Getting To Know Her

~Chaviv~

I wake up feeling like I had the worst sleep in my entire life. I check the time and see that it's already eight-thirty. I miss my early morning jog. I've never been a restless sleeper but since last night I couldn't sleep a wink. So, my morning isn't starting on a positive note. And that's okay.

I slip out of bed and go freshen up, I have some time today to catch up on my jog and work on a few assignments I got before I came here. I splash some water over my face to calm my restlessness, but it still lingers. I sighed, Anita appears at the forefront of my mind and I can already feel my heart escalating. Just the thought of her sends my heart racing. I take in a deep breath and run my fingers through my hair, I reach for my face towel and dried my face.

There's no point in me dwelling on this anymore then I have to. It's just going to drive me crazy.

I walk to the bedside table and grab my phone. I notice a message from Aunt Mary saying they had arrived safely last night. I dial her number and wait for it to ring. It rings a couple of times before she picks up, "Chaviv!" She answers and seconds later I hear a second voice yell "Buenos días, pendejo!", "Miguel!" Aunt Mary scowls.

"Buenos días, tento" I greeted back. "Chaviv!" Aunt Mary scowled before muttering why we can't just greet each other normally and I don't have to see to know Miguel is also smiling on the other line.

She sighs and asks him if he doesn't have somewhere else, he should be."Te amo mamá," I hear Miguel say before kissing her on the cheek and leaving. She sighs again, "Buenos días Chaviv," she greets, and I smile "Good morning, Tía, I saw your message and figured I should call before I head out for a jog."

"At nine? Is everything alright?" I look over at the alarm clock and am shocked to see it's already nine, "Everything is fine Tía. I promise, I just woke up late that's all, but I just wanted to check if everything is alright." I walk towards the wardrobe and pull out my jogging shorts and a black tank top. "Well, if you say so but you will let me know if there's anything wrong?" She asks and I smile even though she can't see it "Of course, well I have to hang up I have to call Mama before she has my head," I say and she chuckles "Okay, well call me if you need anything," she says " Will do, te amo Tía." We say goodbye and drop the call before calling Mama.

The phone barely gets to the second ring before she picks up and I can't help but roll my eyes at how quickly she answered. If she ever saw me roll my eyes, she'd have my head. "Hi mama" I greet her, "What took you so long to call?" I chuckle at how out of breath she sounded like she was running, "I was on the phone with Aunt Mary, and were you running?" She goes quiet for a bit before she responds, "Of course not, why would you think I was running?" I can see her adjusting herself and I can't help the grin spreading across my cheeks.

"Enough about me, how are you? Are you settling in well at the school? You haven't run into any trouble?" I take my pedometer and wrap it around my arm then slip on my running shoes and plug in my earphones into the mp3 player "I'm doing fine mama and I'm settling in fine, no issues," I tell her and I can hear her sigh "That's good, I'm glad you're enjoying yourself and if there's anything wrong just let me know, okay?" I smile at how similar Aunt Mary and my mom are, "Yes mama, anyway I have to go, I'll talk to you soon. Bye mama, love you." She says her goodbyes and drops, I lock my phone and place it on the bedside table before plugging in my earphones and catching up on the little bit of jogging left.

The jog is a little slower than I'd like since during daybreak not many people are awake, and I get to put the demon speed to use and feel the wind rush past my face. By the time I return to campus, I've run 4 miles and I'm barely out of breath, I still feel restless from this morning. Maybe I should push for 10 next time. I've gotten used to the inhuman speed the demon has. I walk into my dorm and take a shower to freshen up.

After my shower, I pull out my grey sweatpants and a black tank top. I still have some assignments I need to catch up on so I'll head over to the library and work on them. I grab my school bag and head out towards the library and not long after Anita appears at the forefront of my mind. I wish I could see her right now; I don't even know if she's staying on campus.

Now normally, I'm very much aware of my surroundings, I can pretty much sense or hear someone coming in my direction but for some odd reason, I didn't notice the person colliding with me and falling backward. I'm momentarily caught off-guard when I see who it was and I am more than happy, "Anita."

