Night Cat | Night Cat #1 (CURRENTLY EDITING)

Night Cat - Chapter 3

There's Something About Him

I didn't tell anyone about that night. It's not like anyone would believe me anyway.

"Whoa. Guys. What's with the strait jacket?" Those would be the last words out of my mouth before I was dragged away kicking and screaming, tossed into the back of a large white van to live out the rest of my days in the nut house. A panther that was stalking me? Hell, I was tempted to have myself committed too.

So I kept my mouth shut and didn't say anything to anyone. Not even when Brie asked me if my mysterious night walks had stopped. I just smiled, replied with a casual "Yeah" and turned my attention back to my slice of pepperoni pizza. By the end of the day, I was actually pretty close to forgetting that the whole thing even happened. Almost.

Brie and I were just stepping out the front doors of the school when my shoelaces came untied. "Crap." I muttered as I bent to tie my laces.

"This is why I keep telling you to stop wearing your damn chucks to school and invest in a good pair of heels, Ave." I grinned. I didn't need to look at her face to know that she was rolling her eyes at me.

"I'm already 5'7" Brie," I replied with a laugh. "I can go without the extra height."

I had been expecting a sarcastic comeback from my hair-brained best friend, but I didn't get one. Her only response was a distracted "Uh-huh. Yeah."

I yanked my laces tight and confused, stood up to see what Brie was so flabbergasted about. It didn't take long for me to find out what was wrong with her. As soon as I stood up, I found myself looking straight into the face of someone I could have sworn I'd seen on the cover of some magazine. Xander Hawkes.

"Hey there!" He smiled, revealing a set of pearly white, even teeth.  I noticed that he had a dimple on his left cheek, near his mouth.

"Um. Hi" Ugh. Why did I sound like such an idiot? He must've thought I was a freak.

He didn't seem to notice my idiocy though. Instead, his smile widened. "You're Avery, right? I'm Xander. We have Spanish together." Yeah, I thought, that was something that was pretty hard not to notice. Then it hit me.

"How do you know my name?" A totally valid question, if you asked me. It was completely understandable that I knew his name, him being the main subject of school gossip and all that. But my name was something he couldn't have possibly known unless... Unless he'd been asking about me.

The expression on Xander's face turned from shocked to sheepish. "I... Um, I --"

"I told him." I turned to look at the friend I had forgotten all about. Brie was standing between me and Xander with her hand on her hip and an incredulous look on her face. "He asked me who you were, and I told him."

Yes, Brie. Thanks for mentioning that to me. I wished that the floor would open up and swallow me, and judging from the look on Xander's face, he did too. Though what he had to be embarrassed about I had no clue. Oh, the whole "Asking about me" thing. Right.

"Hey, I didn't mean to creep you out or anything. You just... you just interested me." Xander's gray eyes swirled as he looked into mine and I felt as if I was watching smoke entwine with silver-lined storm clouds. It took a while for his words to register. 

Apparently he thought I was freaked out by the fact that he had asked me. In a way, I guess I was. Freaked out, I mean. But I wasn't freaked out in a bad way. It was a thrilled kind of freaked out. Very thrilled. "You didn't creep me out. I was just surprised, is all." I explained, noting that my dear friend Brie had subtly slipped away to give me and Xander some privacy. I sighed mentally. She and I needed to have a serious talk. 

I didn't look away from his eyes. There was something about them... something that kept pulling me towards him. I just couldn't figure out what that something was.

He chuckled, running a hand through his hazelnut brown hair. “Yeah, well. I’m still sorry about that Avery.” I noticed that he didn’t call me Ave. Everyone else I knew automatically started calling me Ave after the first five minutes of introduction. Not him though.

I smiled warmly. “Don’t worry about it.” I raised an eyebrow and added, as an after-thought, “Though, if you want to know anything about me, I suggest that you ask me. Brie has a tendency to exaggerate when it comes to me. A lot.”
Xander laughed and immediately, I found myself wanting to hear that sound again. I chided myself mentally. For Pete’s sake Ave. Get a hold of yourself. Honestly.

Suddenly, I was aware of the hundred pairs of eyes that were glued onto me and Xander; and as if he had read my mind, he looked around us, evidently aware of the same thing. We were being watched.

He lowered his head and leaned in closer until his mouth was near my ear. “So, Avery, what would you say if I asked you I you would like to sit with me at Spanish tomorrow?” I was staring straight ahead, but I could hear the smile in his voice and I couldn’t help but smile myself. 
“I would say, ‘Save me a seat’.” I replied, trying not to smirk over the looks I was earning from the group of cheerleaders that was gawking at us.

Xander seemed delighted at my answer. He stepped back and I saw that I was right. He was smiling. “Great.” 
The word barely registered in my mind, because with a pang, I realized why I couldn’t look away from his eyes; I realized why they were so familiar. They were familiar because I’d seen them recently. “Recently” as in, last night. I had seen that exact same pair of eyes on the face of my midnight watch-cat. I had seen those same eyes on the panther. 
“Great.” I repeated, trying not to sound too shell-shocked. “See you tomorrow then. Bye.” And with that, I took off, practically running down the school steps.

I didn’t care how crazy my peers thought I was. I didn’t care how much I’d just confused the hottest guy in school. All I knew was that I was going crazy. Why else would I think that Xander’s eyes were the same eyes I’d seen on some unreal panther? Why?

Yeah… I was most definitely losing my mind. Goody.