Incognito

Reaching Nirvana

pretend // tinashe

Let's pretend I ain't your friend

So we can get it on again

Let's pretend we never met

A good excuse to play forget

Let's pretend you never lied

So I can give it up all night

Swallow my pride and learn to forgive

When I'm looking for love I pretend it's you

~

"Lorena!" My mother calls expectantly. "We have a visitor."

I shake my head, it has to be Ryder with his stupid bags. Which by the way, I still can't believe that my parents even considered this or that I only found out last night. I hear a few murmurs, I'm guessing Ryder is trying to tell her that he's not my boyfriend, after countless times of her saying that he was and no matter how much he wants that to be true.

I pull my hair and braid it into a fishtail, hoping to look more decent than with my I-woke-up-like-this messy hair. Once satisfied, I rush down the stairs, looking down to be careful not to fall face flat. When I look up, I can safely say that I'm genuinely surprised.

It isn't Ryder, it's DI.

"Oh, hey." I breathe out, trying to hide my temporary exhaustion from the rush of going down the stairs. DI stands still, arms folded behind his back, the full superhero posture. He mimics my greeting and we fall back into silence. My mom realizes it's because of her presence and she quickly clasps her hands together and excuses herself with a small grin.

As soon as she leaves I jump to the point, "What are you doing here?" My whisper makes him bend forward and then he smiles, his Cheshire Cat smile.

"You told me to use the front door."

"No, I said you should use a door instead of a window or teleporting in whenever you want. Not the front door!"

"I thought you'd be happy about that." He pouts, disappointedly.

"Well, I appreciate the effort, but think about it. What if the neighbors saw you? They'd love to meet you and they'd bicker with me until I told them why I know you. Maybe the paps would surround our house."

"Oh, I see. You don't want the world to know about us."

"Exactly. Wait, what?"

"You know," He wiggles his brows, only causing me to scrunch mine. "Oh come on, don't act like it's nothing. I know we've got something. Look, you even braided your hair for me."

"Uhm, no." I laugh, ignoring the rush of blood up my neck. A flash from the past of us making out in the test at the League comes before my eyes. I blink rapidly to push the thought away. "You've misunderstood. We don't have anything, because if we did, then we wouldn't be talking about this."

"Okay. Fair enough." He shrugs, "But then why are you wearing the ring I gave you?"

"Because it was given to me by a friend of mine." He gives me a look instead of saying that it proves his point. "And it matches all of my outfits."

He scoffs in disbelief and chooses to disregard me. "Anyway, I'm hoping you can take up my offer on teaching you about that special thing of yours today."

"Wait a second, you randomly drop in, knowing absolutely nothing whether or not I have plans and ask me to do that now?" He nods his head. "Okay."

DI leads me to his car as soon as I tell my parents that I'm leaving. I hadn't made any plans for today except to hide from Ryder as soon as he comes.