Hi! Hope everyone likes the story so far! It's been really fun writing it! I don't know how often I will update though, because I'm kind of lazy, and it takes some serious motivation for me to sit down and write. This chapter is from Simon's point of view.
I woke up to the sound of knocking at my bedroom door. I sat up and looked over at Derek's bed. It was empty, but unmade. Which was odd, because he normally wouldn't even got to the bathroom before at least pulling up the sheets.
The knocking continued.
"Hold on, I'm coming," I called.
I threw on the pants that were sitting rumpled on the chair, and headed into the opened the door, to see Tori standing in the hallway.
"Took you long enough! I've been knocking forever! Have you seen Chloe?"
"No, I haven't. I was asleep until you started knocking," I replied, already turning away from her to flop back down on my bed again.
"Well, she left our room last night really upset. I was just wondering if you knew anything about it. Sorry to bother you." With that, left. A few seconds later, I heard her clomping down the steps.
Half an hour later, I was showered and dressed. After quickly checking my blood sugar, I headed down for breakfast.
As I was going down the stairs, I bumped into Tori. I stole a glance at her face, expecting a glare, but instead, she avoided my eyes, muttered a quick apology, and hurried past me up the rest of the steps.
"Huh." As always, I was still not quite used to the New and Improved Tori. Although I try very hard not to be prejudiced against different races, it was still very hard for me, as a sorcerer, to accept that a witch could be an ally, let alone a friend.
I knew Chloe thought less of me for not trying to get along more with Tori, but really it wasn't my fault. Most sorcerers didn't get along with witches and vice versa. It was like racial memory. Ever since the Inquisition, witches and sorcerers have pretty much been enemies. And no, it's not because witches are female and sorcerers are male. Well, I don't think it was. Witches had shared their spells with the sorcerers over five hundred year ago. And how did we thank them? By handing the witches over to the Inquisitors as soon as the heat was on us. Our respective races have been fighting each other ever since.
My father, being a very forward thinking man, tried to raise me to ignore the instinctive loathing I felt for any witch I met. Oh, that's another thing. We are supposed to recognize each other on sight, which really would explain why I couldn't stand Tori right from the start. I tried. I really did. I am a very easy-going guy. I always have been. With the exception of a few people, (racist rednecks anyone?) I have usually been able to get along with just about anybody.
I was glad that she had stopped throwing herself at me. It was getting humiliating to watch. I really had hated it when she took my rejections out on the other girls. It was too bad really, because she would have been really hot if she wasn't such a bitch.
As I was walking past the game room, Chloe walked out and stopped short of running into me. She was still in her pajamas, and her hair was very messy, but in that I-just-rolled-out-of-bed way. She had dark circles under her eyes, and was yawning, but she looked… happy. She darted a glance back in the game room, and moved to go by me.
"Tori was looking for you," I told her. "She actually looked concerned. She said you left in the middle of the night; that you were upset about something."
"Yeah, I had a bad dream. I ended up falling asleep on the couch," She replied.
"Oh, you should have gotten me, I would have hung out with you," I started, but a movement in the game room caught my eye. I looked passed Chloe, and coming up behind her was Derek. He looked even more rumpled than she did. On her, the bed-head look was cute. My brother was not so lucky. At least I thought that, until I realized where he was standing. And what that meant. Chloe looked from me to Derek, then back to me again.
"Oh, well, I had better go find Tori and talk to her. I don't want her to think I was bailing on her or anything. She's been having a really hard time of it lately, and I don't need to cause her anymore stress." Both Derek and I stared at Chloe our looks, she rolled her eyes and told us to shut up. Sparing a quick grin for Derek, she turned and ran up the stairs.
I turned to Derek. "So, anything you'd like to let me in on?" I asked cheerfully.
"There's nothing to tell, Simon. She had a nightmare. I was already awake for the same reason, so she saw no reason to wake anyone else up. She just needed someone to talk to; I was the most convenient choice. It's not a big deal," He said matter-of-factly. It was such big deal. The way he was kept sneaking peeks up the stairs told me how much of a big deal it was.
"Ok. Well, that's good. I was thinking of asking Chloe to go see a movie with me tonight. You don't mind do you?" I asked him.
"Why would I mind?" He asked me coldly.
"Oh, I don't know. Gosh, I'm starving. I'm going to get some breakfast!" I bounded into the kitchen, and grabbed a slice of toast off the table.
Well, well, well. It had finally happened. I couldn't believe that I had missed all the signs, which in retrospect were so obvious that even Tori had been saying it all along.
My brother was in love.