Telluric

Chapter XVIII: Sweet and Sour

XVIII

"...And that's what happened." Mayla finished as she watched the faces of Diego, Noah, and Parvati absorb her story. A certain unwavering intensity followed the awakened Parvati, who watched unblinking at Mayla's movements. Attempting to ignore this, Mayla turned swiftly to Noah. "So anyway..."

"Mayla..." Interrupted by Parvati, Mayla turned her head back to the waiting girl. "Were you going to tell us about the demon in your head?" Frowning, Mayla closed her eyes and sighed.

"Demon?" Noah's voice popped up behind Mayla while Diego remained silent. Parvati smiled nonchalantly at the question and Mayla sat herself in the chair, fixing her scarf and crossing her legs.

"Yes." They were all silent. The homeroom was occupied by various other students that don't necessarily have any reason to be mentioned at present. Other than that was a substitute, who was currently in the room for Ms. Ramona, browsing their phone silently. Breaking the silence, Mayla began once again. "But..."

"Well then why don't you spit out all of the details?" Parvati whispered maniacally, though the hints of maliciousness passed over Noah's head. Diego caught onto it however, and intervened heroically.

"Demons or not, Mayla doesn't deserve the ridicule that you are currently dishing out, Parvati." Noah turned his head thoughtfully but didn't get involved in the argument.

"We all have our secrets..." Parvati hissed in a retorted gasp. "Don't we?" She stared at each person individually sending messages to each, instilling a certain unsure notion in each person's brain, causing them to fear ever so slightly that she knew all of their disastrous fears. My position as the narrator does not allow me to specifically determine whether or not she does, but even so it is most likely safe to assume the first.

It was here that Noah then piped up with a poisonous yet lyrical retort.

"Yes, we all do, don't we Parvati?" The group hushed and the lunchroom hollowly echoed about the table; another universe kept them from the rest of the mass of hormonal adolescents and their conversations on crude or not crude topics. Noah then relaxed his shoulders and began to subconsciously rub his less-festering palms together. When Diego saw this, he wrapped his fingers around Noah's hands and ceased him without resistance.

Mayla glared at Parvati, who tucked herself back into a fallback of talking with her 'brother.' The group sat in silence once more, and the bustling aura of the lunchroom died off shortly after, when everyone evacuated into note lines on sheet music.

Noah left Diego in front of his class with a shred and timidly spoken goodbye. Shortly after, he found himself alone in the hallway, the bell about to ring for the next class. Or at least he assumed he was alone. This thought was cut off by the collar of Noah's sweater when Martin Heinz pulled it stupidly.

"Come here, faggot-" Noah didn't let him finish, as he quickly took a novel out of his bag and slapped Martin in the arm brutally, escaping for a few short seconds. Unfortunately, it was for a few short seconds. Martin turned Noah around with a quick wistful movement and with a fluid movement knocked him out. Noah slumped to the floor, ready for more beatings from the insecure psychopath that was to risk banishment from the school for a chance to teach a 'lesson.' That was until Mayla arrived.

"Let him go." Mayla growled inhumanly, her eyes beginning to change to a color that shifted from the bronze Noah recognized to a maroon that mimicked the cherry syrup she had drunken in her dream earlier that morning.

"What are you going to do?" He retorted in that rude and dumb-ass way that many douche bags do, and grinned in a complementing manner to this manner. Mayla then opened her mouth to a smile, and her now sharpened triangular teeth grinned wildly. Her pupils began to swirl and melt, imitating Dali's The Persistence of Time. His douche-smile dissolved at the surreal image, and he turned to escape. It was too late however.