by R. G. Angel
The salesman sighed. “Fine, let me go pick it up for you.”
“Thank you.” I was grateful that Tamlin stood up for me.
“Anytime.” I was a bit disappointed when Tamlin removed his arm from around me. It’d been nice and strangely soothing to be so close of him. “Plus, you seem to be quite stubborn; it’s clearly better to side with you.”
“You have no idea.” I laughed. “Smart move,” I added, walking to the register to pay.
Once we made it outside the store, my stomach growled loudly, making me blush self-consciously.
Tamlin glanced at me with humor in his unique eyes. “I’m quite hungry too.” He looked at his watch. “Do you want to grab something to eat?” he asked, pointing to the sandwich shop nearby.
I nodded gratefully. He was so caring, not something I would have expected.
I settled for a tuna sandwich as he took the meatballs one.
“You’re very nice to me,” I said as we sat at a table. “Thank you.”
“That’s my job,” he replied and backtracked almost immediately, probably seeing the hurt on my face. “And you are very fun to hang out with,” he added with a smile. “It’s a win-win situation.”
“Right…” I mumbled, already reluctant to go back to my room, to my super excited former cheerleader roommate who was on edge since she didn’t get her pledge invitation yet. “Oh, since you are starting your fourth year, you probably know that…”
Tamlin looked at me curiously, waiting for me to continue.
“Do you know when the fraternities/sororities are doing their pledge invitation thingy?” I asked, playing with the cap of my bottle of water.
“Why? Do you want to join one?” he asked and I could hear the surprise in his voice.
I snorted. “Hardly.” I let out a weary sigh. “No, it’s Krysten.” I grimaced.
“With a Y!” he exclaimed with such seriousness that we both broke into laughter.
“Right… silly me.” I rolled my eyes. “She is waiting for an invitation from…” I tried to remember the name she told me, but I was pretty good at blocking her chatter and now it was coming back to bite me in the butt. “Chiconga? Omicha? Chimichonga?” I added, sticking my tongue out.
“Chi omega?” he guessed with a smile playing on his lips.
I shrugged. “Yeah, that makes more sense.” I took a big bite of my sandwich.
“And you want to know if you still have a chance to get rid of her or if you’re doomed to stay with her for the full year?” he asked, knowing he was right.
“I can’t hide anything from you,” I said, not able to conceal the bitterness in my voice.
He frowned, taken aback, but continued as if nothing happened. “Well, you still have hope,” he said before taking a sip of Coke. “However, if she doesn’t get it by tomorrow night…” He grimaced. “You’ll probably have a roommate for the year.”
“Damn!”
“What about you? Have you been invited to join any sororities?”
I almost choked on the piece of bread I had in my mouth. He couldn’t have done better if he had tried to kill me. He was the second person I talked to here that was not a professor or an employee of the university! The first being Krysten, but I could hardly count her since I was probably fitting about five words in the whole conversation. I even started to think that I should just buy a mirror and stick it on my back while I worked on my assignments… I was almost certain that she could totally chat with herself.
“Still with me?” Tamlin asked, cocking his head to the right in a very cute way.
I looked up and finally realized that he had no idea on how asocial I was. I sadly realized that he was not as aware of me as I was of him and that it was just silly to even think otherwise. He saw I was lost; he felt bad for me and wanted to help. It didn’t go any further than that.
“No, no invitation for me.” I cleared my throat, standing up. “Well, thank you for the help but I really have to go now. I have… I have things to prepare for class, but I know how to get home.” I quickly added the laptop box.
He stood up as well. “Did I say something wrong? If I did, I’m sorry.” He sounded utterly sincere.
“No, you didn't, it's just—I forgot I had something to do.” I waved my fingers dismissively. “I’ll see you around,” I added, forcing a smile before turning around and rushing out.
I had barely walked away when Tamlin caught my wrist, causing the now customary electrical current through my body.
He let go of my wrist immediately. I looked at his hand—had he left it?
I gave him a questioning look.
“Well, if you’re going back, so am I.”
I forced another smile but the spell was broken, the afternoon friendship.
We rode back to campus in silence; I was too lost in my own mind to even consider what was going through his. Was this reaction to his touch normal? Was it what happened when you were really attracted to someone?
I was relieved when we reached the building and a guy from our floor jogged to Tamlin to ask him something. It avoided awkward goodbyes.
I waved goodbye before rushing into the building.
As soon as I walked into the room, I heard an extremely annoying sound coming from Krysten which probably meant good news in her ultrasonic language.
“Ohmygosh! Ohmygosh!” She squealed again, jumping toward me, waving an envelope in front of my face. “They invited me!”
“That’s awesome!” I exclaimed sincerely, putting the laptop box on my bed. The sooner you’re out, the better I’ll feel.
Being a loner, having to share my living space was a real torture for me. It was so draining. I needed a private space to regroup and recenter when things were getting to be too much.
“I know, right?” She crashed on her bed. “I just have one mission to accomplish and then I’ll be in,” she added a bit less excitedly. “And it’s pretty tough but the tougher it is, the more points you get and this one will get me in immediately.”
