Change [Book 1 of The Elemental Marks]

Chapter 9

Tommie felt like nowadays he got nervous about everything.

It was at its worst when he had plenty of time to think whatever it was through. Say, a full day.

Usually it was over tests, or important meetings, or going to an event. Somehow, the wait to meet up with Dex felt worse than any of those things ever had.

Sure, he could tell himself to calm down. It didn't really matter what he wore. They wouldn't really be looking at him. And he had no reason to plan things to talk about in his head--not that he was succeeding anyway.

But he kept playing back his latest conversation with Dex when they ran into each other that morning.

When Tommie first saw him, he had no idea what to do. Was he supposed to approach him? Would he even remember Tommie? It had only been fourteen hours, but maybe something else happened in between. He was just about ready to turn out of the dining area when Dex waved.

"Tommie! Hey!" Dex greeted him with a smile. "I knew we would bump into each other eventually."

"You were right," he said instead of cursing himself for almost leaving. He was a Shadowhunter. He didn't have anything to be afraid of.

"So, we said we'd go hunting. I was planning on heading out tonight with some of my other friends." Tommie only nodded, waiting for him to continue. "You could come along if you wanted."

As if one stranger wasn't bad enough, add his friends and killer demons... "Yes, yeah. I'd like to come." Tommie forced himself to stop there, knowing he was about to ramble. Instead, he nodded his head.

Dex grinned as if he didn't even notice. "Awesome. Maybe like, six? If that works?"

"Yeah," Tommie said again, managing to return a smile. In his head, he was wondering if friendship was always this weird at first, or if he was just bad at it. Did Dex think he was weird already? Probably...

"Okay, cool." There was a moment of silence when they both realized there was nothing else to say. "Well, I'll see you then."

He kept playing that over and over again, as if there was some detail in it he missed. But there was nothing to hide: he was just going demonhunting with Dex and his friends.

So, as he prepared to leave, dressed in a casual all black ensemble of jeans and a t-shirt, he couldn't explain the knots in his stomach or the fact that he had to probe his feet to take him to the training room.

When Tommie did get there, he knew he was early. It was only a minute or two until six, but that was very early to cool guy terms. If this were Lina--and he kept reminding himself it wasn't--he would've wandered in without caring.

But maybe no one was even here yet. Then he would be the first one there, and everyone would know how early he came and would think he was just some punctual dork who had been Shadowhunting forever and was boring.

Or, if he waited outside any longer, Dex might walk up and ask what he was doing. What would Tommie tell him? I was just going over the possible negative scenarios in my head, like always. Oh yeah, that seemed much cooler.

After another minute of pretending to be looking around, Tommie knew he just needed to go in. Whatever he faced, it couldn't be worse than the demons. Of course, the tiny and easy to ignore voice said that.

"Tommie!" Dex said. He wasn't even all the way into the room. Dex stepped away from the group he was crowded around to flash Tommie a smile. "Welcome!" Then he paused and laughed a little. "I don't know why I just welcomed you into a place you've been to a million times. It's not like it's my room or anything."