“Of course. Anything to help,” replied Todd. There! Slate had an opening.
“Anything?” asked the middle brother.
“Yeah,” said Todd without hesitation. “Shay’s my friend. I’d do anything to help her; or her family for that matter.” Slate bit his lip, breath quickening. This was it. Moment of truth.
“Then… I have to ask you… no - tell you… don’t talk to her anymore,” said Slate. Todd looked mildly confused and leaned back. Just the way his brow furrowed made a cold shiver crawl down Slate’s spine.
“What? Don’t talk to her anymore? Did she say that?” asked Todd. The young adult felt taken aback by this new small person’s request. Slate, in the meantime, felt panic rising like acid in the back of his throat. This felt like a mistake. Why had he suggested this? Why was he doing this?
He steeled himself and looked back at Todd. If he was going to determine the human’s intentions, he needed to provoke him.
“No, she didn’t say that. I’m saying that. I’m telling you to not talk to my sister. You’re a human, and that means you’re dangerous. You’re… you’re probably trying to trick her anyway; it’s what you humans do. You lure us out into your traps and then keep us as pets. No. Not today. Not to my sister.” Slate knew he was stepping over the line, but if he didn’t say it now he wouldn’t work up the courage to say it again.
Unfortunately, it looked like it was working.
Todd leaned forward, eyes narrowed and jaw tighter than before, as he seemingly stared into Slate’s eyes. If this were a standoff, Todd was obviously winning.
“I’m not really sure where this is coming from, friend,” Todd started, keeping his voice and tone calm and even. “But I do know this. I made her a promise to make sure she made it home safe and I kept that promise. I made a promise that I wouldn’t tell anyone, not even my family, about her or anyone else like her. I’ve kept that promise. I’m not going to stop keeping my word to her just because she’s home now.”
Slate inched a step or two backwards. Todd may not have meant to be intimidating to the Borrower, but everything in Todd’s neutral tone and body position screamed red flags for the middle brother.
“As for your other points, she came to me. I didn’t try to lure her out or trick her. From day one, I’ve tried to be as helpful and open as possible. The last thing I want for her is to make her feel scared and alone. She’s always had the option of doing her own thing. I’ve never forced her to talk to me or come with me in any way. I’ve never touched or grabbed her without permission. I’ve never once wanted to hurt her. In fact, I’ve always asked before I did pretty much anything to make sure I didn’t freak her out. Did she tell you something different?” asked Todd.
“No… but humans are manipulating and tricky,” argued Slate. “Look. We have to leave our home because you know about her and now you know about me. It’s not safe for us anymore. It’s not safe for Shay anymore. How do we know you’re telling us the truth and haven’t already told your family about us?”
Karma had an odd way of punishing people and picking favorites. This was one of those times.
No sooner had the words come out of Slate’s mouth when both Slate and Todd heard the front door open and shut with lightning speed, followed by the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps. Slate and Todd both came to the same conclusion - whoever the footsteps belonged to were coming to see Todd.
Slate was frozen in place. He had quick reflexes, but not quick enough to take cover from whoever was coming.
He didn’t need to.
Todd, thinking fast, was on his feet in a flash and was at the dresser faster than Slate could blink. All the Borrower could pick up before being scooped up into Todd’s massive hands was a hushed “sorry” before being shoved into the hoodie pocket.
Slate was instantly covered in fabric which barely let any light in through and cupped on one side by Todd’s hand. Each one of the human’s fingers was the length of his entire body. Snapped out of his shock, Slate covered his mouth with his hand as he wrenched his sharpened watch gear free and pressed it against Todd’s hand. If Todd made another grab, he was going to get a sliced palm too.
Todd, in the meantime, couldn’t believe what he had just done. Here he was trying to win over Shay’s family and the first thing he did was grab her brother without permission and shoved him into his pocket. This was going to require the biggest apology in the history of his existence; however, Todd had to focus on his sister who burst into his room unannounced.
“We’re back lazy!” she called out loudly.
“Yeah, I got that much,” replied Todd sarcastically, trying to hide his nerves with a partial grin. “You’re back early?”
