Thanks for the review, incarnatedsoul, I might go back and rewrite the first part, damn my english classes and their bad influence :), anyway, the song is the Fray's "Fall Away" If you get confused, don't wory, I might make this make sense later, but no promises.
Part Two
You fall away from your past
But it's
following you
You left something undone, it's now your rerun
It's
the one you can't erase.
Brittany woke up.
Her clock said that it was 9:45, which caused her to panic. Her class started at 9:30, and even rushing as fast as she could, she wouldn't be able to make it before the last ten minutes. So, really, what was the point of going? But she still hurried to get dressed and out of the building. But, as she looked at the calendar on her door before she left, she noticed that it was Tuesday.
"What the hell?"
She could have sworn that it was Wednesday; in fact, she could almost remember going to her first class on Tuesday, yesterday, today, whatever. Though she really couldn't remember anything after that, she shook her head. It was just déjà vu, nothing to worry about. And she hadn't missed class, so that was good.
She went to class, still feeling the déjà vu and steadfastly ignoring it. Then she went to lunch and she was absolutely sure that she had gone through the exact same ritual the day before. Which was strange, she ate lunch in her dorm room on Mondays. But she bought her salad, two breadsticks, and a milk and sat down at her normal table, carefully avoiding the mustard on the floor.
A boy was coming her way, attractive from the looks of it and strangely familiar, so, feeling kind, she said, "Mustard on the floor," just as he was about to step on it. He smiled at her, and, of course, it was a toothpaste model's smile, and nodded. But he did not sit down with her, and he did not introduce himself. That should have saved her from any trouble he could have brought into her life.
But sometimes fate can be a tricky bitch.
Brittany continued on her day as she would on any Tuesday, heading for her Freshman English class at 12:50 and arriving at the building exactly seven minutes later. She took out her notebook and pen and titled and dated the new page. Class began at 1:15, but at 1:04, she met her destiny.
Again, but she didn't know that.
"Does the savior of my shoe have a name?" Obviously it was the boy from the cafeteria.
She smiled at him, "Hey, what's up?" He sat down next to her and began to pull his things from his book bag.
"I asked you a question first."
She rolled her eyes and laughed, "Brittany the shoe savior, if you must know. What's yours?"
"My what?" she slapped his shoulder, "Okay, sorry, it's Alex, Miss Shoe Savior."
"Settle down people," the professor said as he entered the room, "I don't care about whatever you're talking about, and I don't want to know if you're drunk, just listen to me, or pretend to, as I try to educate you." It was a variation of what he said every class, and some of the students, including Brittany and Alex had realized that it was mostly a joke.
She listened and wrote what was on the slides of the lecture; it was about nineteenth century literature, and not the fun kind, but novels about morality and prohibition. Alex began shaking his pen as if ran out of ink. "Shit," he hissed. "Can I borrow a pen?" he asked her.
She grabbed one from her bag and handed it to him. For a second, when their hands brushed, she thought it was just static electricity. But then it was completely different. She held her hand over his, memorizing the texture of his palm, for an eternity, but it was only a moment. Then they contact was broken as he wrenched his hand away. They looked at each other.
It happened again.
Not the same way, but something similar to it. "I know you," she whispered. He nodded and didn't look away. This was weird. It was like the déjà vu that morning, but completely different, not wrong, different. In fact, if felt as right as anything could feel. She moved her hand to touch his again, but he pulled away and shook his head.
"We need to talk," he mouthed. She nodded and faced the front of the room again. There were still twenty minutes left in the class, but she didn't have any notes from after they'd touched hands.
It took forever, but the class did eventually end. Brittany followed Alex out of the building and into the park outside of the library, across the street from where they'd had class.
"Do you have class later?" he asked.
"I have an hour or so."
They sat on the ground off of the path facing each other. She was sure that she had known him in their class, but now things seemed awkward. "Who are you?" she finally asked.
"It's kind of complicated. I…I'm not really supposed to tell you what I am, and what that was," he didn't need to clarify the 'that.' "If I did tell you, things could be bad."
"You're not making any sense. I mean, I know that something happened, but I'm not quite sure what. Why is whatever that was so secret? Will you tell me what it is?"
