Death's Reaper

Distractions

"Did you just call me by name?" I grinned.

He blinked, confusion stamped all over his face. "What?"

"You just called me by my first name! I think this deserves a celebration." I clapped my hands together. I didn't like the sound of 'Miss. Hunter'. It made me sound like an old lady who couldn't get married.

"You're crazy."

"And totally lovable." I grinned.

"I can't believe Professor Hunter thought it was a good idea for me to live with this lunatic."

"You're not exactly my cup of honey tea either."

He glared me down, golden flecks appearing in his eyes as he did. I crossed my arms and sat on the armchair comfortably.

"Why honey tea?" He finally spoke, frustration leaking from his voice.

"It's just the way I am. I'm not going to change myself anymore than you're going to change yourself so we can get along in this mess. Speaking of which, you never did answer my question."

He froze and his eyes flitted to a corner of the room. "What I choose to wear is none of my business."

I watched him carefully, his attempts to cover up his obvious nervousness. The way he wouldn't looking at me directly, the slight twitches of his left eye and his index finger tapping his khakis. "How about a deal? If you answer this question I will answer any question you have. You can only use it once."

I could almost see gears grinding in his head as he sat in the vintage chair he was previously clinging to for dear life.

"What if I don't have any questions I want to ask you at the moment." I could see it, he was carefully pushing me towards the response he wanted.

"You can use your one question at any time. Just cash it in whenever, no expiration date or strings attached. I'll answer it completely truthfully."

Again the gears clicked in his head, it looked like Brady was quite fond of thinking. "I consent to this deal."

"Excellent!" I pulled out a small box of chocolate almond from my jacket pocket and popped one into my mouth.

He looked at the small, cardboard box to my face and back to the box. "Why are you so weird?"

"Is that your one question? Because I don't feel like answering questions other than what concerns this slop of deep fried goop that we're in."

He hesitated. "No." He muttered under his breath. "It'll be something ridiculous anyway."

I grinned and pointed at him. "And you know it. So the answer to my question?"

He sighed deeply, in an exasperated manner. "I don't like dirty things coming into contact with me."

"Parden?" The way he said that clearly hinted at something more. Plus he had the whole outfit on the entire time in my apartment. I felt miffed, and insulted that he would lie to me. Lies were the beginning of destroying a relationship, not that we really had one yet.

The way he looked at the ground suggested he wanted to burn a hole and jump to the floor below, which might have been possible for him. He was sensible enough to know better than to do exactly that, right?

I breathed a sigh of relief when he spoke. "I am horribly allergic.."

Okay that was understandable.

"... to people I don't like."

"What?"

His gaze shifted to the corner of the room. "I'm allergic to people I don't like." His voice was so muted I thought I had misheard him.

"Sorry could you repeat that, please? I think I misheard you say you're allergic to..." His eyes flashed up to mine with anger and embarrassment.

"But- that- how?" 

A silence hung in the air, disturbed only by the sound of breathing in the room. Well done me. You picked the worst possible question to ask. Stupid sense of curiosity, now how was I supposed to fix this awkwardness?

Something metallic hit the ground hard, alerting my sense of danger. I bolted up, hand automatically reaching for the lip balm in the pocket on the inside of my sweater sleeve, cursing inwardly when it wasn't there. My eyes flashed to the source of the sound, which was a slick golden phone.

It had a large crack running down the middle of its screen.

"Your phone screen is cracked!" I shrieked. That was almost as bad as a UTMO ghost showing up.

"Oh." He said, merely frowning at the phone on the ground behind his chair.

"What do you mean, 'oh'? This is an emergency!"

I picked up the phone tenderly, which was as long as my hand and almost as wide.

"Hey, what brand does this phone belong to?" I carefully pried the golden phone case off and flipped to the back. Which, strangely enough, did not have a company logo or name.

He shrugged, looking mildly concerned but mostly curious. "Why does it matter?"

"I had a huge project about phone companies all over the world, and I've seen every model of every phone during my research. Never have I seen anything like this during my research." I could feel something buzzing under the screen, something I'd never felt with the endless phones I had inspected in stores.

There was something almost alive about the mobile device. It was eerie and fascinating at the same time.

"It was issued to me by the Department of Communications for my magic studies amongst the unaware populace. It's designed to be similar to the phones here but much better." 

"Do you think everyone is beneath you?" The words spilled out of my mouth. 

Then I recoiled and dropped his phone. Ohmygawd what did I just say!? And do!? 

"Oh no, I am so sorry about that!" I gingerly placed the phone, cracked side up, on my flat palm. "What do we do about this? Send it off to a magic workshop with elves who fix things with their little hammer?"

"You're confusing the Department of Communications with Santa Claus's Operations."

"I knew he was real!" 

"You're the daughter of two famed and powerful sorcerers. Why are you questioning the existence of Santa Claus?"

"So he is definitely real?"

"Nope." 

"Wait what!?"

He cracked a smile, and a genuine one at that. "Do I have your attention now?"

I frowned and grumbled. "Yes." 

"That's good. Then we should start discussing the strange events that have happened so far." 

"So is Santa Claus real?"

He shot a glare at me, gold flecks flashing in annoyance. 

"Sorry, I promise- no more distractions!" 

Satisfaction settled in my stomach as I smiled. My roommate finally warmed up to me.