When we arrived in front of my door, he pushed it open. Gently, he deposited me on my couch, and my eyes closed for what felt like maybe a few seconds but must have been much longer, because when I re-opened them, Greyson was shaking my shoulder to wake me.
“Hey, short stuff. You should get into your actual bed if you wanna sleep without a crick in your neck.”
I stood, stretching out my arms and yawning. Looking around the room, I wondered where he put the towels he used to dry us off, or if he even used towels. Man, I hoped he’d used towels.
“How did you...?”
He blinked at me, confused. “Uh, you mean this?” he shook my shoulder again, and I smacked his hand.
“No, I mean where are the towels?” I felt awkward with his chestnut eyes pinned on me the way they were.
“Where do towels go when they’re dirty, short stuff?”
I sighed, feeling stupid. “Whatever.”
I moved to climb my ladder but paused when I noticed a cup of water on the table. “That yours?” I gestured to it. Greyson made a face, as if that sounded gross. I shrugged – must have forgotten I’d left a cup out the other day – and climbed into my bed.
“Thanks, for, you know...this.” I said, as I settled in.
“Well, maybe you should invest in sleeping pills to keep your ass in bed,” he replied, grinning.
I rolled my eyes, shoved a pillow over my head, and groaned. I could hear his laughter, albeit muffled by the pillow.
“You’re so annoying, even when you’re being a decent person.”
The pillow was plucked from my head and tossed aside, and I realized Greyson was standing on the couch so that he was able to look down on me, his hair looking brown in the lighting of the room. I hated to admit it, but he was incredibly handsome. His expression was soft, and his gorgeous eyes roamed over my face, searching. I could get lost in those eyes, if I wanted to – not that I wanted to.
“Hey,” he said, voice soft.
I realized then that I’d been practically making out with him with my eyes, and I snapped out of it. “Y-yes?” I could feel the blush staining my cheeks at how obvious my attraction to him must have been in that moment.
“Get some rest, will you, Cal? If I’m gonna be stuck with you for a while, I’m gonna need you to be well-rested or else Emma’s enthusiasm is going to kill you.”
“And why would you care?”
Greyson winked, looking wicked and playful in one gorgeous package. “Maybe I don’t.”
“That so?”
“That’s so.”
“Uh, well okay.” I managed.
He smirked. “Don’t give yourself an aneurism, short stuff. I’d hate to see you die so young.”
I groaned. “Get out before I smother you with my pillow, shirtless wonder.”
I could still hear him laughing, even after he closed my door.
It only occurred to me as I was in that place between being fully asleep and awake, that I should wonder how on earth he got our clothes and hair so dry within what must have only been a few minutes.
*~~*
When I arrived at the dining hall the next morning, Emma’s hug was enough to nearly break my ribs. “I’m so sorry we all fell asleep. You must have been like, crazy bored. What great new friends we are...”
I wasn’t sure if I should feel thankful that Hunter had decided not to draw on everybody’s faces after I left, or annoyed that Greyson was smirking at me over his cup of coffee.
“Actually, Hunter was awake.” I gestured towards the now-sleeping nineteen-year-old.
“That’s who drew a dick on my forehead!” exclaimed Gage. He smacked the culprit’s arm, which did nothing to wake him.
I couldn’t help the laughter that bubbled out of me, and Gage shot me a look, eyes narrowed. “It wasn’t there when you left, was it?”
I shook my head. “God, no. But at least it looks like you got it all off.”
“Actually, it’s Cover Girl,” he replied, pointing to his forehead, which I realized was absent of its usual freckles. “It’s not the first time one of them has pulled this shit.”
Even Greyson laughed at that remark, nearly choking on his coffee.
“So,” Emma turned to me. “Are you ready for swimming today?”
I blinked. Oh no. I hadn’t thought...
“S-swimming?”
Emma nodded enthusiastically. “This time of year is always swimming – you know, laps and diving, that sort of thing. So fun, am I right?”
