Chapter 4: The Stare
The next morning, I woke up and my clothes were all wrinkled. Oh, jeez. Does that have to happen on the one day that I have to go to school early on all my school days?
I quickly changed and ran all the way to school and went to the library to work on my project with Karina and Terri.
By lunchtime, I was so bored the spirits were drained out of me. Luckily, Yami was there.
"Aww.I.am.so.bored.and.I.feel.so.dead." I slumped toward Yami and practically fell into his arms.
Fortunately, he caught me or else I would have fallen to the floor and gotten myself a head injury.
"Come on, let's go eat, maybe that'll help lift your spirits." Yami said sympathetically and led me to the lunch line.
He was right. After eating with him, I felt much better. But unfortunately, by sixth period, I was practically hyper. I giggled at everything.
"Ohh.jeez!!!" I said in between giggles, "Sugar.rush." I managed out and started to laugh again.
"You didn't eat any sugar though," Yami said reasonably, trying not to laugh himself.
"Well, must be a sodium rush then." I said as I burst out to hysterical laughter. I had to hide my laugh when the teacher walked in, yet with another unknown person by her side.
"Say hello to our new student, Marik Ishtar." Instantly, my smile disappeared. He was CUTE!!!! Not just cute, unnaturally cute. Yet, his kind of cute was different from Yami's kind. Yami is more like handsome while Marik was just plain cute.
He was cute in an unnatural and evil way. He had light golden hair and eyes that are almost lavender. Marik also has something unusual by his eye, a mark, almost like a scar, ran down from the side of his eyes to the bottom of his eyes. He was wearing golden earrings and a white sleeveless shirt with a hood. He was more ordinary than Yami, for he was wearing regular black pants.
The teacher continued, "Marik came from Egypt and I hope you will respect him."
"Jeez, Yami, is your country overpopulated or something? It seems that every Egyptian ever born is coming here to America." I said sarcastically, but he just grinned and ignored me.
Soon after, I went back to staring at Marik again. The teacher assigned him to sit just across from me. Yami saw me staring at him but pretended to pay no attention.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
In a few days, Marik was liked by everybody. But yet, he remained quiet. Very quiet.
In sixth period again, I was working quietly by Yami when I looked up. When I did, I looked straight into his eyes. He's staring at me, I thought to myself.
He seems to be staring at me, through me as if he can see everything in me. Just looking at me, staring at me. Not even blinking. Just staring.
Whoa, creepy. I thought as a chill went up my spine. I decided to ignore him and went back down to my work.
A few minutes later, the teacher let us have study hall because we were really quiet and we finished all our work. Yami switched seats with somebody but I stayed at my seat. Then, suddenly as if coming to life, Marik started talking. Studying actually.
He was studying aloud, almost talking to me. He said the question aloud and answered it himself. Yet, he wasn't all studying, he was talking to me while studying.
I got annoyed and said, "Are you talking to me or are you studying?"
Marik was startled that I actually said something to him, he thought for a moment and said, "I don't know.I'm just talking to you.I guess."
I nodded and went back to listening to him. When he was done studying all the questions, he stopped talking altogether.
I looked up from my work. He was staring at me again, almost spacy looking, it seems like he's staring at something behind me that nobody could see. It seemed like he was staring through me. I got chills again. I quickly looked down. In a few minutes, I looked up again and still, he was staring. I can't take this anymore!!! I thought as I got up suddenly and practically ran all the way to Yami.
I crouched by his seat and said with a shudder, "Marik's stare just creeps me out."
Yami asked if I was okay, and I was, I was just freaked out. So, he made a seat for me and we studied together for the rest of the class.
The next day, I asked the teacher to move Marik because he was really annoying me with his stares. He moved to a seat on the other table.
When the teacher was lecturing, I looked up and there he was again. Staring. This time, his whole body was turned sideways on his seat. He was looking at me again. He seemed to look at me, no on top of me, actually, to my right.I don't know where he's looking at. He seems to me looking at me and the space around me at the same time. I ignored him and went back to listening. But I couldn't pay attention. I looked up again, this time he was staring at something else but less intently than when he stared at\me.
