Kevin had to admit, Owen really knew what he was doing. He'd expertly positioned himself in between Kevin and the only way out of the room, but in a way that wasn't really all that threatening. He was kind of giving off a 'if you don't have anything to hide then why are you nervous?' kind of vibe. This wasn't an interrogation, oh no. It was an interview, it just so happened that if she said anything weird then he'd pounce on it and eat her alive right there and then.
"Well, I'm sure that's nothing too unusual," Kevin said, leaning back in her chair and crossing her legs confidently. "The first day at a new school, away from the family, surrounded by unfamiliar people... it's bound to happen, isn't it? I'd be more surprised if there weren't more strange dreams."
"Oh, a sceptic, are you?" Owen asked, scribbling furiously in his notepad.
"A good journalist must have a dose of scepticism about him," Kevin said.
"Or her," Owen muttered.
"Or her," Kevin repeated back politely and calmly while internally screaming. Changing the subject, time! "My point is, why should we be so interested in dreams? They are fiction. A product of an unbound slumbering mind, pieced together as the subject awakens. They have no substance, and they certainly have no interest to the public." She leaned forward. "Unless you have reason to believe there is a story there?"
Owen's eyes were dancing now. Joy, mirth, but she couldn't tell if it was because he was relishing the challenge or putting herbs on his upcoming dinner.
"One must always follow the trail to find out," Owen said. "Sometimes you can find a greater treasure than you think at the end of a curious path."
"I don't know, your body language is the same as my mother when she was about to break the 'Lips Cola' drug cartel connection. There's danger. There's excitement. There's the knowledge you're about to crack something so big your career will be made. So? What's the scoop?"
Owen tapped his pencil against his notepad a couple of times. "I remember that story," he said, nodding along. "Your mother had one hell of a story put together. The writing, the sources, everything was as solid as a mountain. You know, that's when I became a big fan of hers."
"Then we should work together on this," Kevin said. "You're my senior, so you get top billing. I have too much respect for the profession to steal a scoop. In exchange, you might even get to meet my mother."
"I don't know," Owen shrugged. "Normally when I'm meeting a girl's parents, it's because we're dating."
Shit. Before Kevin could respond, Owen had already pulled out an old looking news clipping and started to read from it.
"Esteemed journalist receives award, thanks beloved daughter Kelly for helping her through the tough times. No mention of a son, and every other mention is extremely deliberate in not mentioning details about family. I think this was slightly before she started working on that case, in a time where it wasn't quite so easy to get access to past records of news articles."
Guh! She thought they'd had all those records destroyed!"
"That's quite a big leap," Kevin said. "Thinking that I must be her only ch1ld -"
"Then you won't mind removing your shirt?"
"That could be construed as sexual harassment, regardless of my gender," Kevin said. Crap. Crap. Crap. His next move would be to trip her up. No question of it.
"Your chest wrap is showing."
She rolled her eyes at that. Good try, but she wasn't falling for that one.
"No, I mean it - Oh, don't go out like that then everyone will know!"
"H-Hey, what are you - Get off me!"
What he was doing was pulling a jumper over her head. For a moment her entire world was wool and then - gosh, he was handsome. And close.
"You, uh, were sweating quite a bit, and it was making your shirt kind of... see through," Owen said. "Sorry, I probably laid it on a bit thick, right?"
“P-p-pervert..” She mumbled as that fact reached her mind. “Eh.. I mean, well I guess the cat is out of the bag.”
"You're working an undercover story, right?" Owen asked. "Well, relax. I'm not gonna spill the beans. I only caught you out because I'm a super fan. I don't know how you pulled the wool over everyone else's eyes, but... Damn, I really thought you were a boy right up until you introduced yourself."
“Thanks for the praise, but don’t think that will get you any extras.” She said, body language switching over to something more feminine by now. After all, there was no point in keeping that act up, and it was frustrating trying to act like a guy all the time anyway.
"What? Oh no, perish the thought," Owen said, though his eyes were lingering in a few places that she didn't much care for. She snapped her fingers in front of his eyes to get his attention back where it should be. "Ahem! The only thing I'm interested in right now is finding out a bit more about this weird dream situation. So, if you got any leads on that, I want you to come to me first. I think that's fair enough. Professional courtesy, am I right?"
"Right," Kevin gulped. "Professional courtesy. It's only fair." Only fair that she didn't tell him a damned thing about her new dream powers.
Sun Nov 03 17:51:44 2019
Linking Enabled
1 comment Last updated: Fri Feb 19 02:43:01 2021