Dawn Beaumont’s Guide to Changing the World

Chapter 19: I EVOL OUY!

“Go invisible.” I said, stroking the hair that fell over his eyes. “Go invisible and climb out that window. Now.”

Torrence looked at me. Like I was stupid. Not like I was trying to save his life or anything.

“You’re crazy.” He said, shaking his head.

“Yes.” I said with a smile, still running my fingers through his fringe. Not that he noticed, or cared. I think he kind of liked it. “Why else would I be going out with you?”

Atleast, I think that’s what we were doing now. Going out, I mean.

Oh God. Why am I flirting with him? I’m supposed to be saving his ass! Some rescuer I am.

“No,” he said, and I could tell he was trying not to smile at me. He was, I knew, trying to be stern. “You’re crazy if you think I’m going to leave you here all by yourself. Not going to happen, Beaumont.”

“Oh, is that what you’re going to call me now, hmm?” I wanted to know, taking my hands away from his hair. I crossed my arms. “Fine with me, Bridgewater.”

His stern look was gone. He was totally smiling, now. I smiled back at him. He swayed towards me a little, and I was about to sway right back. He was going to kiss me. Again. He was going to kiss me!

“Pardon me for interrupting...” Archie said, sounding quite annoyed for some whom had successfully kidnapped a young damsel (me) and her prince. I guess I couldn’t blame him. I think we were supposed to feel threatened by him, or something.

Archie was standing in the doorway, holding a tattered book. Which he had now started tapping against his thigh, looking smug. What was he so smug about, anyway?

“Ready to die, Torrence?” He chuckled, holding the book up with a weird gleam in his eye. I turned around in Torrence’s lap, and crossed my arms, glaring. Really. How dare he interrupt what could have been a very nice intimate moment between Torrence and I? And then, if it wasn’t bad enough, threaten Torrence too! Archie gazed down at me. “Is this who you really love, Dawn?”

Torrence froze beneath me, his arms dropping from where they had wrapped themselves around my waist. As if he were afraid I wouldn’t choose him. As if he were afraid that I liked Archie more than him. I mean, come on, as if!

I took Torrence’s hands and placed them back where they were, looking back at him. He looked so pale.

“If you get up now and join me Dawn, everything will be different. Everything will be...better for you. You may think you love him, Dawn,” he said, shaking his head like he was trying to convince a kid to get off those whizzy dizzy things (play equipment at park, goes round and round, makes my brother puke) because if they didn’t they’d get too dizzy. Like he thought he knew better than I did. “But it’s nothing compared to what we could have.”

He took a couple steps closer to where I sat, leaning back lazily into Torrence’s chest. “Unlike Savannah, who can’t seem to shut up, you could be spared. Oh, don’t look at me like that. I haven’t done anything...yet. So, what do you say?”

“Say yes.” Torrence whispered behind me, squeezing my hands. This time, I froze. He wanted me to say yes? Was he mental? “Say yes, and he’ll leave you alone. He’ll let you out of here. Say yes.”

“Yeah, say yes.” Archie snickered obviously hearing the last of what Torrence had said.

Look at his back. Check out what Savannah told me to. Anything but to listen to Archie, or agree to join the dark side. I mean, the light side.

I reached over and lifted up the back of Torrence’s shirt. And right where, as I had caught sight of before Torrence, once again, ripped his shirt from my grasp – underneath Taim i' ngra leat was Dawn.

Taim i' ngra leat, Dawn. I love you, Dawn. I LOVE YOU DAWN!

“When’d you get THAT tattooed onto your back??” I wanted to know. I couldn’t believe it! He had my name tattooed onto his back! Unbelievable! Who does that, anyway? Tattoos a girl’s – who they haven’t even been going out with at the time, just kissing – name on their back? And under that I love you bit too!

“I didn’t get anything tattooed onto my back!” he said, loudly, and turning bright red.

“Then HOW DID IT GET THERE?” I said, hysterical. I didn’t know whether to be giddy or mad.

“Because, Dawn,” Archie said, and I turned my head, he was rolling his eyes at me from the other side of the room. “Torrence is a freak. Have I not told you of all his other freaky attributes, like the invisibility thing? Well, you see, one of them is when he falls in love,” he smirked at Torrence, who groaned, “like all the other men in his family – it shows, with a marking on the back, the thing you think is a tattoo. And no, Dawn, you can’t wipe it off. That’ll be there forever. Because these boys,” Torrence groaned again, “Only fall in love once in their life!”

It sounded familiar. Hadn’t I been told something like this before? Wait, YES! I had. By my crazy aunt. I never believed her, though. I mean, she also said I was going to have seven children. I certainly hope that isn’t true.