In about ten minutes, I lifted my head up from the book and looked at the clock. My eyes swept past Marik and saw him staring again, at me. This time I looked into his eyes instead of avoiding it. But I couldn't keep the eye contact for long, I got embarrassed and looked back down again.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Two weeks has passed since Marik came and he still kept staring. On some days he sould stare at me longer than others, but sometimes not even staring at all. I was relieved on the days he didn't stare and tense on the days that he did.
But today, he stared in a different way. I was shocked.
When somebody was making a boring speech, during the middle, I glanced at Marik. And he was staring at me, yet again. This time, his stare was in a more playful kind of way. Not a surprise but he gave me a half smile and made the impression that he was really bored and the person making the speech is crazy.
I laughed at him silently, but when he saw me laugh, his smile disappeared in replace of another indescriptable expression. The expression of sadness.
I was going to ask him after class what's wrong but I couldn't find him anywhere so I just went with Yami to my other classes. But at the end of the school day, I found him walking alone outside the courtyard of our school. I ran from the company of Yami to Marik.
But Yami didn't want me close to Marik for some reason, he tried to stop me from going, "No, Aetha, he's dangerous, don't talk to him."
I felt my anger boil up inside me, "What do you know about him?!? He just came!!!" I shot back at Yami. Yami was taken by surprise, because never had I gotten angry at Yami after the day he came. Then I continued more gently and in a nicer way but yet I could not hide my irate tone, "It's just, if you are jealous, then you're not the person I think you are. And don't mind me, I'm going home by myself." I ended sulkily as I walked with my hands in my pockets toward Marik.
I could tell that Yami was surprised, more than surprised, he was astonished by my tone. I never spoke that way to him before. But I heard his slow footsteps, walking away.
As I approached Marik, he looked up and saw me. He was alarmed that I would even go and talk to him. But as I joined him, I said, "Why.were you looking really sad in fifth period?" I didn't want to be too impolite but this is the only way I can phrase the sentence.
He was caught surprised at my question. He didn't look at me, but he kept his head hung low, staring at the ground. I didn't want to pressure him so I kept silent. Finally, Marik said something.
"Because.I never saw anyone laugh so freely.so willingly." His tone was beyond description. He sounded sad and mad at the same time.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, your smile is so open, so bright, with no darkness in them at all."
I still don't know what he meant so I kept quiet. But soon, he got the idea that I still didn't understand. So he let out a deep sigh and looked at me, straight in the eye. Just then, I noticed that his eyes were lavender, more pure purple than Yami's, but yet, somewhere deep inside his eyes, I could see darkness and shadow.
"You have the most beautiful smile I have ever seen, but not only that, your smile.almost could free someone's soul from darkness."
"Oh." That was the only thing I could say because I was really flattered by what he said. Then he lowered his head and looked at the ground again. As we kept walking, it seems that our conversation had ended.
"Also-" Marik said as he stopped walking and looked up at me again.
"Huh?" I asked and in my mind, I urged him to go on.
"At the place where I grew up, I never saw somebody smile, therefore, I practically never smile. That's why your smile amazes me so much. Your smile was one of the first smiles I saw in my whole life."
"Oh, I'm.sorry." I said and immediately felt sorry for him.
Then his expression changed immediately to anger and rage. "I should have never told you that!!!" He exclaimed as he turned away and left.
I was left there, bewildered by the sudden change of mood. I shrugged and left to go home.
For the next few days, he didn't say a word to me but he kept staring. Each of his stares kept getting meaner and scarier. Somehow, only when I smile, did his mean expression disappear. I was bothered by that, but I never had the courage to ask him while he always acts like that. Maybe what he said was true, he never saw anybody smile before, but why would he get mad over it?
My mind was a jumble of mess right now. I have no idea what is wrong with Marik but I don't know what to do with Yami. Should I apologize? Should I ignore him? You have to face him sometime, I said to myself and gave myself a mental slap. So when I got home on Friday, I called him immediately. I was avoiding him lately so this was the first time to talk to him for a few days, the longest I stayed away from him.
