Souls Entwined (boyxboy) (On Hold)

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

    Mrs. Bowen’s eyes lit up like glossy volcanic stone. “Can I see your schedule?” She asked as she walked up to Matthew. He nodded and reached into his three ring binder, producing a slip of paper. “I just want to make sure you’re in the right place.” She mulled over the schedule and smiled brightly. “You’re in the right place!”

    Her excessive, sudden joy made Matthew jump slightly. “That’s good news,” he said with a slight southern twang. “For a school that’s kinda small, I got turned around quite a bit.”

    I decided that he seemed friendly enough, which was odd considering that I rarely gave anyone a second look, but this kid seemed a little different. He looked as if he stood just nine inches over five feet tall and had a slender, athletic build. Matthew’s ashen blonde hair contrasted against his tanned skin. He didn’t have that fake glow that some of the ladies around here sported; it just looked like he enjoyed being outside.

    “His tan will definitely fade here,” I thought to myself with a chuckle.

    “Just take an empty seat of your choosing, Matthew.”

    Immediately, his eyes darted around the room. Nervously, he took a step forward toward the seat that belonged to the absent student but stopped as his eyes made it to my table.

    I didn’t know it was possible for someone to have eyes so grey but vibrant at the same time. Finding myself locked in his metallic gaze, I lowered my eyes to the test in front of me. “Please don’t sit with me,” I mentally willed. It wasn’t that I didn’t like the guy, but I just knew that if a stranger sat with us, Sarah would never lift her head. It was already difficult enough getting her to speak to me in school.

    Matthew sat in the empty seat beside me. “Hi,” he said in a hushed voice.

    “Hi,” I said without lifting my eyes.

    “Ok, ladies and gentleman,” Mrs. Bowens began with vigor, “good luck on your tests. Matthew,” she said speaking directly to the new student, “feel free to give the test your best shot, but don’t worry about it too much. If you get lucky and make a good grade, I’ll count it, but if you don’t, we’ll just pretend it never happened.”

    “Yes, Ma’am,” he said in a polite tone.

    I found myself sitting perfectly still, afraid to move and gain the attention of the new body beside me. After at least five minutes, I blew out a light breath and closed my eyes. Concentrating became difficult with Matthew beside me. Somehow, I ended up focusing on his scent of wildflowers and something else that wove into the mixture, giving him a musky scent that flooded my mind.

    “Stop this,” I commanded to myself mentally. “You don’t have time for this.” With that, I took a deep breath and withdrew into myself, blocking out the world around me. In close proximities like a classroom, my mind extended with ease. As more minds filled my own, I felt my strength ebb away from me.

    Mentally weaving my consciousness like a snake through the seas of minds, I came across the worrying thoughts of stressing students, but I had one mind in particular. Mrs. Bowens mind stood out against the other minds in the classroom. Where their thoughts were erratic and jumbled, Mrs. Bowens, despite her emotional instability, had a relatively clear mind.

    I only had to brush against her outer thoughts to see the test key vividly.

    I snapped back into my own mind, releasing an impossibly deep breath. With the back of my hand, I wiped away the sweat that formed from my brow and lifted my eyes. All other eyes in the classroom were on their own tests. Even Mrs. Bowens sat quietly in her desk flipping through papers.