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TO FIND THEA, it takes three wrong doors, seven almost-getting-caught-quick-back-to-the-closet-I-go instances, and one too many times of walking in on an elderly man getting a sponge bath where no man should be sponged. Eventually, though, I do manage to find her.
She's sitting cross-legged in the middle of the same room I'd met her in, sheets of written-on notebook paper spread sporadically out around her, her hair braided loosely over her shoulder. She's scribbling in a moleskin journal in what looks like a foreign language — the same foreign letters float about the paper sea she swims through.
She doesn't notice me come in. As I stand in the doorway, I knock on the door to get her attention. "Yoo-hoo, what's up, Pasta?"
Thea just about jumps out of her skin, her eyes widening and her mouth rounding to a silent O. For several moments, she seems as if she's about to flee for her life, but then she realizes that it's me standing there. "Cain?" she asks, her voice carrying her disbelief. As if she doesn't think that it's actually me.
I push the door closed and sit across from her on the other side of the paper sea. "The one and only."
"Candy Cain," she grins, her papers forgotten, her pen dropping from her hand. "I missed you. I thought you weren't coming back."
"Why wouldn't I?" I ask.
She shrugs, pushing a loose strand of hair back behind her ear. "I — I don't know. I was worried."
"You don't have to be," I assure her, then gesture at all of the papers surrounding her. "Yo, what's all this?"
"This? Oh, I'm — " Thea bashfully glances down at the mess around her. "I'm studying."
"What are you studying?"
"Russian. I'm almost fluent."
My mouth falls open. Right, what the fuck? "Almost fluent? In fucking Russian?"
"Yeah," she nods, not noticing me staring at her in awe. "Do you speak it?"
"Pft," I respond. "Who doesn't?"
"Really? Because I can't seem to get the hang of — "
"Thea, honey, that was sarcasm. I only speak Italian and English, and a little bit of Mandarin, 'cause my dad speaks it sometimes. But I only know like half a word in it. Oh! And I speak the language of looove."
"Well, Italian's cool. I haven't gotten around to learning it, but it's on my list..." Thea trails off, deep in thought of languages and Italy. "I'm fluent in Mandarin."