"It's fate of the world stuff." She laughed but then saw that he was completely serious. "And, if I tell you, you might die."
"Come on! Die? I'm eighteen years old, why would I die? Is someone going to kill me," he still looked serious, "What? Are you going to kill me for this?"
"What? No! You're my-" He cut himself off abruptly.
"I'm you're what?"
He stood up, "Just forget about this, about me. I shouldn't have told you anything. Trust me, nothing I can tell you will lead to a happy ending." He stormed off leaving her sitting there stunned. It only took her a few seconds to get up and follow him.
"Alex! Wait!" As far as plans went, she didn't actually have one. But Brittany couldn't just let him walk away. Of course, just screaming at him to wait would probably not cause him to stop. Running, though, she did catch up to him, and without even thinking, she grabbed his hand.
The world exploded, and she knew that she'd felt this before. Not just in class, but this total merging of souls.
Soulmate.
There was no other word for this, but it was completely right, natural. Why would anyone kill her because of this connection?
'So this is what it's like.' It was Alex, but he wasn't actually speaking to her, she was in his mind, hearing his thoughts.
'This is what we're supposed to be like.' She shared her mind with him, and he with her, it felt like forever, this communion of souls. But when she finally let go of his hand, only seconds had passed. Their hands dropped, but he pulled her into a tight hug. He didn't say anything, but he didn't need to.
She sagged in his arms, it felt like the back of her head had exploded, and not in a good way.
"What's wrong?" he asked, worry etched on his face. He set her down, still holding onto her.
"I don't know," she whispered, there were tears in her eyes from the pain but she was trying her hardest not to cry. "The back of my head hurts, like I was hit with a bat or something, only ten times worse."
Lightly inspecting her for injuries he asked, "Does it hurt when I touch here?" She answered in the negative, "What about here?" It continued like that for a few minutes but there was no physical injury.
They sat there for a few minutes longer until Brittany said, "I'm feeling better. Sometimes headaches just come up like that, you know?" She laughed a little, "Do you get headaches?"
"No," he said, "But I know what they look like, and that wasn't a normal headache. Are you sure you weren't hit in the head, maybe banged it in your dorm?"
"I think I would know if I'd banged my head that hard, thank you," she said sarcastically. "Just forget about it. It was probably nothing."
"Do you want to lie down; I can walk you back to your dorm."
She looked at her watch, "Shit! No, I have to go to class." She rolled her eyes, "Life changes in seconds, but math remains the vanquisher of all fun. I'll see you later, right?"
"Do you even have to ask?"
"Good," she told him her phone number and ran off, leaving him to program it into his cell phone.
Her phone, which she'd left in her room, rang five minutes after she came back from class. She didn't recognize the number, but she assumed it was Alex. "Hello?"
"Sarah?"
"No, I'm sorry, you have to wrong number."
"This isn't 547-6250?"
"It is, I'm sorry; you must have confused the number. You might want to check the area code, this is a college town, you know."
"Thanks," the man didn't sound thankful, "I'll do that." He hung up. She shook her head and did the same.
About ten minutes later, the phone rang again, it was the same number. "You've still got the wrong number."
"Brittany?"
She looked at her phone strangely, "Alex? Weird."
"I am not!"
She smiled, "I'm sure that's a matter of opinion, but I just got a wrong number call, I could have sworn it was from the number you're calling from now. Are you on a payphone or something?"
"No," he drawled the word out, "You're sure it was this number?"
"My mind's probably just playing tricks on me. It's been a weird day." She leaned back in her chair and looked out the window.
"I miss you."
Smiling, she said, "You haven't seen me in an hour and a half."
"That's too long."
"You've only known me for four hours!"
"I want to see you again," he sounded almost like a whining four year old, "Can I come over, we'll just hang out."
"I've got homework," it was only a token resistance, she missed him too.
"It's not even five; you've got plenty of time to do it."
"Fine," she told him her address. "If you must see me, I suppose I can spare a little time."
"Good, I'll be there in a few minutes." They said their goodbyes and hung up. Exactly five minutes later there was a knock on her door. Looking through the peephole, she saw Alex wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses as if he were some kind of rock star going out incognito.
