Reptile

The First Meeting

"Stop! Stop it!" It became quieter than I could have thought possible. I opened my eyes to see the broad back of a man, of him. I quickly removed myself from the situation and hid myself against the glass of the Overlook. Luna stood awestruck next to Sterling, and Sterling's face was flush with anger and embarrassment. He strode forward and snatched her hand, gave her a severely aggravated look, and drug her off into the halls. The few jocks left did a bow of sorts in front of my protector, and one even said something in an unintelligible language.

I stood terrified and Luna's face had twisted into one of worry and concern. "Elliott?" She whispered delicately. "Elliott, she didn't mean to... I swear, she only stood up. You know how Alice can be- Sterling too. She isn't the kind you think she is Elliott, I promise. Please forgive her. We never meant to draw attention." Elliott didn't even utter a word. He turned and looked to Luna with a saddened stare, "It is not her fault, and yes I know how Alice can be. Unfortunately your brother has poor taste is his women, specifically his permanent one." He turned to me and faintly beamed with endearment. "Who is she?" I turned a deep red and hid my face aside, trying to disguise my scares behind my long dark hair. "Her name is McIntosh, she came here from the east coast." Luna looked nervously between us. Did Elliott have a worse temper than his entourage? Was he a brutal king of the campus? He tilted his hard-lined face to one side and mumbled a quiet greeting. "Hello beautiful." I gazed up at him through thick eyelashes and smiled. I opened my mouth as to say something but felt the pang of disappointment when nothing emerged. Luna came to my rescue "She can't speak, she's mute, from trauma. She would speak, but, she can't. I- you get it." Elliott and I continued to stare at each other when the sound of heels clicking the floor began to fill the Overlook. He gazed back at me, "I have to go but, I can't wait to see you again." 

Luna drug me off into the hall towards our class where she claimed, very innocently, that we had been lost. She sat me down in a desk towards the back and opened up our table's textbook to the page that was written on the board and sighed. "I wish Elliott would just pick someone already." I looked at her and asked, 'What do you mean?' She looked to me and shook her head, "I've been selected already, but you wouldn't understand it. You wont unless someone picks you." I sighed, feeling left out was such an eerie sensation. The teacher rambled on about how he would be bringing in his pet barn owl to sit in on class when my ears started to burn and my world was muted out. My vision was hyper-focused and my hearing had hushed out the class. Goosebumps rose over my skin, but they weren't normal. They rippled in an oceanic wave pattern. Now this was just strange. 

My eyes were pulled to the door and Luna began to stare at me, "Are you alright? Your pupils are so small... What is it?" I shook my head hazily, 'The door, someone is coming.' She looked towards it right as it opened, and then everything lurched back into reality and I was thrown from my trance. Elliot stood at the front, speaking to my teacher. He eventually nodded and pointed to the seat beside me. Luna sat facing me at the lab tables, leaving an empty seat beside the both of us. Luna had her eyes shut tight and whispered under her breath, "Please don't sit beside me, please don't sit beside me." I heard the stool beside me slide and I froze, my body going dry and pale. Maybe I could be like a chameleon, maybe I could just imagine him away, maybe there was something that I could do to not be noticed by this deity of a man. 

He tried to look around my hair, and I just angled my head more towards the window. He scoffed playfully behind me and whispered, "Are you shy, or do you not like my type? Or perhaps you just don't like me." I looked up to see his eyes were a dull, but still beautiful amber-brown. He smiled at me, more sympathetic than any look I'd ever seen. I shook my head as my heart hung from its tiny, delicate, harness. He was still just staring at me. I opened my new sketchbook to the first page. It was handmade leather with Celtic runes, dragons, knots, and a large black stone tooled into the middle filled with tiny gold flecks. He gently pulled the cover back and smiled, "I can read those. Those runes." I raised an eyebrow to his not-really-offering comment. I closed the book all the way and waved towards the runes, asking for his translation. He sighed and smiled, "This top part says 'May Bauke always find you strong' and this says 'For the rise of Hero will be before long,' its a proverb of the... Celtics." I stared at him and quickly opened the book, pulling out the handmade pencil from the bindings and wrote, 'Okay well, it's not that I don't like you, it's that I am afraid of you.' He scoffed and scribbled back, 'Afraid of what? I won't hurt you.' I stared into his beautiful amber eyes and something told me he was safe, he could be trusted. I continued to watch as his eyes flicked back and forth across mine. Then it happened again, they gleamed with the floating flakes and leaves of gold. My heart stopped beating for a split second and the goosebumps rose across my body. 

Luna whipped her head around and hissed through her teeth at Elliott, "Not here. Not now. You of all people know better. She isn't one of us yet, she can't know too much too soon." They stared at each other for a while, not blinking, not breathing, just glaring with unwavering determination. Luna finally looked away, but not in defeat. I returned to my window-gazing, and traced the letters that he had written on my page. At some point, while lost in my reverie, he slipped the book from underneath my palm, and I was left to watch the birds hop around the branches in the nearby trees.