Pandora
Chapter Two
How's Dem Apples
And he bade famous Hephaestus make haste and mix earth with water and to put in it the voice and strength of human kind, and fashion a sweet, lovely maiden-shape, like to the immortal goddesses in face; and Athena to teach her needlework and the weaving of the varied web; and golden Aphrodite to shed grace upon her head and cruel longing and cares that weary the limbs. And he charged Hermes the guide, the Slayer of Argus, to put in her a shameless mind and a deceitful nature. So he ordered. And they obeyed the lord Zeus the son of Cronos. Forthwith the famous Lame God moulded clay in the likeness of a modest maid, as the son of Cronos purposed. And the goddess brighteyed Athena girded and clothed her, and the divine Graces and queenly Persuasion put necklaces of gold upon her, and the rich-haired Hours crowned her head with spring flowers. And Pallas Athena bedecked her form with all manner of finery. Also the Guide, the Slayer of Argus, contrived within her lies and crafty words and a deceitful nature at the will of loud thundering Zeus, and the Herald of the gods put speech in her. And he called this woman Pandora, because all they who dwelt on Olympus gave each a gift, a plague to men who eat bread. But when he had finished the sheer, hopeless snare, the Father sent glorious Argus-Slayer, the swift messenger of the gods, to take it to Epimetheus as a gift.
Excerpt from Works and Days by Hesiod
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Lunch time was always a hassle for me, as the school was never meant to hold as many students as it did. There were too many people in confined areas masticating or worse making out. From the caf to hidden nooks and crannies, kids and teachers seemed to be pouring out of every part of the place. Turning around a corner, I nearly tripped over a couple eating -and- making out. Oh my... was that Miss Delaney and Mr Jenkins? Quickly closing my eyes, I started to back away from them. Wondering how my parents would react to me suddenly needing to see a shrink. Although on reflection it may not come off as so sudden. With an amused shake of my head, I leand against the wall out of view of the amours teachers and took a deep shuddering breath. There had to be some place I could eat in relative peace around here.
There were two high schools in Pandora, South High and North High. [i] Apparently the school board lacked imagination.[/i] I attended South High, but then most of Pandora did. Parents would send their kids here from across the town on flimsy excuses, in the hopes they would end up friends with one of the Princes of Pandora. It was, to my way of thinking, pathetic. Even worse was that my parents were just as bad as everyone else in this place. They had sent me here on the excuse that North high did not offer enough extra circular activities, which of course was true because they had a very small student body. The irony that I did not join any extra circulars at South High was not lost on me or my parents. It horrified them that I was so anti social but they were the optimistic sort who just kept hoping for the best.By all rights, I should have been attending the under populated North High. And yet I got stuck going to South High. The school was a good hour's commute by bus to school every day. Even worse was how I was always stuck trying to find some semi-private place to eat lunch every day. Only one student seemed to be granted the privilege of space when eating and that was Lucien Mars.
Walking into the school auditorium in one last effort to find some privacy, I saw him sitting up on the stage alone and reading a book. He had a brown paper bag sitting beside him and a half eaten apple in one of his hands. At the sight of him my first instinct was to do like everyone else had and leave the room, giving him all the space he consistently demanded. Two things stopped me, however. First was the whole idea of backing down and letting some spoiled little rich boy get all this wonderful space to himself disgusted me. And second, I remembered the incident with the sub from a week ago and how he had, in his spoiled little rich boy way, told her the proper way to say my name.
I wanted to know why he had done it. This time and place presented the perfect opportunity to ask him. So, decision made and after a few seconds of physiological fortitude, I found myself still standing rooted to the spot. He had yet to notice me as I stared down at him intently from the top doors of the concaved room, but it was pretty dark up there and he was really absorbed in his book.
