Fiction Friday: “How Brilliant”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Silas said.

“But, you love telling people how brilliant you are. At length.”

Silas laughed, even though he’d been feeling pretty miserable before Lin showed up. They always seemed to know what to say to pull him out of his head. “I screwed up, okay? I was sure the plan would work, would make things better with Corrin’s dad. I think I just made them worse.”

Lin ran the tips of their fingers through his hair. “From what Neil said, you aren’t going to be able to do anything to fix that situation. It has to come from her dad.”

“I know, but I hate seeing how much this hurts her.”

“You really do love her, don’t you?”

“Both of them,” he murmured. “I love both of them.” He blew out a breath. “But, backing up, since when are you and Neil Riley on a first name basis? I thought you two just met.”

He watched as Lin’s cheeks reddened. “Oh, this is going to be good,” Silas said, grinning at them. “Take it from me, Lin, the Rileys know how to twist you up. But they make you pretty sure it’s the only way you want to be for the rest of your life.”

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This links back to a story I wrote last month, Arrested. Silas is in a relationship with Corrin and Jeremiah(their story was written in Playing with Fire). Corrin is Neil’s little sister. And Lin showed up when I started writing Flames of Knowledge. And they told me that they and Neil had a story to tell. I’m still not sure exactly what that story will be. But, this is at least the beginning of it.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday: “Favorite Word”

“You are absolutely beguiling.”

Neil let out a snort of laughter. “Really? What kind of word is that?”

“One of my favorite ones. I like the way it sounds. It can mean to deceive, but I don’t think about it like that. I like the ‘to charm’ definition better. That’s what you do to me.”

“You sound like Corrin when you talk like that.” But, his sister was the last person he wanted to think about as Lin ran fingers through his hair.

“She’s not a bad person to be compared to.”

No, she wasn’t. He loved his little sister, but again, she wasn’t what he wanted to think about right now. So, he pulled Lin until they straddled him. “There’s no comparison,” he said. “You have no comparison.”

Lin smiled down at him. “Well, aren’t you the sweetest man ever.”

He highly doubted that. But, as Lin pressed their lips to his, he didn’t really care where he fell on the sweetness meter. He had them, and that was what mattered for now.

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This week’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt was to use your favorite word in some way or just write about the concept of having one. Beguile isn’t really my favorite one, not sure I really have one, but it popped into my head. Lin showed up in Flames of Knowledge, and these two have informed me they had a story to tell together. I don’t know exactly what it’ll be yet.