"Hello?" I heard Yami's voice on the other voice. The voice that always assured me when something was wrong, the voice I haven't heard for days. I have a deep longing to just run over to his house and hug him but I don't even know where his house is!!
"Hi!! It's me, Aetha."
Pause. "Oh, hi Aetha."
His voice wasn't at all surprised but he sounded a little mad.
"Look, I'm sorry about the other way. I didn't mean to yell at you, I'm---"
He cut me off, "It's better if I go over, I'll be there in about twenty minutes, okay?"
"Ok." I said quietly as I hang up.
Now, I felt really bad for yelling at him, then avoiding him. Really, really bad. I just have to say sorry to him. Soon, twenty minutes flew by and the doorbell rang. I ran downstairs to get it. I opened the door and saw Yami there.
He had a grim face as he came in. I led him into the living room, he didn't even look around even though this was the first time that he came here. He sat down comfortably on the sofa as though he's been here before. I sat down next to him and asked him if he'd like a drink. But his answer was unexpected.
"I'll get one myself, would you like one?"
"Yes, please, Coke."
Then, he got up and went to the kitchen. Then, something dawned to me just when he came back from the fridge. He's never been here before!!! He doesn't know where the kitchen and where the things are kept!!! I thought to myself but yet, he came back with every I wanted, straws, a cup for me, my favorite one too, and of course, the drinks we wanted.
I stared in confusion, how did he know where the straws are kept? And my favorite cup!!!
"Aetha, are you okay?" Yami asked me as he saw the expression on my face.
"Yeah.but did you come here before?"
"Uhh.no."
"Then, where did you find the stuff? My kitchen is one of the messiest kitchens in the whole world!!"
"Well, I just found it, I am good at finding things."
But that did not deceive me, I raised my eyebrows. Yami gave me a questioning look and sat down.
"So, what were you going to say over the phone again?"
I suddenly felt sad again. Sad and bad.
"Well.I'm sorry that.I yelled at you."
"First thing, I am not jealous okay? Next, what I say is true, Marik is dangerous, I've known him for a long time. He came from the place I came from." Then he raised his voice, "Do you know what he has done before??!!"
"No." I said flatly.
"He has killed people before!!!"
"What??!!!" I said, that was ridiculous.
"It's true."
"What??!!!" I said again. Then, angriness sprang up inside me again, "Look, I understand if he's dangerous, but killing people?? That's hard to believe. No, I'm not going to believe you. You are jealous. And I know it."
"I am not," Yami said calmly and simply. Then he continued, "There's no need to yell about it, I know it's hard to believe that he's killed people but he did."
I started to feel sorry all over again.
"I am.sorry.I get overreacted sometime." I couldn't look at Yami in the eyes, I felt so bad!!!
Unexpectedly, tears welled up in my eyes. "I'm sorry.I yelled."
Yami's expression softened as he came closer to me, "Aetha, it's okay," he said softly, "There's no need to cry about it."
But that made me cry even harder. "It's okay," he said sympathetically.
He came over to me and put one arm around me and hugged me. "It's okay." he said again as he squeezed my shoulders.
"It's okay, there's no need to cry," he said, comforting me. He kept saying that gently and stroking my hair until I stopped crying. At last, he turned my shoulders so that I'm facing him and he kissed me on my forehead and hugged me again.
Then, he looked into my eyes and said, "Just stay away from Marik, okay? It's for your own good."
I nodded and hugged him again. Then, he got up and helped me clean up the drinks. When we got to the sink, I poured my leftover Coke out of my favorite cup and Yami was about to pour his out when I stopped him.
"Take the cup, you can have it."
He looked at me knowingly and nodded. Then, with the blue cup I gave him, he went out the door. He gave me one final reassuring hug and left.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ A/N: Sorry if the chap's too long!! ^_^ And it gets a little mushy.so beware.im also stuck so give me some suggestions pplz!!! REVIEW!!!!!! ^_~
The next morning, I woke up and my clothes were all wrinkled. Oh, jeez. Does that have to happen on the one day that I have to go to school early on all my school days?
