Into the Realm

Chapter Nine: The Project

They were frozen for a few moments. All she could see were his bottle green eyes and nothing else. She could see the way his eyelashes framed them so nicely and then thought to herself that it was such a shame when boys had nice eyelashes; they didn't know how to appreciate them correctly. A few curls flopped onto his forehead and she noticed, for the first time, that he had a freckle under his right eye. Just a single freckle. How long had that been there? Did she really just not pay attention to him other than when she was insulting him? Her rage usually blinded her so much that she only noticed his awful, messy hair and nothing else— though now his hair looked nice and soft and... pretty.

    She suddenly noticed that he was staring at her just as hard. Tessa wondered if he saw the deep bags under her eyes from her staying up late most nights to study. She wondered if he saw the scar on the bridge of her nose that was the result of a childhood accident regarding the rosebush and a shovel and him. Or even the old chicken pox scar on her collarbone— when he got the chicken pox as a child June made her play with him so she would get it too. Tessa remembered how miserable they were, watching old cartoons together on the sofa in his living room and drinking juice boxes. They were constantly snapped at to stop scratching each other until Carmen, Brown's mom, taped oven mitts to their hands. They were seven at the time.

    Tessa suddenly felt self-conscious about her clothes because of how hard he was staring at her— she was wearing a hand-me-down of her mom's, a soft green tunic over a pair of leggings and no socks or shoes. It was her outfit of choice. She felt the closest to June when she wore her old clothing.

    Why was he staring at her? Why wouldn't he stop staring at her? Was he having the same weird revelation as she was?

    Tessa heard Heather-Jane cackle in the distance at something Aria must have written and she felt her shoulders unfreeze. The spell that had been put on them was broken and Brown cleared his throat and bent over to start to pick up the shattered glass, face scarlet.

    "Jesus Christ, Matthews, what's wrong with you today? Did you inhale one of your potions wrong? Is that why you're so jumpy?"

    Tessa turned to face the counter. She couldn't handle this. Not now. Not after the smile in the bathroom and the dream and the stress of the project. She had half a mind to kick everyone out of her house but then remembered that Aria mentioned she lived forty-five minutes away. If Tessa forced everyone to leave with no warning and little reason then that would be her stooping to a new level. She took a deep breath and turned back around to face him, praying that her face was its usual pale shade and not crimson.

    "I don't know, Brown, did you sign up at the same witch school to take a class that specialized in sneaking around? Because it sounded like you aced it."

    There— a snide remark. Not her best, but it was clever (to her, at least) and it would get the job done and make him think that everything was normal. When everything was clearly not normal. She heard him snort at her comeback and the corners of her mouth twitched in a smile. He straightened himself up and noticed she had bare feet. He watched as her eyes darted this way and that, trying to find an exit out of the corner she was in.

    "Where's a dustpan and a broom? I can sweep up the glass around your feet. What were you doing, anyway?"

    "Heather-Jane requested coffee. Check the pantry." She plopped herself on the counter and waited for him to clean the floor around her so she could get back to gathering snacks. She wouldn't say no to him serving her— after all, it was kind of like her dream. "How did you even get in my house?"

    He closed the pantry with a snap and started to sweep up the broken glass with the broom. Tessa was surprised it got all the way over to the other side of the kitchen. Brown took a moment to reply.