It gave me a chance to sort of just soak him in, something I would normally never give myself the luxury of doing. For all of his menacing aura and bad temper Lucien was in a word-- beautiful. His skin held a golden hew. His cheek bones were strong and high. His eyes deep set and almond shaped, but best of all was his mouth. It was like a bow, soft and full. It should have been blessed to a woman instead it was given to this boy. Who, if the rumors were true, blessed it onto more then a few women. What a waste as far as I was concerned. I was not above enjoying the view, though.
With nothing but my bravery and lunch in hand I finally put one foot in front of the other and made my way down the steps. The blanket of darkness I had been hiding in lifting as I got closer. I was about half way down the stairs when he looked up at me. I could see the corners of his eyes narrow as he glared at me. Strangely enough, this had the opposite effect than he probably intended. Instead of being intimidated, I found myself bolstered. No way was I going to run out of here like the scared little girl I was.
Reaching the bottom of the steps, I made my way over to the stairs leading up onto the stage. I could see his whole body tense up as I approached, the apple in his hand slowly being crushed and its juices flowing down his arm. My eyes widened, [i] maybe this was a really bad idea after all.[/i]
As I walked across the hard wood of the stage the sound of my foot steps echoed across the large room. It was slightly disconcerting when I stopped walking and found only silence and a pair of angry eyes waiting for me. Shifting from one foot to the other and chewing on my lower lip, I probably looked like a little girl who needed to pee.
"Umm..." [i]great off to a very dignified start.[/i] "How come you know my name?" I knew it was a dumb question the second it was out of my lips. What was it about Lucien that put me so on edge that my IQ dropped severely?
He did not need to say what he did next, his eyes had already said it for him; "You got to be shitting me," he growled, chucking the smashed apple across the stage. Standing up, he was suddenly standing less than an inch in front of me, forcing me to crane my neck way back so I could look up at him. "You came in here and disturbed me to ask a dumb ass question." I swallowed hard as adrenalin rushed through my veins as I realized I might be spending the rest of my life in a coma.
"No, of course not." I was a little in awe of how I was standing my ground, "and even though the question came out wrong I bet you know exactly what I meant." I glared right back at him. "So cut the bully act. I am not impressed with the fact you can beat the crap out of me and get away with it." Oh my, I had let that last part sort of slip out... crap.
"It's an unusual name with an interesting meaning." He answered in a cold tone. I had to admit I was not expecting it. I stood there like a deflated balloon, a little at loss as what to do next now that my momentum had been cut short.
"Can you leave now." He was not asking on that I was clear, even if it had been phrased like a a question. But I was bolstered and cocky because of what I considered to be victory, so in answer to his demand I sat down and started eating my lunch. I only just caught a glimpse of the baffled look he shot me before all his emotions got shut behind a mask of cool indifference. "Guess not." He grumbled under his breath just loud enough for me to hear and he went back to where his book lay, plopping back down beside it, doing his best to ignore me. Not that it looked all that difficult for him to do.
A small amount of time passed in silence, him reading his book me eating my lunch. I felt somewhat bad for intruding on him like this... contradictory of me I know, but I had noticed in life that one did not always end up feeling they she thought they would about things in the end. So with that annoying niggling at the back of my brain, I reached into my lunch bag and pulled out an apple.
"Lucien." I called his name in the hopes of getting his attention. No such luck, raising my voice an octive: "Lucien." He continued to ignore me. I knew he had heard me by the way he gritted his teeth in annoyance. I was not to be put off so easily. After all I had a conscience to sooth. "LUCIEN!" I screamed as loud as I could. Over the top sure but it worked. "What the hell do you want from me?" He yelled back.
"Nothing." I told him as I held up the glossy red apple, "heads up," and with a smile threw it to him. It was kind of stunning the way he caught it. He had not once bothered looking at it, just suddenly last minute reached out and grabbed it out of the air. What he did next, though, was not so much stunning as really, really jerky. He reached his arm back in the same motion as the one he used to catch the apple and whipped it at me.