"Chaviv..." She breathes out, shocked to see me. The demon is on alert once again and I can feel him pacing around in his cage, urging me to take a hold of her. I ignore him and reach out my hand to help her up, "Sorry, are you okay, that looked like it hurt." She hesitates for a moment "Y-yeah, I'm fine," she takes my hand, and I pull her up, using a bit too much force, causing her to stumble a little and having her to lean into me to balance herself.

The contact sends my heart pounding and butterflies erupting in the pit of my stomach. I have to fight the urge to hold her close to me and before my willpower is broken, she quickly steps back, I can hear her heart racing almost matching the pace of my own heart.

She looks down at her feet as she shifts her weight while we stand there in silence, I see her fiddling with something in her hands and when I take a closer look, I see that it's keys to a dorm and I can't help but be elated.

"So, you're moving into the dorms?" she looks confused for a second then looks down at her hands "Oh yeah, I figured I get close to school as much as possible," she chuckles and I smile, "That's cool, maybe I'll see you around then," I say and she smiles "Yeah, maybe," she says casually but I can sense the fear off her and I couldn't help but wonder if she's scared of me.

People will be scared of you because of the aura you have but don't let it get to you.

Easier said than done.

I try and ignore the sharp stab in my chest and decide that I should leave. "I'll see you around then," I say and give her a soft smile before walking away. I peek over my shoulder and catch a glimpse of her raven hair disappearing into the corner. I have to force myself to continue heading to the library before doing anything stupid. I get to the library, walk a little further down and find a small area surrounded by two bookshelves. Two armchairs were stationed across from each other with a small coffee table in between them, the morning light filtering through provided a soft glow to the small space for a brief moment allowing my imagination to picture Anita and me sitting together while reading a book.

I quickly shake my head to stop myself before getting carried away. I set my books up and try to work on my assignments, but my mind is occupied by images of Anita. With great effort, I focus on my assignments. I hear a faint buzz, breaking my concentration. And now I am annoyed. I look up to see where the sound was coming from before feeling something vibrating in my sweatpants. Realizing it was my phone, I pull it out to see who could have been calling me. My annoyance deepens. I put the phone on silence and let it ring before getting back to work.

But I'm yet again interrupted by the sounds of my stomach. I sigh, realizing I hadn't eaten anything this morning. Noting that it was time for a break I close my books, packed up, and headed back to my dorm room. I grab my gray jacket and slip it on before pulling out my phone and ordering an uber to the nearest diner. My phone immediately vibrates, and the caller ID pops up, I sigh and immediately put it on silent. I'll deal with that later, once I get the energy for it.

I let the call go to voicemail and check how far my ride is. I start heading out, locking my dorm room behind me, and head towards the school gate to meet my ride. I should get a car instead of ordering a ride, much less expensive. I arrive at the diner and make my way to the back and take a seat.

It doesn't take long before a waitress is by my table and putting on her best charming smile. She takes my order while batting her long lashes at me and tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. I try not to roll my eyes when she saunters away to go get my order. My phone vibrates again, and I sigh, reluctantly, I pull it out and to check the caller ID. To my relief it was a different number, so I answered. "Sup pendejo.", "How's it going puta." Miguel shots back and I grin.

"Eh nothing much, just grabbing a meal. So, what do I owe this pleasure?"

I sit back with my arm resting on the top of the seat. "Nothing serious but I thought I should let you know a certain someone is dying to see you." I sigh knowing who his referring too. "Oh, you don't have to warn me, my phone hasn't known peace since" I tell him, I spot the waitress coming back with my order "If that's all, I appreciate the heads up but my food just arrived. We'll talk later." We say our goodbyes and hang up. The waitress places down my food making sure to lean a little lower just so her girls are peeking out from her uniform. Which only got me thinking how crazy it is how woman are drawn to me instead of fearing me but the one woman I have my eyes on fears me, like she knows the dangers of being close to me.

