Chapter One
Peter
6 months later
I watch her through the shadows, my knees scraping against the ground, as I had been doing for a year now. She enters the school building with her best friend, her smile not dropping once, chatting about something I couldn't be less concerned about. Her loose white top flutters slightly in the wind, revealing some of her plain skin underneath. I smile. I'm wearing something funnily similar.
Max had laughed at me, saying I am a shrimp, being the 'perfect' teen that I was- with my lean body, giving away hints of muscles, my mother's fair skin and perfect dark-brown hair, my eyes the colour of Paris Brun, a soothing shade of brown- if I confessed my feelings to her, she should be delighted. But I had simply ignored him. She's different. I thought. It's different.
Even though I am aware of Catherine's feelings towards me, and they are the same as mine, it seemed like I still couldn't get out of this habit of watching her from the shadows.
A tap on my shoulder pulls me out of my dreams. I didn't turn yet, my eyes stuck to the crowd in front of me. I lost her! I grunt and turn around, cursing this person for distracting me.
"Hi!" She says, waving uncertainly. Her light brown eyes are-as always- shining, but her nervous posture gives the game away.
How in the world did she know I was here?
"Oh. Um... How'd you...um..." I point absentmindedly behind me.
"Oh uh," she started, her cheeks turning a bright shade of red. I grin. Guess I'll listen to Max for once. She spoke up, "Well, the thing is I've been watching you- I mean, not like watching watching you- just like umm..." Her voice trails away, her fingers fidgeting. It's not like I was listening anyways- my eyes are fixed on her face. There is nothing else present.
"Peter?" Once more, her angelic voice pulls me away from my thoughts.
"Sorry about that." I grinned sheepishly. Pull yourself together!
Catherine replied to my grin with one of her own.
The shrilling sound of the bell rings in the distance. Right now! Just when I get a chance to talk to her!
"So," I start getting off my position on the ground, dusting my palms off on my backside and ignoring the thought running in my mind, "Would you like to go for a walk, or would Miss Perfect here prefer heading back to school so that she isn't late for her first class?"
I know instantly I have something wrong. So much for listening to Max. The tips of her mouth drop a little, but she retains her smile as if I have said nothing. I draw in a breath. "Sorry."
"That's okay."
If only she knew what I did, if only she knew why...
She continues, "And answering your question, yes, I would like to get back to class now."
She waits, looking me in the eye. Finally, it hits me. "And I'd love to walk you there."
_
The little smidge of happiness I had when I left school vanished instantaneously as I turned the key and pushed open the door to my house. A weird smell floats throughout. I furrow my eyebrows, disappointed in myself for hoping for anything else. Throwing my bag onto the floor, I start opening the windows to let some pure air try and allow some ventilation in this suffocated house. The walls of the kitchen are a faded shade of cream. The kitchen itself is in ruins, the dishes from his lunch still left absentmindedly in the sink. The windows creak silently as I open them.
Just some more time and then I can leave. I promise myself.
"Boy!" He screams from another room somewhere in the apartment. "Are you home? The Ceremony is at 6:30- less than an hour from now. You know that right?"
I don't bother replying.
"Boy!" He screeches.
I grunt in reply and threw myself into some ridiculous algebra sums- any distraction would be welcome right now.
"Nerd." He says to me, having walked into the kitchen. He puts his hand uneasily onto my throat.
Just some more time, Peter. Hold on.
If only, if only, he knew what I could do to him. If only he knew how I had changed.
Chapter two
Catherine
Mom kisses me gently on my forehead as she hands me my lunch. Dad enters the room and does the same. I've grown up with their love all to myself, but that means their attention too, which is why, at seventeen; I don't have a car of my own and had to throw an embarrassing tantrum just to get my license. I grab my bag from the chair and, a Mars bar in my hand, I leave the house.
Because I don't have a car, Shailene comes over to pick me up in hers most of the days- whenever her parents don't need it, or don't mind. Today, they do mind. I see her standing on the other side of the street and run over to join her. She starts chattering almost immediately and the fifteen minute walk to school could not be longer.
-
I don't know why he continues to hide behind the walls outside school. Maybe it's because he's gotten used to looking at me through cracks or from the corners of bins. It's funny because he knows how I feel. He knows how I feel about the mysterious, fair-skinned boy, the one who shared his crayons with me on the first day of school, almost ten years back now. He knows that I care, but still, he makes no moves to wedge the gap that lies between us. I can't tell if it's because I have a group of my own and he has but one friend.
I smile as I walk to the gates, Shailene by my side, her cheeks red, going on about how she might have seen her latest 'the one' outside her house at "like midnight or something, I don't even know! He was probably like spying on me or something..." her voice wonders into nowhere. My top fluttered slightly in the wind. I pull my hand down to straighten it, my head turned slightly, and again I see him there. I roll my eyes and turn to Shai, "Why don't you go on, Shai, I'll see you in the first period." She frowns, but walks in after reminding me that we need to stay back today. I walk up quietly behind Peter, the crowd of students faltering his vision, and tap him on his shoulder. He flinches and says something, but doesn't turn around yet. I wait. He finally looks back at me, realizing I wasn't ahead, but right here behind him. And then he smiles and everything is forgotten.
-
As we walk into class together, my palm fixed in his, I wonder if today is the day. Will he become a part of the community permanently now? Are the rules still the same? They probably are if he still goes around killing people for no personal benefit- or so I think. These flaws of his implemented by Oi Alloi don't concern me; I have a set of some of my own too.