The once pride of my lunch "THWAPD" my shoulder in a moment of pure disbelief on my part, it actually took half a minute for the pain to register. A sharp throbbing sting blossomed across my left shoulder. The air hissed out of me and I clenched my jaw holding back the raw emotions the attack on me triggered. I was going to have one nasty bruise on my shoulder of that I was sure I could only be happy he had not decided to aim for my head... unless he had and he just had lousy aim. Somehow I doubted it. "That was totally uncalled for." I managed to keep my voice clam even though anger riddled every word. My eyes were watery and the back of my throat burned but it was all a dull inconvenience in the face of the sharp stinging pain in my shoulder.
He did not answer me. In fact, he dropped his eyes in what I would have assumed was guilt if he had been anyone else. I could see his hands clenching and un clenching as if he was struggling with something. Then suddenly he grabbed his book and stood up, clearly planing on leaving. Oddly, part of me wanted to tell him to stay, but I was not such a masochist so I suppressed it easily.
He had to pass me on his way off the stage. From under my curls I took one last peak up at him as he approached. That's when I saw it, a shadow up in the cat walk and a large flood light suddenly coming lose from its secure moorings. I did not even think about what I did next nor did I hesitate. The world seemed to slow down around me and my movements felt slow and sluggish. I could see the light falling right toward Lucien's head and knew I could not get up fast enough to push him out of the way, so I rolled myself at his feet in the hopes of knocking him over and out of harms way. I suddenly stopped rolling as my body made contact with his feet, Looking up I could see the light coming straight down at me I only had enough time to turn onto my side so it would not land on my chest. Suddenly the pain in my shoulder exploded and I heard a popping sound as the flood light came crashing down on it, before rolling onto the floor, the glass shattering. I did not scream or cry, I just lay there not moving with my eyes shut a litany of swear words coming out of my mouth in a low growl.
I felt a hand come to rest on my forehead, and could not miss just how warm it felt. "Don't move." A soft voice said close to my left ear. Really, what in the world did he think I was doing here? [i] not [/i]moving. Opening my eyes I glared up at Lucien. "Well duh," I snapped at him, the pain in my shoulder killing any good will I may have had for his obvious concern.
One side of his mouth lifted in an amused smirk and I wanted to hit him. "Good to see you still have some fight left in you." He gently pushed a lock of my hair off of my face. "You're going to need it... your shoulder is dislocated." He watched me with what I deemed was a little to much curiosity. The jerk wanted to see how I reacted to finding out about my shoulder! Well screw him, I was not about to start screaming and crying now just to satisfy whatever image he had of me.
"Nice to know... Soo you going to go get a teacher or what?" I demanded coldly and, watched as his smirk wobbled and for a split second wondered how he would look like with a real smile. ...Maybe the light hit my head too.
"No actually, I am not." [i]What the hell...[/i]I was about to start telling him off. "I can help you fix this a lot faster than running around looking for a teacher who probably has no clue what to do." I bit my tongue, stopping everything that was about to come rolling off of it.
"How?" I eyed him suspiciously, only half believing him.
"Can you take pain? Because this is going to hurt." I nodded my head in answer. "Good. First you're going to have to stand up. " he reached around me, slipping his strong arms under my knees and back, lifting up in one fluid motion before slowly lowering me onto my feet. I had to grit my teeth through all the movement to stop from crying out. The pain feeling like someone was trying to rip my arm off, taking a peak at the injury I could see my arm swinging at an odd angle
"Now slowly lean forward and just relax that shoulder." He guided me as he stood behind me, his hands on my waist and back as he pushed me to lean forward. I closed my eyes trying to block out the sharp spasms that had my body shaking, by focusing on his voice. Not that it did much good, as it felt like my shoulder was being ripped off with each movement. Then, with a soft click and loud whimper, my shoulder rolled back into place. And that is when my legs turned wobbly and I noticed just how sweaty and gross I was. My green tee shirt sticking to me and my forehead shiny enough that a model could do her make up looking at it. Turning around slowly, not sure my knees wouldn't give out on me, I looked up at Lucien. "Thanks." I told him, only to receive a weird look.
