The Deep Spark by KttySaysRawr (recommended ebook reader .txt) 📕

"Well, I'm not against the idea." He smirked at her aghast expression, pleased to finally have something other than a glare sent his direction.
"Just why are you so quiet about this whole thing?"
He relaxed back in the loveseat, extending his arms across the headrest. "Am I supposed to say something?"
She opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by Janise. "I'm sorry. It was Justin. He says that he and Kurt won't be able to make it back until around eleven."
She looked over at the digital display of the cable box. It was already seven in the evening. She had to be up early tomorrow if she wanted to have enough time in the day to clean up the apartment.
She wouldn't leave until Janise stopped trying to act the part of the mysterious oracle. Hell, she was the Greek one.
Janise looked at the cable box also and sighed. "Now, back to our discussion." Althea cut her off. "I'm not getting with him. I refuse. I'm. Marrying. Kurt." She put enunciation on each word, mainly for James, who she saw roll his eyes. She wanted to stab him with his own fork.
Janise sighed. "Listen to me, Althea. No matter what you say, you know what makes you happy. Why won't you just let fate give you what it already planned to give?"
"Because I don't want it!" She finally ran out of patience and screamed at Janise. The woman stared at her with wide eyes while Althea stood and promptly ran out the door. I'm behaving like a teenager again. I can't believe I just yelled at her.

She ran down the street and turned, not sure where she was going. Once she stopped and looked in front of her, though, she screamed in frustration.
"You know, this is pretty high. Can you handle it?" He asked with a smirk.
Althea returned the smirk. "Of course. Besides, this is like our own little world; our own Heaven on Earth." She leaned against the tree trunk while sitting on the branch with him.
He nodded. "Then this place is ours. One of our many little secrets."

Althea kicked and punched the damned tree."Anáthemá sas! Anáthemá sas!

" She didn't hear the footsteps behind her.
"You know, that old tree has taken a beating from far worse things that your fists." Althea turned and glared at James.
"What the hell are you doing here?" She clenched her jaw.
James shrugged. "I could ask you the same." He said with a bored voice.
Althea picked up a stick and threw it at him. "Go away! I hate you!" She continued throwing sticks and pebbles, which James either hit away or caught and dropped.
James slowly made his way towards her and caught her wrists in his hands. She struggled against him. "Let go! Anáthemá sas!

" Eventually, she stopped struggling and just stood there, staring at the ground. "Why do you hate me?" she whispered. James flinched.
He tightened his grip on her wrists slightly. "I don't hate you. It's quite the opposite. We discussed this." He replied.
Althea scoffed. "You're such a sadist."
James' breath hitched and he hauled her close, making him look at her. "Do you not understand anything!" James screamed. Althea gasped and instinctively tried to move back. "Althea, what I did in high school was stupid, I know, and I'm sorry. But," he sighed, "I was a kid and, Althea, you deserved so much more."
Althea blinked. "You keep saying that. What do you mean?"
James sighed, dropping her wrists. "I'm not good for you. I wasn't then and I'm probably not now. You know I'm messed up and it only got worse once my mom died. I didn't think I could care for you," he stuffed his hands in his pockets, "I guess that's why I was mad when I saw you with Kurt. He could give you what I couldn't."
Althea stared at James for a while. "You knew I was always there for you. I loved you, James, and I didn't care how 'messed up' you were because you were still my James!" She closed her mouth, realizing she said 'my James' instead of just his name.
James smiled a bit. "I suppose. But, that doesn't change the present, does it?" James walked past her and stood in front of the tree.
"He proposed to me here,"s he said under her breath. James turned his head toward her.
"What?" He asked, but Althea knew he heard.
"I brought Kurt here a few months after we started dating. This is where he proposed to me." She turned slightly and saw a vein in James' neck pulsing.
"Romantic." James spat and turned back to the tree. "Who's sponsoring the wedding?" He asked.
Althea sighed. "Our parents." James nodded and went to stand by her. He took her hand and smiled. "What?" She asked.
"You still wear that ring I gave you our freshman year." Althea's face burned. She'd been meaning to throw the ring out, but she couldn't let it go.
"O-of course. Why would I get rid of a perfectly good ring?" She snatched her hand back, holding it to her chest.
He chuckled. "I remember you used to wear it here." He tapped her ring finger, right on her engagement ring.
Althea sighed. "You're doing it again." James blinked.
"Doing what?" He asked innocently.
Althea punched his chest. "Teasing me about Kurt. He's a nice guy, James. If you got to know him, you would know that."
James scoffed. "I'll get to know him over the time I'm here." Althea sighed. James looked to Althea. "How about we go somewhere?" He asked.
Althea blinked. "Where?"
"Anywhere. Come on." He took her hand in his and started back down the street. He got her in the car and then slid in himself, revving the engine before tearing down the street.
"Jeez! Can I at least get my seatbelt on?" Althea gasped while trying to get the buckle in. "Where are we going?" She asked. James deftly maneuvered the wheel, going much faster than the speed limit but being able to swerve between cars on the lane.
James gave a charming smile, propping his right elbow on the arm rest. "Wherever we end up, Athena." He kept driving.
Why do I have the feeling that this will either be really good or really bad? Oh bother…

