The Mind of Willow Grey

Chapter 2

Next to me Rachel swore softly and asked if I was alright. Honestly, I wasn't. I was laying there, sprawled on the ground, struggling to ignore my wounded ankle and concentrate on throwing my barriers back up. I imagined a brick wall blocking all thoughts, standing strong against its attempts to get inside my head. That helped a little.

Gritting my teeth on the pain my ankle caused, I sat. "Ow."

I looked up and blinked.

Oh. Guess this is the guy who I ran into, I thought.

And he was cute. Dirty blonde hair, electric blue eyes, tall... Not as good looking as Noah, my crush of two years, but cute all the same.

He also seemed unharmed, unlike me.

Lucky bastard...

"You 'Kay?" he asked in a deep voice, offering me a hand up.

I took it gratefully, and mumbled, "Thanks," in a quiet voice.

When my fingers touched his I got a glimpse of his mind, and it was weird. His thoughts were... Curious, I guess. He was staring at me with this peculiar expression.

I pulled my hand back, taking a step back, and hissed in pain. In my confusion I had temporarily forgotten about my ankle, but I sure remembered it now. I would have fallen over, if it weren't for Rachel at my side.

"Okie dokie," she said, way too cheerful, "Let's get you to the sick bay."

My eyes widened. "But... Art..."

"Forget art and start hobbling," she looked over at the guy and added, "Can you help me get her there?"

He spoke before I could protest this. "Of course." His tone was polite.

They took one of my arms each and helped me hop down to the sick bay.

Weird guy dumped me on Rachel's shoulder when we got to the desk and promptly left, mumbling something about not wanting to be late for class.

Rachel stumbled under my weight and smiled at the lady behind the desk as the door chimed, signaling the guys departure.

"What's wrong dear?" she asked me with a polite smile.

Too embarrassed at my clumsiness to explain, I looked to Rachel for help. She smiled back at the lady and explained.

Five minutes later I was alone with the sick bay lady -whose name I now knew was Mrs Reid- as she wrapped my left ankle tightly in a bandage and chattered to me about nothing in particular while Rachel waited out the front near the desk. She was only still around because Mrs Reid had said that I should go home when she was finished with me and I wouldn't be able to walk, no matter how short a distance.

Mrs Reid fastened the bandage with one of those strange stretchy clippy things and helped me out of the chair and back to where Rachel waited.

She smiled at me when I hopped into view and held up her car keys.

"Ready to go?"

"Yup."

Rachel supported me to her car, a white Nissan Pulsar, and held the door open for me as I eased in.

She walked around to the drivers side, shaking her head.

"What?" I frowned at her.

"Only you would have to go home twenty minutes after school starts," she laughed.

Despite her laughing at me, I had to join in. "Shut up," I said, not really meaning it.

When the car rolled to a stop outside my house I turned around in my seat and thanked Rachel.

"No problem," she grinned. "Want me to help you inside?"

"Nah, I should be alright. Thanks though."

I climbed out and hopped up the short path to the front door, digging the house keys out of my bag at the threshold.

Rachel sat in her little white car at the curb until she saw I was safely inside. Only then did she wave and drive off back towards the school.

Dad, of course, was already at work, so I had the house to myself for the rest of the day. I hobbled to my bedroom door, trying to put as little pressure on my tightly bandaged foot as possible, and grabbed a hold of the door handle.

Which fell onto my bedroom floor.

Great. I was so lucky today, wasn't I?

Frowning at the metal handle at my feet, I nudged it out of the way and dumped my school bag in front of the door to stop it from swinging closed.

Just to be saw, I shuffled over to the window and slid it closed.

When I turned back around a guy was standing in my bedroom doorway.

Instinctively, I screamed. It's just what you do when some random person appears in your room uninvited.

The guy dashed forward and clamped a hand down over my mouth, muffling my shriek.

"Shhh," he hissed, electric blue eyes locked onto my lighter ones. "Keep it down."

Hang on. Electric blue eyes?

My eyes widened as I recognized him.

"You ass!" I yelled, but it just came out sounding like muffled buzzing. "Let me go!"

When he just stared at me and didn't let go I bit his finger.

He yelped and let me go, cradling his hand to his chest.

"What the fuck was that for?" he yelled.

Ignoring him I grabbed the first thing I could find -which happened to be Jeffery, my teddy bear- and threw it at him, trying to duck around him at the same time. But he just knocked poor Jeffy out of the air and grabbed me around the waist.

"Jesus Christ, I just wanna talk to you! Calm down."

"How the hell did you get in here?"

"You didn't lock the back door. Calm down," he repeated.

"How am I meant to calm down?!? Your attacking me!"

"I am NOT attacking you! Let me explain."

"Fine," I huffed and dropped down onto my bed, looking at him expectantly.

"Well," he said, eyebrows raised, "I thought it was going to harder than that."

"Yeah, well, you kind of crippled me earlier," I reminded him, pointing to my sore ankle. "I can't exactly fight back."

He rolled his eyes. "I said sorry, what do you want me to do?"

"Explaining why your in my house would be a good start."

"Well, I don't know where to start..."

Wow, this guys really helpful, I thought sarcastically. Out loud I said, "How about your name?"

"Oh yeah. My name's Dexter."

I blinked. "Your name is actually Dexter?" I managed to get out without laughing. I had never met someone with the name Dexter. At least I wasn't the only one with a horrible name.

His glare made it even harder for me not to laugh. "Shut up."

"Sorry," I took a deep breath. "So, why are you in my house?"

"I needed to talk to you. I already said that." This time he took a deep breath. "Your special."

That was... Unexpected. "What do you mean I'm 'special'?"

"Earlier when you fell over... Well, it was obvious. I hope. 'Cause this is gonna be really awkward if I was imagining things."

For Gods sake! Could he get anymore vague? Ugh, probably.

Dexter looked up, eyes focused on my face. "Your a Seakyr"