Water Witch 4

It seemed to take ages, but I finally reached the curtain. Throwing it aside, I coughed as clouds of dust flew up to choke me; tiny little light particles trying to smother me is what it looked like. Sunlight streamed merrily into the room, and I turned to peer at what was there.
It wasn't what I expected at all. The wall to the far left of me was lined with different shelves, littered with assorted items and what looked like plain old pieces of sea trash. There were boxes labelled "Sea glass, green" and "Dried Kelp, medium length" among the pieces of coral and drift wood. If I hadn't known better, it would have looked like I imagined an apothecary would. Without the herbs and potion bottles, though.
There was a large slab of a work table next to the shelves, and I ran my hands along it as I walked past to investigate the boxes and steamer trunks shoved in  the far right corner of the room. It was silky and smooth, and it made my hands tingle to touch it. I looked at the grain, and realised that what I had taken for the natural striations of the wood, were actually lines that had been carefully drawn into the table.
The trunks and boxes forgotten, I peered down at the table for a closer look. It was a tide map! The local coast, and the of lying sand bars, small islands, and underwater ridges that made up the topography of the local ocean floor. The details were amazing, and it as I watched, the closely done lines almost seemed to move…but that wasn't possible at all, was it?
I laughed at myself and walked towards the staircase. I wasn't ready at all, and knowing Erik, well he'd be downstairs, keys in hand and ready to go.  Did I mention he was punctual? Yeah, more proof he was a soulless robot thingy, for sure.
"He'd better be ready in fifteen minutes, or I'm leaving him behind, huh?" he asked quietly from downstairs. I felt a brief flash of anger as I pulled off my Tee and my shorts, and slipped into my swimming suit and another large Tee. I was preoccupied!
"I'm ready, let's go." grumbling, I grabbed my shell bucket, and made myself calm down. Another old thing dad used to do, and pictured the ocean in my head. With each ebb and flow, I let the waves pull away some of my anger and resentment until I was centred again. "We need to go pick up Rave and Lace on the way though." I snickered mentally.
He just shrugged. "Okay." and walked out the door and got behind the wheel of the mini-van. Again, he ruined my fun, not the reaction I wanted at all. I opened the passenger side door and sat down with a humpf! pouting the whole trip to my friends' house.  
I know I said before I didn't have any friends, but if I had them Rave and Lace were the closest to come to the term. We had grown up together, laughed and played together, and cried together at dad's funeral. I guess they were my friends then, but there was something that seemed to keep me apart from them, made me feel too different. It was like they had a secret that I wasn't a part of. So, they were almost-friends.
They also harassed Erik, they had themselves convinced he was some sort of sex-god, and his body was ravaged by their eyes on more than one occasion. It was going to kill them to see him shirtless. I snickered again, and he sighed in his monotone way. He knew what was coming.
I thought more about the two almost-friends. Ravenna and Luciella, or Rave and Luce. Mattered on if you listened to their mom, or them on that subject. They were so close, yet so different, twins that looked exactly the same on the outside, but on the inside were polar opposites. Well, they looked exactly the same except for their hair. Rave had recently dyed her hair black, red, and white; and Luce had dyed hers black, white, and three shades of blue. I had joked that they just had to be opposites of each other so much that it had even some to being opposites in the chromatic spectrum.
"I hope you know, it's not really fair for them, looking the way I do without a shirt." Erik spoke up from his side of the van, eyes glued to the road in firm concentration. The road should be terrified, to be on the receiving end of those eyes in full focus. "I mean. come one, I'm sexy."
I just shrugged. I would have laughed at him, if the tone he had said those few sentences had been the tone implied: boastful, egotistical, joking. But it still felt and sounded utterly flat. it was like the emotion was killed as soon as it left his lips, and the words held no true meaning, no power.
"Ya know. I was wondering." he paused. "Why is it that you don't have a boyfriend, Devon?"
I shrugged again. "No reason. No one is interested, no one is interesting enough."
"Oh." he nodded. "Okay. Just wondering."
Why though? Why should you care? Stupid robot soulless husk guy.
We continued to ride in silence, and I had a nagging urge to turn on the radio…if only to distract myself from feeling pity for the poor road. No one and no thing should be on the receiving end of his glare, I tell you. It makes ice crackle it's way on the surface of water, babies cry, and grown men faint. Just because it looks like there's nothing there looking at you.
Pulling up to the Wonder Twin's house, he noncommittally grunted and parked the van. Fingering the edge of the door handle, I debated whether to attempt to go to their front door, or just so sit here and wait for their amazingly keen psychic senses to pick up on us. The always had an unerring way of knowing when someone was there…after many failed attempts had subtly and surprises (including their sweet sixteen), I had finally given up somewhat. Every now and then I'd try, just to keep them sharp, of course. And to keep me from dying of boredom.