I gulped. I’d always feared swimming, preferring to stay in the shallow end, close to the edge. There was something about bodies of water that unnerved me, and I’d never been able to pin point why.
I must have made a face, because everybody at the table grew quiet, and I was met with four looks of confusion, and one of pure shock from Greyson.
“I take it you don’t enjoy swimming?” Greyson said after picking his jaw up off of the floor.
I shrugged like a petulant child. “Just not in bodies big enough to drown in...”
“You know, you can drown in a puddle, short stuff,” he informed me, causing my heart to squeeze in terror at the thought.
I took in a fast breath.
“Worried you’re actually gonna drown in a puddle?” Greyson teased. I didn’t bite, because, yeah, now I kind of was thanks to him, but he didn’t need to know that.
He laughed at whatever expression was on my face. “I mean, it’s unlikely you’re gonna drown in a puddle, but I guess anything is possible, for somebody that sleep walks in the middle of a storm,” he said, before pushing his chair back and standing up. “Well, I’m off. Catch you in P.E. short stuff.”
I grunted a response as Greyson examined me, his face going from playful to curious. “You alright? You kind of look like shit. No offence.”
I rolled my eyes. “You can be a real dick, did you know that?”
He smirked at me. “I’ve been told.”
“Well, I’m okay. And as for last night...” I sighed. “Thanks again, Greyson. I know you don’t exactly like me.”
He shrugged. “It’s whatever.”
I chewed on my thumb nail some more, going for casual indifference. I failed miserably, of course, ripping a hang-nail off and opening a lovely cut that with my luck, would become infected.
Greyson’s voice startled me. “Would you stop already?”
I looked up, confused. “Stop what?”
Our eyes met, and he stared at me for a good second. “I don’t even know why I give a shit,” he said quietly, as if to himself.
Nobody else had said a thing the whole time, I realized, because they were all watching us interact as if we were primetime television. Greyson noticed around the same time as me, and he stalked away, his bag slung over his shoulder. “You’re bleeding,” he called over his shoulder. “It’s annoying.”
I looked at my thumb, and realized he was right. Oh.
And then I realized that he hadn’t corrected me when I stated that he didn’t like me. But then why would it bother him if I was bleeding? Was he squeamish?
When he was safely out of hearing range, Gage spoke up. “You can swim, can’t you?” he asked gently.
I shrugged. “I can float.”
I’d never seen somebody look as scandalized as he did upon hearing that. “You mean to tell me that you can’t swim?”
I nodded and continued to chow down on my thumb as if it was my last meal, despite the blood. “Not very well. Nobody ever taught me.” My voice was quiet, afraid. I didn’t want to be judged – and how could he not judge me? I closed my eyes to hide the embarrassment that was surely on full display within.
“You can get an exemption,” Emma said, “while you learn to swim.”
I frown. “That’d be embarrassing.”
Lex shrugged. “You could just fake an injury. That’s what Hunter does all the time.”
“Fuck off,” Hunter mumbled, sleepily. “I work, and I look after you idiots.
Sometimes I don’t want to take on extra shifts. Sue me.”
I shook my head. “I’ll guess I could tell the teacher that I got hurt or something. Better than saying I can’t swim.”
Hunter sat up to stretch, yawning obnoxiously loud as he did so. “Yeah, no.”
“Here we go,” Lex declared, “He’s gonna baby the newbie.”
“Baby me?” I couldn’t picture Hunter as the babying type.
He ignored his sister, leveling his gaze with mine. “I’m your new mom now, so listen up.”
I was about to laugh, until I realized his expression was dead serious. “Um, okay?”
“Tell him you can’t swim and get an exemption. You don’t need a lie on your record.”
Lex is quick to refute the idea. “You’re not going to go tell the teacher that you can’t swim, because kids are cruel, and they’ll inevitably find out and your life will be pretty shit for the next however long you’re here for. This girl I have second period with dyed her hair bright blue by accident and even though nobody saw it besides her roommate, word got out. They still call her Smurf. Just tell Coach you’re on your period. Coach is freaking terrified of periods.”