“Yeah, and we grabbed dinner while we were out. Come on, it’s time to eat!” She reached over and started to tug on his arm when he resisted.
“Just give me a second. I’m almost done,” said Todd. His younger sister rolled her eyes and pranced out of the room.
“Whatever! I’ll take your favorite if you’re not there in five minutes!”
Todd could only sigh and stare down at his pocket while keeping his body completely rigid.
“I’m… so… sorry,” Todd said softly. “I couldn’t think of what else to do…. She would’ve seen you and… well… I thought this was the lesser of two evils.”
Slate, who kept his breath smothered, listened to the human once again apologizing to him. He appreciated more than he could say that Todd wasn’t moving or curling his fingers at the moment. His entire body buzzed with adrenaline. Every one of his senses felt heightened. At the same time, he had never felt so small in his entire life. It put everything in perspective.
“Look… I… I get where you’re coming from,” said Todd slowly. “I have a little sister too and if I were in your shoes then I would feel the exact same way. I’m… I’ll trust you on this. I don’t agree with telling me to not talk to Shay, but I can do what I can to respect your wishes.”
At this, Slate’s ears pricked up. “You… will?” he asked, realizing a moment later that his voice was probably muffled by the pocket. Evidently, Todd heard him.
“Yeah… Now, I’m not going to ignore her. You need to be the one to tell her that you came and talked to me. If she comes to me, I’m not going to ignore her or try to explain this whole thing. Okay?” asked Todd. Slate couldn’t believe this. There was no way.
“Why… are you…” Slate couldn’t hardly finish his own thought.
“Helping you?” finished Todd. “You know, Shay asked me that same question when we first met. To answer yours, I’m trying to help Shay. She’s my friend and the last thing I want to do is get her into more trouble by being selfish. Obviously, I want to keep talking to her and visit from time to time. That’s the selfish part of me. The other part knows she’s young and has a family – she needs her family. I don’t want to take that away from her.”
Todd paused for a moment before continuing.
“At any rate, I’m going back to my apartment tomorrow morning, so you’ll have time to talk to her. I want to make sure I say good-bye and everything, but if you don’t want me to talk to her tell her… well… I’ll write it in a note and leave it somewhere if that’s okay.”
“Um… yeah… I guess?” Slate, still reeling, couldn’t think of what else to say to the human.
“Alright then,” muttered Todd. “Um… I can… get you out now… if that’s okay,” said Todd.
“Yeah… yeah…” replied Slate after taking several seconds to breathe deeply in preparation of what was to come. What he thought would come, however, didn’t. Instead, Todd rotated his palm so Slate could stand on it. The fingers didn’t wrap around him. The tips of those immense fingers merely flattened as his hand pulled free from the hoodie pocket. Slate couldn’t believe what he was doing, and he tried to remember he would need to give Shay kudos for doing this more than once.
Slate felt his insides hit the top of his throat as Todd descended slowly and lowered him to the floor. The moment the back of Todd’s hand hit the ground, Slate scrambled off by the leg of the dresser. He tried keeping his breath under control, but his breath was coming in relatively shallow gasps. Why did his chest hurt so much?
“Look,” said Todd, not breaking eye-contact with Slate. “I care about Shay a lot. She’s my friend and I’m going to miss her for what it’s worth. Don’t be angry or upset with her because she came and talked to me. She’s a great girl. Now, I’ve got to go. You know where to find me.”
Todd knew it was over. He knew there was no chance of this new person taking his message to Shay. There was going to be little to no chance of his message getting to Shay. His argument was long. There was little to no chance this new person would take his feelings into consideration. Todd wouldn’t get to see Shay again. His fears began to overwhelm him as he left the room to go to dinner.
The argument, however, wasn’t lost of Slate. If anything, it strengthened the human’s argument. Todd didn’t want to hurt Shay. Todd didn’t want to hurt the family. He was telling the truth.
After a minute of Todd being gone, Slate gathered his thoughts and headed into the walls, wondering now what he was going to tell his brothers and how this would proceed now.
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