I wonder if she knows what I am but at the same time I don't think she does. Knowing that she fears me cuts deeper than anything thing I've ever felt. I clear my mind of Anita. I have to focus, I came here to find answers and that's what I'll do. As quickly as I could, I finished my meal and paid before heading back to campus.

=====

The sky has now turned violet with a few hues of orange at the edge while the stars paint the sky. Being in the city drowns out the stars shine but here on campus you can see them as clear as day.

As soon as I arrived, I went straight for the library to find any information on demons. I scan through the section of mythical creatures and collected as many as I could find. I went to the small section I found earlier where I can read in peace but stop in my tracks when I see Anita sitting just across with her nose buried deep in a book and I can't help but smile, "Anita".

Her head shot up and her eyes widen, looking just as surprised to see me "Sorry, didn't mean to disturb you, I didn't think I'd find anyone back here."

"Don't be, I didn't think anyone comes back here but I'll move and find another spot," she says before quickly packing up her books, I stop her before she leaves, "No...I mean you don't have to go, there's no harm in sharing a space to study, right?"

She looks at me sheepishly and sits back down "I guess not," I smile and take my sit across from her, I placed my books onto the table and began reading. Pushing for conversation right now might not be a wise move but I'm more than happy to sit in silence with her. It doesn't take long when I sense her fidgeting and feeling her eyes on me. I keep my face neutral as possible so that she doesn't know that I can see her looking. Before long I see her fanning her face and her eyebrows creased, I try not to smile and get up to open the window for her.

She smiles sheepishly and thanks me. I smile at her and sit back down and just like that we both went back to our reading.

=====

My annoyance rose through every book I opened and with each page nothing was mentioned about demons nor their origins.

I hear Anita sigh, looking just as annoyed as I was. She closes the book she was reading and placed it with the rest "You look just how I feel," I say closing my own book and for a moment she looks surprised. "You're still here," she than quickly corrected herself "I mean I didn't think you'd still be here." I chuckled "It's okay, I know what you mean, you get so absorbed in reading you forget the world exists."

"Yeah, exactly. My brother said a hurricane could come by and I wouldn't notice until its too late."

"Funny, my mom says the same thing too." We both laugh at this before falling silent. She looks over at my pile of books "So, what are you researching?" she asks, without hesitation I pick up the first book and show her the cover "Mythical beasts?" she reads out loud looking at me quizzically.

"Are you studying to be a zoologist?" she asks, and I chuckle shaking my head. I trace my thumb over the golden letters "Not really, it's more like a personal project." Which I can't tell you about, hopefully someday I might. "What about you?" I look over at her own stack "Same as you" she says, I nod and say nothing. Now I'm curious to what you are trying to find. Maybe, we can find it together.

"Well, it's getting pretty late and I'm sure you have needs to be met" she starts getting ready to leave and I look at her in confusion.

"Needs?"

"Yeah, you know" she brings her index fingers to her mouth showing her teeth and then it clicked. I immediately break out laughing. I wasn't laughing at her, I felt relieved, but the situation was funny. This whole time I felt like she feared me because she sensed the demon's intimidating aura when it's the opposite. She was the first to ever assume that I was a vampire, it explains why she was on edge around me. I finally calmed down and wiped a tear that escaped "What made you think I was a vampire?" she covered her face in embarrassment and muffled an answer "Your aura." I chuckled, figured as much but it was still cute how embarrassed she was "Don't be embarrassed, you're one of the fifth people who have told me that but don't let the vampires hear you say that" I say and wink at her, which was obviously a lie but I didn't want her to feel bad.

I could feel her ease up which meant it made her feel a little better and that makes me feel happy. "Funny enough, my mom said that people would assume I'm a vampire cause of my intimidating aura but I'm an Elemental, see" I pinch my fingers together leaving a gap, a spark flashed between them "Lightening" I explain and she oh'ed. "Can we forget that I said anything?" she begs me and I can't help but smile sweetly "Sure, on one condition."

"Condition?" I nod and seat back into the seat "We get to hang out more."