Oddly his demeanor completely changed, from concerned and caring to angry and cold. Taking a step away from me, he took all the warm in the air with him. "What the hell did you think you were doing?" He waved over to the flood light. "If you're dumb enough to think that nearly getting yourself killed will get me to like you you're pathetically desperate. Especially as you are not my type." The room suddenly went quiet once more. What could I possibly say to that... it was just so stupidly unfair. I started to shake as the fact I could have died hit home, my knees giving out I sunk to the ground.
I did not know if he was still there or if he had left. I pulled my knees into my chest and cried like a baby, not caring if he saw me. "Now you cry?" He asked incredulously, his voice closer then I would have expected it to be. Wiping some of the tears out of my eyes I saw him crouching in front of me and was suddenly hit with massive deja-vu. It had been a week ago that I had found Stacy doing pretty much the same thing. I had sat there holding her for what had seemed forever, even missing my ride, I hated taking the bus-- it took forever. I never did find out why she had been crying, she had eventually stopped, got up and walked away, leaving me there with no explanation. The next day she was once more the happiest, nicest person in existence and apparently had no clue I was alive.
I now understood her desire to be held but I kept myself from asking him to 'indulge me'. Somehow I doubt he would be as obliging as I had been.
"What's wrong...huc...with crying now?" I demanded between hiccups, wiping my nose on my sleeve. I was so going straight home to shower and change, screw chem and English lit.
"Nothing, " he told me, his smirk returning as he reached out a hand "How about a lift home?" Seems like we were on the same wave length. Taking his offered hand with my good arm I let him pull me to my feet. "Sure." I was not about to turn down a ride, and besides, he owed me as I had just saved his life. And that is when it hit me... I had saved Lucien Mars's life. Looking over at the flood light. it hit me not because of what I had just done, but because someone had just tried to kill one of the Princes of Pandora.
How's Dem Apples
And he bade famous Hephaestus make haste and mix earth with water and to put in it the voice and strength of human kind, and fashion a sweet, lovely maiden-shape, like to the immortal goddesses in face; and Athena to teach her needlework and the weaving of the varied web; and golden Aphrodite to shed grace upon her head and cruel longing and cares that weary the limbs. And he charged Hermes the guide, the Slayer of Argus, to put in her a shameless mind and a deceitful nature. So he ordered. And they obeyed the lord Zeus the son of Cronos. Forthwith the famous Lame God moulded clay in the likeness of a modest maid, as the son of Cronos purposed. And the goddess brighteyed Athena girded and clothed her, and the divine Graces and queenly Persuasion put necklaces of gold upon her, and the rich-haired Hours crowned her head with spring flowers. And Pallas Athena bedecked her form with all manner of finery. Also the Guide, the Slayer of Argus, contrived within her lies and crafty words and a deceitful nature at the will of loud thundering Zeus, and the Herald of the gods put speech in her. And he called this woman Pandora, because all they who dwelt on Olympus gave each a gift, a plague to men who eat bread. But when he had finished the sheer, hopeless snare, the Father sent glorious Argus-Slayer, the swift messenger of the gods, to take it to Epimetheus as a gift.
Excerpt from Works and Days by Hesiod
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Lunch time was always a hassle for me, as the school was never meant to hold as many students as it did. There were too many people in confined areas masticating or worse making out. From the caf to hidden nooks and crannies, kids and teachers seemed to be pouring out of every part of the place. Turning around a corner, I nearly tripped over a couple eating -and- making out. Oh my... was that Miss Delaney and Mr Jenkins? Quickly closing my eyes, I started to back away from them. Wondering how my parents would react to me suddenly needing to see a shrink. Although on reflection it may not come off as so sudden. With an amused shake of my head, I leand against the wall out of view of the amours teachers and took a deep shuddering breath. There had to be some place I could eat in relative peace around here.
