A Glass of Tsilk by Julie Steimle (best ebook reader txt) 📕

protective gaze as he watched the undercity boys go from sight. Then he looked to Zormna with a frown, trying to clear it for her sake. He gestured for all of them to hurry out to the dancing hall next, still keeping his eyes peeled for that one undercity boy.

“Why so jealous,” his date said, jabbing Salvar in the ribs when they passed through the main doors. “I thought you said she was like your sister.”

Zormna did not hear it. She kept wondering about that blonde, his Orr’quarr friend, and that undercity Seer class boy that had come to see him. She knew it was him. She knew it was that guy she had caught twice now. No one could move as fast and instinctively as he did. No one.

 

A Little Bit Hiding

Jafarr waited at a small table at the sports center’s bar. He held his head low as watched the Surface Patrol officers and their dates go, keeping an eye on that one tiny blonde. How she spotted him he never knew. He had picked that place to meet his friends because the pronuk hall had been dark. Of course he never expected his friend to get into a match with a Surface Patrol officer and draw a crowd.

“Hey, Big Z,” Alzdar said sheepishly, sitting down next to him. “Sorry we’re late, but old Dzhon had to go and get friendly with a Surface Patrol girl, and it kept us up.”

Jafarr nodded.

Dzhon blushed sheepishly, sliding into his seat. “She was uncommonly pretty. Besides, she sat right next to me. It was the same girl that chased you.”

Jafarr looked up. “The same girl? And you just talked to her?”

Dzhon nodded, ordering a foamy tsilk from the barkeeper. “She’s really not that bad. Kind of high strung, but she’s actually beautiful.”

“So you tell me,” Jafarr said, shaking his head. Then shaking it more with exasperation at what just happened he chuckled. “So you just talked to her. What did she say? Did she ask about me?”

Dzhon shook his head, licking his lips. “No. She seemed more irritated by what her friends had just said to her than anything else.”

Jafarr gave him a sidelong glance that told him to be clear.

“I just told her that I was joining the Surface Patrol today. We talked about that,” Dzhon said.

“Nothing else?” Jafarr asked, still searching his face for any hidden meaning.

“She complemented me on my game,” Alzdar offered.

Jafarr glanced over the bar at the bottles of juices and ices that could be put into multiple glasses of tsilk, and he cocked his head. “Weird.”

He shook his head again and ordered a glass of citric tsilk.

Dzhon licked his lips, tasting his foamy and gazing at the ceiling lights. Then resting his eyes on his friend, he said, “Her name is Aver Zormna Clendar, if you are interested.”

Alzdar laughed, and Jafarr could not help cracking a smile.

“Cheers,” he said picking up the glass that was just placed before him and he took a nice long drink before laughing some more at the idea.

 

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Publication Date: 02-28-2018

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