Chapter two

 

Chapter 2

 

 

The brightly painted truck had definitely increased in size. I clamped my teeth shut and fought to hold back a squeal. I didn’t like squealing. It lacked a certain dignity. Curling my hands into fists I continued lying prone till I could vaguely think, then rolled over and took my pills, fighting the urge to take more than two. Two didn’t seem like enough. Not today. I sighed;

I had to get this checked out. Thinking about my parent’s reaction made me quail but I was starting to think there was something seriously wrong with me. I dressed and ventured downstairs reluctantly. I’d tell dad now so he could prepare for mums outburst that was bound to ensue as soon as she found out that I needed to see a doctor. After all, it was another prime example of his lack of care for me and my mother definitely wasn’t one to pass up such a good excuse for argument. My pre-warning probably wouldn’t help dad at all but it made me feel a tiny bit better about dragging him into yet another fight.

I mentally shook myself as I walked down the worn carpeted stairs; I shouldn’t be feeling guilty, it wasn’t my fault. Raised voices came to my attention and I paused halfway down the stairs to listen. I was surprised; mum didn’t usually come back to the house so early. I couldn’t hear what they were saying but I sure as hell didn’t want to interrupt so I made my way down the rest of the stairs as quietly as possible, my breath catching as the bottom stair creaked loudly. The shouting continued and I breathed out, relief flooding through me as I walked towards the front door. I paused with my hand on the door knob; I really should go talk to them. The fact that they were fighting did not mean that I had to suffer. Plus I hadn’t had breakfast! I really shouldn’t just leave… I turned the door knob and walked outside. Coward? Who me?

 Driving out of the yard I realised that, no matter how discrete I had been, they had almost certainly seen me drive off… which meant they knew I hadn’t had any breakfast… which meant that Dad wasn’t looking after me properly. Oops. Sorry Dad. I grimaced but continued driving; going back wouldn’t solve anything.

 

           I arrived in the school parking lot, hours early as usual and leant back against my seat. I felt slightly guilty about throwing my dad to the dogs but there was nothing I could do about it now. Besides I had other things to worry about. My mind returned, all too eagerly, to the subject of Luke; I was looking forward to seeing him, maybe he would finally explain what he had meant by staring at me yesterday. It was silly; it wasn’t as if I particularly minded being stared at. Ok, I take that back, I hate being stared at, but at least I usually deserve it. A habit of dropping things, bumping into people and having an opinion in class usually warrants a certain amount of staring. I’d accepted it. But yesterday… I ran over it in my head and came up blank; by some miracle I hadn’t done anything stupid that lesson. Nothing out of the ordinary, except perhaps handing my essay in early. It was only a couple of days early… it wasn’t that weird. No, I remembered his expression; he had stared at me like I’d suddenly sprouted wings and a halo, I must have done something…

A knock on my window interrupted my frustrated reasonings and I jumped as I came face to face with the same pair of blue eyes that had been haunting my thoughts. I pulled my self together and got out of my car, shutting the door carefully behind me and feigning nonchalance by leaning against my car in much the same way that he was. Though he looked like he was posing for some high street fashion magazine, whilst I probably just looked tired.

He grinned down at me and I couldn’t help smiling back.

“Hello.” His tone was jovial, overly so. He seemed somewhat ecstatic for some reason and that immediately put me on my guard.

“Hi” I said, I was cautious now, dealing with mark had made me wary of anyone who was too happy to see me. Though Luke looked sincere I couldn’t help wondering why on earth my presence was so important to him. I watched, curious as his expression sobered into a slight frown, a small line dissecting his eyebrows between those eyes that were already far too familiar to me. My eyes met his and got caught there, a pause forming as I struggles to arrange my now scrambled thoughts. The silence lengthened but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Luke’s expression changed into the one he’d worn the day before; purposeful and strained as if trying to communicate something important to me and a wave of his excitement and mounting frustration washed over me.

Before I could wander what it meant my head gave a painful twinge and I winced breaking eye contact and bursting the tense little bubble that seemed to have formed around us. When I looked up Luke’s expression had cleared and he was smiling again, leaning casually against my car with his eyes twinkling as if what id just done had amused him in some way.

“Great,” I thought, “Attractive, arrogant, and laughs at other peoples pain…”

His smile widened and I couldn’t help smiling back. In all aspects Luke really shouldn’t have been a nice guy. In fact by that synopsis Luke shouldn’t have been a nice guy at all! So it was surprising and utterly unfair to admit that he was, in truth, a very nice guy and I couldn’t seem to stop my self responding to him.