There were two high schools in Pandora, South High and North High. [i] Apparently the school board lacked imagination.[/i] I attended South High, but then most of Pandora did. Parents would send their kids here from across the town on flimsy excuses, in the hopes they would end up friends with one of the Princes of Pandora. It was, to my way of thinking, pathetic. Even worse was that my parents were just as bad as everyone else in this place. They had sent me here on the excuse that North high did not offer enough extra circular activities, which of course was true because they had a very small student body. The irony that I did not join any extra circulars at South High was not lost on me or my parents. It horrified them that I was so anti social but they were the optimistic sort who just kept hoping for the best.By all rights, I should have been attending the under populated North High. And yet I got stuck going to South High. The school was a good hour's commute by bus to school every day. Even worse was how I was always stuck trying to find some semi-private place to eat lunch every day. Only one student seemed to be granted the privilege of space when eating and that was Lucien Mars.
Walking into the school auditorium in one last effort to find some privacy, I saw him sitting up on the stage alone and reading a book. He had a brown paper bag sitting beside him and a half eaten apple in one of his hands. At the sight of him my first instinct was to do like everyone else had and leave the room, giving him all the space he consistently demanded. Two things stopped me, however. First was the whole idea of backing down and letting some spoiled little rich boy get all this wonderful space to himself disgusted me. And second, I remembered the incident with the sub from a week ago and how he had, in his spoiled little rich boy way, told her the proper way to say my name.
I wanted to know why he had done it. This time and place presented the perfect opportunity to ask him. So, decision made and after a few seconds of physiological fortitude, I found myself still standing rooted to the spot. He had yet to notice me as I stared down at him intently from the top doors of the concaved room, but it was pretty dark up there and he was really absorbed in his book.
It gave me a chance to sort of just soak him in, something I would normally never give myself the luxury of doing. For all of his menacing aura and bad temper Lucien was in a word-- beautiful. His skin held a golden hew. His cheek bones were strong and high. His eyes deep set and almond shaped, but best of all was his mouth. It was like a bow, soft and full. It should have been blessed to a woman instead it was given to this boy. Who, if the rumors were true, blessed it onto more then a few women. What a waste as far as I was concerned. I was not above enjoying the view, though.
With nothing but my bravery and lunch in hand I finally put one foot in front of the other and made my way down the steps. The blanket of darkness I had been hiding in lifting as I got closer. I was about half way down the stairs when he looked up at me. I could see the corners of his eyes narrow as he glared at me. Strangely enough, this had the opposite effect than he probably intended. Instead of being intimidated, I found myself bolstered. No way was I going to run out of here like the scared little girl I was.
Reaching the bottom of the steps, I made my way over to the stairs leading up onto the stage. I could see his whole body tense up as I approached, the apple in his hand slowly being crushed and its juices flowing down his arm. My eyes widened, [i] maybe this was a really bad idea after all.[/i]
As I walked across the hard wood of the stage the sound of my foot steps echoed across the large room. It was slightly disconcerting when I stopped walking and found only silence and a pair of angry eyes waiting for me. Shifting from one foot to the other and chewing on my lower lip, I probably looked like a little girl who needed to pee.
"Umm..." [i]great off to a very dignified start.[/i] "How come you know my name?" I knew it was a dumb question the second it was out of my lips. What was it about Lucien that put me so on edge that my IQ dropped severely?
He did not need to say what he did next, his eyes had already said it for him; "You got to be shitting me," he growled, chucking the smashed apple across the stage. Standing up, he was suddenly standing less than an inch in front of me, forcing me to crane my neck way back so I could look up at him. "You came in here and disturbed me to ask a dumb ass question." I swallowed hard as adrenalin rushed through my veins as I realized I might be spending the rest of my life in a coma.
