Honey-Green

Chapter 4: Interference

Odessa stared up with watery eyes at Essex's honey-green kaleidoscopes. She wanted to pull herself away, but if she did she'd forget what they looked like. Odessa wanted to burn the color into her memory and embroider the scars. They had matured. Crows feet traced themselves at the edges. Frown lines broke apart his eyebrows as lightning would a tree. He had the markings of a five o'clock shadow on his jaw and his nose was far more angular than it had been when they were. . . on good terms.

She had forgotten the boyish charm his grin held, and the way his face screamed innocence. Even if she were looking for them, they wouldn't be there to find. Essex had become a man in the few years they had been apart. He wasn't the young boy she had been in love with. He had faced reality and found the taste to be less than palatable. He had been betrayed. He had been cast aside. He had been broken. . .Just as she had.

The door to the theater opened as they looked into each others eyes. Essex turned to see a teacher, a woman, standing there with her hand on her hip. Her starched shirt and ironed pant played different to the look she wore on her face. The woman glared on at the students that had been shouting at each other moments ago and debated with herself what to do.

"Is there a reason that you two aren't where you're suppose to be?" She asked. Essex huffed and looked back at Odessa. He held her gaze a moment longer than he would have liked and tore his attention away once he realized.

"We were rehearsing a scene for a play we wanted to propose to the principle." He fibbed smoothly. Odessa looked to the teacher for the first time since she'd entered the room.

"Odessa, I didn't know you were such a good actress. What's the play called? Maybe I could help you organized a cast." The woman said gleefully. Odessa recognized her as a member of the board for the schools drama department. 

"We aren't going to submit it. We haven't gotten an actual plot and neither of us have the time to put it together. I think we'll just scratch the idea for now." Essex said and looked to Odessa's shaking silhouette. He placed a hand on her arm. If he was going to get away with this, she would have to act like it was just that. . . a scene. They could finish their talk some other time.

"Yeah. W-We were just going to. . . t-test out some of the characters." She muttered. The woman looked at her with an analyzing gaze. She had feeling something was wrong, but Odessa cried so often it would make no sense to make the girl go to the office for nothing. It must have been like the boy had said. A test run for a scene.

"Alright. If you do change your mind, then let me know. It seems you two have a great work of art on you hands." She said and left the pair to themselves. 

A shuttering sigh rung through Odessa as she watched the door close behind the woman. She was kind enough, but Odessa was just glad for the distraction.

"Stay away from me. We aren't friends. Don't act like you ever knew me." Odessa's clenched voice crawled into Essex's ear. He turned to look at her. Her blue crystals reflected a look of distaste and disappointment. Good. It makes this all the easier.

"I was already planning on it." He said and glared down at her. She huffed and flung her hands to her face, wiping the salty tears from her face as she stormed over to her bag and out the doors.

Once in the light of the hallway, Essex made his way to the cafeteria. His bag was slung over his shoulder as he walked through the archway and made his way up to the line. He was ready for the much needed fuel after being forced to look at Odessa's face. He didn't expect her to be here. She had switched schools after being bullied a few years ago. He thought she was still in Pennsylvanian, but after she moved he had lost track of her. He wished he hadn't taken the job offer that brought him here in the first place. He wished he didn't have to come to this school. But he didn't believe in wishing things into existence. He had wished long ago that he hadn't seen the only girl he'd ever love screwing his best friend's brother. That wish never came true.

She had f*cked him after telling him she would only ever be with him. Odessa had betrayed him after he had given up his family to stay with her. To love her. His own father will hardly even look at him. He had cut Essex out of his life entirely. After Essex had tried to apologize, his father told him to never show his face at his home again. He told Essex that he had no son and he didn't want him to stain his family's good name.

He had been abandoned because of her. She had been so selfish to ignore all that he had sacrificed for her. She had chosen a half wit over him. Odessa took all of his love and threw it back in his face. She was nothing but a whore. She was the dirt at the bottom of a landfill. She was worthless. And yet he couldn't make himself give up his feelings. 

Essex sat down at a table far off from the rest of the crowded cafeteria. He wanted to think, and the noise was clouding his head. He could remember her smile. The small dimples that formed just under her eyes as she grinned. The way her hair smelled. Odessa had always smelled like sugar cookies. She had the funniest laugh. A whisper of a wheeze and a hardy giggle he had come to adore.

He would call her, Odin. She had been as fierce as the god himself. The tears she had cried earlier shocked him. Odessa was never one to cry. He would always look to her for strength, and to see her weeping. . . threw him. He never wanted to see that look on her face again. It took all he had to keep from touching her. From making sure she was alright. It angered him to even feel like he could hardly contain himself.

Before he could delve too deep into his thoughts, a group of boot clad feet stepped before him. He looked up to see a girl with box-dye grey hair and her multi-colored friends. They held their bags on one shoulder and their lunch trays in hand. Essex lifted his brow to them as a 'what do you want' gesture. 

"Can we sit with you. You looked lonely." The girl said. She smiled at him and seemed kind enough so he shrugged. He wanted the distraction. They sat.

"What's your name?" The girl to the left asked. Her round face clashed in a weird way with the harsh black of her hair. She had a nose ring and a gauge in her ear as well. He looked at her for a moment before answering.

"Essex Drakos." The short sound hardly reached her, but she heard him and smiled.

"Cool! I'm Reina. That's Oliver," She pointed to the girl beside her with the grey hair. 

". . . And that is Sophia. Call her Sofie." Each of the girls waved as they were introduced. Oliver looked at him and smirked. He seemed uncomfortable and she felt the need to ease his mind.

"We aren't here to rag on you so cool it." Reina sighed at the harsh reassurance her friend mustered up. It was the best she could do, but really she could try.

"What she means is that we aren't trying to invade your privacy. You don't have to look so uncomfortable." Sofie tried to explain. Essex nodded. He really didn't see why they were here in the first place.

"So what classes are you taking?" Oliver asked. The question was harmless enough, so he answered.

"Medical science." The short response was enough to get a conversation started. They were all in a different area of the school. Sophia being in the theater department, Oliver being in the computer science, and Reina being in the music department. They each explained to him how their departments worked and what they found the hardest. Many of Sophia's and Reina's classes overlapped so they saw each other often. Oliver was mostly by herself, but whenever she could they were together.

Essex thought they were strange, but they were kind. They were his distraction. They would make this school tolerable. Maybe, if he could get his mind away from the one blonde that has plagued his mind since he laid eyes on her this morning, they could be his friends. 

He wanted that. He wanted them to be his friends.