Slade and Alex had never been friends. They’d always been frenemies.
Back out in the bayou, long before either ventured into New Orleans, they kinda ran into each other now and then.
There’d be distance. Twenty to thirty yards or something like that. So when I say they ran into each other, I mean it figuratively. Figuratively, as figures can bump into each other.
They didn’t talk or have interest in the other. It would be more like them glancing over and briefly seeing but immediately thinking This guy is nothing but trouble… Best to stay away. This happened enough times they recognized the other as a distinct individual.
A swamp rat sees a lot of river snakes, and vice versa. It is an adverse response– the one sees the other as an enemy. Enemies are never seen as distinct individuals. They are nameless, faceless, threats.
The power allowing Alex to see Slade as a distinct individual is a shifting from enemy to frenemy. It is a jazz progression of, if not love, at least to liking it, and liking it distinctively. It won’t go to full on friendship, or will it?
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