Heliophilia; d.m

VII

DRACO

"Hey, Kristen!" I shouted to the girl and went to her, weaving between people in the crowded corridor after the end of the lesson.

I was able to catch one of the rare moments when she was alone, and I had no intention of missing that opportunity.

"Draco? How are you?" She smiled uncertainty and looked around for some reason as if looking for something or someone to save her from me.

Yes, we may not have communicated well enough, but I didn't understand the reasons for her strange behavior. We'd known each other for almost four years, and she looked like she didn't want anyone to see us around.

But I didn't care about it, I had something to talk about with her.

"How are things going? How were your holidays?" It'd been three weeks actually and it probably wasn't appropriate to ask, but still, I didn't care.

"Pretty good. We visited relatives from Romania. It was really cool. My cousin certainly gave me a snow shower several times, but it didn't spoil my impressions. Besides..."

She began her monologue, during which I wished a million times that I hadn't brought it up — I didn't have Violet's boundless patience.

I pretended to listen, nodding and smiling occasionally, not wanting Kristen's temper to play against me, so I did what she loved-listening to her endless stories, while we purposefully walked somewhere, weaving through the corridor.

"... so this was fun," She finally finished her story, and turned to face me with a wide smile, "What about yours?" There was indeed genuine interest in her eyes, but I had nothing to tell her.

"I'm glad you had a good time," I ignored her question, "And where are you going now?"

Kristen looked around again, as if she didn't know where she was or how she got there, and then her eyes lit up.

"Oh, I'm going to meet Violet. She's waiting for me in the library. She agreed to help me with my essay," Kristen beamed, twirling a strand of hair around her finger, "She's really smart, you know. Sometimes she's too quiet, but that's a good thing, I guess, and who would have thought we'd be friends, right?"

I barely had time to catch the meaning of her words, wondering how someone could speak so quickly, as if the words were coming out of the mouth prepared and memorized in advance.

"Probably," I said in response, but it was not clear in response to what exactly, "By the way, I've been wondering for a long time how she knows so much." I continued the casual conversation, trying to pretend that I wasn't particularly interested in her.

"Yes, she is quite secretive, but I managed to find out that her mother taught her everything herself." Kristen said casually but immediately pursed her lips and frowned. She seemed to realize that she had blurted out too much.

"Okay, I shouldn't have said that. If she finds out..." She looked around again, as if she was afraid Violet would show up behind her, and sighed heavily.

"She won't, I promise." I tried to make her trust me and when she smiled with relief, I was once again convinced that it was really easy.

"Thanks. See you." She waved and entered the library, tripping over the threshold.

Talkativeness and clumsiness were her main traits and what made her and Violet so different.

But as they said, opposites attract?

I grinned and turned on my heel, walking away in the opposite direction from the library. I didn't find out anything special but my mood was improved for some reason.