Eyes on You

Why Are You Being So Quiet?

     They were walking side-by-side along a busy sidewalk as
the sun rose slowly over the horizon. Galnara was telling
Xalnurron about everything that had happened since the last
time they saw each other. He was wearing a hoodie as well, a
black one with red patterning. He had his hood up with his
hands in his pockets. He looked at Galnara from the corner of
his eye, smiling at her enthusiasm.

     "Why are you being so quiet?" Galnara asked him. When
they had talked in the past, Xalnurron answered her
enthusiastically. But now he was listening to her silently, not
responding to her, just listening intently.

     "I just don't know what to say. It's been such a long time
since I've seen you," he responded, turning to face her.

     They walked in silence for a few minutes, trying not to run
into people. At some points dogs barked at Xalnurron, then
suddenly yelped and ran, tails tucked between their legs.
Galnara was confused. A few times she could have sworn that she saw the shadows of some lampposts moving out of the
corner of her eye, but she ignored it.

     "Where are we going?" Xalnurron asked Galnara.

     "Is my place fine?" She asked him.

     "Yeah. That's fine," he replied. Galnara pulled out her
phone and called a taxi. They waited at the end of that street.
The taxi pulled up and both of them hopped in. Around half an
hour later, they pulled into a driveway with no cars in it. The
house was painted light lavender with a white door and porch.    

     "This is your place?" Xalnurron asked Galnara.
    
      "It's pretty cheap,  nothing much," she responded.

      "It's really nice though," he said.
    
      They got out of the taxi. Galnara thanked the driver and
gave them a tip. Xalnurron and Galnara walked to the door.
Galnara went inside first. Xalnurron stepped inside after her.
There were LED lights strung from the walls and the ceiling.
Some looked like stars. It really was nice. It wasn't what you'd
see at a mansion, but it was still beautiful. There were some
bookshelves with books from all kinds of genres. There were
Stephen King books, a few romance novels, and even a
thesaurus, for some reason. Galnara quickly grabbed a chapter
book. The title was The Outsiders. She hurried to the next room.
It appeared to be a living room, but it didn't have a couch or a
TV or anything you'd expect to see in a living room. There were
just a few colorful beanbags and three more bookshelves.

     Galnara sat down on a beanbag, opening her book to her
marked page.
  
     "What are you reading?" Xalnurron asked curiously.
 
     "The Outsiders," she replied simply. "Written by S. E. Hinton."
    
     "What's it about?" he inquired.

     She started explaining the book to him. He let her explain
it for around a minute.

     Hold on, I didn't ask for a Wikipedia article," he
interrupted.

     Galnara rolled her eyes.  "Really?" Both of them burst
out laughing. Xalnurron hadn't sat down yet. He was leaning
against one of the bookshelves. There were a few potted plants
and some small clay figurines on the shelves. There was one
shaped like a wolf, another shaped like an owl, and another
shaped like a unicorn. Once Xalnurron stopped laughing, he
looked at some of them. On the third shelf of the bookshelf he
was leaning on, there was a figurine shaped like a dragon.

     "Where'd you get these?" he asked.

     "There's someone on Etsy who sells them for good prices,"
she explained.

     "Huh. Might have to check that out," he said.

     "Well?" Galnara said.

     "Huh?" Xalnurron responded, confused.

     "Are you gonna sit down, or are you just gonna lean on
that bookshelf?" She said.

     "Oh. Yeah. Right," Xalnurron replied, a little embarrassed.
He sat on the beanbag next to her. It was surprisingly
comfortable. He pulled out his cellphone and started to play a
game. They sat in silence for a few minutes. Then Xalnurron put
his phone away.

     "Hey, Nara," he said. "Wanna see something?"

     "Sure," Galnara replied, closing her book. Xalnurron held
out one of his arms, muttering something under his breath.
Suddenly, the shadows in the room started moving by
themselves. Galnara watched with interest.

     "Wow," she said, staring with amazement as the shadows
moved of their own accord. "I've never seen anything like that."

     Xalnurron looked at her amazed expression. His goal had
been to impress her, and he succeeded. "I can control
shadows," he said.

     "This is brilliant, Xalneon," she said.

     "I changed my name," he said. "I go by Xalnurron now."

     "Oh. Sorry," Galnara said.

     "It's fine," Xalnurron replied, unphased by her mistake.

     They sat in silence for a few more minutes. Xalnurron was leaning back, his arm still outstretched. Galnara was still
watching the shadows, looking fascinated.

     "So, what else can you do?" Nara asked

     "I can still, uh, shapeshift," he replied nervously. He din't know what to say..

     "I meant something I didn't know about," Galnara said.

     "Well..." Xalnurron said slowly after hesitating. "There's
not much other than that." Suddenly, his phone started ringing.
He grabbed his phone from his pocket, muttering under his
breath. The shadows went back to where they were before. He
put his phone up to his ear. "Hello?" he said. There was
someone talking on the other end. "Nope, not interested," he
said, hanging up and putting his phone back in his pocket.
"Stupid fucking spam calls," he muttered, rolling his eyes.

     "Yeah. They're really annoying," Galnara said. "Wait. I got
an idea!"

     "What's your idea?" Xalnurron asked, raising an eyebrow.

     "You'll see. Do the, uh, the thing again, the cool thing with the shadows," she said, waving her arms excitedly. Xalnurron did as she said, and the shadows started moving again. Galnara was smiling. She held her arm out as well. Suddenly, the shadows looked like pieces of the night sky dancing across the room. It was beautiful. Xalnurron watched, awestruck.

     "Wow..." he whispered, not knowing what else to say.

     "It worked!" Galnara exclaimed excitedly.

     "You knew that would happen?" Xalnurron asked.

     "I didn't know, I just thought it was worth trying," Galnara
replied, shrugging.

     "It's amazing..." Xalnurron whispered, marveling at the
beauty.

     "I know," she said, returning to her book. Xalnurron leaned
back again and let the shadows return to normal. He got his
phone back out and started playing another game. Around
midnight, Galnara fell asleep. Around two hours later, Xalnurron
fell into an uneasy sleep as well.