Monsters Only Come Out at Night

A New Friend

"You never came to lunch," Lex's voice sounded out of nowhere, making Elise jump.

"Hey, nice to see yah," Elise mumbled, not very excited to be caught. "Now do you want to tell me how, exactly, you got here? Today's classes ended not even ten seconds ago and I made sure you weren't anywhere near my class when you sat down"

Would you believe me if I said my gift was teleportation?"

"No"

"Then how do you explain the way I got here so quickly?"

"Better question: why would you need to know the way to your classes if you could just teleport there?"

Lex clicked his tongue. "Yeah, I can't beat that"

Elise grinned, proud of her victory.

"Now tell me why you missed lunch"

Just like that her victory smile was gone, replaced by a grimace that you'd only see on a person's face after they've been punched in the gut. That was kind of what the words felt like though. Elise even had to look down and check his fist was buried in her fuzzy sweater. After she saw it wasn't her second guess was the pain meant her stomach was saying it still needed to eat. She chose to ignore it.

"I was dr- reading! I was reading" Somehow Elise had almost completely forgotten her very first rule: do not, under any circumstances, talk about your art. It was the very thing she'd been shamed for at her first primary school. She'd never trusted anyone with the knowledge she could draw well since then, except librarians. Librarians always seemed to be pretty nice. That is, as long as you aren't loud.

Lex eyed her suspiciously, then sighed and reached into his satchel, pulling out an apple shaped, and frosted, cookie.

"I told you first years each got a cookie at lunch," he grabbed Elise's hand, putting the cookie in her palm. "I saved you one. It's tasty and healthy so there's no reason why you shouldn't like it"

Elise managed to keep from rolling her eyes. "Apple shaped or not it's still a cookie, and thus, unhealthy"

"Take it anyway," he dropped the cookie in her open satchel after she tried to return it. "Our bodies need food, keep it on you for the next time you skip lunch, or want a quick snack. Now, how about we head back to the dorms, I'm done with lectures for the day!"

He droned on for some time as he guided her through the hallways and back towards the front doors of the school. She didn't hear much of what he was saying, though. Instead of listening she was analyzing the bag of the cookie for any evidence that it'd been tampered with. She had gotten sick way too many times from drugged food.

The bag was held closed by a ribbon of the same lime green as the leaf on the stem of the apple-cookie. An odd color choice indeed, but it somehow looked nice when paired with the bright red of the apple. It was tied in a complicated way that made it look as if it were connected to the leaf. 

She glanced at Lex's hands just long enough for her memory to get the shape of them down without it seeming like she was staring at his hands. That could cause some unwanted rumors. She stared back at the ribbon. His hands were big and clumsy, far from careful enough to be able to tie a ribbon so neatly.

She fiddled with the end of the string. Despite its abrasive look it had the texture of velvet. It felt quite different than what she had expected, like it was a complicated puzzle in a simple box. For some reason it made her think of Lex, who she should probably stop ignoring.

"I'm sorry, I zoned out, can you repeat that?" She asked, interrupting his sentence, though she wasn't too sure what it had been about anyway. All she'd really caught was that Lucas had been arguing with Ashna, and from his tone she could tell this was a regular occurrence.

"Oh, sure," He seemed flustered, he must not be used to repeating his words. "Where did you zone out at?"

"The beginning"

"Of why they started arguing? Okay, so Lucas had said he could-"

"No," she interrupted once again. "Further back"

"How much further?" This time he looked a bit confused. Elise didn't understand why he was so hesitant to repeat what he just said, he seemed to like talking a lot anyway.

"The very beginning. You know, since we left the classroom and I stopped talking"

"Uhm, Elise?" This time he looked concerned, and it didn't seem like his concern was towards the possibility he'd lose his voice with all the talking.

"Yeah?"

"You were an active part of the conversation until I started talking about the argument. And by active I mean giving examples of times similar things had happened to you active"

"Oh," Elise hadn't realized she'd been doing that, or recall when she had started doing it. "Sorry, it's a thing I do. I tend to zone out a lot but my mother values an active conversation over pretty much everything so overtime I grew a habit of automatically responding to something a person says, I hadn't realized I'd been doing it"

"Hey, guess what. We're at the entrance to the girls dorms so why don't I just repeat what I said tomorrow when we walk here again? I think you need some sleep!" He said it with kindness but Elise could bet under that was disgust. People were always disgusted when they learned about any of her bad habits.

"Alright, I'll try not to zone out tomorrow!" She meant to say the words with all the energy he'd given her throughout the day, trying to give it back. She didn't deserve that energy.

Something in his gaze softened. Maybe he noticed the strain in the voice or the way her smile didn't quite meet her eyes. She prepared to sidestep any questions he threw at her. She despised pity almost as much as she did herself.

"Really, get some sleep all right, you seem tired"

"I will after I get all my school work done," she promised. "It won't just do itself while I sleep!" She'd meant that as a joke, but for some reason he flinched. She told herself to stay out of it. After all he hadn't pried with her and she planned on offering that same courtesy.

"Alright then," he offered her a smile just about as happy as hers had been then pet her bright red curls. "Bye-bye little rabbit, get some rest, we have P.E. at seven tomorrow morning. Pretty sure we'll be running laps in the dark, if the coach is as evil as Lucas describes, that is"

"Goodbye, Alexander," Elise used his full name to retort at him for calling her 'little rabbit'. "Get some sleep as well. If I'm tired that means I'll be stealing your energy so you'll need a lot of it," too bad for him Elise was always tired.

She watched as he walked away then turned back to the door. A sign above it read 'Dunamis Academy Women's Dorms' in bold, soft pink letters.

She was about to walk in then decided against it, instead looking up at the clear, blue sky. 

"I have a new friend, dad." she whispered to the nothingness. "A new friend, and he's really nice. I haven't known him for long, but I think you'd like him"

She stared into the empty blueness for some time after that, not yet ready to go inside yet, then she'd have to see her roommate once again. She'd managed pretty well avoiding her in the morning and Elise had fallen asleep almost instantly after getting sick the night before. Other than that though the girls had hardly interacted at all and Elise wished to keep it that way, but seeing as they shared a room she could bet that was pretty impossible.

"Well, here goes nothing," she whispered to herself this time. Her father couldn't help her from where he was.

Elise gulped down as much air as possible before reaching for the ginormous door handle. She knew that staying there forever was impossible, but she could at least delay the inevitable. 

"Bye, dad," she whispered once more at the sky. Missing it before it was even gone. She gave herself one last deep breath, hoping that it could stay the last for that day, then made her way into the dormitory.