Claws and code

Becoming friends & outings

Daniel was the only one looking at me, the others kept their eyes on the waiter and the food. I noticed that Mark and Sasha's brother kept scanning the area. I didn't know his name yet so I decided to stare at him until he acknowledged me. The moment he met my eyes, I smiled widely. 'Hi, I'm Cloe. I presume you are Sasha's brother but we haven't been introduced....'

After glancing at, and receiving a nod from, Daniel, he leaned closer so he could hold out his hand to me. 'Louis, a pleasure to meet you Cloe. May I ask... I noticed that you seem to have had some self defence training, martial arts perhaps?'

'Yes, I did.' He wasn't put off by my short reply, in my defence, he hadn't asked an actual question.

'What sort?'

'A bit of self defence training and Capoeira for the fun of it.'

'Have you ever used your skill in a life situation?'

My heartrate sped up and my hands got sweaty just thinking of why I'd learned to fight and the first time I'd used it to protect myself. I kept my face blank however while my brain reminded me. My fighting skills had come in handy a lot of times in my lonely life. It would have turned out very differently for me if I hadn't learned to fight at a young age. I faked a smile and answered him. 'Nah, it's only just in case, you never know right... girl alone in the big city.'

He looked sad as he nodded, almost like he knew I was lying. I glanced to the others and saw similar expressions of sympathy. There was no way they could know I was lying, so I pasted on a big smile and asked. 'You obviously have some experience yourself, what's your sport.'

He smiled. 'I specialise in hand to hand combat... if you ever feel like sparring with someone. My work brings me to the city at least one week a month.'

I grinned back. 'I'm sure I'll need it, once the semester starts. Nothing like letting off a bit of steam sparring.'

The other two smirked like they knew something I didn't but Louis looked serious and kind. Sasha groaned. 'Just leave me out of it when you go to the gym to work out with him. He's a slave driver.'

I wasn't sure what she meant but I wasn't going to ask. Her uncle Daniel looked pensive and then turned his head to stare at Sasha's dad, Gus. They seemed to communicate with their eyes and turned to where I sat in the corner, closer to Sasha then any of the men.

'We have decided that it might be good for Sasha to have you as a room mate.' Daniel told me. It was obvious that he had decided, no they about it. I had no idea why they had changed their mind from not happening and trying to buy me away from the dorm room, to suddenly letting me stay. Sasha looked sceptical but not displeased. They silently finished eating while I drew out my laptop on took a short burst of video of the men at the table. They had no idea what I was capable of. David asked to see my laptop, having eyed me suspiciously but I happily handed it over. He would never be able to get into my secondary systems, all he would see was my school schedule, work roster and the other usual clutter people had on their machines.

Innocently I asked what he was doing when his fingers started flying over my keyboard. He politely told me that he was just looking as my machine was a different brand than any he had seen before. True enough because I had built it myself but I told him I bought it like that at a pawn shop. He eyed me suspiciously but hadn't been able to break into my system. It looked normal, even if he would have had time to dig deeper, he wouldn't have been able to crack my system. I'd been hacking into programs since I was old enough to get my hands on a keyboard. On the web I was known as Tinker Bell, a good reason why nobody should ever let a prepubescent girl pick an online handle she would be stuck with for life.