Duality
Our peaceful nap lasts for a few hours, and I awaken first. It’s not too late in the day, and the sun is shining brightly through the now open blinds. I’m lying beside her, admiring just how different Laura is when she’s blissfully dozing like this. She really does not look like a murderer, at least, not to me.
Plus, what was with that whole rage breakdown that she had earlier? It was like for a moment she was completely overtaken by hatred and the Laura that I knew was buried under it. The same thing happened in her classroom when I brought her flowers, and I think it's indicative of something deeply wrong with her psyche. Every time I look at Laura I see a sweet, beautiful woman, but there are two sides to her, and I only really know one of them. There's another Laura, somewhere deep inside, a more malicious one, ready to take the helm.
A scary thought, but I never intend to evoke that rage ever again. I want Laura to be happy, and I intend to help her with that. That is, of course, if our relationship can survive several bombs that I have yet to drop on her. Among these are: I have another lover, and intend to take more. I was the one who instigated her breakup with Karlsson. And finally, I only initially pursued her because I wanted to win an ill-defined game to get magic powers.
I can’t imagine that going well, but I have to tell her at some point. Even if I’m not explicitly lying to her by not telling her, there’s definitely something morally wrong with hiding these facts. I intend to wait until the two weeks pass, and Laura is marked as successfully captured before I tell her.
Maybe I’m a little two-faced as well.
Laura stirs beside me and begins to sit up, stretching her arms high over her head. She opens her eyes, locks them with mine, and gives me an absolutely radiant smile, backlit by the afternoon sun streaming in through the window at the head of her bed.
I’m floored. Surely it has to be a sin to be this beautiful?
I can’t help but lean over and give her a delicate kiss, which she lovingly returns.
With surprising quickness, she jumps out of bed and begins to dress. “We’ve got plenty of daylight left, we should do something today.”
“Like what?”
“Anything. I want to spend time with you. Outside of the bedroom, that is.”
I’d love to take her on a date, but there are quite a few factors preventing us from doing so. We’re a teacher and student at a school that has an ongoing criminal investigation. If we get caught there’s very little good that can come of it.
Looks like we're gonna need to do an at-home date. “Do you have anything we can do around here?”
“We could watch a movie?”
“Pass.”
“Cook something?”
“Pass.”
“... that’s about all that I have.”
“I saw a chessboard out there, how about we play that?”
She nods, so we get dressed and set the board. It’s a decorative board that wasn’t ever really intended to be used for play, but I’m glad she has it. If not, there may really be nothing to do around here, other than Laura, of course. I’m not really much of a chess player, and before we even start she has to ask me how the horses move, so I can’t imagine this will be a particularly high ELO game.
I move a pawn, she moves a pawn, I move a pawn, she moves a queen. The game gets underway and… wait, I already lost?
“What the hell?”
“Checkmate.”
“It’s been like… 2 moves?”
“We can play again if you’d like?”
“... yeah, let’s do that.”
We play several more games, and each one ends similarly. None of them quite as bad as the first, but all of them embarrassingly quickly.
“What the hell was that ‘Oh Sam, how do the knights move again?’ bullshit from earlier? You’re kicking my ass!”
She gives me a sly smile, “Sometimes we all need a reminder.”
So she was trying to fool me? Well, it worked. Maybe I should’ve asked myself why somebody who couldn’t play chess would have a decorative board, but I didn’t think about that beforehand.
Whatever. There’s nothing else to do, so we keep playing.
“You know, Sam, when I saw you in class, I always thought you seemed like the most unobtrusive, sweet kid.”
“You did?”
“Yeah, you barely ever spoke, kept to yourself, but you seemed so kind.”
As she says this, she moves a bishop, pinning several of my pieces at the same time.
“Shit...”
“You’re… quite a bit different than I’d imagined.”
“How so?”
“Well… I'm not sure. I still see that sweet, shy boy sitting across from me now.”
I point to myself, stunned, “Me?”
She laughs, “Yes, you. But it’s like… there’s a different you who comes out sometimes. Mostly in bed, but other times as well.”
I move a piece randomly, I have basically no outs and have already lost this game handily, “You’re the same way. You’ve always struck me as energetic and caring, but earlier today...”
“That was bad. I’d prefer not to talk about it, please.”
I decide not to push the issue.
It’s silent for a little bit after that as we take turns making moves. Her, with clarity and precision, moving pieces with a sense of purpose. I, with no idea what I’m doing, making essentially random moves and praying something goes my way. It never does.
After a particularly bad blunder on my part, Laura stifles a giggle and capitalizes immediately. I look up from the board and see her with a look of childish glee as she stomps me into the floor once again.
Bitch.
Eventually, chess gets boring for her, so instead, we move on to making dinner. It’s a simple but delicious cream soup. On top of everything, she’s an amazing cook as well? She truly is the perfect woman, minus the murder-y parts.
Afterward, we watch a documentary about penguins and how their habitats are getting fucked up.
Damn, that shit sucks.
Upon seeing a particularly sad scene of a lonely flightless bird drifting away on a small sheet of ice Laura bursts into tears. At first, I think it's cute, and try to calm her down, but her cute crying soon turns into ugly sobbing. I turn off the documentary as snot begins to run down her face from her uncontrollable crying. The documentary was evidently too stimulating for her.
How the hell is this the same woman who attempted murder a few days ago?
I guide the teary Laura to bed and climb in beside her. I’m all sexed out for the day, and Laura doesn’t appear to be in the mood after her recent trauma. She falls asleep before I do, and I have a moment to admire her sleeping form once again before I drift off to sleep.