At the end of class, Professor Sterling assigns everyone to a group to work on a project and my group gets assigned to create a presentation about Gamma-ray bursts. I hate when he does this. I thought after high school that it’d be over, but there are always a few Professors who think it’s beneficial to aid each other in projects. Worst of all, he pairs me with Alex and Aislin, which has to be fate slapping me across the face. Hopefully, I can keep my Goddamn hands to myself, but at the moment the idea doesn’t seem plausible.
I gather my stuff and put my books into my bag before swinging it over my shoulder. Trying not to look at Alex, I start down the stairs, but his shoulder rams into me as he exits the aisle. I trip sideways, slamming my hip into one of the corners of a desk. Something inside my skull pops and images deluge my brain like little pieces of glass.
Alex and I are in front of a glistening lake, crisp with blue ice and encircled by frosted trees. Death is in the air and the sky is opaque and ominous. Snowflakes twirl around us and the temperature is well below freezing.
“It will be alright,” Alex whispers to me, his breath clouding out in front of him. His lips are purple from the cold and there are dark circles under his green eyes. Shavings of ice have formed on his eyelashes and drops of snow stick to his hair. “I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise I’ll save you no matter what.”
Tipping my chin up, I grip onto his strong arms, like it’s the last time I’ll see him. “But what about you? Who will save you?”
He sweeps my hair out of my face and kisses me with so much passion it nearly melts the snow. He sucks on my tongue, his hands straying around to my backside as he pulls my body against his. They linger there momentarily before he draws back. “As long as you’re okay, I’ll be fine.”
“But Alex,” I start to protest, but a large group of hooded figures charge from the forest and my words are sucked away by the wind.
The beat of their march shakes the world as they head for us. Ice topples from the trees and hits the ground. Alex pulls me against him as flames blaze through my body and then all I see is light.
I blink back to the Astronomy classroom right as my legs give out and I fall toward the floor, but Alex’s arm encircles my waist and he catches me before I hit. I freeze, stunned, feeling the heat and the intensity caressing my skin, causing more confusion.
Well, what the hell was that? A dream? In the middle of the day? Awake?
“I do know you,” I say as I stare up at him and this time it isn’t a question.
His hands tighten around the small of my back and for a moment he holds me, frozen, as people pass by, heading down the stairs and looking at us like we’re crazy. He’s breathing fiercely, his chest rising and falling, as he stares at me with confliction in his eyes; his pupils round and large, and his lips are parted.
Foggy images fill my head. “I think I…”
“Alex,” Aislin’s voice rises over the moment. “We need to get to our next class.”
He blinks and then wrenches his hands away from my back, giving me very little time to get my footing. He glares at me, his eyes pooled with hatred, but I’m not sure it’s directed at me. Then he trots down the stairs with his sister at his side.
I watch him leave, very aware that he never denied that I know him.
Chapter 3
I’m pretty sure I'm suffering from delusions; that my stability has snapped like a broken rubber band, and my ability to grasp reality is gone. I’ve been really into psychology lately, doing a lot of research about it for class and for personal interest. It’s an interesting thing, the human mind. There are so many different mental illnesses that can control a person, make them think a certain way, do specific things, see things that aren’t real. Schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and delirium are just a few and, in some cases, there is very little the person can do about it. I wonder if any of those apply to me.
I’m sitting on a bench out in the cold with a scarf wrapped around my neck, fingerless gloves on and a hot cup of coffee in my hands. I’ve called Sophia six times in the last two days and left her three voicemails. In each one I beg her to tell me about my parents. Please. Pretty please. I deserve it. However, each call is unanswered and the silence is more infuriating than the cold-hearted refusal she usually gives me.
The campus is busy for how early it is, lots of people going to and from class. As I try to analyze what is going on in each passerby’s head, I notice a person lurking near the alleyway between the main office and the building next to it. He… she… it seems to be watching me. There are shadows obscuring its identity, but it looks unnaturally disproportioned and misshapen. There’s also some kind of greyish smoke lacing out of its mouth and a hood blocks its eyes, but I swear there is a faint glimmer of yellow radiating from them. As the realization of what it could be strikes me across the face, I feel a spark flare inside me.
“Do you always sit outside in the cold and freeze your ass off?” The sound and feeling of Alex’s presence encases my body.
I peer up at him. “Umm…” My gaze darts back to the alley, but the figure is gone. Again, I question my sanity. I tip my chin up, angling my neck to look up at Alex. “What did you say?”
He stares down at me with an annoyed look on his face, but there is also a trace of discomfort in the way he stands; like he’s trying to relax, but can’t quite get there. His hair is tucked under the hood of a heavy coat, black boots cover his feet and there is a tiny tear on the knee of his jeans.
He glances over his shoulder where I thought I’d seen the figure, and then levels his gaze back on me. “Isn’t it a little bit cold to be sitting out here?”
