“You cannot talk to me like that. I won’t forget this,” Kiran snarled back, but obediently and without looking at me again, walked on. Talbott did not continue walking however, but stayed where he was. His demeanor remained calm, and he turned his body to face me. After I refused to walk any closer to him, he signaled me with his hand.
“You can’t keep playing this game with him,” he started speaking to me as soon as I was close; a look of sincere determination on his face.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I replied, slightly offended, and feeling like I used that phrase an awful lot lately. If there really was anything between Kiran and me, who was Talbott to get in the way? More importantly, why was Talbott getting in the way? And even more importantly, was there anything between Kiran and me?
“I’m afraid you do,” he alleged softer, making his accent thick. I continued walking and he matched his strides with mine. “Listen, we are all curious about you, I’m sure you understand, but Kiran is taking this too far. It’s not fair to him and it’s definitely not fair to you. You are only going to get hurt.”
“Thank you for your concern, but really there is nothing for you to worry about,” I tried to stay polite, but get the message across at the same time. The soft undulating energy that was only a hum a moment ago was steadily growing stronger the longer I talked with Talbott, making my temper even harder to control.
“I am warning you for your own good,” he persisted. “Stay away from him.”
“I am trying to stay away from him. Maybe it’s him you should be having this conversation with.”
“I’ve tried to talk to him….. He is focused. When he finds something to…. entertain him, it is hard to refocus him; and you Eden, are turning out to be much more than mere entertainment. I am afraid the game is getting dangerous,” When I opened my mouth to say something he continued quickly, “You should know that he has a girlfriend,” he looked at me out of the corner of his eye and I knew that he was waiting for me to react. So I played it as cool as I could, continuing en route to English class.
“Really. Who?” I tried to ask coyly, but I could feel my blood temperature rise and not from the electricity this time, for whomever the girl was. The energy rushing through my veins centered unexpectedly and surged out through my fingertips into the grass, creating a small fire. I stopped suddenly to stomp it out, hoping Talbott didn’t notice. And he didn’t, or at least he pretended he didn’t.
“Seraphina. That is why we are at Kingsley. He moved here to be closer to her,” he reached out to open the door for me and the gesture gave me a second to recover.
“Figures,” I sighed under my breath. “Listen, I’m really not into him. As far as I’m concerned, there is nothing for you to worry about. Seraphina and Kiran make a nice couple, really, they deserve each other,” I finished through gritted teeth. All anger had vanished; instead I could only feel disgust for myself. Clearly, I was making something out of nothing.
“So I have your word, you will not distract him anymore?” his language was confusing to me, I was not going to give “my word” about anything; the promise seemed too binding. Besides that wasn’t really up to me, right?
“Whatever Talbott, I won’t bother him anymore,” we were almost to class and I could not wait to be finished with the conversation; for some unexplainable reason I was suddenly depressed. I hoped I wasn’t jealous of Seraphina. I found that especially degrading.
Before I could get through the classroom door however, Talbott put a soft hand on my shoulder, stopping me. “Eden, he can be quite persistent. He is very intrigued by you. He has never met anyone quite like you, so you will have to give him a clear message,” I turned to look at him in the face, hoping that he was joking, but I was met with frighteningly serious eyes. “Even if you are human, Seraphina will not be very forgiving if she senses any competition,” he tightened his grip on my shoulder, sending lightning bolts running down my arm. I was officially irritated.
“Listen, this doesn’t sound like my problem. If Kiran is unhappy with his relationship then let them work it out. As far as I’m concerned, none of this has anything to do with me,” I was finished with this, so I pushed passed Talbott into the classroom. I was late again and I could hear Mr. Lambert lecturing me as I headed straight for my seat. Wasn’t it just last night that I was looking forward to coming to school?
The rest of the day went surprisingly quick. I was very prepared to ignore Kiran completely, but as it turned out, he was the one to give me the cold shoulder. This irritated me more than anything.
All day I began plotting what I would say to him if we happened to bump into each other. But I soon realized all of our previous run-ins must have actually been on purpose, because suddenly he was nowhere to be seen. By the time I was sitting in eighth hour Chemistry, I felt terribly mopey.
The most irritating thing of all was that I had never noticed Kiran and Seraphina were a couple. Seraphina was loud and obnoxious, always drawing attention to herself; never once had I looked up to see Kiran at her side, worshiping her like the rest of the sheep.
Occasionally they would sit next to each other in class, and always at lunch, but I just thought those were their social obligations, since they were the cool kids and all. Now, every time I looked up they seemed to be side by side…. Laughing…. Touching…. Was I so consumed with myself I couldn’t see what was going on around me?
On top of everything I could not figure out why this bothered me so much. Or why I felt like Kiran lied to me. It’s not like I had asked him if he had a girlfriend and he said no. And he never really pursued me, or said that he liked me. Most of the time, he made me angry.
I doodled on my paper, resting my head on my arm. The electricity was at a medium hum, but my energy level was much lower. I recognized my depression and it depressed me even more. I shouldn’t let this get to me as much as it was.