tired and I did cry but then I was like what if this was what i needed on a personal level and just did not realize it?"

She knew they were in an odd place but if she was going to have to use this space to talk she figured now was as nice of a time as any. "I just there were days when I stopped sleeping and just functioned to get through but oddly enough I was not scared. When I was younger it scared me but I think that some part of me has now realized that this is how I get by with anything. It does not make what I would consider a logical stray of sense but who am I to judge and I feel better having accepted that but what about you? Where were you and why and for what I guess are my questions in the end."

Micah Nottingham

[Deleted]

He was always so interested in her dreams and when he was younger the truth was that it had came under a point of obsession where his mother had told him that he needed to be careful because at times he would become what she called somewhat too into it. He did not understand it then but he now knew it was because he felt that knowing about it made him understand things better but he still had a lot of growing to do back then. "I used to think that your dreams meant something but I understand now that was too much pressure of me from being so young and thinking that things had to go one way and now I wish I had answers but I do not."

He had settled that within himself because it needed to be. "I just wanted to know what to do next not that I do not have tons of ideas but I for the first time in the past what seems like three or four years i wanted to be able to stick to something to get it done and this box, gift as i am putting it is the first way that I am considering myself of doing it so I am being careful." He shrugged. "It's like ribbon says when you have a base fabric you have to be careful and treat it as the delicateness that it is instead of the strength that it holds." He had well he did not know if the word was matured but he sure had learned to listen more and that was always good.

Cae Mire

[Deleted]

She looked at him and she smiled because she always did that when it was her own thoughts that had been turning. "I hear you Micah more than I am willing to admit because after everything the last thing that anyone wants is to not be careful." She could read him up, down, and even diagonally and that was good but it was also so very bad. "However you know what waiting on you has taught me?" She lived in that same world with him the one where you just wanted to be able to pull everything up and go but you knew that you could not because you were not children anymore and the last thing that you truly wanted was to be looked at as a child.

"So we're doing delicate then?" He had to be kidding. "Okay then delicate." It was always walking on eggshells and scrambling them and if she thought that was going to get them somewhere then she would be fine with that but it was not. "Well be delicate and come with me won't you?" She put her hands out. "Come on Ace." She knew he did not like that too much but what was the harm. "That's what your mother named you right?" She wiggled her hands out to him. "Ace in my hands that is what I have always liked. Not up my sleeve or in the hole because ick you know but Ace in my hands it's always been there right?"

She had studied and more than that remembered. "Unless you are scared." She took a minute to step back and look at him. "Keep your gift because trust me Micah mine is better." She nodded for she was always better than him she was just always willing to play fair. "I did a thing while you were taking time to recharge but you got to follow me to see it." She turned and hip bumped him because as nice as he was Micah needed help breaking out of his shell. "I forget Micah is it tag or tick tock these days?" Enough was enough but she simply shrugged as she looked. "Doesn't matter, for theory states that when you want to see someone's true colors all you have to do is test them. That's what I think your name means if you want to know the truth." She was calling bullshit on everything except for this. "Ace like one does a test. So freaking simple and you have been standing there the whole time not giving any hints at all." It was crazy. "I guess it's my fault for not being so perceptive of it but face it Micah I got it this time."

Micah Nottingham

[Deleted]

"Delicate is always best," he said as he kicked that gift behind him as he watched her put her hands out. Her hands he supposed had always been her best feature, well fuck who was he kidding he liked it all but this was different as it was every time that they met. This was different and not scary for once. "Yes if you were to go to the trouble of finding my birth certifiate I suppose that is my first name." Did it mean something? Not that he knew of but this was not his vision you see, this was her vision of him and he liked what she was saying. The words that were coming out of her mouth seemed to be alluding to something that he wanted more of. "I like this," he said as he stepped to her but he did not grab her hand because he thought that would be too delicate and she seemed not such a fan of that idea.

"Been digging in my history have you Cae?" He never called her that because he did not like it for her had always much preferred Trove but if we were talking about names. "I'm sorry I often forget it's Caedara these days and this time." He turned and blinked his eyes towards her and stretched his arms up behind his head as he felt his hair fall back and he sighed. "You can call me Ace if you'd like not gonna stop you," he said as he took a minute to twist around her from where she was standing. "I mean the world has shifted into a new phase and it is only right that we do that as well or we might get left behind and neither one of us wants that though we are a bit slower these days," he said as he laughed and then stopped himself for he was so put together that, that one small fact should be scary but he had long embraced what he knew that it seemed that she had figured out while he was gone. His feet took one sweep across the ground and then he began to bounce on his heels, all that little boy joy coming out. "Walk me down memory lane Caedara if you think you can that is." He did not know if he was more excited or more scared but he knew he was into it. "Make the wrong turn but make it as close to perfect as you see it in your memories."