CHAPTER 12

He continued to drive around the town, passing by bars and clubs, not even second-glancing at cheap motels and expensive hotels. She stared at him with curiosity written clearly on her face. She would have guessed that he planned to take her somewhere secluded and ravish her, yet he seemed truly be driving with no destination in mind. He would just glance over at her and give her another of those devilish smirks that her stomach clutch. Occasionally he would squeeze her knee from the place that his hand had secured itself. He had placed it there shortly into their drive and she didn't protest, liking the feel of his heat too much.
Althea shifted in her seat, mentally damming the seatbelt for restricting her movements. She grabbed his hand and held it up to her face. She indolently traced the lines of his palm, trying to remember palm reading lessons that her grandmother had given her long ago.
"What are you doing?" His voice was playful and when she looked over at James, there was a sparkle in his eyes.
"Trying to read your palm."
He gave a short bark of laughter. "You're kidding me!" She raised an eyebrow at the disbelief in his voice. He chuckled and shrugged his shoulders. "Alright, go ahead."
She let her fingertips graze his palm, making goosebumps appear on his forearm from the ghostly sensation. Her thumb made a large swoop on the area around his thumb and he saw her smile.
"What does it mean?" She blinked up at him, her head slightly titled to the side in a question. "That thing around my thumb. What is it?"
She traced said line once more before giving him a bright smile. "It's your life line. The longer and/or more curved it is, the longer your life is supposed to last. Yours is very curved. Oh, and here's something cool!" She shifted again in her seat and was practically on her knees in the car seat. James smiled at her enthusiasm and felt the urge to kiss her cheek at seeing the shine in her eyes.
"Each line is split into three parts," she placed her index, middle and ring fingers on certain parts of another line before continuing," your youth, your middle age, and your golden years." Althea looked up to make sure that he was listening and at his nod, she kept talking. "Well, the more profound it is in a certain part, the more impacting that line is."
"So what's that one?"
She gave him a timid smile and let go of his hand as she spoke. "Heart line." He raised an eyebrow at her answer and looked over at her after parking the car. "Where are we?"
"The old Memorial park. But we're not leaving until you tell me what the heart line stands for." He gripped her elbow in a firm yet soft hold as if to also remind her that he could easily stop her.
"It stands for the romances that you will have in your life. The deeper the line, the stronger the devotion."
He looked at his left hand and smirked at the profound dent said line made in the top of his palm. "So this means?"
Athena sighed. "You're a very devoted person; I can't make it simpler than that." She yanked her arm back and got out of the car. James chuckled a bit and also got out. "Why are we here?" Althea asked, walking to a tree.
James shrugged. "I just thought we should be on a common playing field if we were going to talk." He nodded to a bench and Althea followed him. "Do you remember this?" James ran his hand over a carving in the bench and Althea felt time slow down around them while her mind traveled to the past.
"Is this even allowed?" A thirteen year old Althea asked a fifteen year old James.
James rolled his eyes playfully, still chipping away at the wood with his Swiss Army knife. "Everyone does this, Althea. Look, I'm done." James stood back and they both admired his handiwork.
"Our names? That's all you wrote?" Althea shook her head and James nudged her.
"That took a lot of work, ya know. At least give me some gratitude."

Althea ran her hand over the deep indentation of their names in the bench. "I bet it's been