6 : Obscured
Scilius sat against the school wall, next to Maryan, each one of them holding a notebook and pencil in their laps. One hour and two sets of mathematics packets later had left them task-less.
Scilius tapped his foot and waved his tail.
His mind had been cleared of his guilt with Elliot, for the most part. Elliot's little fit at lunch today was still bothering him, though. What was he going to do? Scilius looked at the blue lizard sitting next to him, drawing triangles in her notebook. He mentioned her.
Scilius examined Maryan as much as he could for the past hour. She didn't seem to be burdened by anything; she was unchanged from the last time he had seen her. Had Elliot told her anything?
Scilius looked between him and her. There was an inch or two of space, that spanned the gap between where each of them sat. In that space was a reluctance for one of them to be close to the other. One of the two didn't want to be intimate with the other.
Could Elliot have been trying to tell her about he and I? Elliot could have spilled the beans some how, or came out in my stead, or made a claim of ownership to me. It's something Elliot might have done, indeed.
Scilius shook his head. Why would he do it after all that, though? If he was going to block Maryan from me, then he would've done it earlier, not after I apologized.
Elliot was doing something else. He had something much different to say to Maryan.
Scilius looked again at the gap between him and Maryan.
Scilius thought about that taunting little space for a second. It wasn't because of Elliot. At least, not because of what Elliot had done a few hours ago. That space has been there for a while now. Scilius looked at the floor while thinking this.
Then he grew a dismayed grin on his snout. From what he could tell, that little gap had proven for sure that nothing between him or Maryan would ever happen. Nothing that would ever work, anyway.
Scilius bit his claws. This situation was very familiar to him.
Maryan put down her phone after answering a text.
"My mom wants me home."
"Aw, such a shame," Scilius said stoically.
They both took to their feet, Scilius stretching as he got up.
"So, I think we have two more packets to do for tomorrow."
"Sounds good." Scilius added flatly to the conversation.
"We can place in that tournament, for sure."
"I hope we do." Scilius gave an empty smile.
Maryan tried not to notice how awkward Scilius could make a conversation, and gave a faint giggle.
She stepped forward and gave Scilius a strong hug. With a slow reaction, he hugged her back. On the side of his cheek, Scilius felt a faint peck just under his eye, and was given a sweet smile from Maryan. They laughed and he waved her off after denying her offer for a ride home.
Scilius watched her car pass by. She's still as eager as ever.
Scilius walked back to his house rather slower than usual, his thoughts drifting into the far past. He had felt this before, and he remembered what had happened when he did.
Scilius stepped into his house. It's going to happen again. I'm going to let it go on past the point where I should've, and I'm going to end up making her miserable when I tell her...
He thought again to put the right mental words into it:
Tell her that I feel nothing.
Scilius thoughts started becoming a silent ranting rage. I never feel anything, do I? Not with Maryan, not with any girl at this fucking school, and not even any back in Arizona! It's so easy for someone like Elliot to do it, he just fell head over heels, didn't he?
Scilius was rubbing his eyes. He had fallen into bed in hopes that the warmth would calm him down, but he kept ranting in his head until he fell asleep.
Scilius woke up again an hour later, with a strange smile on his snout. He wriggled under his sheets, with a lingering memory of his dream. He wanted a laugh. I should make a mark on the wall everytime I dream about him.
Scilius found it a little harder to let himself back to sleep. But, a thought managed to plant itself in Scilius' head. Maybe Elliot was the reason for that gap.