A Brown-Eyed Girl

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

 

          Peter strode angrily down the sidewalk. He knew she would never believe him. Kelsey was not the type to trust easily. Her standoffishness and the way she acted made that perfectly clear. Besides, to someone who had not grown up as one, the concept of the Elmenri was like something from a fantasy book. Why should she even listen when he was going to sound like a madman in the first place?

            When he had asked Darren about the existence of an unknowing caster, he had expected his teacher to attend to it himself. Instead, here he was with orders to convince her to join them for training. He snorted. Something told him it would not be that easy. He checked the slip of paper in his pocket, then stopped to look around. The house in front of him matched the address Darren had found for him. Come to think of it, how had he even found her address? A Trace or a Summoning might have worked…. Reluctantly, he pushed aside his musings; they were just procrastination.

            He reached the front door in three steps and knocked. Then he stood there, awkwardly, waiting. Any eagerness at the thought of seeing her again was buried by the fact that he had to convince her that the impossible was possible. There was no way he was coming out of this without looking like an idiot. But it was for her own good.

~»»~

          For the last week Kelsey had slept much better, without any dreams of the lake. She had come to the conclusion that they were in fact dreams and only from sleeping in random uncomfortable places.

            Since it was Saturday, she had decided to have a Lord-of-the-Rings-a-thon and watch all the movies in order. She was sprawled on the couch, cup of peppermint coffee in hand, laughing as Pippin and Merry set off Gandalf’s fireworks, when the knock came at the door. She hit mute and listened. The knock came again. Who the hell was…? She wasn’t expecting anyone, and her friends knew to use the back door.

 Kelsey looked at her clothes. She was wearing black athletic pants and a gray hooded sweatshirt. She hadn’t even done anything to her hair and it hung loose. It was ten-thirty on a Saturday morning for Christ’s sake. Ugh, what a perfect way to greet company. The knock came again. The person was certainly persistent. Damn solicitors….

Because it didn’t seem like whoever it was would leave anytime soon, she crossed over to the front door and jerked it open with a huff. “If you’re selling something you can just forget about…” She trailed off when she saw who it was. His hands were shoved into his pockets, and for the first time that she had seen, there was no humor in his eyes. At least he seemed somewhat ashamed.

Regardless of how he was acting, when her ability to form words returned, she was practically sputtering. “Pete?! What the hell are you doing here? No, no, wait. How the hell do you even know where I live?”

He shrugged, ignoring the second question. “Look, I know it’s unorthodox, but I need to talk to you. Can I just come in?”

All Kelsey could do was stare at him, or rather in the general direction of his shoes. They were Nikes, white with green swooshes. They went well with his hunter green pull-over fleece and the gray t-shirt visible underneath it. Absurdly, she noted that he wore a lot of green.

 The sound of a clearing throat recalled her wandering mind to the present. Oh right, he was waiting for an answer on whether or not he could come into her house. Did he honestly think she was going to say yes?  After she met him once, officially, and he just turned up on her doorstep? That kind of behavior was very stalkerish, crazy stalkerish. Not that someone like her even warranted stalking. But that only made him crazy, which really wasn’t preferable. She started to close the door in his face.