It was kind of funny, in a way, that Archie said that Torrence would only fall in love once in his life – because, well, Torrence had once told me he didn’t believe in soul mates.

“Anyway, time to get started – say your goodbyes, Torrence.” Archie opened his book, and gave me one last look. “Last chance, Dawn.”

I called him something that would have burned my poor mother’s ears. And he, with a resigned sigh, began to read from his book. I couldn’t tell what he was saying, though. I could tell that it was in another language. But that didn’t exactly help me.

“Oh, what are you going to do, Archie, Indonesian yourself out of this?” I laughed, rolling my eyes at him. What did he think he was going to do, with all that funny language, anyway? “That little book of yours going to keep you from getting in jail for this, Archie? I don’t think so.”

He kept on talking. “Ekat sih srewop dna evig meht ot me. Taerg chtiw morf sega tsap. Ekat sih srewop dna evig meht ot me”

What was that even supposed to mean? What was he trying to do? Torrence whispered behind me, “Dawn.”

Seriously. What is he saying? Some kind of spell, voodoo? Oh my God! What if he is cursing us? Like that witch he was talking about! I knew it. He was going to turn us into cows, and turn us out in the paddock. Like that cow that was watching us! It knew. Maybe it was human once, too? Oh my God. I don’t even like grass.

“Dawn,” Torrence said persistently.

“Torrence, I don’t want to be a cow –” I turned my head, and I felt like I was going to faint, or what I’m assuming happens when one feels about to faint. You feel nauseous. I definitely feel nauseous. Torrence was laying there, looking paler than ever, and seeming to...disappear. Even when he did disappear I could still see him. What was going on? “Torrence, what’s happening? Why are you so...so translucent?”

I have to admit, I was starting to freak out. But Torrence was getting paler by the minute. But what could I do? What was happening? He didn’t just look pale! He looked really ill, sick as a dog, like he was near – oh, that’s ridiculous. I’m totally overreacting.

“What are you doing to him!?” I demanded of Archie, but he just kept chanting. What was he saying?

“Get out of here.” Torrence croaked, not sounding very well at all. “Get out of here now, there’s nothing you can do, alright?”

I turned my head back to him, and took his pale face into my hands, his eyes were blinking shut.

“No!” I said, feeling helpless. What was going on? I wanted to shake him, ask him what was wrong – but it didn’t look like he was going to answer me! He wasn’t opening his eyes! Just before he was kissing me, and now he wouldn’t even talk? How could one little book do that? It’s illogical! I must be dreaming! Nevertheless it doesn’t make me feel any better! “Torrence, talk to me! Talk!”

“Oh my God, please...say something...” I whispered. But his eyes stayed shut. He didn’t respond. I held my face to his chest, and with relief, heard his heartbeat, but barely. I looked backwards, and Archie, still chanting, was grinning madly and I could see it in his eyes, and I knew how he knew so much – why he knew so much.

He was always jealous of Torrence, and Torrence, being his best friend, had let out the one secret to him no one else knew – but Archie, of course, didn’t respect the secret like any normal best friend would. He got jealous of that too, so he wanted it. Just like he thought he wanted me, he didn’t want me because he genuinely liked me – he wanted me because Torrence loved me. And, eventually, he found out a way to get it, which was what he was doing now.

Only I couldn’t let him.

Three words backwards.

It hit me. The three magic words.

“Torrence! I’ve got it, Torrence!” I told his pale face excitedly. He didn’t answer. But I knew I was right about it – I had to be, I mean, my aunt always was such a sap. And she’d been right about most other things, kind of. “I evol ouy!” I swiped an arm across my eyes, and beamed at the face I held in my hands. “Torrence! I evol you os chum!”

“So much...” I repeated, but he still stayed pale. He didn’t speak a word, he got more translucent. No – this couldn’t be right, I know those were the words. They had to be, what else could they be? Kentucky fried chicken? As if! No, these were the words. Things were just going to get worse, before they got better – much better. I smiled down at him, full of hope, “Torrence?”

He didn’t answer. I started to feel numb. “Torrence?”

I rubbed his cheek with a thumb, I swear, his cheeks were getting rosier – they were getting rosier. “Torrence! Torrence!” I said, biting my lip. He wasn’t waking up. He wasn’t waking up! Why didn’t it work? Why?

Archie still chanted in the background. Torrence was getting paler by the second, more transparent by the second. But I could still feel him; I could feel his face in my hands, and his legs beneath me. As long as I could still feel him, there was hope. “You can’t leave me.” I told his limp form, blinking back my tears determinedly. “Don’t leave me! I hate you, you know. You can’t leave before I tell you how much I HATE you!”

I shook with tears, beating my fists on his near gone chest. He was dying on me. He was letting Archie take him away, just when I’d thought we’d get things together. I pressed my lips to his, and leant my head down on his chest, “I hate you.”

