I keep a book of the names

ReD · Jan 24, 2017

Lochlann had no idea how long her hair was.

Though he was surprisingly skilled with most things related to women, having grown up with predominantly women friends and lovers, the way women could manipulate their hair and disguise it into braids and pony tails and buns fascinated him.

"No, no, Im okay, sorry," Lochlann said. "I shouldn't have stood so close."

He was happy she accepted the coffee and he indicated that there was cream and sugar in the carrier if she wanted it. Lochlann nodded. He was awake and excited and the night felt like it belonged to them.

"So," he said. He glanced at her from the corner of his eye again, taking a sip of his own coffee. "I am going to make an assumption about you, and you can correct me if I'm wrong. I've been wrong before."

He tucked the hand that wasn't holding his coffee into his coat packet and fumbled with the pack of cigarettes in it, but he didn't take one out.

"You're a book person, so I'm making the assumption that you spent a lot of time in the library at the academy.....but have you ever been on top of it?" Lochlann asked.

I am J · Jan 24, 2017

Cat squat down and set her cup on the sidewalk, peeling the lid off of the top and emptying several creams into the coffee while he spoke. She chuckled softly, “you know what they say about assumptions right?” Her tone was light and teasing.

She didn’t look up for a stir stick but instead screwed her face up in concentration. Her coffee stirred itself weakly in a slow swirl. Satisfied, she pressed the lid firmly back onto the cup. Her head snapped up and when her eyes found his they were wide with surprise.

“You want to go on the roof? Are you crazy?” She laughed lightly, stood, and adjusted her jacket. Then her expression grew serious and she stepped in closer to him, leaning towards him. “Are we allowed?

ReD · Jan 24, 2017

"Yes," Lochlann said. He repeated the next part with a faux-British accent. "They make an ass out of you and me. Now, please turn your books to page 427 and tell me about the etiology of the word ass."

He shook his head. "I will never take an English class with Professor Corbeau ever again. You have no idea how many times I heard that during junior year."

He gave a short laugh and shook his head again. Her eyes were wide when she looked up at him and Lochlann had been looking down at her, curious as to what she was doing on the ground.

He grinned a conspiratorial grin when she stepped close.

"Well, we're not...not allowed," Lochlann said. "And it's night time, no one else will be up there....probably."

He perked up. His shoulders unfurled and he shifted his weight from foot to foot for a moment, as if he was physically unable to contain his excitement.

"So I'm guessing that means you haven't been up there," Lochlann said. "So you don't know the secret yet."

I am J · Jan 24, 2017

Cat laughed at his imitation. “So, Lochlann, are you an ass?” She winked. “Actually, you happen to be right. I have never been on the roof of any building on campus, and I do not know the secret.” She bumped his shoulder with her own and turned towards campus confidently.

Her heart, however, was racing on the tail of his next words. Was it really wise to go up onto the roof with a relative stranger. When would it be dark? She got off of work at right around five thirty. She started to do the math in her head but blinked and shook her head. Forget it. It wasn’t like she couldn’t throw him off the roof or something if he got too handsy.

“Not not allowed, huh?” She sipped her coffee and confidently reached out and looped her arm into his. As soon as she did it, she regretted it. She liked him, and there wasn’t anything wrong with that, but she didn’t want to be leading either, especially not going up onto a rooftop alone.

He perked up. His shoulders unfurled and he shifted his weight from foot to foot for a moment, as if he was physically unable to contain his excitement. “My turn to make an ass out of myself. Let me guess, you’re a natural born rule breaker?”

ReD · Jan 25, 2017

"I am," Lochlann agreed. "I like to think it makes me more endearing somehow."

He grinned at her and when she looped her arm through his own, his smile widened. Lochlann's back straightened a little and he gave her arm a gentle squeeze with his own. He couldn't explain why he liked this--it was intimate in a friendly way, comfortable without the risk of fidgeting that hand holding brought. He let his finger's relax around the back of cigarettes in his pocket.

Lochlann craved contact like a drug. He couldn't explain why this small touch made him feel so good.

"I think you will like it, he said, but then he wouldn't give any more information about the roof.

When she asked about the rule breaking Lochlann considered it. He wondered how much about him he knew and he chewed on the inside of his cheek. Some of the rumors were completely wrong, but some of them were completely right.

"I've never been to a school where I didn't get a detention, so I guess there is no denying it," Lochlann took another sip of his coffee. He decided to explain. "I like quiet places. I'm prone to migraines and it's unfortunate that in most schools the quietest places tend to be places they apparently don't want students to go to. Like roof tops and boiler rooms and classrooms that say do not enter but they didn't lock the door so it's not like they tried really hard to keep people out."

Of course he'd broken a lot of other rules for reasons that weren't good. Fighting in school, escaping twice from rehab, and then the numerous broken windows from Lochlann jumping out of them in the middle of class were not an effort to find a quiet place.

He decided to admit part of that was well, just in case she'd heard any of that.

"But then there were other rules that uh...well, yes. Let's just go with yes," he said.

