Scales [ON HOLD]

Chapter Twenty-One: What's With The Past Tense?

   "No. Although I would really like a chimera cat, or a white one with black around the eyes. I know Sam would like a German shepherd. How about you?" He said. 

   "Your conversation skills are impeccable, I must say." I told him. He smiled and logged off his computer. I did the same before carrying on, "I would either want a snake or a dog."

   "What about a spider?" He questioned me. He had his finger on his chin in thought, his head was slightly tilted to the side. I shuddered.

   "God, no." I whispered slightly too loud. Jack shot me a side glance.

   "Don't blaspheme." He ordered. I surrendered my hands up in the air and mouthed 'sorry!'. His expression softened a little bit.

   I sneakily pulled my phone out and checked the time, at the same time, Jack checked his watch. We had three minutes until the bell.

   "What about family?" He asked me, attempting to restart the conversation.

   "I am an only child. My mother is called Cliodhna Johnson and I have been told that she looks like a taller version of me with paler skin and shorter hair. I never knew my father, but in my room I have a little personal library. On a random page in each book he wrote a note to me. I don't know what page it is on though, and so I have to read the whole book to find it. He's the reason I like reading." I answered him. "What about you?"

   I saw Jack shift uncomfortably in his chair. I was just about to tell him that he didn't need to tell me but he began to talk.

   "Well, I am a brother out of a set of twins- Sam and I -which you obviously knew. I inherited my love for music from my mother and Sam got his incessant idiocy, gaming and laziness from my father. My father and I look nothing like each other. My mother had blonde-white hair, blue eyes and ashen skin. My father had black hair, green eyes, tanned skin and, to be honest, he looked a lot like Sam. I look more like my mother, I act like her too. She used to teach me to be kind, how to be peaceful, how to contain my anger- although Ronan is an exception to this, how to judge someone based on their personality, et cetera, et cetera. However, Sam learnt how to unlock his favourite character using cheat codes, how to jump off a roof and do an 'awesome' front flip before you land, and, for some reason, my father taught him dominance, trickery and cunning. I loathed my father, and the feeling was mutual." With each sentence Jack grew more and more distressed. I laid my hand on his shoulder and looked into his eyes. His crystal orbs were becoming clouded and teary.

   Why was he speaking in past tense? More to the point- why did he tell me so much? I didn't want to discomfort him.

   The bell rang, and so Jack and I packed our bags, turned off our computers and left the class. As we were walking down the corridor to the quad, Jack's eyes became red and his hands began to shake. I shouldn't have asked him about his family.

   "H-hey," He said through his breaking voice. I tore my eyes away from the floor and looked up at him. He forced out a smile, but you could see the sadness pulling at the corners of his lips. "That was our final lesson of the day. Now you can choose go h-home, or you can stay in school for another hour until the end."

   "Well, it depends," I started. "what are you doing?"

   He chuckled and blinked away the tears in his eyes. Seeing him like this made me sad. I bit my lip and awaited his answer. He thought about it for a while before shrugging his shoulders.

   "What shall we do now? Vinariah, Sam and Robin are in lessons now." Jack asked me, trying to ignore the cracks in his voice. I pushed opened the heavy door and stepped out into the quad, Jack followed after me. I faced up at the blossom trees with my eyes closed, the little amount of sun the shone through the many petals and leaves was so warm and relaxing. I smiled a little.

   "I don't really mind. We might as well just stay here. Have you still got your book?" I asked him. He swung his white bag in front of him, unzipped it and pulled out the book, nodding. I pointed over to a wooden picnic bench, gesturing for him sit. "Wait here, I'm just going to run up to the library and get a book." I ran off before he could add his opinion.

   I shoved open the heavy doors and stepped inside. The library smelled of fresh books and ink. There were various shelves and stands around the room, each one with a different sign on top; fiction, fact, science, english literature, fantasy... fantasy!

   I ran over to the large sign and read titles of the books underneath it. I picked up one, read the blurb and opened to the first page. I was searching for a book that a had a bit of mystery, romance, betrayal and-

   "Reading is relaxing, is it not?"