Ecliptic

4.

I had to look away. He was scaring me too much right now. Not only did he think he was a Greek goddess, but now, apparently he could read minds. I turned from him and started to walk outside. I always thought better out there.
"Solace!" Archer called out after me.
"I need to be alone right now."
"Don't you think this is a little weird for me too? Hell, I'm the one who heard it."
He was right of course, but I was too freaked out to care.
I spun around to face him and we almost collided.
"You deduce that you are a goddess from a few dreams and a dumb website, and then you go and read my mind. And to top it all, you are completely fine with it. It's the epitome of weird, Archer."
He frowned. "I know. But try to calm down. As freaky as it is, is it really bad? I mean, what harm can it do really?"
I didn't have an answer.
Archer sighed. "You know, we could actually have a little fun with this." A mischievous grin formed on his lips and he winked. "Come on."
He grabbed my hand and pulled me out the door. I jumped into the car, because for some reason, my legs were doing everything I told them not to.
Archer hopped into the driver's seat.
"What the hell are you doing?" I shouted at him. He rolled the top down on my mom's convertible as he started the engine.
"You don't have your licence!"
"I know." And with that, sped away into the unknown.
Well, not quite the unknown. It was the downtown Olympia, Washington Mall, but I didn't know that when we left...
When we pulled into the parking lot I sighed, because I knew what he was planning to do. We always had that sense about the other.
I huffed as he led me inside to the crowded food court. We sat down at one of the cheap, fold out tables and Archer started to stare intensely at another group across the room.
"What are you doing?" I asked, though I already knew. He was trying to read their minds.
"I'm trying to read their minds." he calmly stated, not taking his eyes off of a dark haired woman in red.
I rolled my eyes. "You look like a creeper."
Archer ignored me and focused, squinting his eyes and contorting his face so much that he looked constipated. I burst out laughing and a few people turned their heads. I shut up.
Archer groaned and finally turned away. "I don't understand. It isn't working."
It was strange that he could only read my thoughts, if not a little bit disturbing.
I shrugged at him, but I had an idea.
"Maybe," he said in response. Oh, this was going to be weird. "I am closer to you than anyone else. Maybe it helps that I anticipate your thoughts anyway."
"Ooh!" I gasped. "What if I can read yours too?"
Archer laughed like the idea was impossible, like we didn't just find out that he may or may not be a god.
"You're not a god," he chided.
"You never know," I wiggled my fingers in the air teasingly. "Come on, let me try."
I pouted, and he finally lowered his head in defeat.
"Fine."
He stared at me and I stared back, trying to target his mind. I felt like I almost heard something, but it was just out of reach.
"See," he taunted.
"Hold on, give me a second, gosh."
I focused on his face. On his eyes especially. They're the windows to the soul, right?
Then I heard it. A faint whisper of a sound in the back of my head.
"Hey!"
Archer's eyes widened in shock and regret.
"You heard that?"
"That I am crazy and this will never work because I'm not special? Yeah, I heard that." I spit out.
"Solace, I'm sorry. I just didn't think it would work." I glared at him and he frowned. "So what does this mean?"
I looked away, stubborn as always.
He coughed, and I groaned. Eventually I would have to answer; the words were just bubbling up inside me. Oh, fine, go on.
"It means I'm a god too!"
I said that a bit louder than intended and that earned me a few more stares, but I was too excited and frightened and everything all at once to care.
Archer smirked at me. "Or we just have an incredibly profound bond and we have been wrong about everything else."
I smiled right back.
"Or I'm a god too."