As I unboxed the laptop, I could see from the corner of my eyes that she was eyeing me intensely.
“Ooh, you bought a computer? That’s nice.” She tried to sound interested while I put it on the desk.
I sighed, already knowing she had a favor to ask. There was no other reason for her pretending to be interested about something that had nothing to do with her.
“What do you need, Krysten?” I asked, trying to keep my annoyance out of my tone.
“Well…” She was actually fidgeting now. It was big; that was sure. “I know you are studying with the animals.” She smiled.
“Uh-huh…” I decided not to correct her but now I had a clear mental picture of a donkey lecturing me in environmental protection.
“Well, you see, I need to go and steal an exotic animal from a science lavatory. And I was thinking you could help me,” she suggested with a sheepish smile.
I arched my eyebrows in surprise. “Really? It says that?” What does a freaking lavatory have to do with all that?
“Yeah, it does.” She gave me the card.
Oh my… I thought, realizing the full extent of the nothingness of her brain. “It says lab, Krysten. Science lab.” I gave her the card back.
“Yeah, that’s what I said.” She made a face, like I was slow.
“Boy, your brother must be an amazing football player,” I muttered, genuinely impressed.
“Oh yeah, he is the best!” She looked down at the card. “Anyway, it’s like breaking and not being allowed and stuff.”
“Breaking and entering,” I corrected, wanting to slap myself for doing so.
“Well, there is no point of breaking and not entering, is there?” she explained as if she thought I was special needs yet again.
“Of course, stupid me…” I spat with sarcasm.
“It’s alright.” She waved her hand dismissively. “It’s kind of dangerous, but I can’t do it without you. I don’t even know in which lavabo to look. Ther
e are so many of them in school.”
I looked at her for a moment. It was against the school rules and I could risk a lot doing that, but if I didn’t help, she would not make it and she would stay with me. That thought alone almost made me cry.
“I’ll do it,” I decided. “As soon as it’s dark, we’ll go there,” I added with a sharp nod. At least if we ended up in jail, I could ask for separate cells.
“Thank you,” she exclaimed, jumping off the bed to hug me.
“Oh no, thank you,” I exhaled, patting her back awkwardly. Thank you for letting me help you to get the hell out of here, I added to myself.
Chapter 4
I turned around in the dark corridor, pointing my flashlight on Krysten’s face.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” I whispered angrily, well as angrily as you could sound in a hiss. “We are breaking into a public building, which is a federal offense by the way, and you decided to come with your freaking stilettos!” I added pretty sure she would not even register the gravity of my words.
“So?” she whispered back, looking down at her feet.
“So? … So?” I asked, seeing myself hitting her with the flashlight. There was no way she couldn’t hear the deafening clicking sound of her heels in the deadly quiet school building. Hell, I was pretty sure the whole floor could. “I don’t care anymore; you can whine as much as you want, but you take them off now or I’ll turn around and go home.”
“Fine!” She sighed like she was doing me a favor stepping out of the shoes. “Geez Louise, chill out,” she added, offended.
I took a deep breath as the image of me hitting her with the flashlight rushed back in the front of my mind. I gave her a curt nod and started to walk very carefully. The exotic animals were only four doors down.
When we arrived in front of the lab, I directed the light to the keyring full of keys that Krysten was holding for me.
I had to give her some credit; she was probably not the brightest crayon in the box, but she had a gift to get what she wanted with her big, naïve, and childlike eyes.
“Okay, we will go over this one more time.” I wanted to remind her of the rules before opening the door. “You take it to your thingy but you don’t hurt it, okay?”
She nodded, rolling her eyes. “I totally got it.”
“And as soon as you don’t need it anymore, you bring it back to me and I’ll find a way to bring it back to the lab,” I added. I was an animal lover and just the idea of playing a part in an animal getting hurt in any way made me sick.
“Promise,” she said, gesturing toward the door, clearly in a rush to get it done.
I looked at her doubtfully, reconsidering my decision for the twentieth time today. Don’t do this to yourself, Fay. It’s going to be okay. It’s just a tiny lizard… It’ll be fine, I repeated to myself to try and tame the guilt I was feeling as I slid the key in the lock.
I opened the door and rushed inside with Krysten stuck to my back.
“You stay here, and don’t move,” I hissed, gently pushing her against the wall beside the door. “I’ll be back in a minute,” I added, putting my backpack on the floor to retrieve the empty shoebox I brought for the lizard.
I may have only been there a handful of weeks, but I knew that room pretty well. The faint light of the flashlight was enough for someone who knew their way around.
I was halfway through the room when I heard a deafening sound from behind me.
I jumped as my heart tried to escape from my chest and I turned around, alert, directing the light in the direction of Krysten.
She raised her hand with a sheepish smile.
“Are you really trying to kill me?” I asked rhetorically and continued before she could humiliate herself with an answer. “What was unclear with the ‘stay here, and don’t move’ request?” I asked harshly. “I mean even someone like you can grasp that, right? Don’t answer that,” I added as my anger decreased at the same rate that my fear increased.
“I—” she started.
“Shush!” I raised my hand, trying to listen if there was anyone in the corridor. After a minute, I exhaled with relief.