"No, of course not." I was a little in awe of how I was standing my ground, "and even though the question came out wrong I bet you know exactly what I meant." I glared right back at him. "So cut the bully act. I am not impressed with the fact you can beat the crap out of me and get away with it." Oh my, I had let that last part sort of slip out... crap.
"It's an unusual name with an interesting meaning." He answered in a cold tone. I had to admit I was not expecting it. I stood there like a deflated balloon, a little at loss as what to do next now that my momentum had been cut short.
"Can you leave now." He was not asking on that I was clear, even if it had been phrased like a a question. But I was bolstered and cocky because of what I considered to be victory, so in answer to his demand I sat down and started eating my lunch. I only just caught a glimpse of the baffled look he shot me before all his emotions got shut behind a mask of cool indifference. "Guess not." He grumbled under his breath just loud enough for me to hear and he went back to where his book lay, plopping back down beside it, doing his best to ignore me. Not that it looked all that difficult for him to do.
A small amount of time passed in silence, him reading his book me eating my lunch. I felt somewhat bad for intruding on him like this... contradictory of me I know, but I had noticed in life that one did not always end up feeling they she thought they would about things in the end. So with that annoying niggling at the back of my brain, I reached into my lunch bag and pulled out an apple.
"Lucien." I called his name in the hopes of getting his attention. No such luck, raising my voice an octive: "Lucien." He continued to ignore me. I knew he had heard me by the way he gritted his teeth in annoyance. I was not to be put off so easily. After all I had a conscience to sooth. "LUCIEN!" I screamed as loud as I could. Over the top sure but it worked. "What the hell do you want from me?" He yelled back.
"Nothing." I told him as I held up the glossy red apple, "heads up," and with a smile threw it to him. It was kind of stunning the way he caught it. He had not once bothered looking at it, just suddenly last minute reached out and grabbed it out of the air. What he did next, though, was not so much stunning as really, really jerky. He reached his arm back in the same motion as the one he used to catch the apple and whipped it at me.
The once pride of my lunch "THWAPD" my shoulder in a moment of pure disbelief on my part, it actually took half a minute for the pain to register. A sharp throbbing sting blossomed across my left shoulder. The air hissed out of me and I clenched my jaw holding back the raw emotions the attack on me triggered. I was going to have one nasty bruise on my shoulder of that I was sure I could only be happy he had not decided to aim for my head... unless he had and he just had lousy aim. Somehow I doubted it. "That was totally uncalled for." I managed to keep my voice clam even though anger riddled every word. My eyes were watery and the back of my throat burned but it was all a dull inconvenience in the face of the sharp stinging pain in my shoulder.
He did not answer me. In fact, he dropped his eyes in what I would have assumed was guilt if he had been anyone else. I could see his hands clenching and un clenching as if he was struggling with something. Then suddenly he grabbed his book and stood up, clearly planing on leaving. Oddly, part of me wanted to tell him to stay, but I was not such a masochist so I suppressed it easily.
He had to pass me on his way off the stage. From under my curls I took one last peak up at him as he approached. That's when I saw it, a shadow up in the cat walk and a large flood light suddenly coming lose from its secure moorings. I did not even think about what I did next nor did I hesitate. The world seemed to slow down around me and my movements felt slow and sluggish. I could see the light falling right toward Lucien's head and knew I could not get up fast enough to push him out of the way, so I rolled myself at his feet in the hopes of knocking him over and out of harms way. I suddenly stopped rolling as my body made contact with his feet, Looking up I could see the light coming straight down at me I only had enough time to turn onto my side so it would not land on my chest. Suddenly the pain in my shoulder exploded and I heard a popping sound as the flood light came crashing down on it, before rolling onto the floor, the glass shattering. I did not scream or cry, I just lay there not moving with my eyes shut a litany of swear words coming out of my mouth in a low growl.
I felt a hand come to rest on my forehead, and could not miss just how warm it felt. "Don't move." A soft voice said close to my left ear. Really, what in the world did he think I was doing here? [i] not [/i]moving. Opening my eyes I glared up at Lucien. "Well duh," I snapped at him, the pain in my shoulder killing any good will I may have had for his obvious concern.
