When the Sky Comes Down

Chapter 5

[Alexia’s P.O.V.]

The next few days fly by. We spend a day unpacking at Liath’s, spend the evenings playing cards at Nicole’s with Coden, some days with touring the campus and grounds, and some days with simply relaxing outside. The weather is still nice and warm at the moment. When winter will arrive, it’ll be like hell freezes over.

The day before school starts, I am sitting on bed, reading one of the books Nicole lend me, about womanhood. She gave it to me in secret after she found out that I never actually had a mother figure in my life. “Don’t tell your brother,” she had said, winking at me. “I don’t expect him to tell you any of this, so if you have any questions about anything, just come to me, okay?” I had promised her not to talk to Keith about it. I’m sure he would feel very uncomfortable with me reading about s*x and discovering your own body. Besides, it would not quite be a conversation I would feel comfortable about either. It is not quite a topic one would want to discuss with their brother. I never really had anyone to talk to about things like this, so having a friend like Nicole would really be helpful.

There’s a soft knock at the door and I quickly put the book under my pillow. By now I know that calling out doesn’t work. They made the rooms sound-proof, in order to give students their privacy and prevent the partying students from waking those who’d prefer to study or sleep. I get up, but before I can even get to the door, it slightly opens.

‘Hello?’ a girl’s voice says.

I blink in surprise. Would that finally be my first roommate. ‘Hello,’ I answer.

‘Are you decent? Can I come in?’ she asks.

‘Yes, to both.’ I watch as the door opens and a girl appears. She has short, black hair, brown eyes and the most striking purple skin I have ever seen. She’s short, but then that might be because I am tall. ‘Hi,’ I say again.

‘Hi,’ she responds, giving me a slight smile. She picks up one of her suitcases and pulls it in. ‘Which beds are taken?’ she asks.

I point to my bed. ‘Only this one,’ I respond. ‘The other two are still free.’ She lets her eyes shift from one bed to the other and then decides upon taking the one closest to the door. ‘Need any help?’ I ask, looking at the second suitcase that’s still standing in the doorway.

‘Oh I’m okay,’ she says shyly.

‘I don’t mind,’ I assure her. She doesn’t protest anymore, so I take the suitcase and bring it to her.

‘Thank you,’ she says, barely looking me in the eye.

‘I’m Alexia,’ I tell her, ‘But everyone calls me Lexi.’

‘Bellian,’ she says, finally looking up at me. ‘You are very tall.’ After saying that, her head immediately goes down in shame. ‘I-I’m sorry.’

‘What for?’ I ask.

‘For pointing that out.’

‘Well, I am very tall I suppose.’ I give her a little smile, seeing her look at me from underneath her eyelashes. She looks up at me again. ‘I love your mark,’ I admit. ‘I hope that’s not a rude thing to say?’ I quickly add.

She smiles widely, for just a moment. ‘It is not. Thank you.’ She puts her suitcase on her bed, but then holds still for a moment. ‘Lexi?’

‘Yes?’

‘Are you nervous too?’

I nod heavily. ‘Definitely.’ She sighs in relieve.

‘I’m afraid people won’t like me,’ she starts talking.

‘Me too!’ I can’t help but feel relieved. ‘And I was afraid that I wouldn’t fit in.’

‘Me too!’ she responds, looking up at me with almost a form of enthusiasm in her eyes. I can’t help but smile. I suppose these are the fears of everyone, should that mean there is actually nothing to be afraid of?

After Bellian arrived, it doesn’t take long for our second roommate to arrive as well. Her name is Freya, she’s an wolf, like Keith. Unlike Bellian, she doesn’t really stick around. One of her friends lives just two doors over. Despite her not being too interested in hanging out with her new roommates, she seems nice.

Once Bellian has finished unpacking and listening to me talk about the campus, we decide that it’s a good idea for me to give her a little tour. ‘I am not that familiar with everything myself, yet. But my brother showed me around already.’

‘Your brother goes here too?’ I nod. ‘Oh, cool.’

‘Do you have any brothers or sisters?’ I ask.

‘I do,’ she says. ‘But they have all finished, or are infants.’ She doesn’t sound too happy about it. She sees me stare at her. ‘Don’t get me wrong, I love them, but I have almost 15 brothers and sisters, which makes it easy to get forgotten.’

‘I’m sorry,’ I say. I would like to say that I know how it feels to be forgotten, but I don’t want her to feel as if her problems are any less than they are, simply because others have experienced the same. ‘You’re the only one of your family here, right?’ She nods. ‘So then, let’s make sure they won’t forget you.’