Crossing my arms, I sigh. “I am not telling him I am on my period. I think I should save that for the real deal.”
“I’ll go over the basics of swimming with you,” Emma said, although her confidence in my grasping the theory so quickly must have been pretty low, because she sounded nervous. “Maybe today’ll be a refresher if we’re lucky.”
I gulped. I really, really hoped it would be.
In the end, I told Coach the truth. Emma, bless her heart, had gone over the theory with me until she was blue in the face, but my anxiety trumped all logic, and I sat through all of P.E, feeling like a complete idiot as everybody else splashed about happily.
At the end of class, Coach stopped me, and pulled me aside. “Listen,” he said, “Greyson’s a great swimmer. Why don’t you ask him for lessons?”
I shook my head. “I don’t think he’d really like that idea.”
Coach laughed, and it boomed throughout the now-empty pool-room. “What gives you that idea?”
I shrugged. “He doesn’t like people,” I paused, as Greyson pushed through the double-doors to the room, stepping in as if he owned the place. He was still dressed in his swim trunks.
“You wanted to see me, Coach?” he asked.
Coach nodded in greeting, and then looked towards me, expectantly. When I said nothing, he looked to the heavens, and sighed. “Callie here had some delicate information she’d like to share with you. I’ll be in my office while you two work it out. Take all the time you need, I’ll write you notes.”
Greyson waited patiently, long after Coach had left the room, leaving us alone to soak in the scent of too-much chlorine. I cursed Coach silently as I chewed on my thumb. Finally, after the silence became unbearable, understanding crossed Greyson’s features. “Oh shit, you can’t swim, can you?”
I didn’t reply verbally, instead opting to go for a nod.
Shock coloured his tone. “Why didn’t you say so earlier?”
“It’s embarrassing, okay?” I whispered. “I’m...it just scares me.”
He cocked his head. “The water?” His tone held complete disbelief.
Well, no. It was the lure of the water that scared me more than anything.
“You know,” Greyson said gently. “The human body’s made up of a ton of water. Why be scared of something that’s inside of you?”
Well, when he put it that way, my fear did sound kind of silly.
He turned his back on me and started to walk towards Coach’s office.
“Will you teach me?” I called out, hopeful.
Greyson nodded, but he didn’t turn around to look at me. “If that’s what it takes.”
By the middle of my fourth week of school, I’d settled in rather nicely. My room was starting to look like it belonged to me, which was something I’d never gotten to experience at any other place I’d lived – I’d always kept what little I had packed.
Emma had knit me a blanket, Lex had given me a salt lamp, and Gage had completely debugged the crappy laptop my foster parents had grudgingly given me. At the end of the week, the boxes of books that I’d ordered on my first day at Maywood Crest finally arrived – and there were a lot of books. I started stacking them on every available surface, causing Greyson to officially upgrade my nickname from short stuff to short stack the moment he walked into my room after his sister had gotten him to agree to help me organize them.
“That makes me sound like...like a stack of pancakes!” I howled, smacking him on the arm.
And because he had a death wish, Greyson replied, “Well you do look good enough to eat.”
I attempted to tackle him and failed. I knew he was laughing, but I couldn’t hear him over the rush of blood to my ears and the sound of my hands smacking against his chest as I tried to tackle him off of the couch.
“You are so annoying!” I shook him by his shoulders as he only laughed harder because I’d only really managed to push him into a sitting position.
“Did,” he said but he had to stop for the laughter, “did you just try to tackle me?” he asked through his gasps of laughter. “You’re like a hundred and ten pounds!”
I rolled my eyes, but he caught me off guard by tickling my sides, and I fell literally right on top of him, howling, “Oh my god!” over and over again as he tickled me mercilessly.
“Have you had enough?” he asked, his voice playful.
“I give! Uncle! Mercy! I tap out!” I cried.
We’d grown into a semi-camaraderie thanks to the swimming lessons, which I loathed to admit were actually kind of fun. He was a good teacher, damn it. It was the only time where he dropped that lone wolf act he had going on.