I quickly changed and ran all the way to school and went to the library to work on my project with Karina and Terri.
By lunchtime, I was so bored the spirits were drained out of me. Luckily, Yami was there.
"Aww.I.am.so.bored.and.I.feel.so.dead." I slumped toward Yami and practically fell into his arms.
Fortunately, he caught me or else I would have fallen to the floor and gotten myself a head injury.
"Come on, let's go eat, maybe that'll help lift your spirits." Yami said sympathetically and led me to the lunch line.
He was right. After eating with him, I felt much better. But unfortunately, by sixth period, I was practically hyper. I giggled at everything.
"Ohh.jeez!!!" I said in between giggles, "Sugar.rush." I managed out and started to laugh again.
"You didn't eat any sugar though," Yami said reasonably, trying not to laugh himself.
"Well, must be a sodium rush then." I said as I burst out to hysterical laughter. I had to hide my laugh when the teacher walked in, yet with another unknown person by her side.
"Say hello to our new student, Marik Ishtar." Instantly, my smile disappeared. He was CUTE!!!! Not just cute, unnaturally cute. Yet, his kind of cute was different from Yami's kind. Yami is more like handsome while Marik was just plain cute.
He was cute in an unnatural and evil way. He had light golden hair and eyes that are almost lavender. Marik also has something unusual by his eye, a mark, almost like a scar, ran down from the side of his eyes to the bottom of his eyes. He was wearing golden earrings and a white sleeveless shirt with a hood. He was more ordinary than Yami, for he was wearing regular black pants.
The teacher continued, "Marik came from Egypt and I hope you will respect him."
"Jeez, Yami, is your country overpopulated or something? It seems that every Egyptian ever born is coming here to America." I said sarcastically, but he just grinned and ignored me.
Soon after, I went back to staring at Marik again. The teacher assigned him to sit just across from me. Yami saw me staring at him but pretended to pay no attention.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
In a few days, Marik was liked by everybody. But yet, he remained quiet. Very quiet.
In sixth period again, I was working quietly by Yami when I looked up. When I did, I looked straight into his eyes. He's staring at me, I thought to myself.
He seems to be staring at me, through me as if he can see everything in me. Just looking at me, staring at me. Not even blinking. Just staring.
Whoa, creepy. I thought as a chill went up my spine. I decided to ignore him and went back down to my work.
A few minutes later, the teacher let us have study hall because we were really quiet and we finished all our work. Yami switched seats with somebody but I stayed at my seat. Then, suddenly as if coming to life, Marik started talking. Studying actually.
He was studying aloud, almost talking to me. He said the question aloud and answered it himself. Yet, he wasn't all studying, he was talking to me while studying.
I got annoyed and said, "Are you talking to me or are you studying?"
Marik was startled that I actually said something to him, he thought for a moment and said, "I don't know.I'm just talking to you.I guess."
I nodded and went back to listening to him. When he was done studying all the questions, he stopped talking altogether.
I looked up from my work. He was staring at me again, almost spacy looking, it seems like he's staring at something behind me that nobody could see. It seemed like he was staring through me. I got chills again. I quickly looked down. In a few minutes, I looked up again and still, he was staring. I can't take this anymore!!! I thought as I got up suddenly and practically ran all the way to Yami.
I crouched by his seat and said with a shudder, "Marik's stare just creeps me out."
Yami asked if I was okay, and I was, I was just freaked out. So, he made a seat for me and we studied together for the rest of the class.
The next day, I asked the teacher to move Marik because he was really annoying me with his stares. He moved to a seat on the other table.
When the teacher was lecturing, I looked up and there he was again. Staring. This time, his whole body was turned sideways on his seat. He was looking at me again. He seemed to look at me, no on top of me, actually, to my right.I don't know where he's looking at. He seems to me looking at me and the space around me at the same time. I ignored him and went back to listening. But I couldn't pay attention. I looked up again, this time he was staring at something else but less intently than when he stared at\me.
