Rare Earth Element

Chapter 14- Pebbles

'Just breathe...' thought Irulan after Bolin confessed his faux pas. She knew some boys weren't very smart, but she'd given her friend from youth the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he'd suffered too many knocks in the head...maybe he hadn't eaten enough but was delusional....

”You did what?” she asked, narrowing her eyes, the cold front returning. Bolin nodded his head shamefully, hoping and praying that she wouldn’t take one of the bands from around her arms and bend it around his neck. Her anger issues of her youth were legendary; iconic, even. Irulan, though composed , yet noticeably vexed, licked her lips, quickly snatching her hand away from Bolin’s.

”Bolin...You gave the flowers I sent to you to the Avatar?” she asked, her face hard like a stone, her eyes glazed, like two ball bearings. “Really dude?”

”Please Irulan, don’t be mad…I mean, I can understand why you would be mad… but I’ve liked her for so long, and just wanted to do something nice for her…” Bolin stammered, scared shitless, his shoulders quivering.

”And I for you!” Irulan exclaimed pounding the table with her fist, the impact knocking her plate of untouched food onto the floor, and Bolin's empty glass onto the table. “I’ve liked you for so long, Bolin; even took the rap for you and Mako! I Lost weight, learned how to be pretty…I came to all your matches and whether you won or lost I always cheered for you! I was hoping that someday you’d look in the audience and see me standing out from all the other fangirls…you know, the ones that are too chickenshit to tell you how your smile makes their hearts skip a thousand beats…or how just the sound of your voice sends chills through their pulses!”

“Oh shit...Lani....” Bolin began, but Irulan raised her hand for him to be silent. Breathless from her confession, she wiped away an oncoming tear, shaking her head from one side to the next, her curls bouncing, entangling with her emotions.

”I... was on the bridge because of you, Bo,” she boldly admitted, her voice riddled with tears. “And if Pabu hadn’t jumped on my shoulder, The Republic City police force would be peeling my body from the street right now!” Feeling like an ostracized hunchback, Irulan wiped her eyes, feeling Bolin’s knife gutting her from back to front.

”Ooohhh…shit..” Bolin breathed before his jaw dropped for so many reasons. The usually stonefaced Irulan was sitting across from him with tears flowing from her beautiful, silver eyes, her pretty brown face streaked with tears. An ass he felt; he felt like an ass. He hadn’t realized the rarity of the flowers in that bouquet, and the design on the card he assumed was the store’s logo. Being a dumbassed male, he hadn’t considered any of those details, those sentiments.

Speechless, Irulan, taking the napkin that laid across her leather-clad lap, pressed it to her cheeks, guessing that her eye makeup was nothing short of ruined. A broken heart and ruined makeup was a cliché' within itself...