5Whoo hoo, chapter two! From the flow of the story so far, I'm guessing this will be a five chapter story. Might be a little longer, but five is what I'm feeling at the moment. Enjoy! :D
It takes two hours.
I slam my locker and bolt to my next class, conscious of the final bell blaring in my ears. I slide in-not unlike Indiana Jones-except I don't have a hat nearly so impressive as his. Mr. Johnson gives me a patient smile, though there is a warning stretched underneath his lips as he taps his pencil against the Physics textbook I realize I'm not toting around in my messenger bag. I play it off with a lighthearted smile in his direction as a reply, adding a: "Good afternoon, sir. How'd you like my entrance?"
"Compared to everyone else's completely routine manner of walking with one foot in front of the other, I'd have to say you win in terms of style," he concedes as I find my seat in the row furthest to the right of the classroom. "However, I'd appreciate you not pushing your deadline so often."
"Anybody ever tell you, you have a very high class way of speaking?"
"Did anybody ever remind you of your homework last night?" he shoots back knowingly.
I groan and let my head hit the desk. Last night Cupid had me running all over Miami and Los Angeles. Things were seen. Things that required two straight hours of Diablo III to banish from memory. But I don't have the luxury of using that perfectly reasonable excuse, so I simply remain quiet and let the students behind me pass their papers over my head, into Anri's black-polished fingertips. She turns her head back around to see me after she's handed the assignments off to Jake, a sympathetic expression on her face. A moment later, a Dove chocolate clatters next to my nose. I always laugh when I see that they're heart-shaped. She doesn't even know the irony.
Anri doesn't know anything. She and I don't talk very much, but whenever she sees I'm having a bad day or that I haven't done an assignment, there a chocolate heart appears. She always has them in her bag. I know, because she gives me one almost every day. She hears the crinkle of foil and moves her head the minimum amount of inches for her bright blue eyes to find me. She gives me another smile.
I burst out laughing when I read the message she's inadvertently given me. 'Sometimes a smile can mean more than a dozen roses.'
Mr. Johnson turns on his heel and aims a look at me. "Care to indulge us, Mr. Carrow?"
Anri's looking at me like she would enjoy knowing, too. I wave my hand. "No, no-it's an inside joke. Sorry, Mr. Johnson; I'll keep it down."
He lets me off with a warning and goes back to teaching. I decide to up our level of communication today and poke Anri's back with the eraser end of my pencil. She jumps and whirls around, silently demanding an explanation.
"Thank you," I whisper.
"Oh," she replies. Her voice is soft, like feathers. "No problem."
"It's just that you always give me these things, and I never say thank you," I explain, grinning. "And I figured I should stop be so ungrateful."
A smirk twists her features. "Yeah, you should." She bops the top of my head, like I'm a dog who has misbehaved. I'm surprised when it doesn't irritate me. Anri's eyelids lower, making her smile all the more darker and-dare I say?-sexy. Then her attention is pulled back to the lesson and she's gone. My chin hits the desk in disappointment, then I catch myself and sit up straight.
What the hell am I doing?
I'm a Love Carrier. I make other people fall in love with each other. The details of the job have never really been gone over with me (probably because I didn't feel like listening), but it would be considered cheating if I gave a rose to someone to fall in love with me, right? I'd have complete control over the color. I could even choose to keep the rose to myself, if I decided I didn't want that particular person as my lover.
Given all that, I probably don't have much chance of getting a girlfriend anytime soon. Unless Cupid were to have Lainey do it for me…?
I reach into my bag and touch the wristband. I've never liked Cupid much, but I have questions that need to go away.
...
I snap on the wristband when the first ping of the final bell reaches me. I don't want to waste time with the rebellion routine of ripping up Cupid's cloud walls, so I opt for using the door. I shiver as I touch the handle, ripping it off once I've opened the door. This is starting to get to me.
"Cupid!" I shout. "Get down here!"
"What's this?" he replies, popping up next to me. The guy is light on his feet when he wants to be. There is nothing but concern on his baby face. "You sound troubled, Lenny. Did the test not go well?"
"Yeah, I'm troubled," I grumble, deciding not to mention my failure of an exam. "I have questions for you."
"They'll have to wait a moment, I'm afraid," he replies, walking across the white-tiled floor. I look up and find a pair of kids my age looking back. They both have tanned skin and big, dark eyes. Cupid hands both the boy and the girl a sheet of paper. Coordinates. They're Love Carriers, too. I stand in surprise, observing them with unconcealed curiosity. It's the first time I've ever come across other Carriers.
"Ah, I love Brazil. I get half of it, you know. Have you ever bothered to look at what countries fall into the Northern hemisphere?" Cupid questions innocently enough, walking back over to me and stopping. The Brazilians go about their duties, but not before staring at me, too, the same interest on their face. "You and Lainey do a wonderful job of taking care of the U.S. sector," he goes on. "I have a special team of Carriers that handle all the small countries in Europe. They're all hard workers; most of them teenagers like yourself; some around Lainey's age."
"So?" I prompt him to get to the point of his argument.
"Most of them have read the handbook I put in their book bag," he replies.
I blink. "Handbook?"
He pats my arm and starts to leave. "Go read that, then come back with questions."
A flower of anger blossoms in my chest "Or you could just answer them now instead of wasting my time!" I shout. "God, why are you always like this? 'Go find out for yourself'; 'Go do my job while I sit around here in my castle'! You're so irritating!"
He stops. Turning around, I see something gleam in his eye and wonder if I've crossed a line. "Read the handbook. And while you're doing that, think about this: I know what your personality is like. I know you're caustic and that you have a bad attitude. I know you don't like me and I know you're sometimes angry with the flowers you have to hand out." His eyebrows slant down and something in his expression begs me to make the connection. "You hate my personality. I can't stand someone who has yours; so negative and stubborn. So why, in light of all this, don't I just get rid of you?"
He turns back around and continues his path up the grand staircase, up to the recesses of the mansion I've never even thought about exploring. Frustration still simmering beneath my skin, I stalk out, this time not hesitating to destroy the dewy fluff in front of me.
That's all I'm uploading for today, I think. Thanks for reading!
PetalsFromTheForest