i know a way to make gold by mixing our souls to escape reality
—lana del rey

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           I TRY MY BEST TO IGNORE  the putrid smell that's dominating the air in the house, like I've been doing for a short while now.

    After all, there's an agglomeration of saturated dumpsters just outside the bed and breakfast.

    After rummaging in the closet where I used to keep my things for when I slept over, I march back into the tattered living room with one of my sweatshirts and hand it to her without another word.

    She takes it from me, but instead of slipping it on, she simply stands and stares at me, in that tantalizing lingerie, planted in the middle of the  living room. With electrifying eyes, she observes me, head tilted a bit to the right.

    "Your hair is getting long," Her statement comes out as soft as fur, a voice that turns my eardrums to goo. Honey is slowly dripping on my frozen body. "I like it,"

Then, she slowly lifts her hand up. I follow it with a fixed state, until it reaches the back of my neck and settles there. Her eyes haven't strayed a second from my face.

    I feel every bone in my body liquefy under her feathery touch. I was slowly being dissected, my cells deteriorating one by one, until I couldn't take a second more of the intensity. Not tearing my gaze from her, I reach for her hand, wrapping my fingers around her wrist to stop her.

    "You haven't come to see me. It's been five days," She calmly lets out, and follows it with a small, sad chuckle that makes my insides rattle. "I've been lonely without you, Nath. I've read every book on the shelf ten times, and you know how I have an aversion to reading the same book twice,"

    Then, like a real-life movie, her eyes progressively go from despair, to indifference. Then, they slowly bubble with surprise and switch to animation. They start twinkling like two agitated electrons. "I have a plan, Nath. You need to hear this–"

    I shake my head, abruptly letting go of her hand, as if burned. Her eyes are big and hypnotizing as ever. I think I'm getting dizzy. "You know why I don't come here," I manage to spit out, through clenched teeth and a tight heart.

    She smiles, that smart, cheeky smile that screams malice and danger. "And yet, here you are,"

    I keep quiet. You shouldn't have come, the voice in my head makes a comeback. Leave. Now. But I already know, now that I've seen her, that there is no physical force that's capable of removing me from this room tonight.

She is Mother Nature in human form.

    "Has anyone been bothering you?" I hear myself ask, as I absentmindedly tuck a strand of wavy chocolate hair behind her small ear. I needed to touch her, every bit of her, needed to hear every fleeting thought that's run through her mind in my absence.

     She shakes her head, then suddenly frowns, as if she's been struck by the worst thought. Her gaze turns absentminded and distant.

    "Tell me," I whisper, plunging my gaze into hers. I grasp her angular chin and tug it upwards, and she looks back at me. Something inside me tightens. "Tell me, Caterina."

    Like a broken spell, she snaps back into reality, shakes her head and gives me a small smile. "I just really missed you, and those dreamy handsome eyes, and that messy hair, and that lovely brain," she drawls, then suddenly turns somber. "I think I know how we can revolutionize the legal system, Nathaniel."

    The edges of my lips twitch, not because I find her idea comic, but because I know that this beautiful disaster really could revolutionize the legal system, if she wanted to. I stare at her. "Have you?"

    "I have," She nods. "It's quite far-fetched and will require that one of us goes to prison–"

    "You just want to appease your weird fetish for seeing me in handcuffs," I utter through a irrepressible grin. I knew my curiosity and admiration for her every thought would make me ask for a thorough account of her plan in a matter of minutes.

    She narrows her eyes, but a small youthful smile, escapes her lips, and she rolls her eyes. "I'm too busy running from a cop to be one,"

    "You're an incorrigible delinquent ," I shake my head.

    She raises a perfect little brow. "You know what else is incorrigible?"

    I cup her right cheek, my thumb going up and down her soft skin. "Hm?"

    "Our legal system."

    I lean forward and plant a long, lasting kiss on her forehead. Breathe her in. "Put the sweatshirt on, or you'll get sick."

    She snaps her head my way, her eyes narrowed and suddenly blazing with a fire. The air suddenly feels tense around me. I hear my heart skipping a beat.

    "I'm not fucking sick," she spits out, suddenly desperate to put distance between us, shuffling backwards.

    "I never said you were," My sober reply is uttered with the calmest tone I can manage, though inside, I am drowning in doubt. "I said you will be, if you don't put this on."

    Then I let my eyes roam her tall form, and something inside me snaps. I can't control myself. "And what the hell's wrong with you, opening the door in your underwear like that? you live in the shittiest neighborhood in town, Caterina, we've been over this a thousand times. What happens if someone forces their way in? What do you do then? Throw clay at them? I swear, you're so goddamn naive sometimes—"

    "Nathaniel?" Her eyes are distant. She hasn't been hearing a word of what I was saying. "Do you think fate exists?"

    I fix my deadly gaze on her, feeling rage seep out of me in waves. "I'm not fucking around here, Caterina. You really shouldn't open the door like—"

    "—But if there is no free will, why do we punish people? Should we be punishing them at all?"

    I heave a sigh, knowing that when her brain is fixated on an idea, she's completely oblivious to her surroundings. "Yes, Caterina. They should be punished, because life is a mixture of free will and what you just called destiny." I run a hand through my hair, trying to calm myself down. "So if a person is born a psychopath, his free will is still there to keep him from killing people."

    Caterina simply stares at me, deep in thought.

    Then, she snaps out of her reverie. "Let's go look at the stars," Her voice is small, timid, apologetic, and her minuscule smile gradually turns into a large, gooey grin. "They've missed us."

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