Seven Deadly: Naomi

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Being young and naive, magic seems to encase our soul and give us the false reality that wishful thinking and glittery pixies will save us from the true darkness called humanity.

Today I turned seventeen. The glorious year before maturity and taxes, the last year of innocence and I have been blessed with school and a damn thunderstorm. The sheets were always too warm to leave in the dew dripped mornings. I bolted up at the sound of the door creaking open when a crack of thunder sounded outside. Thick brunette locks drifted into my vision: fuzzy and matted.

I've always been so jumpy.

I lived with my mother and older brother, Dlyan. My mother was locked away in her bedroom drowning out the sorrows of three marriages that all led to a great demise. Her first husband came before my brother and I were born. They made it one glorious year before he left her in the middle of the night. Her second husband is Dlyan's father. He died not long after he had been born, but from what my mother told us, the man was a fighter. And most recently it had been mine.

He came around sometimes to visit her in the night. Quite quarrels coming from 'their' bedroom. I never had any real relationship with the man. Only on birthdays and Christmases would I ever receive any recollection that he even existed--in the form of a cheap card with crumpled singles. Although, crumpled singles don't fix a father-less childhood.

I groaned and sat up on my elbows, a pale hand sifted through the brown curtain hiding my plain features. There he was, my brother with that usual solemn look on his twenty-two year old face. Ever since I could remember, he took care of me and led the household. Sending me off to school, making my lunch and forging my mother's signature for field trips and doctor's documents. 

But--today was different. He almost seemed to be defeated. Like he gave his life the benefit of the doubt and begun to hand over his last will. It was always this time of the year that everyone in the house became on edge. Especially mom.

 If it wasn't for my birth, then maybe she would have healed and moved on.

" Are you up yet?" Classic Dlyan.

I sat up, my bones clicked and popped from the almighty stretch. My eyes flicked to his opaque blue, challenging him. Did he even remember? Or was he trying not to?

" Awake? Hardly. I'll be ready in twenty."

>>>

The car ride to school was uneventful.

With a quick exchange of goodbyes, I slid from the car and slammed his door shut a little too hard. Maybe if I slam it hard enough, it will become jammed. Serves him right. I lift my bag onto my shoulder and glanced up at the grey-shaded sky. Living in the Northern tip of Minnesota, weather came in many forms of rain and snow. Clearly any cold form of weather.

In a town of rainy nature, fun doesn't come very easily. Sadly enough we have a higher female student body count than neighboring counties. Even if I wanted to run off and have fun in that sense..all of them are taken. Except my one of my friends, Kenneth, and..

him.

He stood out like a sore thumb. His thick black hair slicked to his olive complexioned forehead and cheeks. Small droplets of water ran down from the tips, sliding down to where they clung to his narrow jaw. Deep brown, nearly black hues surveyed the school grounds from where he rests against the tree.

I took a step forwards, a sense of burning curiosity rushing through me. Flocks of girls just brushed past him as if he weren't there. They didn't see him? I take a further step forwards, the tree seeming further and further away as a new sense washes through my body--consternation. I reach my hand out slowly, but fingers trembled from the cold and the shaky fear. The fear of the unexpected and then his head turned and he looked me dead in the eye--our eyes locked.

" Naomi!" I jumped, rubbing at my rain glazed eyes to see a red head running my way. His deep blue eyes sweet and humble. Kenneth.

" Earth to Naomi? Are you in there, princess?" He teased, but his brows knit with worry as he stares at me.

I smiled weakly and nodded. My heart pounding against my ribs, lips parted in a silent gasp for air. I glance back to the purple willow..but he wasn't there anymore.

" Yeah, I'm fine. Must have been daydreaming. We need to get to class. If we stay in this rain any longer we'll get sick."

>>>

I fumbled with my backpack, unzipping and pulling books from the maroon bag as I sat at my desk. The girls being rowdy with the small amount of boys in the homeroom class. Almost as if they were trying to battle for the prey like wild animals. I rolled my eyes and let the books drop to my desk with a slight bang.

Digging around in the bag, I pulled out the sleek black IPod that rested at the bottomed. The screen now littered with crumbs of crushed up yesterday's lunch and pencil shavings. The headphones tangled into a knotted mess. Once clean and free of devilish tangles, I pushed the ear pieces in and began to drown out the high pitched, annoying giggles with soft classic rock.

My eyes flicked from Kenneth who leaned 'cooly' against the brick wall and back to my folder. Three blondes hung off of his arms and one brunette with her arms wrapped around his freckled neck. The tip of my pencil tapped against the sleek wood of the desk, eyes focused from the freckly teen and back down to my unfinished assignment. Normally, I would finish homework as quickly as I could. Last night was restless with the thought of today.

Before I could begin to write, the door opened and in came our teacher who looked like his usual sloppy self.  His hair a ratted mess and eyes sunken; he just went through a rough divorce...yet, my eyes didn't linger for long. The person behind him caught my attention.

The black haired mystery, but now everyone could see him. As if the invisibility cloaking aura had been lifted. And did the girls notice indeed. It wasn't difficult to see why.

The bell rung and Mr. Bens sent the flocks of wild teens back to their stoops. The three in front of me leaning their elbows against table top with chins propped up on their balled fists for better view meanwhile masking mine.

I rolled my eyes slightly and glance back down to the mindless doodle on my page as I continued to listen to the beat, pencils swirling around the paper. Mr. Bens gave the same old routine introduction speech. The feeling of a sudden urge pushed me to look up and as I did he spoke. Confidently saying his name in a thick accented voice, a cocky smirk laced onto his lips.

"Hello, my name is Casmir Salem."

And he looked right at me, 

his feet bringing him to sit in the desk besides mine.