I Only Followed You A Bit

There was no doubt about it.

Valentine had kept vigilant for the past week now. At first he'd brushed it off as paranoia, but as the days passed, he was picking up the faint taste around him -- it wasn't just the island and its people. It was an oddly consistent taste that followed him around in school like an aura, and by the time he started noticing it was also around when he was it town, he started to guess there was something not normal about it. It was too faint for him to notice immediately, possibly because of proximity but it had been bugging him for too long to actually start considering other possibilities. One of those possibilities was someone watching him.

Now the problem about trying to confirm any sign that someone was following him was that he did not have the best eyesight. He couldn't actually see if anyone was following him if he tried to look but if his... tongue was any reliable then there was a chance he was right about his assumption. But along with that certainty is the discomfort about something or someone possibly stalking him.

He was careful today and more vigilant than before -- he'd flicked his forked tongue more than once than he'd probably ever done before just trying to figure out his stalker, actually looking around him consciously for anything that didn't look right, and even stopped at random places he didn't have to just to look natural about looking around. He stopped at the dorm entrance, trying to seek out anything that was out of the ordinary while pretending to fiddle with his phone.

Valentine pretended to look at his phone and around him repeatedly, as if he was waiting for someone but it was only so he could have an excuse to look around and pay more attention around him. It probably took him more than a few minutes to see what was wrong with the picture. Everyone that passed him seemed to be going somewhere, their walks very purposeful. He gave the ones waiting like him the benefit of the doubt.

And then he found them. One smidge in the distance, a person who looked like they were actually hiding who hadn't seemed to move in the past few minutes. Valentine kept his gaze on him, almost certain they had locked gazes despite what seems to be sunglasses. He wasn't sure how long it took for either of them to move; they both just stood there for a while, Val staring at him with wide eyes and everything.

The moment he saw a single step from the other, he ran.

There were many things Valentine hated and among the top five was being followed around in any way because that sort of thing never gave him good things. Both incidents involving him getting followed was getting kidnapped. He didn't actually have time to gauge what his stalker wanted from him but his instincts told him to run.

So he did. He ran around the building, jumping over things that were on his way --benches, bushes, and even going as far as climbing over a fence to lose track of him. He wasn't sure how much distance he was making until his breath eventually started to thin and he found himself hiding in a corner, behind another school building he had no time to decipher. Valentine, almost out of breath was heaving really loudly that he had to cover his mouth so he wouldn't be found.

Valentine actually though he'd lost him; as relief slowly washed over him, his legs gave out under him and he slid down the wall until he was sitting on the ground. If he hadn't been having a hard time catching the air he'd lost, he would have sighed. Just as breathing started to have less strain he heard a voice call out to him, inwardly panicking for a moment when he heard him say his name!

With panic still running in his system, Valentine tried to get up when he'd caught sight of his shadow ... only to trip over his own feet and fall back down. This is just great isn't it!? With a huff, Valentine turned to his pursuer, his expression twisted into a frown, "If you wanted to give me back anything, you didn't need to be so creepy about it!" he snapped at him. As he tried to at least right the way he was sitting, it was only then his eyes adjusted enough for him to recognize his classmate. "You almost gave me a heart attack!"

"Oh, so following me around and starting chase isn't coming on too strong?" Valentine retorted. He already gave up standing so he was just going to sit there for a little more until his legs stopped shaking. Stupid running; he should have just slithered into a bush as a snake. "I don't even recall lending you anything. I don't even lend anyone anything! Except Shay, I guess," he pointed out, muttering the last bit mostly to himself.

Valentine looked back up to him, his eyes narrowed, "If you did try to beat me up, you're looking for trouble." Naturally, it was a bad idea to pick a fight with a snake. Or him in general. He wasn't a wimp to not bite back.