Selling Spring

Part 2

Several days passed after Alex manifested his attribute, and the number of words he took expanded from three to seven. The adjectives 'cheerful', 'engaging', 'humorous', and 'talkative' newly inhabited Alex's mind.

While in school, Alex tried his best to make new friends but, because he blocked off all potential connections, he couldn't approach anyone without them being surprised or confused. To solve this, Alex sat close to where popular students sat at lunch. Instead of striking a conversation, he stole several more words that he thought might help.

'Borrowed, not stolen,' Alex thought as he rehoused his eleventh word. He now used his attribute as casually and frequently as a remote controller.

"I wonder what Marcel's words look like," daydreamed Alex as he rummaged in his backpack.

"So, what was your grade for the history homework?" Cayson asked while receiving his copied homework from Alex.

Alex laughed, remembering the glare from the teacher that was reserved for Cayson. "I got a 75. I thought you saw the bright orange X over the front page since you noticed her giving me a dirty look. Don't worry. I'll make sure you get your stares back."

Alex looked forward to coming back to his dorm more than ever; talking with Cayson distracted him from his worries.

"You can keep that if you want. I'm sick of her targeting me in her classes."

"I think I will. We need a bit of trouble in her classes anyway. Shame there will be a shortage of quiet and artsy kids in all of my classes," Alex said with a laugh.

After the comment about his past, he noticed Cayson's eyes were facing the ground and could almost hear his thoughts racing. Alex blinked. He couldn't hear his thoughts but could see them. He saw things moving counterclockwise under the adjectives that described Cayson. 

Blinking once more, he noticed that the things under the adjectives were phrases and that they were revolving faster than the adjectives. A split second later, the revolving slowed and the number of phrases lessened, allowing Alex to read it. He saw a phrase that said "Tell Alex about his changes," and as soon as he was done reading the sentence, all of the words around Cayson's head disappeared as Cayson picked up his head to look at him.

"You changed a lot after our conversation two days ago," Cayson said bluntly.

Alex didn't expect any of this; nobody was this honest and direct with him and didn't know his attribute could improve.

"Yeah, I did. I just thought I could be more comfortable with you, with us being roommates and all," Alex said, glad he took in the word 'quick-witted'.

Alex then saw Cayson tilt his head slightly to his left.

"So, I think I'm comfortable enough to give you time to do the group project," Alex said, looking back at Cayson and lifting his light eyebrow.

"Whoa, I completely forgot," Cayson said, his eyes widening.

"Thanks for finally remembering why I decided to talk to you in the first place. Do you agree with me reporting on chapters 1, 3, 5, and 7 and you doing chapter 6 and editing the video?"

"Yep."

After a few minutes of staring blankly at the orange background of the presentation, Alex looked back to see Cayson working hard on the English project, the back of his head facing him. 'How does he know that much?' he thought, closing his eyes.

Alex took a long and soundless exhale and opened his eyes, making words appear on Cayson's head. Alex reached his hand towards the words and spread the words apart, scouring for a particular word: "observant."

When he spotted it, he put his hand above the unmoving word. He then forcefully grabbed it, determined. He violently pulled his hand away from Cayson's head and the rest of the words, nearly falling out of his chair from the force. 

After regaining his balance, he relaxed his tense body but still maintained a firm hold on the word. In awe, he stared at the word in his grasp, detached from Cayson. Even at this distance, he felt it get pulled back to its previous host. Then, his heart pounding, he clutched the struggling word with his trembling hand and pushed it onto his forehead, not allowing the word to go anywhere but into his head.