One side of his mouth lifted in an amused smirk and I wanted to hit him. "Good to see you still have some fight left in you." He gently pushed a lock of my hair off of my face. "You're going to need it... your shoulder is dislocated." He watched me with what I deemed was a little to much curiosity. The jerk wanted to see how I reacted to finding out about my shoulder! Well screw him, I was not about to start screaming and crying now just to satisfy whatever image he had of me.
"Nice to know... Soo you going to go get a teacher or what?" I demanded coldly and, watched as his smirk wobbled and for a split second wondered how he would look like with a real smile. ...Maybe the light hit my head too.
"No actually, I am not." [i]What the hell...[/i]I was about to start telling him off. "I can help you fix this a lot faster than running around looking for a teacher who probably has no clue what to do." I bit my tongue, stopping everything that was about to come rolling off of it.
"How?" I eyed him suspiciously, only half believing him.
"Can you take pain? Because this is going to hurt." I nodded my head in answer. "Good. First you're going to have to stand up. " he reached around me, slipping his strong arms under my knees and back, lifting up in one fluid motion before slowly lowering me onto my feet. I had to grit my teeth through all the movement to stop from crying out. The pain feeling like someone was trying to rip my arm off, taking a peak at the injury I could see my arm swinging at an odd angle
"Now slowly lean forward and just relax that shoulder." He guided me as he stood behind me, his hands on my waist and back as he pushed me to lean forward. I closed my eyes trying to block out the sharp spasms that had my body shaking, by focusing on his voice. Not that it did much good, as it felt like my shoulder was being ripped off with each movement. Then, with a soft click and loud whimper, my shoulder rolled back into place. And that is when my legs turned wobbly and I noticed just how sweaty and gross I was. My green tee shirt sticking to me and my forehead shiny enough that a model could do her make up looking at it. Turning around slowly, not sure my knees wouldn't give out on me, I looked up at Lucien. "Thanks." I told him, only to receive a weird look.
Oddly his demeanor completely changed, from concerned and caring to angry and cold. Taking a step away from me, he took all the warm in the air with him. "What the hell did you think you were doing?" He waved over to the flood light. "If you're dumb enough to think that nearly getting yourself killed will get me to like you you're pathetically desperate. Especially as you are not my type." The room suddenly went quiet once more. What could I possibly say to that... it was just so stupidly unfair. I started to shake as the fact I could have died hit home, my knees giving out I sunk to the ground.
I did not know if he was still there or if he had left. I pulled my knees into my chest and cried like a baby, not caring if he saw me. "Now you cry?" He asked incredulously, his voice closer then I would have expected it to be. Wiping some of the tears out of my eyes I saw him crouching in front of me and was suddenly hit with massive deja-vu. It had been a week ago that I had found Stacy doing pretty much the same thing. I had sat there holding her for what had seemed forever, even missing my ride, I hated taking the bus-- it took forever. I never did find out why she had been crying, she had eventually stopped, got up and walked away, leaving me there with no explanation. The next day she was once more the happiest, nicest person in existence and apparently had no clue I was alive.
I now understood her desire to be held but I kept myself from asking him to 'indulge me'. Somehow I doubt he would be as obliging as I had been.
"What's wrong...huc...with crying now?" I demanded between hiccups, wiping my nose on my sleeve. I was so going straight home to shower and change, screw chem and English lit.
"Nothing, " he told me, his smirk returning as he reached out a hand "How about a lift home?" Seems like we were on the same wave length. Taking his offered hand with my good arm I let him pull me to my feet. "Sure." I was not about to turn down a ride, and besides, he owed me as I had just saved his life. And that is when it hit me... I had saved Lucien Mars's life. Looking over at the flood light. it hit me not because of what I had just done, but because someone had just tried to kill one of the Princes of Pandora.