Twinkling in the Dark | ✔︎

Chapter 1

"Run it again, boys!" Coach Segal roared across the tracks, my track team sprinting faster after his command.

Usually I would've been on the rounded tracks at 7 in the morning, suffering with my team as our coach ordered us to undergo more exercises, but currently, my grades were declining along with my will to repair them. If a student's grades had fallen drastically it was an unnecessary rule for said student to not participate in any sports. A stupider rule than our dress code.

I averted my eyes from my biology homework to my flushed, shirtless friends running laps around the hard worn-out track, rounding around a wide patch of grass.

"Coach," I groaned in exasperation, "when can I run again?" You know that feeling when you were a child, and your mother would set out her fresh cookies but wouldn't let you eat any? I was the child, and the cookies were running laps.

"When you get your grades up, Aurora," he responded after shouting at Tommy to quicken his pace. "Sorry, kid. If it were my way, I'd have you showing these boys exactly how to run."

I huffed in annoyance, blowing a hair out of my eyes.

"Practice dismissed," Coach shouted. The screeching sound of his old whistle that we had all become accustomed to following shortly after, and the boys made their way to the locker room to prepare for the beginning of the school day.

♛ ♛ ♛

As I walked through the doors into the silent campus library, the scent of old books filled my nose. Studying high school students, some faces I recognized and some I didn't, could be seen scattered around the desks, desperate to cramp in this lunch period before a test they had next.

My eyes scanned the sections and signs above each wooden shelf. I headed over to the Chemistry section. I was on the hunt for any book about the elements to help me through my chemistry course.

I mean, how does our teacher expect us to memorize every element and their locations?

I crouched down to the lowest shelf as I recognized some titles about the Halogen Family when I felt a heavy kick in my back, followed by a loud thump. Ignoring the aching feeling in the center of my back which would undoubtedly bruise in a few hours, I snapped my head to the right where the sound came from and realized a tall, broaded-shoulder figure had tripped over me.

"Sorry," I started hesitantly as he pulled himself back up. "I-I didn't mean to block your way." I stuttered as his intimidating aura immediately filled the aisle, immediately making me timid while acknowledging the other students observing our exchange with curiosity-filled gazes.

He bent down to pick up a notebook and pen he was holding before he fell, all while his entrancing silvery eyes burned holes into me. A deep grunt finally left his lips as a response before he proceeded to leave with a bland-look behind his eyes.

Suddenly, it was as if I lost control over my legs as they carried my towards the now retreating figure. "Hey. Wait up." I grabbed his muscular arm to pull him back. "Aren't you going to tell me your name?"

He yanked his tanned arm away from my grasp and shifted his body to face me. His cold, yet soft, grey eyes that seemed to be the keeper of so many secrets bore into my emerald ones. Amidst the temporary silence, I lost myself in a dark abyss that were his eyes and didn't realize his lips moving nor the sound emitting from them.

"Uh, what was that?" I asked, a sheepish smile painted on my face as I realized I was still holding onto his wrist but made no move to let go.

"Xander Kings." His deep voice said as his eyes flickered to my grasp on his wrist but didn't seem to yank his arm away this time.