Chapter 2- The new guy

"Good morning girls." I heard my aunt from a distance. "If you don't wake up now, you are going to be late for school."

I opened my eyes slightly and looked over to the door. My aunt looked at me and took it as a sign that I heard her and would wake up shortly, so she turned around and walked off.

Next to me, I felt Jane stir, an indication that she was also now awake. "I guess it is time to wake up." She murmured, but turned around and pulled the covers over her head.

I looked over at the clock and saw what time it was. "Jane wake up! We really are going to be late for school if we don't get ready now." I nudged her with my elbow and then jumped out of bed. Jane followed shortly after.

Both of us rushed through the shower and got dressed. Today I chose to wear a pair of blue jeans with a plain beige V-neck T-shirt. I chose to wear comfortable white sneakers with this. Jane went with torn loose-fitted white jeans, a cropped baby pink V-neck T-shirt, and also a comfortable pair of white sneakers. She is definitely more fashionable than I am.

We rushed downstairs grabbed toast with cheese and onion marmalade, our favourite go-to food, and out the door, we went. My uncle was already waiting for us in the car.

"Long night?" He asked.

"Nightmares." I simply replied.

~~~

We just stepped through the school's front entryway when the bell rang. "Speaking about just making it," Jane mentioned. I looked over at her and in the rush of trying to get to our lockers fast, I bumped into someone.

"Would you look at where you are going?" A male voice came from behind as I was trying to gather my footing. I turned around to look at the incredibly rude person and was stunned at the sight in front of me.

He was gorgeous. He was tall around 2 meters, with olive-brown skin with icy blue eyes. He had long golden brown wavy locks hanging down his shoulders and I won't even go into detail about how buff he was. I was at a loss for words, for about two seconds.

"Look here mister, I am freaking sorry I had to grace your body with mine. But please if someone peed in your fruit loops this morning, don't take it out on me." He tilted his head, smiled at me with the sexiest smile, and walked off.

Walking down the school hallway to our lockers Jane couldn't help but mention the chemistry she felt between me and the new guy. "I saw the way you looked at that guy." She raised and lowered her eyebrows teasing me.

"Okay I won't deny the fact that he is sexy as hell, but he was rude. I have no other interests there." I finished the conversation with a warning stare.

We quickly stopped by our lockers and got our things before we rushed to our homeroom. We did not expect mister new guy to also be in the same homeroom as us. We walked to our desks to sit and I noticed that he noticed me. He gave me another one of his seductive smiles and looked down at his books.

Does he really need to be in the same homeroom as us? I sighed to myself. Not only does he share the same homeroom he also sits directly behind me. How convenient.

I tried to take out my things as calmly as possible, but as the unfair universe has it, my pencil bag fell, and to top it all off, it was never zipped closed. "Great." I simply exclaimed.

"Let me help you with that." The same male voice. This time just so much calmer and huskier.

"It's fine. I've got it." I fumbled with one of the pencils. Could this get any worse? I thought to myself.

I heard a chuckle and then, "I insist." A big muscular hand started helping me and as I looked up, I looked straight into those icy blue eyes. I was mesmerized. "My name is Marlow, by the way."

I snapped out of my daze. "I...I'm Nadia." I stuttered. Nice going, Nadia. You can't even introduce yourself without stumbling.

"I'm sorry about this morning. I didn't mean to come off so rude." He apologized so smoothly.

"It's all in the past now."

"You can bump into me again anytime." Okay, that's my queue.

"Thanks for the help." I grabbed my things and sat down. I noticed Jane smiling at me and I just glared at her.

~~~

At lunch, Jane and I were standing in the cafeteria line to collect our food. "Can we talk about what happened in homeroom?" Jane looked at me with her signature pout. "Please." She really wanted to talk about this.

"What is there to talk about? He was rude, and then like snapping your fingers he was super sweet and helpful. A little weird if you tell me." I slid my lunch tray to receive the next food item.

"But I saw a little blush in between you two exchanging words." She wore the smile of an over-excited young teenage girl. One that is about to ship her two favourite romance characters.

"Oh no I did not. Please tell me I didn't." I looked at Jane with big bulging eyes. First I stutter and drop almost all my stationary on the floor and then my body has to embarrass me with a blush as well.

"Yes you sure did, but it was super adorable." Jane tried to reassure me.

We finished getting our food and paid for it. Then we headed towards our table. "He is really sexy and he did apologize for being rude. I guess I should probably get over myself."

"Good," Jane said quickly. She looked over my shoulder and then whispered, "He is heading this way. Act cool." She gave me a warning stare.

"May I join you for lunch? If you haven't already guessed, I am new here and I don't really know anyone else."

"Yes, sure." Jane shifted over to make some space. "Jane this is Marlow. Marlow this is Jane." I quickly formally introduced everyone.

"Nice to meet you." Jane held out her hand to give Marlow a handshake, all the while grinning at me, and then looked over to Marlow. "So Marlow do you workout?"

"Uhm... Yes." He seemed a little uneasy with the question. I wondered why? He looked so confident.

"Jane..." I whisper yelled at her.

"What? He looks really buff." She seemed confused and shrugged.

"No, it's okay. I just did not expect that to be the first question. That's all." Marlow explained.

"What did you expect the first question to be?" I tried to revert the uneasiness.

"I thought you would ask me: why am I new? Where did I move from? Why did I move? Those types of questions." He laughed it off.