The bell rang and I flinched; jeez I was jumpy today. I glanced around the parking lot and was surprised to see that everyone had already arrived and gone in. Luke bounced off my car and slung his bag over his shoulder, a teasing smile lifting the corners of his mouth.

“May I escort you to English Miss. Johnson?”

I suppressed my joy at the thought of double English with him and forced my self to think clearly, however difficult his smile was making it.

“Um, yeah sure,” I replied, raising my eyebrows slightly at his funny mood. “But I said I’d wait for Kate”

I looked around the parking lot again, wondering where she was and secretly hoping that she wouldn’t show so I could spend more time with Luke. I mentally shook my self; that wasn’t nice; of course I wanted her to show…

Luke grabbed my hand and began dragging me towards the classrooms, rolling his eyes at my outraged expression; I didn’t like being manhandled.

“She saw me with you and assumed she wasn’t needed. She’ll be waiting for you in English.”

I frowned at him suspiciously and his face went briefly blank, guarded.

“I think.” He added quickly, then grinned and continued dragging me to English.

 

Everyone stared at us as we entered the classroom, Kate shooting me a very significant look and gesturing at the empty seat next to her. I glanced briefly at Luke, very aware that the only other empty seat was right next to me, then purposefully made my way to sit next to Kate, ignoring Jessica’s evil eyes from the front desk and painfully conscious of Luke’s following steps.

“You’re late” Kate reprimanded as I sat down. I grinned at her, noting the way her eyes slid questioningly to Luke who had say down next to me and was now rooting through his bag for something.

“I was waiting got you!” I replied, my tone petulant and accompanied by a protruding bottom lip for good measure. Kate laughed and turned back to rearranging her books.

“Suure you were.”

I stuck my tongue out at her and continued getting my books out of my bag, studiously ignoring Luke’s presence to my left. I was embarrassed now, though I had no idea why. We’d talked fine, if a little confusingly, in the parking lot so why was I now begging for Mr. Ralmen to enter and start the lesson so conversation would no longer be necessary.

I glanced involuntarily at Luke and found him looking steadily at me. My breath caught and I jumped as Mr. Ralmen stormed into the room offering up a silent prayer of thanks for his timely arrival. He dumped his bag heavily on the table and looked around the classroom his eyes locking in my direction. I panicked as he stomped towards me; he was obviously not in a great mood and I had no idea what I had done to ensue his wrath. Then I realised Luke’s hand was up, it wasn’t me he was coming to kill after all. I could breathe again. I’m not a coward, but teachers scare the hell out of me. Not because I’m particularly scared of punishments, more because they have a habit of making me cry in front of the class. I hate crying; crying is weak. But whenever I get shouted at by a teacher I get angry and start balling like a baby. It’s like my anger is hot wired to my tear ducts. Teacher shouts at me, I get angry, I cry, then I get angry because I’m crying and I cry more. It’s so humiliating. So you can understand my relief when I realised that Mr. Ralmen wasn’t after me. Crying in front of Luke… I shuddered at the thought.

It was then that I realised that he was handing in a completed essay. Mr. Ralmen looked surprised and somewhat appeased; Luke had obviously called him sir. again. I wondered if I should try it; it obviously worked like a charm… Nah, he’d probably just think I was being funny.

Mr. Ralmen tucked the essay under his meaty arm and made his way to his desk.

“Well you two just find something to do. No talking though.”

As he settled his large girth into his obviously too small desk chair I glanced again at Luke half hoping he’d be looking at me again. He wasn’t; his head was studiously bent over some work or other, chestnut coloured hair obscuring most of his face.

I looked back at my desk, half glad, half disappointed and laid my head on my arms; and hour and a half of sleep. I wasn’t complaining.

I lay there for a moment with my eyes closed, I couldn’t relax. I was too aware of Luke sitting next to me. It presented me with a dilemma; if I lay one way he’d see my face while I slept which might not be too pretty, but if I lay the other way I got the sunlight from the classroom window on my face. Not great for sleeping. I settled for facing Luke but with my hair carefully strewn over my face so my expression was hidden. I tried to relax; this was as good as it was gonna get.

I didn’t even notice the buzzing till I was too far into sleep to care. Images flickered in front of my eyes and I recognised them as the beginning of my dreams. I’d never noticed them when I was young, but in the past year of so they had become an every night affair. I didn’t find anything unusual about them. I assumed everyone got them, a product of mental maturity perhaps, nothing strange.

I couldn’t distinguish much from the images; they were flickering too fast, like flicking through a picture book at a high speed. I got the basic picture but none of the details.