“It’s not that cold,” I lie and take a sip of my coffee, basking in the heat of the hot liquid as it spills down my throat.
He cocks an eyebrow at me and there is doubt in his eyes. “It’s not that cold, huh? Then, why are your lips purple?”
I touch my numb finger to my even number lips. “I was actually working on an assignment for sociology.” Another lie.
He looks around at the snowy campus yard and heavy traffic by the stairs. His forehead creases as he looks back at me and tucks his bottom lip up between his teeth, biting on it. “I have a question.”
I fold my hands on my lap. “Okay….”
He peeks over his shoulder again and then vigilantly lowers himself beside me on the bench. “You said you thought you knew me? Why?”
I scroll over his green eyes, his full lips, and his knee that is only inches away from mine. It’s unnerving, yet, comforting, which makes absolutely no sense. Half of me is attracted to him, like metal to a magnet, while the other half is repelled by him, like oil and water. “There’s just something about how you look that seems familiar.” My third lie in the last minute. I’m on a roll.
“Familiar how?” he questions with intrigue. “Because I don’t remember you at all and you don’t look familiar. I’m pretty sure I’d remember you with that weird eye color of yours.”
Irritated beyond belief, I shrug. “I’m not sure. There’s just something about your face… like I saw it in a dream.”
His eyes flicker to my lips and then a condescending look masks his face. “In your dreams?”
“Yeah, you know, things that you see when you shut your eyes at night,” I say cynically, still infuriated that he’s taken a jab at my eye color.
He rolls his eyes. “I know what dreams are, but what you’re saying sounds an awful lot like a pick up line a guy would use on a girl.”
I reach for my coffee cup balanced on the bench beside me. “I’m not coming on to you.”
“Sure you’re not,” he says smugly. “Just like you weren’t when you felt me up in the doorway.”
“I’m not now and I wasn’t then. I was just…” My temper shoots heat through my body that is almost as intense as the electric feeling. If he keeps it up, I’m probably going to explode and do God knows what. I haven’t yet reached that level of emotion, the kind where you lose control to the point that you do and say things that you regret. “You just look familiar to me. That’s all.”
“And you look like a love sick girl. Sorry to break it to you, but you’re not my type so you might as well get it out of your head that anything will ever happen between us.”
“You don’t know who I am or how I feel, so don’t make assumptions.”
Discounting me, he gets to his feet and dusts the snow off the back of his jeans as my jaw practically hits the snow on the ground. “See you in class Jenna.” He struts off across the campus yard with arrogance exuding from him.
“It’s Gemma!” I shout, like it actually matters to him.
He glances back with a smug smile on his lips and I wonder if he’s intentionally been trying to burrow his way underneath my skin. If so, it’s working. I jump to my feet and trample through the snow back to the car, my skin simmering against the wind. I’m not sure what I’m more furious about. That he called me a lovesick girl. Or, that he said he isn’t interested.
The only thing I do know is that I’ve never been this livid in my entire life.
***
On Friday, I have a study date with Alex and Aislin in the library so we can put the project together. I’ve seen a lot of them over the last few days. In fact, they seem to pop up everywhere. Aislin is polite and Alex is… well, I’m not sure if there’s a word for what he is. One minute he’s fine—quiet, in his own little world—and the next he’s making a smartass remark about me; from the color of my eyes, to my lustful fascination with him (his words, not mine). He is one of the most contradictory people I’ve ever met and that is saying a lot since I can barely contain my own, newly present, emotions.
When I show up to the library, they’re sitting at a table in the far back corner. Alex is messing with a compass and has a contemplative look on his face as he twists the knob on the top. Aislin sits next to him and is engulfed with whatever is on the screen of her phone.
“Hi, Mrs. Bakerly.” I wave at the elderly librarian behind the counter. I work part-time at the library, which is a nice job, since I love books, especially science-fiction novels. Give me a story with a witch, vampire, faerie, or anything that isn’t human and I am good to go.
She pushes her finger against the brim of her nose and nudges her overly large glasses up. Then she raises her hand to reciprocate my wave and looks back to the computer screen.
I drop down in the seat across from Alex and Aislin and let my bag fall to the floor. The wind has been blowing outside and my cheeks are anesthetized from the cold. I unwind my scarf from my neck and slip off my gloves, aware that Alex is watching me attentively.
“Am I particularly fascinating today?” I glance up at him with my lips pressed together.
He’s wearing another long sleeve grey Henley that shows the outline of his muscular arms and his hair is disheveled like it always is. I’ve learned over the last few days that it’s his trademark look and it is a nice one, but I always have the compulsion to run my fingers through it. He sets the gold-plated compass down on the table and for the briefest second it looks like it’s orbed by a golden light, but by the time I blink, it’s gone.