Brilliant Delirium

Chapter One

ARIADNE

Seth had always been different.

He walked down the hallway with no intentions and no rhythm. Head nodding slightly to music that was only in his head, eyes unfocused and shifting from person to person. He slipped by under the radar for the most part, unnoticed by the average eye, including mine. He used that to his advantage. He was observant, taking in everything that surrounded him with ease, hand trailing along the cold frames of our moss-green lockers as he went.

Life is often difficult for those who are offbeat, but the walls within a high school could be particularly vicious.

It wasn't to say that he was bullied— though occasionally subjected to your average cruel-but-not-unusual high school hijinks— he was simply an outsider. It wasn't unusual for him to hang around a friend or two, but when it came down to it, he was more of a loner. It was a mystery, though, if the years of unsent birthday party invites and exclusion had forced him to adapt, or he had simply always been this way.

For a majority of my high school career I had been someone that walked down the center, head up high, eyes straight in front of me. Confident. Unaware and unfazed by the lives of those floating around me insignificantly. I held little regard for those who were not already included in my established social circle. Up until the day we spoke for the first time, Seth was just another sallow blur in the sea of students I so dutifully ignored. He had noticed me far before I noticed him, and I would be lying if I said he took to me right away. Not many people did.

The first time I had ever officially spoken to Seth was in detention. He was a repeat offender and frequent visitor there, infamous for his random acts of vandalism and known for smoking god-knows-what on campus. The only time people noticed Seth was when he was in trouble— maybe that's why he acted out so much.

Or maybe it was just in his blood.

He was a notorious back-talker, sacrificing his evenings for a good smart-ass remark. He gained nothing in return but a few laughs from his audience. I had heard that class truly didn't begin until he managed to slink his way into his seat, ten minutes late with the smell of cigarettes fresh on his breath.

I had been caught passing notes that day, and much to my dismay was assigned my first— but definitely not my last— day of detention. It was no surprise he was there, too.

It was approximately ten minutes into the painfully slow punishment before the teacher tasked with watching us had abandoned her duties, slipping out to, presumedly, smoke cigarettes in her car. He was the only other person there with me since it was a Tuesday, and apparently not many crimes against the school were committed on days as slow as Tuesdays.

I was actively aware of his presence, lingering in the back of the classroom, looming over me like the calm before a storm.

I believe that best describes the entire part of my life before I met him— the calm before a storm.

His head was down and eyebrows furrowed, hands fast at work as he attempted to construct a paper airplane that looked as if it would lose a wing mid-flight.

Several minutes had passed in silence before he broke it, snapping me out of the fog I had been in previously.

"You're Ariadne, right?"

I glanced at him without bothering to turn fully around in my seat. It was a question that wasn't exactly uncommon, as I had a fairly unique name and a memorable face: pale skin, big eyes, prominent cheekbones. I looked remarkably like a doll, but not the kind you played with as a child. I looked like a porcelain doll that your parents put up in your room for decoration. The kind you turned around to face the wall before bed, so you didn't feel it's empty eyes on you in the dead of night. I looked haunting.