Luke’s image appeared far too often for my liking, tinged with different emotions, I picked out jealousy, curiosity and… what was that, lust?

The images began to slow and I would have frowned if I wasn’t so detached from my body; this never happened, not while I was still conscious in any case. The images started to blur at the edges as they slow and, as they became less and less clear a new picture formed slowly in my mind, coming more and more into focus the further I fell into sleep.

It was a strange dream; I was sprawled across the floor in a room I didn’t know. There was a lit log fire in one wall, the ornate fireplace glowing in a comforting fashion and throwing an orb of light around the dimly lit room. I pushed myself up and sat cross legged, exploring the strange room with my eyes. The carpet was a deep red colour and was incredibly thick. It’s rich colour matched the rest of the room, all reds, browns and golds right down to a number of intricately patterned pillows strewn artistically across a sofa in front of the fire.

I had to say I approved, the reds and browns made the room seem cosy and warm and incredibly… safe.

A door I hadn’t noticed opened to the left of me and I stared opened mouthed as Luke padded, barefoot, into the room. He smiled at my shocked expression and came to sit opposite me, closing the door quietly behind him and hugging his knees to his chest in a surprisingly vulnerable posture.

I only had room for one thought, what the hell was he doing here?!

I thought for a moment; this was just a dream, a figment of my imagination, I didn’t have to worry about what he thought of me here, and, best of all, I certainly didn’t need to be polite.

I frowned at him.

“Jesus, am I really this obsessed with you already?”

I was mainly talking to my self but he looked down at the ground and began picking at the carpet with a small smile on his face. I felt my face heat up and realised that no matter how much I reminded myself this wasn’t real, I was still going to worry about what he thought of me. The thought disturbed me; I cared far too much for his opinion.

He sat there patiently as throughout my thought processes, still absentmindedly picking at the carpet. I was content to just watch him for a moment, he seemed completely at home here, his strong hands stroking the wool as if they had done so many a time before. He looked up as if he felt my gaze on him and I felt my blush deepen.

“You done?” He asked, his eyebrows raised slightly in a teasing line and that all too familiar glint in his eyes.

“Yeah.” I replied, then frowned, done with what?

“Good.” He said, getting up and walking over to one of the ornate book shelves that lined the room. I watched him quizzically as he selected a dust covered russet book and placed it on the floor in front of me, turning it so I could read the front the cover.

“Creatura abdera vox?”

I raised my eyebrows at him, unable to stop the hint of sarcasm that had worked it’s way into my tone.

“It’s Latin,” he said, leaning over me as I picked the book up. He was sitting very close to me, his head almost touching me and I looked up to find his blue eyes only a few inches away. It distracted me for a moment…a long moment.

“For creatures of power…” he prompted with raised eyebrows as I failed to form a coherent response. I blinked and looked down at the book; it seemed the safer option.

“Oh, right… yeah.” I mumbled, then realised what he’d said. “Hang on, what?”

“Creatura abdera vox, Creatures of Power, it was written in the year 3AD…”

I opened my mouth to voice my disbelief but he held up a hand to stop me. I shut my mouth obediently, raising my eyebrows so my feelings were clear.

“It was written in the year 3AD,” he continued, warning me not to interrupt with his eyes, as a sort of guide or dictionary to supernatural creatures.”

I couldn’t help it, I interrupted; my eyebrows had risen as far as was possible.

“Supernatural creatures?”

I couldn’t stop the sarcasm, or the patronizing smile I knew had spread across my face; he was talking crazy!

He met my look with a serious face and my smile wilted a little at the edges.

“Yes,” His eyes were deadpan, the teasing light all but gone. “Supernatural creatures.”

I laughed, one of those quick, high laughs that you can’t quite contain, a shocked I-can’t-believe-he-said-that laugh, or in this case a my-god-I’m-sitting-here-with-a-crazy-person sorta laugh. Know what I mean? No? Shame.

My laughter died slowly as I continued looking at his expression, my eye’s flicking from eye to eye to try and find even a slight shimmer of that humour I was so hoping to see. I cam up with nill.

“You’re serious aren’t you?” My tone sounded as disbelieving as I felt and I frowned as he nodded slowly, never breaking eye contact.

“Okaaay…” I said slowly, swallowing hard. “So what does this book of…” I took a deep breath keeping my eyes on his and said it quickly. “…supernatural creatures have to do with me?”

He grinned at me, obviously amused with my discomfort, and flicked through the aged book to a browning, worn page that looked like it had been read many times. He gave me the book and settled himself into a more comfortable position next to me.

“Read it out.”

