Memory

Chapter Thirteen- Trystan

Ethan puts his hands on the door of the recreational room. For some reason, I feel my heart speed up as if in nervousness. At the same time, Jake comes walking down the hall, his hands stuffed into his pockets.

“Jake!” I say, pulling my phone out my pocket. I plant a precious kiss on it, and hand it to Jake as he comes face-to-face with me. “Please hold this for me. I don’t want any...distractions while I’m going in there.”

Well, Dimitri isn’t really a distraction.

Jake pretend salutes me and nods. “Will do, my lady.”

“Wait,” Ethan pipes up, standing next to me. “Did you just mix the Army with medieval times?”

I raise my eyebrows at Ethan before glancing at Jake.

Jake tilts his head in confusion. “What do you mean?”

An awkward silence stretches between us, so I step in between them and say, “Hello! Well now, Ethan. Let’s go the to rec room, like you said. Jake, go…uh,” I stop for a moment, then I continue, “Go do whatever you was going to do.” I nod once, and pull Ethan along with me to the rec room.

“Okay, Trystan!” Jake says. “You’re phone is safe with me.”

Nodding again, I open the door to the rec room, and the conversations that had been going on before gradually stop. Only the people at the games and T.V resume their activities.

One person, in particular, takes a special interest in me...after a long, hard look at the rest of the room and the boys and girls around her.

The girl called Lindsey Preston. I think.

“That’s her,” Ethan whispers at my side. “Ms. Drama Queen. Lindsey.”

I figured.

Lindsey moves from her statue position and walks up to me. Fierce, dark brown eyes stare me right in the face. After a few seconds, Lindsey finally returns to Earth and smiles kindly at me.

“Hello, rookie,” she says. Her voice is annoyingly high and slightly Scottish. But her eyes never leave mine; it is as if she wants to read me. Believe me, it’s exactly what’s happening. “I see that another beautiful face is added among us.”

I notice some of the boys that were hanging around Lindsey turn fully towards us, the center of attention.

Ethan comes up beside me and says to Lindsey, “Cool it, hot stuff. You’re gonna scare the poor girl to death!” He nudges my shoulder, and I blink a few times before smiling at her. I hold out my right hand to her, and say, “The name’s Trystan Sparrow.”

Lindsey glares at my hand, as if it were vermin. She then barely smiles and dips her head respectfully. “Likewise.” She then turns abruptly from us and is surrounded by her very loud groupies.

I feel my fingers twitch as my hand hangs alone in the air. Slowly, so I don’t explode into anger, I put my hand in my pockets. I take a few calming breaths before opening my lips to say this to Ethan, “How dareshe? She is not the queen of...of anything! Seriously. Does she, like, have multiple personalities?”

The conversations resume around the room, but there are still people staring at me.

Ethan puts his hands on my shoulders, seeming to know my tendency to explode into a raging fit. “She always does that to the rookies.”

Glancing at him, I shake my head, then I glare at Lindsey and her little crew, imagining me smacking every single one of them until my annoyance is below the red line. “Talk about dramatic.”