In about ten minutes, I lifted my head up from the book and looked at the clock. My eyes swept past Marik and saw him staring again, at me. This time I looked into his eyes instead of avoiding it. But I couldn't keep the eye contact for long, I got embarrassed and looked back down again.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Two weeks has passed since Marik came and he still kept staring. On some days he sould stare at me longer than others, but sometimes not even staring at all. I was relieved on the days he didn't stare and tense on the days that he did.
But today, he stared in a different way. I was shocked.
When somebody was making a boring speech, during the middle, I glanced at Marik. And he was staring at me, yet again. This time, his stare was in a more playful kind of way. Not a surprise but he gave me a half smile and made the impression that he was really bored and the person making the speech is crazy.
I laughed at him silently, but when he saw me laugh, his smile disappeared in replace of another indescriptable expression. The expression of sadness.
I was going to ask him after class what's wrong but I couldn't find him anywhere so I just went with Yami to my other classes. But at the end of the school day, I found him walking alone outside the courtyard of our school. I ran from the company of Yami to Marik.
But Yami didn't want me close to Marik for some reason, he tried to stop me from going, "No, Aetha, he's dangerous, don't talk to him."
I felt my anger boil up inside me, "What do you know about him?!? He just came!!!" I shot back at Yami. Yami was taken by surprise, because never had I gotten angry at Yami after the day he came. Then I continued more gently and in a nicer way but yet I could not hide my irate tone, "It's just, if you are jealous, then you're not the person I think you are. And don't mind me, I'm going home by myself." I ended sulkily as I walked with my hands in my pockets toward Marik.
I could tell that Yami was surprised, more than surprised, he was astonished by my tone. I never spoke that way to him before. But I heard his slow footsteps, walking away.
As I approached Marik, he looked up and saw me. He was alarmed that I would even go and talk to him. But as I joined him, I said, "Why.were you looking really sad in fifth period?" I didn't want to be too impolite but this is the only way I can phrase the sentence.
He was caught surprised at my question. He didn't look at me, but he kept his head hung low, staring at the ground. I didn't want to pressure him so I kept silent. Finally, Marik said something.
"Because.I never saw anyone laugh so freely.so willingly." His tone was beyond description. He sounded sad and mad at the same time.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, your smile is so open, so bright, with no darkness in them at all."
I still don't know what he meant so I kept quiet. But soon, he got the idea that I still didn't understand. So he let out a deep sigh and looked at me, straight in the eye. Just then, I noticed that his eyes were lavender, more pure purple than Yami's, but yet, somewhere deep inside his eyes, I could see darkness and shadow.
"You have the most beautiful smile I have ever seen, but not only that, your smile.almost could free someone's soul from darkness."
"Oh." That was the only thing I could say because I was really flattered by what he said. Then he lowered his head and looked at the ground again. As we kept walking, it seems that our conversation had ended.
"Also-" Marik said as he stopped walking and looked up at me again.
"Huh?" I asked and in my mind, I urged him to go on.
"At the place where I grew up, I never saw somebody smile, therefore, I practically never smile. That's why your smile amazes me so much. Your smile was one of the first smiles I saw in my whole life."
"Oh, I'm.sorry." I said and immediately felt sorry for him.
Then his expression changed immediately to anger and rage. "I should have never told you that!!!" He exclaimed as he turned away and left.
I was left there, bewildered by the sudden change of mood. I shrugged and left to go home.
For the next few days, he didn't say a word to me but he kept staring. Each of his stares kept getting meaner and scarier. Somehow, only when I smile, did his mean expression disappear. I was bothered by that, but I never had the courage to ask him while he always acts like that. Maybe what he said was true, he never saw anybody smile before, but why would he get mad over it?
My mind was a jumble of mess right now. I have no idea what is wrong with Marik but I don't know what to do with Yami. Should I apologize? Should I ignore him? You have to face him sometime, I said to myself and gave myself a mental slap. So when I got home on Friday, I called him immediately. I was avoiding him lately so this was the first time to talk to him for a few days, the longest I stayed away from him.