It sounded a little too much like a command for my liking but I looked down at the book obediently. It was all in Latin, I even recognised a few words my prep school classes. I was confused for a moment; did Luke expect me to know Latin?! But then noticed that underneath the slanting text someone had written the English translation in tiny black handwriting.

“The Listeners.” I read out, glancing up at Luke with my eyebrows slightly raised. He gave an encouraging smile and I looked back at the book, taking a tolerant deep breath.

“The Listeners, enemies of the Seraph cult are a species of Homo sapiens sapiens, more commonly known to warlocks and members of the occult,” my eyebrows went up further, “as Homo Simon sapiens. Though distinctly humanoid in appearance they retain abilities unheard of in the more common strain of Homo sapiens. The Listeners, thought by some cultures to be direct decedents of the Celtic Druids, obtain their power directly from the sun circle of Belgae,”

“Stonehenge.” Luke interrupted, eyeing my casually from where he was leant back on the floor. I looked down at him, my face totally deadpan.

“Stonehenge.” My tone was unemotional and flat; this dream was just getting weirder and weirder.

“Yep.” He grinned at me encouragingly and nodded at me to keep going. Looking at him sarcastically for a moment longer, I turned back to the book.

“…the sun circle of Belgae which was built by there original people. They and the Seraph have an ongoing feud that is rumoured to have started before time began and is thought to have been designed by the maker as a way of keeping the numbers of each species down, much as the eternal hatred of the tigers and lions.

The listeners seem to be the fastest to grow but also, being the gentler species, fasters to lose brethren to death. Records of previous feuds, dating back to prehistoric times, depict several of their fight and their beginnings. Thus a pattern emerges, it seems, from the many wall drawings and murals recorded, that the Listeners grow in number, congregating around the Belgae sun circle which causes an aura of power to form around their resting place.” Luke’s voice joined mine as he recited from memory the last few lines. “This is shown to wake the Seraph who then proceed to hunt them down. For more information see “The Seraph Cult” on page 72.”

The last was said very close to my ear and I looked up to find Luke’s eyes an inch from mine. I licked my suddenly very dry lips and blushed as his eyes followed the movement. I barely had time to think what a bad idea it was before he was suddenly kissing me and I couldn’t think straight anymore. My eyes snapped shut and I lost myself in the sensation of his lips on mine, his hand on my face and waist, my arms round his neck. His mouth was soft and gently as it worked on mine, his hair like silk as I ran my hands through it. A wave of his excitement and something unfamiliar to me washed through me and I drew myself closer to him as a sneaky feeling that we only had moments left fell across me.

“Sarah?”

I drew back, my hands still in his hair and looked at him quizzically.

“Did you say something?” My voice came out breathy and uneven and I reminded my self to breathe. Luke frowned.

“No, I…” His face went blank as if he were suddenly mentally very far away and I eyed him worriedly suddenly awquadly aware of my arms still round his neck. I thought about moving them but his arms were still wrapped around my waist, holding my tight to him so there was really nowhere sensible to go. He suddenly came back to the present and looked at me regretfully, frustration plain in his expression. Smiling at me softly, he stroked my face with the back of his fingers.

“Damn, I thought we had more…” he paused, a teasing light coming into his eyes. “You distracted me.”

I was still confused.

“What…?” He pressed a finger to my lips.

“No time, we’ll have to finish this later.”

I started to say something but a pair of hands shook my shoulders and I was suddenly back in the class room, staring blearily into the grinning face of Kate.

“Wakey Wakey sleepy head, we’ve got Theatre Studies next, now move it.”

I sat up, embarrassed and glance around at the room of people packing up and leaving. My eyes locked with Luke's as he headed towards the door and a blush crept up my cheeks as I remembered my dream. I was obsessed with him, there was no doubt about it. Damn; two days of him and I was obsessed. How pathetic. I packed my bag quickly and stood up with Kate, pulling at my fringe and sweeping my hair over one shoulder, after an hour and a half of sleeping on a desk I was betting I didn’t look my best. My blush still hadn’t receded as I started towards the door, god knows I was gonna have to get used to it. After a dream like that I would be lucky if I wasn’t permanently red around Luke. I watched him as he swung around the doorframe, looking exceedingly happy for someone who’d just sat though double English. He grinned and winked at me as he exited the classroom. I had no idea why.

Reviews

[deeps]

This is cute on places, I like the part of being arragant!
I know people like that. Very well written and very
descriptive.

I hope you don't mind me saying this.
You ought to divide your writes down into paragraphs
It would look neater and read alot better.

Don't get me wrong I really enjoy this alot.
It's very good. It makes splendid reading.