He was content to mosey at the pace they were towards the school. His contentedness was reflected in the way he stole glances and smiled at her, especially if she caught him, because Lochlann wasn't exactly being discrete.

"Did you explore any of the school at all, or just go to your classes?" he asked her with no indication that he valued one approach to the other. If she'd never explored Lochlann would be delighted to have someone to share his secrets with. If she had, Lochlann was looking forward to learning a few more.

I am J · Jan 25, 2017

She grinned at his concession that he was an ass. “Maybe it does,” she agreed. He was pretty endearing. He squeezed her arm with his and she relaxed some. He may be being cryptic about the roof but to this point he’d really been nothing but kind. She gave him a sideways look.

“So what you’re saying is yes, you are definitely a rule breaker.” Her smile had grown as he listed the places he sought out to hide in. “It sounds like you have a lot of stories to tell. I’m sorry you suffer from migraines.” Cat shifted her purse and took another sip of the hot coffee. It warmed her chest and made her shiver.

Cat caught him glancing at her, suspicious that he wasn’t being discrete about it at all. That was fair since the only reason she kept catching him watching her was because she also kept glancing at him.

She thought about his question. Had she really explored the school much? She had when she’d first arrived and didn’t have any friends. “I spent some time exploring when I was new. I was lonely and missing my family, but I wasn’t nearly as adventurous as you’ve been. I went hiking a few times in the woods though. There are a few really beautiful spots out there, a field of wild flowers, a small waterfall. I don’t go out there much though, I got spooked last time I went alone. I heard some of the wolves howling. I know they’re just students and they should all be friendly but it still gave me goosebumps.”

She pressed her lips into a thin line, looking sideways at him. Her brown eyes were full of barely concealable shame. “That sounds prejudice doesn’t it?” she turned her eyes away abashed. “I shouldn’t have admitted that out loud. Don’t think badly of me, please.”

ReD · Jan 25, 2017

“Unfortunately, yes, I’m a rule breaker,” he said. His cheeks were seriously starting to hurt from all this smiling, but everytime her smile grew, Lochlann had to smile back. It was a good kind of pain. “I have some stories, but not all of them are exciting. For a magical island things can be pretty mundane around here.”

He tried to think of one that might be. He thanked her for the sympathy for his migraines—he was almost used to them by now.

He listened eagerly to his time in the woods. He had a suspicion he knew exactly what waterfall she meant. It was a beautiful place—unfortunately, it was partially tainted now that Lochlann tried to eat one of his friends there.

The field of wildflowers had his interest perked.

“You’ll have to show me,” he said. It sounded like a sight to see.

When she told him about her last experience in the woods, Lochlann shook his head, not to dismiss her shame but to reassure her. He gave her a gentle bump with his shoulder.

“I don’t think it’s prejudiced, I think it’s practical,” he said. “Just because the wolves are all pretty nice doesn’t mean there aren’t dangerous things in the woods.”

He considered and then elaborated. “The area around the lake is usually pretty good, as are the woods closest to the school, but the further you get, the higher your chances are of finding something that might think it can get away with eating a student.”

Lochlann was sometimes one of those things.

“So during my first few weeks here, I decided to uh…” he realized just how many rules he had broken not that she’d called him out on his rulebreaking activities, but he was in too deep now. “…ignore…what was told and go into the dark part of the woods. You’ll know if you’ve been there—all the branches start to grow together, and it’s really quite beautiful in a way because it seems dark even during the daytime. Anyway, I went there because it was cool—this was probably August, so I was a sweating mess-and it seemed like a good idea.”

He was also drunk, so there was that factor, too. He decided to leave that out of the story.

“Anyway, I ran into this witch who was dead convinced she wanted to eat me, and for some reason I thought it was a really great idea to ask her for cooking lessons. It’s something I always wanted to learn and I guess I didn’t realize when she kept talking about having me for dinner, she literally meant eating me. So I guess the whole reason I escaped is because I drove her so insane asking basic culinary questions that she got so fed up with the whole ordeal and I uh…just…left.”

They were close enough to the school now that Lochlann took another big sip of his coffee, hoping to finish it before they reached the library.

“The short version of all of that blabbering is that I think it's okay to be afraid of the things in the woods," he said. He was a little embarrassed he'd just rambled all of that out. "Sorry, it's been a long time since I've had a conversation with anyone."

I am J · Jan 25, 2017

“Tell me about it,” she muttered when he mentioned life being mundane. It seemed like all she ever did was work and school, school and work. Except for now, this evening was a very welcome break in what, otherwise, would have been another routine, boring night. She hadn’t realized how seldom she spent time with her friends…or for how long she had put ‘guys’ on the back burner to her education. She was enjoying trading banter and light flirting, it was freeing.

You’ll have to show me. Cat found that she was pleased by this. It sounded like he planned to see her again, and at the very least that was a commitment to friendship. She grinned and then tried to suppress the grin, not wanting to appear too eager. “Of course, sure…if you can keep up.”

He bumped her and she leaned into that bump, nudging back. This was nice. This was unexpected but so nice.