“You stupid, stupid girl.” He muttered, resting his head on mine, “Why did you make me feel this way about you?”

I glared up at him and said, “I can’t help it, stupid.”

And then I realised he had talked! Talked!

“I evol you too.” He smiled, and he planted a rough kiss on my forehead, ruffling my hair. “So, so much.”

And then Archie’s spell was broken. Because what else, in the world, was powerful enough to break a spell? Only love, and the way Torrence punched him out afterwards.

“Are you sure you should have done that?” I said happily. Not because I meant to, or anything. If anything I was trying to be stern, like he was before. But it turned out sounding like I’d asked him on a picnic or something. I was that happy. I could burst! I wasn’t even mad that he’d totally messed up my hair. My hair!

“Yes.” he said, and then he reached forward, taking me in his arms, and kissing me in such a way that I was way more than bedazzled. I was in luuurvee!

“So,” I purred in Torrence’s ear, surprising him, he’d been sitting out on – what I’d found out, was his granddads old farm – the house’s porch, after all the drama – Savannah calling up the police on the house phone when the security had to pee (they’d totally smashed her phone, too) and them arriving and bursting through the door while Torrence and I were – yes! – making out. It was a lot for someone to handle in one day, but I didn’t really have much sympathy – I mean, did he realise what he had put me through? “How’s it going?”

“Don’t do that.” My boyfriend said, smacking the hand I had perched on his shoulder. It gave me all kinds of shivers calling him my boyfriend, even in my head. I sat down behind him and slid one of my hands down his shirt to see how he’d react, and he jumped immediately, turning to stare at me.

I looked at him, smiling innocently. “What?”

“You know what.” he said and smacked that hand too. Only it didn’t really work, because my hand just rebounded into his chest, it was like a safety net. “Ow.” He said, rubbing the spot where my hand slapped with a frown.

I slipped my hand back out, and crawled over to sit beside him. “Hey, so I was thinking...” I coughed, and looked at him, waiting for his answer.

“Really? Did it hurt?” he snorted, and so it was my turn to smack him.

“I just wanted to know,” I said, feeling a bit like an idiot for what I was about to ask. But, I mean, last time we hadn’t really got it clear what we were, and I wanted to know – just to make sure. Torrence looked at me, inquiringly. “Whether we are, you know.” He looked at me, confused. “You know.” I tried again, but he still looked all confused. “Are you going with me?”

“Going where?” he wanted to know, looking annoyed and confused. “What are you talking about? I don’t remember you asking me to go anywhere.”

“No, no,” I said, waving my hands in exasperation. Did I have to spell it out? “I mean do you want to go with me. As in go go.”

“You just said the same word three times.” He pointed out, a finger directed at me.

“Oh for the love of God.” I smacked my hand to my face, which was burning. It’s enough to ask it once, but when they don’t get it the first time it just makes it all the more embarrassing. “DO YOU WANT TO GO OUT WITH ME? Do you want to be my boyfriend? Do you want to be Hans Solo to my Princess Leia? Do you want to be Donald to my Daisy? Mickey to my Minnie? Do you want to profess our love for the whole world to see?”

“Idiot.” He said.

“Oh, sorry.” I said, feeling heartbroken. I knew I had gone a bit overboard, I didn’t even watch star wars. “I guess you don’t feel the same way about me that I do you.”

“Idiot,” he said again, smiling this time, and shaking his head (I’m so glad he can be all amused when I’m in my time of need, my time of heartbreak – my time of overwhelming sorrow, watch me weep!). And then he went all old fashioned on me, and picked up my hand, smirking and bringing his lips to my hand. “I adore you, be mine!”

I flung my arms around his neck. “Oh, Torrence!”

Oh my God, the emotion, how it flows through my veins, replacing my blood (who needs it?) and simultaneously causing my heart to stop, and flutter and then – I’m dead. Oh God, what mush. What mush ELAINE I wrote! Sue me, someone!

Seriously though, I feel so ELAINE sad – maybe I’ll let those emotions run wild again, that’d be an easy death. Wouldn’t even feel the pain, just happy in my veins! This is probably the last ELAINE chapter – and then an epilogue! HAH! Take that, suckers! Take that, non-reviewing people! HAH! One chapter.

And seriously, the most important thing of all ELAINE in this – is Elaine. I would not have written it so quickly; unless she didn’t find a ELAINE story I lost for me. You might have had to wait LONGER! And then, I probably wouldn’t have wrote it so like this. Which is MUSH! Which is what – I can’t believe – you people like!

So, everything in this chapter, is thanks to Elaine.

HI ELAINE!

ps. RIP Anzac's!