“I just wanted to help.” She pointed her flashlight to my face, blinding me.
I blinked, gesturing for her to move her light out of my eyesight.
“Oh yeah, helping by doing what? Breaking…” I started with annoyance as I directed my light toward what she broke and froze on the spot.
Dread filled me as my lungs and stomach filled with crushed ice. She hadn’t broken anything; she’d just taken off the lid of the vivarium of one of the most dangerous reptiles on the planet.
Fear turned to absolute terror when I moved my light to look at the entire glass case to realize it was now empty.
“Krysten…” I stammered, barely recognizing my own voice as nausea now mixed with the icy dread.
In this vivarium, there used to be a Philippine cobra, the third deadliest snake on the planet and now it was somewhere in this dark closed room, with us. That snake could spit its venom up to three meters… That was just how fucked we were!
“Fay, what’s… what’s going on?” Krysten shrieked, probably seeing the fear on my face.
I took a deep breath, trying to give myself a semblance of calm. Krysten did not act ration on the best of days. Who could predict how she would act in fear? I didn’t particularly want to find out while in a room with a deadly snake.
“Nothing too concerning,” I tried to reassure her as I stepped back carefully to find the light switch. “I just need you to stay still and to shut it for a little while, okay?” I added, surprised at how calm I sounded despite having no clue on what to do next. I had never dealt with snakes before and I was pretty sure that Miss America in front of me never had either.
I turned on the light and I was blinded for a second. I was getting more and more resigned to call security and tell them the truth. If I got expelled, well, so be it. This was much more important than my academic career.
I walked slowly toward Krysten to direct her out of the room when I saw something rise behind her shoulder. I was close enough to see the twenty-three scales around its neck. It was about to strike and bite Krysten’s shoulder any second.
Sometimes you react faster than it even takes you to think. Call it instinct, second nature… or in this case a death wish. That’s exactly what happened when I did something contrary to every rule of every human survival instinct.
“No!” I shouted, bringing my hand between the cobra and Krysten’s neck while closing my eyes.
I grimaced, bracing for the bite. I would die in about thirty minutes after suffering cardiac arrest and respiratory paralysis. I hoped it didn’t hurt… too much.
I never thought of myself as being brave but here I was, sacrificing my life to save someone I didn’t even like. I guessed what people said was right; you never knew how strong you were until you needed to use that strength… Or in this case, insufferably stupid.
Nothing happened. I opened one eye, looking at my hand. The cobra was looking at it as if hypnotized, and Krysten was looking at me, her mouth wide open like a second head just popped out of my neck.
“You stopped it!” she murmured, her voice full of incredulity as she slowly moved to stand behind me.
“So it seems,” I replied very quietly as the snake looked into my eyes. “Shush… It’s alright,” I soothed the snake, bringing my shaking hand closer to him, knowing that it could bite me at any time. How stupider could I get? Not much more.
“Just let it be. Let’s go,” Krysten breathed down my neck.
I ignored her, continuing my progression as the snake was still looking at me as if he understood me. It was strange but it felt like it was begging me not to hurt him. I could feel his fear and apprehension.
“Okay, buddy, I’m just going to put you back in your vivarium. Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you,” I told him as my hand touched its neck, encircling it carefully yet loosely while I brought my
other hand to grip its middle. “That’s good,” I kept repeating as I put it back in the vivarium. “You’re a good snake,” I added like it was Stew my dead Labrador.
As soon as I closed the lid, Krysten encircled me from behind into a bear hug.
“You controlled it!” she exclaimed, stunned once she let go of me. “Ohmygosh! That was intense!”
“Right.” I took a deep breath, trying to settle my nerves at my gamble with death. “You can’t talk about that to anyone, you know that, right?” I warned, taking a small lizard and putting it in the box.
“Why is that?” I could hear the interest in her voice as her eyes narrowed with suspicion.
What did she expect me to say? That I was Superman’s long-lost sister?! I just got freaking lucky but I knew she wouldn’t settle for that. I had not a flipping clue on how I did that either.
“Well, the sorority would know you had help. They’d consider you cheated and you’d be excluded for life,” I bluffed. I had no idea of the rules.
Her eyes widened in realization and I knew I hit the jackpot… Bingo!
“This lizard is called a gecko; this one is known as a blue cave gecko. It’s tiny and very nice so please, be careful with it,” I told her slowly enough to understand.
“I can’t believe it,” she whispered, looking at the vivarium.
I snapped my fingers in front of her eyes. “Focus! This is a blue cave gecko. Take extra care of it and bring it back to me.”
She nodded as I gave her the box.
“Okay, now go!” I nudged her toward the door. “I’ll drop the keys back in your friend’s mailbox. Go meet your future sisters!”
“Thank you… you saved my life,” she said sincerely before rushing out.
I mumbled a ‘you’re welcome’ at her already retreating back, then I walked back to the vivarium as soon as she was out of sight.
I rested my hand against the glass and the snake came closer, resting his head against the glass at the exact spot where my hand was.
“Why did you listen to me?” I’d always known that I had a special bond with animals.
