Glow

Chapter 2

My eye was surprisingly better than I thought it would be when I woke up, there was barely a mark at all. My other scrapes and bruises were still clearly visible though, so I put a bandaid over the worst one under my eye, and drove myself to school in my silver cobalt and parked it on the campus, wearily walking to my first class.

I had forgotten to ask if Lue or any of my other friends had found their glows yet. I hadn't found mine, though that was normal. A glow is just when your heart's cells gleam the first time you encounter your soul-mate. It can't be just any setting though, it has to be skin to skin contact, and there has to be a calm atmosphere, if your heart rate is too high then that nullifies the cells ability to glow. Some people don't think that there's a science to it, but there is. There always is.

Some people, I have heard, spend their entire lives searching the world for their glow. Others couldn't care less. I'm not sure which I am, but right now, being as I want to be more focused on school work, I probably couldn't care less. But if I so happened to encounter my glow . . . I'd probably try to be romantic, I mean . . . I'm not big on romance though, just look at me. Speaking of looks, I might want to have my hair cut again. I like to keep it short.

I walked into my first class and sat down, taking out my notes and doodling while I waited for the teacher to start, the other chairs of the room slowly filling in. I noticed out of the corner of my eye, Brandon and his other goons had sat only a row behind me. I inwardly sighed at myself and hunched over my drawings more, as if it was some secret I didn't want them to know about. Truthfully, it was only things like birds and thorns making a frame. A squiggle here, swirly there.

A ball of paper hit the back of my head, and I slowly turned around to see Brandon and the others snickering among themselves, one of them pointed to the paper. I slowly picked up the wrinkled ball and slowly unwrapped it, reading the message.

"Nice glass idot."

. . . Did they mean glasses? Gee, looks like I'm really ahead of these people. Who knew that they let illiterate people join college? Must be paying a whole hell lot or something.

I wrote down, "Glasses, Idiot*" on the paper and checked to make sure the professor's eyes weren't on me before tossing it to one of them, which my target caught and opened with a confused look. Some of them laughed, while Brandon only glared me down after reading it. Great, he's probably the one who wrote it . . . Now I'm going to have hell to pay. Great going grammar.

The bell rang for dismissal, and I had two hours before my next glass, so I quickly grabbed my stuff and headed to the pool. I had been in the swim club at my high school, but tryouts weren't ready for this one quite yet. Luckily, band was. I've been playing a trumpet since third grade as well as multiple percussion instruments, first chair, here I come! . . . Next week, when try outs are of course. For now I would be content with practicing by myself and free style swimming.

I was the only one in the men's locker room, as usual. I'm really awkward about my body. I look really normal with my normal tacky ties and suits on, but I do have detailed muscles because of all the things I'm into. E.I., matching band, swimming, track. So even though I'm scrawny as hell, I still have some muscle on me. It just didn't look right on me, Glasses with packs? . . . At least I don't think it does. Speaking of glasses, why don't I just switch to contacts? These old things are really a nuisance. I opened my locker and put my glasses down, removing my shirt next, though some one grabbed me and forced me to turn around.

My heart dropped when I saw Brandon, a wide smirk from ear to ear. "How ya doin'?" He asked evily, tilting his head and firmly placing a hand on my shoulder.

I blankly stared at him, because I knew what was next. I was ready for it honestly, no one was here to rescue me, and if I ran I'd fall and probably break my face in on the concrete. Besides, I shouldn't have corrected him, I should have known better than to provoke one of them.

"Time to teach you a lesson." He growled, pushing me against the lockers roughly by my shirt, which was wrapped around my arm so . . . Ouch. I grabbed his shoulder with that hand, trying to hold myself up. Quickly, I shut my eyes tight and looked away and let out a slow breath to calm myself. Tensing up my muscles would only make the pain worse. There was a long moment of silence before I slowly opened my eyes to see why he was holding back.

His chest . . . Through his tank top. . . Was glowing a bright white, and he was staring at my chest with narrowed eyes, as if trying to figure out why mine was also glowing. I blushed darkly upon realzing why our chests were glowing.

"Is. . .that. . ."

I shoved him as hard as my body could muster before he could finish the question, sending him barreling over the bench and onto the ground, our auras quickly fading away. He quickly glared up at me, but I ran and pulled my shirt down while running, tripping on the grass outside. Thankfully my old track skills came in handy. Or leggy. I sped across the parking lot, rolling over the hoods of cars and zipping over to mine, the keys still in the egnission.

"Jace!!!" He called loudly after me.

No. No I am done. I threw open my car door and slammed it behind me, locking the manual two doors and revving the engine, speeding away as fast as possible towards home. I didn't care that I had forgotten my glasses, I didnt need them that bad. Not as bad as I wanted to go home and stay in bed for the rest of my miserable life. It would be miserable, wouldn't it? I found my glow . . . I hadn't ever cared at the thought that it might be a guy, what killed me was that it was the one person who I hated. The one person who made my daily life hell.

A car honked and I swerved to avoid him before focusing back on the road, tears stringing my eyes as I sped home, taking back roads to avoid an accident.