She takes a deep breath and nods again. ‘I suppose we can try that.’

We walk through the hallways, finding open doors everywhere. Seeing how school starts tomorrow, it isn’t a surprise that people are arriving. ‘Did you know it was boys and girls mixed?’ Bellian asks.

‘Not in rooms, right?’ I say, almost a bit shocked.

‘No, no, of course not. But they do allow us to be on the same floor.’ I wonder why she finds this so shocking. She probably has some brothers, amongst all those siblings. Though she has a point, I suppose the school isn’t too afraid of kids having s*x. I wonder why.

‘Lexi?’ Nicole suddenly comes walking out off one of the rooms.

‘Nicole.’ I smile. She comes walking over and gives me a hug.

‘I was wondering where you went.’ She glances over to Bellian. ‘Your new roommate?’

‘Yeah, Nicole, this is Bellian. Bellian, this is Nicole, she’s a friend-‘ I feel rather insure about this, as I suppose she is more a friend of my brother than of mine, so I decide to quickly add ‘Of my brother, and me.’

Nicole extends her hand to Bellian. ‘It’s a pleasure meeting you. A friend of Lexi is a friend of mine.’ Bellian shyly shakes her hand. ‘Are you guys coming to the rec room after dinner? A bunch of us are meeting up. We’re gonna just, chill, play some cards. You know, things like that.’

I exchange looks with Bellian and then decide. ‘Yeah, sure, sounds good.’

‘Great!’ Nicole’s voice is a little higher than normal. ‘I’m sure Keith will take you there.’

‘I am sure he will,’ I confirm. I wave at her, as she goes back into one of the dorms. Then continue on walking with Bellian. The most strangers I have been around at once was when Keith, Nicole, Coden and me hang around these last couple of days. I take a deep breath and push my fears away. It’s time to find the way from to the rec room, so we at least won’t get lost this evening. I nervously start biting my lower lip. It’s a bad habit, I am aware. Keith used to lecture me about it, sneer almost. He said it was already dangerous to do something like that around a werewolf, let alone a vampire. He tried getting the habit out of me as best he could, but I suppose bad habits die hard.

[Keith’s P.O.V.]

‘Keith,’ Nicole says. She walks up to me and gives me a hug. She suddenly started doing so a couple of days ago. I suppose it has something to do with Lexi telling me to find a pack. Ever since Nicole has been acting a little strange. Though let’s be fair, it could also have to do with the fact that we usually don’t hang out too much. She might simply feel closer to me, because we actually got to know each other better these past few days. She smiles at me, with teeth and all. For a second I catch myself staring at them. She has perfectly white teeth. Not surprisingly, just like vampires, werewolves value their teeth. So do fey. I guess that’s because we are very depended on them. ‘I just ran into Lexi,’ she says.

‘You did?’ She hasn’t really gone out without me, as promised.

‘Yeah, she was showing her new roomie around.’ Nicole touches my upper arm, plucking away a stray hair. ‘Nice girl. Shy, like your sister was, more like your sister when I just got to know her, rather than your sister now.’ She continues plucking a little. ‘They’ll be coming to the party in the rec room tonight.’ I feel my muscles stiffen, she must have felt it too, because she quickly looks up to face me. ‘What?’ she asks.

‘I’m not sure that’s a good idea,’ I tell her.

‘Why not?’

‘Because,’ I state.

‘Because?’ she repeats, questioning. I growl a little. ‘Keith, you can’t tell her not to go.’ She puts her hand on my chest this time. ‘She may be your little sister, but she is also experiencing school for the first time. Do you remember coming to school yourself for the first time? Did you not go to parties?’ I know she is right, but that doesn’t mean that I like it. ‘Just, come to the party yourself tonight,’ she says, slightly petting my chest with her hand. ‘You can keep an eye out on her.’ She takes her hand off of me. She knows I’m not too big on parties like these, where everyone is coming to celebrate the start of the new year. There are always people who end up drunk, there are always vampires who find themselves a new blood bank for the rest of the year and there are always people who make bets. It’s a dangerous place, especially for someone like Lexi. ‘Or, you know,’ Nicole says and shrugs, ‘I can look after her, if you prefer not to come.’

I sigh and let my head hang a little. ‘Not that I don’t trust you Nicole,’ I start, ‘but my sister is my responsibility. If anybody has to look out for her, it’s me.’

Nicole looks at me, with a face that is a little too pleased for my liking. ‘So you will be joining?’

I sigh. ‘I will be joining.’

Nicole jumps up and down once and then gives me another hug. ‘Great!’

Why do I feel like I have been tricked into something?