“I was quite a way out there. I used to hike with my parents and my brother so it’s easy for me to just zone into it and find myself a few miles in. The field wasn’t too far, the waterfall was a good hike though. And the day I heard the wolves I was probably two hours in. I ran most of the way back because I was so scared.” She rolled off a confession of fear as if it just were. She was too confident to care if someone saw her less for her fears but prejudice mattered.

As he told his story her eyebrows hiked up into startled arches, he eyes widening. “Lochlann! You could have been killed!” she gasped, her fingers curling around his sleeve as though she would have been devastated if something had happened to him, even though she wouldn’t have even known him. She probably would have, she’s compassionate enough to be upset over another student’s death. “You were very lucky,” she murmured, loosening her fingers as if she just realized she had gripped him.

“Why is that?” she asked when he admitted to not conversing with anyone in a while. “Don’t be sorry, I’m enjoying this,” she admitted easily. “Truthfully, I haven’t spent much time with my friends recently either.”

ReD · Jan 25, 2017

"You have siblings? Just the one brother?" Lochlann asked. He worried after he asked this because families were another one of those touchy subjects on the island. There were probably more orphans here than any place in the world. Magic tended to be explosive in a multitude of ways.

He nodded.

"I think I know where the waterfall is at," he told her. "Although it's possible I don't. There's definitely more than one waterfall out there. I just...don't recommend going into the water of any of them."

He liked that she faced her fears in almost a blase manner. It was, much like the nature of her fears, surprisingly practical.

After a moment's consideration, Lochlann decided to tell her as much.

"I like that you're so rational about the things that put you on edge," he told her. "Most people think that running away is a bad thing, but I don't. It's what keeps most of us alive."

He was surprised by her reaction to his near-death experience and he gave her an awkward shrug, but he couldn't hide the way he felt when she squeezed his arm. His eyes had widened in surprise, but the corners of his lips twitched into a partial smile.

He felt reassured by this, too, because he finally felt like he could talk to someone without the cloud of death that followed him. he didn't say it wouldn't be the first time because Lochlann reveled in what it was like to feel, well, pretty normal.

"This is actually my first week back to the island in probably close to a year," he said. "I did a shit thing to a lot of my friends and didn't tell them I was going. I mean, I didn't really know I was, but it was bad of me not to reach out when I was gone."

He hesitated at the pathway to the school.

"I'm enjoying this, too," he said. He took a final sip of his coffee. "I am hoping that your reasons for not seeing your friends are more benign than mine and have something to do with being a study bug? Otherwise you might have to worry about hearing that my influence is rubbing off on you."

I am J · Jan 25, 2017

Cat nodded, strands of hair coming loose from her tie in the motion. “Yes, just one. Caleb. He’s older. I kinda miss him. A lot. He’s getting married soon. He doesn’t know it yet but he’s totally head over heals for his girl.” She smiled wistfully thinking of him. “What about you? Brothers and sisters? You strike me as an only child but I bet I’m wrong.”

Her interest peaked then when he warned her off of the water in the area. “Why not? I swam in that water?” it was a statement but the lift in her tone made it a question. His compliments on her approach to fear might have been worthy before his prior comment about the water. “Well, I wouldn’t admit to some fears but being afraid of wolves howling in the woods on an island like this while you’re alone is nothing to shake a stick at. I’m also afraid of alleyways, spiders, burning, choking, drowning, and… I guess I should tell you now, I’m afraid of heights. And strangers in the dark.” She glanced sideways sheepishly at him while admitting the last two, gesturing around to the growing darkness as the sun got closer to setting.

“But,” she added, giving his arm a quick squeeze under her hand, “I think that fear is there to test our limits, something to be faced. The world would be awful boring with millions of perfect people walking around unafraid of anything.” She tipped her head back taking a big gulp of her coffee as they neared the library. It was a sin to waste coffee and she would stand outside the doors to finish it before throwing it in the bin. “But, tell me about this water...am I going to grow another head or...” She smiled because the dip in the water had been months ago in the summer. If something were going to happen, it would have by now.

“Oh,” she did find it odd to just drop your friends and leave, even unexpectedly, not that she should judge. When her telekinesis arose, she pretty much vanished from school. “What took you away for so long?” She laughed at him and drained the last of her coffee in three hot gulps. “Guilty. I just took a big course load and add work to it I’m left with a few evenings a week and one day on the weekend. I hike,” shrug. Most of her friends didn’t hike.

Cat drew her arm from his finally and the cooling air chilled the place that was made warm from contact. She took his cup and walked to the bin, discarding them. When she returned to his side she hesitated, then replaced her arm around his again. She liked being there. She wasn’t sure why she hesitated, it wasn’t like her. To make up for the hesitation she curled her fingers around his arm more firmly and stepped closer. “So, where is this secret entrance to this secret roof top?”

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I keep a book of the names

ReD

Sex & Death Everywhere

I am J

Well-Known Member

ReD

Sex & Death Everywhere

I am J

Well-Known Member

ReD

Sex & Death Everywhere

I am J

Well-Known Member

ReD

Sex & Death Everywhere

I am J

Well-Known Member

ReD

Sex & Death Everywhere

I am J

Well-Known Member