The bell rang signalling the end of class and beginning of lunch hour. Carlisia’s heart pound in her rib cage and she could feel her face going pale.
She was scared what the tattooed and pierced supervisor wanted to talk to her about. Was she doing bad in her classes? Back at her old school she was a straight A student. Maybe he wanted to talk about why I didn’t come to school for so many days last week?
Carlisia sighed as she grabbed her bag and looked at the man beside her, who was looking at his watch.
“Shall we?” He asked and Carlisia nodded while she got a wink from a boy behind Gabriel making her blush and Gabriel to whip his head back to find the boy out of the class.
“You seem very pale.” Gabriel comments looking at her but Carlisia barely had an answer for that.
“It’s just the cold.” Carlisia replied and to some extent it was the truth.
Summer was rolling away and Carlisia could see the small changes in the weather, how the leaves were changing their color to beautiful red, orange and yellows.
Gabriel does not replies at her comment as his eyes blink yellow then back to their original self as he opens the door to his office, which the school had provided him for his personal doings and takes in a whiff of her scent as she obediently walks in without a question.
“A-aren’t we going to go to cafeteria to get our lunch first?” Carlisia asks nervously as she looks at Gabriel closing the door shut. The office was spacious and warm due to the heating system making Carlisia sweat a bit.
“Oh, I ordered Chinese.” Gabriel says pointing to the shopping bags on the table and Carlisia just nods awkwardly, removing her cardigan in the process leaving her in her peach tank top.
Gabriel stared at her skin and folds his hand in a fist to keep him from marking her on that table.
“Please take a seat.” Gabriel says and Carlisia goes and sits on the chair in front of the table waiting for him to occupy the chair in front of her so he could get the talk over with but to her annoyance he lightly strolls to his seat and begins taking out the food.
Carlisia stares at him scared. Not being able to take it anymore she finally says,
“You wanted to discuss something?” She whispers and Gabriel smiles placing a fork and a Styrofoam box in front of her.
“Ah, yes. I was wondering if you could look after my sister after school today. She seems quite fond of you and I am a little busy with work.” Gabriel says making up a quick excuse, which wasn’t that difficult to think of since his sister had been bugging him to take her to Carlisia and Carlisia nods relieved.
“Yes, Of course.” She says and places her hand over her chest.
“Are you okay?” Gabriel asks her and she smiles at him nodding.
“I was just so scared. I thought I wasn’t doing well enough in school.” She says and Gabriel laughs at her childish thought. These things did matter to humans a lot.
“Please. Your progress concerns you and your teacher. It’s not my say and personally I think you’re doing well.” Gabriel says and smiles at her.
“May I leave?” Carlisia asks kindly and Gabriel’s smile falters.
No!
“You may if you want too but I would like it if you could accompany for lunch.” Gabriel says and Carlisia nods uncomfortably, settling back down.
“I got you Cashew chicken and Chowmein if that okay with you?” Gabriel says and Carlisia just nods.
“Yeah, that’s fine. Thank you but I would like it if you could let me pay you.” Carlisia says and Gabriel shakes his head laughing.
“Oh, please! It’s nothing. Besides let it be a way of thanking you for your company.” Gabriel says and Carlisia smiles.
He didn’t seem bad at all.
Carlisia looked at him a bit more carefully and noticed how young he was. In his early twenties to be exact. He had a perfect jaw line and light grey eyes looked as if they could see through ones soul and to her shock Carlisia no longer felt scared of him. His tattoos and piercings no longer seemed scary and the aura around him no longer affected her anymore.
Maybe everyone was scared of him because of his appearance? Huh, typical stereotypes.
You should never judge a book by its cover.
Carlisia finally realized she was staring a blush creeping at her face as she quickly looked down and grabbed the fork.
“So Carlisia I know you’re a curious girl. If you have any questions shoot away and I’ll do my best to answer them.” Gabriel says and Carlisia nods and suddenly her mind goes to the very thing that had been bothering her for days but she couldn’t bring herself to ask it so she settled on a more innocent question then.
“How old are you?” Carlisia asks and Gabriel laughs at her innocence.
Out of all the things in the world she asked him his age? Cute.
“I’m twenty three. How about you?” He asks even though he already knew.
“I’m sixteen but I’ll turn seventeen next month.” She replies and Gabriel nods taking a bit of his food.
“Why is everyone so scared of you?” Carlisia asks and Gabriel smirked a bit but covered it up quickly. So she had observed.
“My father was a man of great authority. After he died when I was eighteen I took over him. Remember this Carly, things change a person and for the better good you have to accept it and comply.” Gabriel says and Carlisia nods.
He had power but from what? Was he an owner of a company?
Carlisia decided to let it go and softly said,
“I’m sorry about your father.” She says and Gabriel doesn’t say a word as he eats his food but Carlisia could see him stiffen.
“Tell me about your father. Where is he? I was given information that you live here with your mom and her husband.” Gabriel says and Carly tenses.
Gabriel knew he had pulled a string there but in order to do things in the right way he needed her to tell her darkest thoughts herself or else this could never work.
“My father passed away a month ago in an airstrike. He was in the army. I live with my mom because of the decision made from the court because my uncle wasn’t fit to take over my custody.” Carlisia says her face blank from emotion because she had expected the loss of her father and Gabriel looks at her.
He didn’t know about the court thing. Those were the files which his human spy did not dispatch because it was kept with the army.
“I am truly sorry about your father.” Gabriel says and she just shrugs looking down at the food as she chewed at it.
She knew her eyes were going red because of the feeling she was having inside and she quickly reaches for the water bottle in her bag and chugs it down before taking a deep breath and wiping her eyes with her finger.
“I’m sorry.” Gabriel says and reaches for her and hugs her to Carlisia’s surprise.
“I’m fine. I just havce something in my eye.” Carlisia says and Gabriel laugs out loud at her poor attempt to hide her blotchy eyes.
“You’re one of a kind Carlisia.” Gabriel says and Carlisia grins.
“I’ll take that as a compliment.” She says and smiled even wider when she saw him smiling.
His smiles seemed foreign to her and she wondered why he was so intimidating in public, keeping a straight face but one thing was for sure.
This Gabriel was very nice.
