It's Jessalyn

Slither

It was a slither of a feeling when I contacted eyes with gleaming greens—blazed with fire and light and all things beautiful. I tried to shuffle the mess around us but stopped when they became even more messy. After a long tense silence between us, I let my politeness win over a slammed door shut to his face.

"E-Evening," I stuttered, anxiously toying with my drowsy brown skirt. "Would you like some tea?" A force of habit instilled by my mother; if there's tension, there's tea.

The man smiled, amused most likely at my withering figure, but simply nodded and intertwined his fingers on my father's expensive wooden table.

I stumbled as I bolted out of my chair, dark crimson coating my cheeks as I shakily grabbed the appropriate set. Tea cups, sugar, and milk. I opened the kitchen cabinets and felt my way around the space for the "adult-like" tea leaves we had. When my hand contacted a cool object, I almost fainted with relief as a sharp stare pickled the nape of my neck. 

The tea was a sweet aroma drenched with a familiar scent of cold and snow. I blanched at the leaves that wafted so temptingly.

"Is peppermint tea okay with you?"

"If it's not too much trouble," The man held his polite smile but his green eyes revealed the glint I was accustomed to. His impression of me was probably the same like any other.

As the wolves would say, the omega.

No one important for him to keep his icy exterior. I wondered when he would drop the gentleman act and dive right into an asshole that's usually common amongst my father's clients.

It was the usual thing for assholes to flock with other assholes.

Yet this stranger seemed to be breaking my theory.

I gently set down the biscuits and tea in front of us, all too aware of his calculating gaze and the tilt of his lips. He was strange, almost too godly compared to someone as myself, yet he wasn't arrogant and certainly not an asshole. I bit my lip at the way his brown hair was just perfectly chaotic and how graceful he made drinking tea was.

It was like he was molded to be sophisticated, flawless, and eye-catching. His charm was something distant and close, puzzling at most. I eyed him, suspicious at what he could've done to call for my father's help. Usually, it was celebrities cheating on their significant other or some unusual ones like theft, or murder. 

All in all they were the very people I steer clear away from, especially the stranger here guzzling down tea like it was his home. He looked young though, too young to have money but that could've been a trick of the light by the way he pose himself in this room, dominating everything. Even more curious, I opened my mouth to ask who this alluring stranger was, but a man came through the front door and we both snapped our eyes to the man's attention. Daniel.

The old man was here.

Hurriedly, I went to my father and asked in a hiss, "Who the hell is he?"

I gave a discreet pointed look at the sitting figure.

My father glanced at the stranger and shrugged.

"Probably from the buddy system in your new school."

"Buddy system? I'm returning from England, I'm not new to the damn country," The thought mortified me if I had to follow even a foot behind the stranger. It was more convincing that he was probably from school than someone invovles with the law. God, and I was tense for nothing. 

"Why don't you talk to him and understand the program? You left when you were finishing your freshman year. A lot has changed if you can imagine." He passed by me to shake hands with the stranger who seemed to fit in with my father's image. 

"Riley," The stranger spoke in a raspy, deep voice I could melt from. I realized he was nothing like ice, he was more similar to a flickering fire. His eyes burned, and it was easy to tell, since he was someone crackling with energy and craze surpressed under his detached face. The observation was to my utter displeasure. 

If he's fire, then surely there will be smoke. California was suppose to be therapeutic.  

"The daughter is over there, the one you'll be with," Riley looked at me, seemingly shocked. My father smiled all too knowing, and shuffled out of the room to head upstairs; dark circles were beginning to form under his eyes and I knew he had another all-nighter.

Work was shifting every now and then, but for my father, he had to comb through evidence and testimonies for the Allgory case. A complicated situation between a murder of a daughter and father; if there's a miracle, it was my father who won every case he possibly could, but that reputation is tolling on him now. 

After the faint clicking noise, I awkwardly sat back down in front of him.

Anywhere, anywhere but his eyes. I urged myself, but my own crept to see his face, and I almost felt the need to slam my hands on the table.

He was annoyed, and slightly angry.

"If you have anything to say, come on then," I snipped at him, tension still rigid in the room. "Let's hear it."

"We wasted time, I wasted time thinking that you would come home and I would stop entertaining the middle school student. What kind of host doesn't introduce herself to the guest?"

I felt oddly hurt at the word middle and school, it was not a secret at my shorter than average height but he didn't have to twist the knife. 

Maybe if you close your eyes, he'll disappear. 

He continued, "I didn't believe someone so small could be you." He smiled—one with asshole written all over it. Ah, so I was right.

Well then, to hell with it.

"Unfortunately, Riley, it seems we're just not compatible as buddies." I glared at him with my meanest mug look. "I'm sure the school with understand if I choose another buddy. Or none at all."

Riley laughed but it was more of a I'm-stuck-with-an-idiot laugh.

"If I had the luxury to choose, did you expect me to be in this program? Stuck with someone I don't know? Oh no, Jess, we're together until the bitter end."

Riley slid out a paper from the pocket of his jeans and handed it to me.

Welcome to California Ms. Northbrooks!
West River High School is pleased to meet you!
We have enlisted a person as a "buddy" for your time in the school, It's only for three months as you situate yourself in your new environment. 
Please come in the counselor's office at eight-thirty in the morning. 
We can't wait to see what legacy you'll create!
West River High School.

I cringed at the letter. Revolting. 

"I'll see you in the morning, buddy," Riley looked as disgusted as I felt. "Don't be late. If I have to—and please do—I'll wring you from your bed and drag you to school.

I watched with exasperation as he brought his shades to balance on the tip of his nose. He grinned at me, patting me on my head as he made his way out.

I could tell he revved the car harshly than normal when the squeal of the tires sounded the quiet afternoon of the neighborhood.

Rude, obnoxious, and an asshole.

What the hell did I do to piss him off like that? I rubbed the lines on my forehead and shivered, the musky smell of fall sweeping in and smothering the sweet peppermint that lingered in the room.

Don't dwell on it Jessalyn, just don't.

Trees covered in various shades of yellow and orange silently agreed as they bowed to the wind, some of the leaves went flying to the calm streets. It was like they were dancing, welcoming us back home.