Sounds of a Siren

The Girl

I. The Girl

She was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen. Long, black hair. Smooth olive skin. Big, beautiful, sparkling brown eyes. Every inch, every detail, perfect. She was in the library when I first saw her, that perfect nose of her's in a book. God, help me...

I walked over to the book shelves next to her and pretended to be looking for a book, but really, I was just looking for creative ways to stare at her without being caught. I was completely mesmerized by her beauty. Just go talk to her! After about a minute, she realized that I was staring at her. "You know, I can't read with a strange boy staring at me all day," she said with a smile. Her smile was the key. Her smile told me that this girl was the one I was going to spend the rest of my life with. 

"Oh, I'm sorry Miss..." 

She stood as she said, "Andrews. Thalassa Andrews, but everyone calls me by my middle name, Phoebe." There was that smile again. 

"Nero Arquitius. It's a pleasure to meet you Miss Andrews." 

"Nero... oh, yeah! You work with my dad around the school." 

"Yes, I do. And you're the daughter he's always babbling about." She grimaced. You idiot!, I thought to myself. "Wait... no... what I meant was... he just talks a lot," SHUT UP! My brain wanted me to be quiet but my mouth kept moving. "No... I didn't mean..." "Stop!" She cut me off. "It's okay," she laughed. That was a relief. "Even I have to admit, Daddy does ramble a lot." I blushed. "Well I have to get back to my studies, but, if you like, we could go out for lunch later. Get to know each other." "Um... uh..." Just say "yes" you babbling bafoon! "I'd like that."

"Great. Meet me back here in... let's say an hour?"

"Yeah! Okay. Great!" I said backing up toward the door. "I'll see you then!"

"It's a date." Yep. Definitely marrying this one.

"One hour!"

"One hour." She giggled.

"See you th..." I was cut off by my feet, which had just run me into a chair that was in my direct path. I stumbled a great bit before I caught myself. The librarian looked my way and shushed me. "I'm so sorry. I'm a dork."

Phoebe laughed. "Don't worry. Dorky looks cute on you."

"I'm gonna go now." My face was as red as the blood that pumped through my veins, which my heart was pumping loads faster than normal. I turned around and left out of the room, shooting my fists up in the air in joy. Today is going to be a good day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lunch went well. We went to a local café and basically just exchanged life stories. Phoebe was born in Puerto Rico. Her mother, Alejandra, was Puerto Rican, and her father, Nêreus, (A.K.A. my boss) is Greek. They met while the Professor was doing research in Central America. A few years after she was born, her mother was murdered. After a couple of months they decided to move to Cambridge. It seems like a random place to move, but the Professor got a offer to teach at the university. He knew that they couldn't stay in Puerto Rico for much longer, so he took it, and they left. No second thought about it.

I guess the telling of my story to Phoebe is a great place to stop and tell you my story. My parents died in a car accident when I was little, so I was sent to an orphanage at a very young age. I was never adopted, so I grew up in that  orphanage. It was rough not knowing my parents, and I didn't have many friends in the orphanage. The friends that I did have, all got adopted. So I went through school, and I graduated from the university. My senior year, I found out that my parents gave me their house in their will. It was already paid off, so that's one less bill that I had to worry about. Once I graduated, I moved in and started looking for a job. I heard through the grapevine that one of the professors at the school was looking for an intern. It turned out to be Phoebe's father. So I took the job with Professor Andrews, and... well, you know the rest.