"Hello?" I heard Yami's voice on the other voice. The voice that always assured me when something was wrong, the voice I haven't heard for days. I have a deep longing to just run over to his house and hug him but I don't even know where his house is!!
"Hi!! It's me, Aetha."
Pause. "Oh, hi Aetha."
His voice wasn't at all surprised but he sounded a little mad.
"Look, I'm sorry about the other way. I didn't mean to yell at you, I'm---"
He cut me off, "It's better if I go over, I'll be there in about twenty minutes, okay?"
"Ok." I said quietly as I hang up.
Now, I felt really bad for yelling at him, then avoiding him. Really, really bad. I just have to say sorry to him. Soon, twenty minutes flew by and the doorbell rang. I ran downstairs to get it. I opened the door and saw Yami there.
He had a grim face as he came in. I led him into the living room, he didn't even look around even though this was the first time that he came here. He sat down comfortably on the sofa as though he's been here before. I sat down next to him and asked him if he'd like a drink. But his answer was unexpected.
"I'll get one myself, would you like one?"
"Yes, please, Coke."
Then, he got up and went to the kitchen. Then, something dawned to me just when he came back from the fridge. He's never been here before!!! He doesn't know where the kitchen and where the things are kept!!! I thought to myself but yet, he came back with every I wanted, straws, a cup for me, my favorite one too, and of course, the drinks we wanted.
I stared in confusion, how did he know where the straws are kept? And my favorite cup!!!
"Aetha, are you okay?" Yami asked me as he saw the expression on my face.
"Yeah.but did you come here before?"
"Uhh.no."
"Then, where did you find the stuff? My kitchen is one of the messiest kitchens in the whole world!!"
"Well, I just found it, I am good at finding things."
But that did not deceive me, I raised my eyebrows. Yami gave me a questioning look and sat down.
"So, what were you going to say over the phone again?"
I suddenly felt sad again. Sad and bad.
"Well.I'm sorry that.I yelled at you."
"First thing, I am not jealous okay? Next, what I say is true, Marik is dangerous, I've known him for a long time. He came from the place I came from." Then he raised his voice, "Do you know what he has done before??!!"
"No." I said flatly.
"He has killed people before!!!"
"What??!!!" I said, that was ridiculous.
"It's true."
"What??!!!" I said again. Then, angriness sprang up inside me again, "Look, I understand if he's dangerous, but killing people?? That's hard to believe. No, I'm not going to believe you. You are jealous. And I know it."
"I am not," Yami said calmly and simply. Then he continued, "There's no need to yell about it, I know it's hard to believe that he's killed people but he did."
I started to feel sorry all over again.
"I am.sorry.I get overreacted sometime." I couldn't look at Yami in the eyes, I felt so bad!!!
Unexpectedly, tears welled up in my eyes. "I'm sorry.I yelled."
Yami's expression softened as he came closer to me, "Aetha, it's okay," he said softly, "There's no need to cry about it."
But that made me cry even harder. "It's okay," he said sympathetically.
He came over to me and put one arm around me and hugged me. "It's okay." he said again as he squeezed my shoulders.
"It's okay, there's no need to cry," he said, comforting me. He kept saying that gently and stroking my hair until I stopped crying. At last, he turned my shoulders so that I'm facing him and he kissed me on my forehead and hugged me again.
Then, he looked into my eyes and said, "Just stay away from Marik, okay? It's for your own good."
I nodded and hugged him again. Then, he got up and helped me clean up the drinks. When we got to the sink, I poured my leftover Coke out of my favorite cup and Yami was about to pour his out when I stopped him.
"Take the cup, you can have it."
He looked at me knowingly and nodded. Then, with the blue cup I gave him, he went out the door. He gave me one final reassuring hug and left.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ A/N: Sorry if the chap's too long!! ^_^ And it gets a little mushy.so beware.im also stuck so give me some suggestions pplz!!! REVIEW!!!!!! ^_~