"Oh sorry. I was getting to those. I just cannot revert my eyes from your muscles." Jane said. Marlow just chuckled at that.

"It's okay." He reassured. One thing I did notice is that we could not keep our eyes from each other.

"So why are you new? Where did you move from? Why did you move?" Jane asked and smiled knowing she through him with every single question he thought we would ask.

"Uhm... okay. To the point I see." He nodded his head in acknowledgment. "Okay, so I am new because my dad moves around a lot for work."

"That must be tough." He looked at me and shrugged.

"I am kind of used to it by now." He looked back at Jane." That answer covers two questions." She smiled pleased with it.

"Where did I move from? That one is tricky. We moved from a tiny town not very well known. I doubt that you would know where." He looked down at his tray and I swear I noticed a slight hint of him being unsettled.

~~~

Sitting in my room again after school, Jane and I were doing our own thing. I was busy researching the topic of 'How can a person overcome fear?' for a school assignment and Jane was busy reading one of her newest books.

We were in our own minds. She giggled now and then. I just could not stop thinking about Marlow. Those perfectly sculpted arms, legs, and the shirt he was wearing today let me know that the abs he had underneath were also sculpted by the angels.

Yet something felt off. It was like we knew each other. It was like we met before the school 'bump in'. His scent was so familiar. I wanted to just hug him and stay in his arms forever. "Snap out of it Nadia!" I needed to work on my assignment.

"Nadia, there is someone to see you!" My sister yelled from downstairs, I chose to just ignore her since she's pulled pranks like this on me before.

A few moments later I hear, "Hello." That voice! I turned around and... What is he doing at my house? How did he even find out where I lived. In front of me in the doorway of my room stood...

"Marlow. Hi. How did you find out where I lived?" I asked a little creeped out.

"It wasn't hard finding your address. You stay at the Gabriel Estate." That was true. You could ask any person walking past you about the Gabriel Estate and they would tell you where it was and who stayed there. My aunt is very well known. But still.

"Okay, then why are you here?"

"N. Where is your hospitality?" Jane snapped at me from behind. She got up from my bed, walked over to Marlow, took him by the arm, and walked downstairs with him.

After about 5 minutes of me going over what just happened, I finally went downstairs to see what was going on. I walked into the kitchen to see where Jane and Marlow were and found them sitting at the island drinking sodas.

"Ah, Nadia. Nice of you to join us." Jane chided.

"I'm sorry for my reaction upstairs, Marlow. You just freaked me out a bit." This was the first time today I could not look at him. Everything that felt off at school now started red-flagging me.

"You do seem a bit on edge. I'm sorry that I showed up unannounced." Marlow apologized.

All of a sudden my head was on fire. I couldn't see or hear anything. It was excruciatingly painful. Then I heard a voice say, "Give what you have to me. It belongs to me! Or this will never end."

"Give what to you? Who are you?" I cried out in pain.

"You will know who I am in good time. The sooner you give me what is mine the sooner your suffering will end. The first warning was your parents. Don't let me take more of your friends and family away." Whomever it was laughed maliciously and just like that everything went away.

I was laying on the kitchen floor with Jane on the right side of me and Marlow on the left side. "Are you okay N?" Jane looked seriously worried. She looked me up and down and I saw a tear roll down her cheek.

I tried to speak, but nothing came of it. My brain could not yet process me speaking after that attack. I looked over at Marlow and I saw sadness. He barely knows me and he looks sad. Not worried or distressed at what just happened. No, he looks sad to see me in this state. Does he have something to do with it, or does he know something?

Jane jumped up next to me and went to go and get some things. When she came back she had a bucket of lukewarm water and a washcloth. She set it down next to me and started cleaning me. I looked at what she rinsed out of the cloth. There was blood. A lot of blood. It came from my ears and my nose and my tears were even blood.

What is happening? This isn't normal. Why is this happening to me? Then a soft warm hand took a hold of my left hand. When I looked over at my hand, I saw that Marlow was holding it. Instead of pulling away, I left it and embraced the warmth of his hand.

It was like my body then only realized that it was freezing, not the environment, my body itself was freezing. I started to shiver and every breath I let out was ice cold. "I'm going to call your aunt. This is not normal." Jane ran out of the kitchen and out of the house to the gardens where my aunt would spend her 'quiet time' in the afternoons.

"Where do you keep your blankets?" Marlow asked frantically trying to get me warmed up. With me not being able to speak, I could not direct him to where we kept them.

"Screw it." He sat down on the floor and then pulled me into his embrace. I felt so delicate in his arms as he rubbed my arms to try and warm me. "I'm sorry that you have this gift and he wants to take it away." It was a mere whisper, but I still heard it. Marlow looked at me and those icy blue eyes only bore sadness.

But what is he talking about? What gift do I have and who wants to take it? Can anybody give me answers?

Before he could go on, my aunt and Jane rushed through the door. My aunt had a blanket and wrapped me. "You keep holding her and keep her warm. I will make tea." My aunt ordered.

Jane took the bucket of lukewarm water and went to switch it to warm water. She came back and started cleaning me again.

I looked up at Marlow and he looked back down at me. We just stared into each others' eyes and forgot about what was happening.

"Here drink this." My aunt helped me sip on the tea and after about fifteen minutes I was back to normal. I felt warm and comfortable and I could finally speak. But I only had one thing to say.

"What the hell is happening to me?"