Cae Mire

[Deleted]

She listened as she watched him. "Not memory lane Micah" She thought for the moment it would be best to call him what he obviously preferred because she had to keep him interested. "Memory table." Always. "When you were gone I realized that if I wanted to get to you I had to speak your language not like your language but in a way that you would understand more and keep your attention so memory table complete with squares and numbers and meanings." Cha ching!

She watched his feet and shook her head. "First though it would be nice if you calmed down a little bit since this is new territory to me too and I have to take it one step at a time but yes memory table that we will play with and talk about periodically." Bam she had it. "I call it an equal opportunity for the both of us to have a learning experience that neither one of us are probably ready for but will keep the both of us happy and entertained and help our growth so much." She finally took hold of his hands once again and pulled him down the alley way. "Got to step into the dark to get a real good feel for it" she said as she let his hand go. "The first memory was a little cluttered since it hurt and put a pain up through my nose that I did not quite understand and that made it dark even as it rolled through my head but then" she turned to him and began to climb up. "I seen that little speck of light and that is all it takes a simple glimpse to see what we have been blind to the entire time" she said as she stepped off to the railing that lead to her apartment. "Come on Micah step into the light with me."

Micah Nottingham

[Deleted]

He playfully attempted to shy away from her when she corrected him but the boy was both a sucker and a fool for anything that had the word table in it or at least it would always seem as he blinked trying to make sure that it was him who stayed focused. "Okay," he said the bits of cautiousness that he had running around in his head that would normally tell him to stop slowly starting to fade away. Still there was something about the thoughts of it. "That is both new and news to me," he said as he chuckled a little too comfortably and for once allowed himself to stop bouncing on his feet.

"I'm calm," he said as he nodded to her but you see there was something about the way that she almost seemed to be insisting it that had him curious and hell at this point his name might as well have been George but he was staying still though the blinks were coming in rapid successions as he listened to her. "I like that a table to talk about periodically, a periodic table in a way. You know Trove...it's like you know me so well for real this time." That made the inside of him break out and want to dance but one step at a time it was what he kept saying. "Not normally a fan of the dark but okay."

It was an odd saying to him that darkness always had light in it or what not but he felt like he could trust her even if things were at the best a bit of turmoil between them always. This felt good and as trustworthy as it would ever get between the two of them and that made him smile on the inside for he had carefully learned from his mother that as you got older it was better to learn to mask your emotions and not show them on the outside because no one truly cared in the way that anyone needed or you wanted them too. He lifted his head up and watched her movements as he put his arms up and pulled up allowing the light to shine as his sleeves slid down and his tattoos were seen. He would always get more and more ink when he went away to pull himself together. "Hey Trove," he said as he moved and then allowed himself to dangle. "Look at me, doing what I do best and monkeying around." He allowed himself to swing with just one arm holding on as he lifted his head up. "I have always been a fan of the light, the glimmer in a way," he said as he pulled his free arm up and pointed to the sky. "Look up, do you still see the twinkles in the sky sometimes too?"

Cae Mire

[Deleted]

She had gotten herself to the point of getting in when he began to play around and she sighed. This was always why they were no closer to anything than they needed to be so she carefully took a second and looked up. "Don't know the last time that it felt right but I do know that this does and that you need to stop before you lose your focus" she said as she looked at him and then went to go touch but stopped herself. The familiar movements were enough to make her pause but she hoped that he did not notice.

"Be right back" she said as she made her way in and found a bucket and began to fill it with water and she found a spoon and stuck the spoon into her hair to keep ahold of it as she watched the bucket fill up and took a second to cut the water off as she lifted the bucket and carefully took it out and then made her way back over to where he was and watched as she splashed it down on him. "You better hold on tight Micah," she said as she watched the water began to drip as it covered him. "I hope your balance is as good as your sister's," she said as she looked down and then took that spoon and ran it across his knuckles and placed it back in her hair. "Hang on," she said as she climbed on his back and held on for dear life because she did not do heights. She did give him one of her hands on top of his though as she looked down and watched her feet hanging there. "Hang around as often and as long as you can you can not run from this and I will not be distracted," she said as she took her spoon out again and thumped it right across his forehead. "I hear that small sound and I know you do too. Talk to me about wavelengths and rainbows because that's the equation right? It's a science equation and my memories can solve it." It was why the trove and that which he liked to call himself of spectra would always be equal. "I'm on the right path and you know it too."

Micah Nottingham