Morningstar

Chapter 3: Waking and Dreaming

Suffice it to say that I didn't get much sleep that night; no matter how hard I tried, the only things running through my head every time I closed my eyes were Luca's steely glare, his stern and commanding voice... that smell of honey and cinnamon that seemed to emanate from him. Regardless of why, it was apparent I was dragging my feet the next day as I struggled to make it through my classes. If that wasn't bad enough, Spencer was mysteriously absent from the debate team meeting, which meant we were one short of a three person team. A part of me secretly hoped that he would just give up on the debate team completely, but the other half knew that if we didn't have a third person to fill out the roster, we'd have to forfeit to Oak Valley; I couldn't make up my mind which scenario made my skin crawl more. Still, we had a job to do, and I knew that come hell or high water, we had to just focus on our material and hope for the best. It was as I sat there trying to decide whether or not to look for him, Spencer entered the room. At first, I felt a flash of nerves wash over me, but the look on his face quickly dispelled that feeling. He walked over to me and, without making eye contact, simply apologized for the way he acted. I was quite taken aback by this sudden behavior change, but it wasn't exactly unwelcomed. With the three of us focused on the task at hand, we made it through material without much effort, and it seemed as if our team was stronger than ever... but that's exactly what had me on edge. I don't know exactly how to explain it, other than that the look in Spencer's eyes was almost forced; like he was moving on autopilot rather than having his hands on the wheel. What's more, I could have sworn that I picked up the slightest hint of honey and cinnamon coming from him, though I chalked that up to my overactive imagination. Why Spencer was suddenly acting so much more composed and calm didn't matter - we had more important things to focus on than behavioral oddities. It felt like no time had passed at all as the bell rang; Spencer was the first one to leave class, leaving Isabella and I alone in the room. Our final team member was a petite girl with large circle framed glasses and wide brown eyes that oozed curiosity. From what I knew about her, she was one of the top students in class, and her dream was to someday become an attorney, which given the way she excelled at speech and debate seemed to be an attainable ambition for her. After discussing a couple of points in our presentation that could do with a bit of strengthening, she and I left the class as well. Luca was as absent as ever throughout the day; I don't think I spotted him even once, not that I was looking mind you. At least, not until I got to the library; I was looking for some better material to strengthen some of the slight weaknesses in our argument when I spotted him; his back was facing me but there was no mistaking that platinum blonde hair and contrasting olive tawny skin tone. He was currently browsing through the philosophy section, which I won't lie took me by surprise - I didn't often associate pretty faces with philosophers, but there was a first time for everything. I tried my best to remain unnoticed, ducking for cover behind a set of nearby shelves. I needed to stay focused, shaking my head to clear it, hoping to Etch-a-Sketch my thoughts as I began searching for a suitable volume myself. I found myself actually quite proud of the fact that I was able to get back down to business so quickly, though I had no idea why I was internally praising this as an achievement. He was just a boy. A tall, handsome, soft-spoken boy; but still just a boy. In an ironic twist, I was so focused on not thinking about him that I ended up bumping right into the very boy I was trying not to think of. I chanced a look; words cannot explain how grave a mistake that turned out to be. I felt my face heating up as his eyes yet again met mine, a look of genuine curiosity on his face as he stared down at me, tilting his head to the side a bit. I quickly stood up to my feet and took a step back, putting a little distance between us as he slid the volume he was looking at off the shelf, opening it up and leafing through the pages. There are no words for how thankful I was when his eyes left mine; his gaze was still far too overwhelming. Not necessarily in a bad way, but overwhelming nonetheless. I took this respite to compose myself, taking a deep breath before sliding a book on logic off of the shelf next to him and opening my own novel. What those pages said, I couldn't tell you - I was far too busy trying desperately to find a way to break the awkward ice I could feel building between the two of us. After what felt like an eternity, I finally found my voice again.