Suddenly, I realized how close our faces had become – how close every part of our bodies was, seeing as he’d managed to end up on top of me somehow. Dirty, dirty things flashed through my mind for a moment, before I locked them away forever, by shutting my eyes and taking a deep breath. When I opened them, Greyson’s were sparkling, and his grin was as wide as it had been all those weeks ago when I’d seen him in the rain.
“Wow, you almost look like you don’t hate me,” I breathed, managing to sound somewhat sarcastic and flustered at the same time.
He was searching my eyes for something, and even though his grin had faded away, his lips were still quirked at an angle that hinted at a smile. “You think I hate you?”
I squinted at him, trying to figure out if he was being an asshole or not. “Well,” I said hesitantly, “what am I supposed to think? You can be a real dick, you know.”
Greyson laughed. “I’m a dick, but I have emotions, jeez.”
I laughed mirthlessly. “Well you could have fooled me. What happened to you not affording to have friends.”
His eyes flashed surprise. “I never said I couldn’t afford to have friends, Cal. I said I didn’t need any new friends.”
“Yeah,” I said, “but you started to say that first, didn’t you? And I know you only agreed to help me today because everybody else was busy! Plus, if Coach hadn’t asked you to help me learn to –”
“Coach didn’t tell me anything. You asked me, remember?” he looked genuinely upset. “And yeah, maybe a part of me is helping you today because my sister asked, but what’s so bad about that? I like making her happy.”
I shook my head. “I don’t even know why I want you to like me so much. It shouldn’t matter,” I told him, and he flinched at that. “But it does.”
“Christ, Cal, I don’t know what to say to that. It’s...”
“Just answer me then! Why don’t you want to be my friend?” I asked petulantly, needing to know. “You can be nice, sometimes.”
“It’s complicated!” he shouted, and then winced when I jumped at his tone. “Sorry,” he said, “it just is. I would explain if I thought I could. But I can’t. And
you need to leave it alone, alright?”
I thought about the time I’d spent getting to know everybody, and I realized that none of them had talked about their parents, except that time Emma told me that they were in the Military. I’d accepted that because it had seemed like the truth at the time.
“Did you guys all grow up together? I mean before you came here?” I asked, changing the subject. “You and Emma, and your cousins.”
“Yeah,” he said quietly. “We’ve been together since I was six.”
“Your parents –” I stopped mid-question. “You don’t have to tell me, never mind,” I amended, when he raised a brow. “I get it,” I said, “I hate it when people push me to talk about my own family.”
“Maybe I’ll tell you one day, short stuff. But,” he paused, and his eyes met mine, imploring me to understand and not to press for more information. “I don’t think I can just yet. There’s too much to tell.”
He ran a hand through his hair, “I’m sorry.” It was a whisper that I almost didn’t catch, and I wondered if I’d heard it at all. Was I imagining him apologising to me? I opened my mouth to ask him what he’d said, but he beat me to it by saying, “We should get back to organising those books.”
I saw Greyson differently, after that. Every sarcastic barb was meant to distance himself from the world, so that nobody would hurt him. He’d taken a big step, allowing himself to be so vulnerable in front of me, and I wanted to honour that as much as I could by not pressing his buttons too hard – and that meant not asking about his past, and subsequently not asking about any of my friends’ pasts. They’d tell me when they were ready.
Eventually, Greyson started hanging out with us during movie nights. He sometimes even offered me his popcorn or a bite of his donut, or whatever treat of the night he had his hands on. Emma said it was a good sign, a step in the right direction.
I felt like I was taming a wild animal. In the beginning I hadn’t wanted to get to know this angsty creature, but in the end I was glad he was softening towards me, day by day.
The tipping point between strangers and friends came one Friday night, when I woke up from a nightmare in a panic, still mostly half asleep, crushed between Emma and Lex, the latter of the two having wrapped her leg around me in her slumber. Emma’s head was resting on my chest. Call me the human pillow.
Elementals, #1 Page 3