Opening the door, smiling, she said, "What's with the…" He wasn't Alex. For one, he was taller, only by an inch or so, but the difference was noticeable, and he just felt wrong. "Who are you?" It came out ruder than she meant, but she didn't take the words back.
"If your name isn't Sarah, then what is it, I wonder? Sasha Martin? Sandra Marshal? Sylvia Meyers? Tell me."
"What are you talking about?" He wasn't making any sense.
"Why would Alex put someone called SM in his cell phone? Everyone else gets a name, except for you; so I'm wondering, who are you?"
Everything inside of her told her to lie, so she said, "Shannon McNeil, if you must know. Alex and I have a class together, we were planning to get together to study sometime, if you must know. Why the hell do you care?" It was the best lie she'd ever told. Hopefully, Alex wouldn't show up and ruin everything.
"I'm his roommate, Gabe, and I'm just looking out for him."
"Well, thanks, Gabe, but get out. I don't know how you got my address," It was especially tricky if he didn't know her name, "And I don't care. Just don't let the door hit you on the ass on your way out."
He turned as if to leave, "One last thing, do you know a Brittany Gresham?"
She could feel her face draining of color, but she said, "Yeah, that was my roommate last semester, she flunked out."
"Really?"
"Yeah, now about the leaving?"
He opened the door, and Alex was just on the other side. Gabe yanked him inside and slammed the door. "Dammit, man, what are you doing here?"
Alex looked furious, but he also looked scared, "I don't see why that's important."
"You're anal about the numbers in your phone. Everyone has all of the proper information and everything's in alphabetical order. Then today, all of the sudden, there's just an SM, what's that all about?"
"He didn't have time--"
"Don't talk!" Gabe yelled, and she found that she couldn't.
"Why, Alex?"
"You heard her. I didn't have time to type it all in, if you hadn't stolen my cell phone to look at my private shit, I probably would have told you, anyway." He shrugged.
"Then what's her name?"
Brittany repeated Shannon McNeil over and over in her head, hoping he could read her thoughts, or something.
"Dude, this is ridiculous."
"The name, Alex."
"Fine," he visible straightened, fixing his posture, "Shannon…" Brittany let her hope build, "McMillan." Her shoulders sagged.
"That's weak; I've always been able to tell when you're lying. We've known each other since we were three don't try and fool me. I know that she's Brittany Gresham."
Alex looked at her, "I didn't know your last name, that sucks."
She smiled.
Gabe pulled Alex to the side, "She's your soulmate, isn't she?" Alex didn't respond, but Gabe knew, "She's a human!" It was a harsh whisper, "How could you do something like that?"
"It's not something that I did on purpose."
"She can't go on knowing about you, you know the new policy." Ever since more and more Night Worlders had been finding human soulmates, the humans were either killed or had their memories wiped. It was a proactive solution.
"Come on, Gabe, you don't have to tell. Please?"
"Are you crazy?" He shook Alex's shoulders. "It's the law. Do you want to die? You're my best friend, I can't let that happen."
"You don't understand. She's my soulmate; I can't just give that up. As long as you haven't told anyone, I don't see why we can't just see how things will turn out."
"I know how things will turn out. You'll fall in love with her and tell her all about the Night World. Then you'll both go and become goddamned Daybreakers, and do whatever it is they do. I can't let that happen. You won't even know who she is anymore. I'm not cruel enough to leave you with those memories."
Alex shook his head, "I'll always know her."
"Is that your final answer?"
"Just give us a chance, dude."
He shook his head, "Sorry, dude." He punched him in the head, long enough to knock him out. And then he advanced on Brittany. "I can't let him die, and I can't let him remember you. So that means you have to die. Sorry about it, really, but he's my best friend." Brittany's eyes widened, but she still couldn't talk. "Don't be afraid."
He put a hand on either side of her head and twisted. There was a crack and a pop, and it was done. Gabe was disappointed that she hadn't fought back, but he pushed the feeling away. It was time to rearrange his best friend's memory.
You should have made it right, so you
wouldn't have to fight
To put a smile back on your face
You
fall away from your past
But it's following you.
Review?
