Frozen Memories

I Won't Bite

Phasing through the next class, Max had not spoken another word on the matter of my being an enemy of Keyvah Marsh. She didn’t even mention the Greys or anything concerning the subject. In fact, she did not speak about the matter of anything much as our class gained way. She suddenly seemed enveloped in her thoughts. Which in all honesty was fine by me as I had much to think about as well.

After the bell sounded once again for our second class to end, Max and I parted ways. Oddly enough, I was relieved to an extent. It was World History after all, and that was aside the fact that while we did not speak much after our phase, being in the same class with Max barely granted me time to linger on my own thoughts.

    I approached my anxiously awaited history class, and started for my seat when I saw him sitting at the desk next to my assigned one. I stopped abruptly and looked around the class to see if there were any other vacant desks next to anyone else. Evidently, Roman Dharke saw the impasse, anxiously sifting in his seat-what I assume his lack of ease was my doing.

    “Is there a problem, Miss Frost?” I heard Mr. Bradley’s voice break through my uneasy thoughts. I flinched when I realized how closely he was behind me.

    I turned to him with an apprehensive smile. “No, sir.” I lied and proceeded to my seat. I attempted with as much finesse as possible, not to look at him but could not help seeing that from my peripheral, he was staring me down. When Mr. Bradley left the classroom for a moment to make copies and the class started in a hush and subtle conversation, aside the few unruly ones, I could no longer hold my peace.

    “Look-” I started, looking around before finishing my sentence. “I was not aware that you were assigned here.” I assured. “Had I known-”

    “What-you would have left the class?” he cut me out of my thought.

    “Well-” I hesitated. “If that is a possible choice then-yes.” I returned with what I knew I could not hide to be annoyance. “If it will avoid the hostility.”

    Roman Dharke did not reply to my response right away, however, still I felt his gaze upon me. “Would you now?” he inquired in a distant tone.

    I shifted my nervous gaze to him and nodded. “Yes.”

His eyes were, once again a different hue of an astonishing marble blue. And quite overly captivating to the extent of my own loss in thought. Unfortunately, I realized too late that my prolonged stare at his curious look, might have been inappropriate and quickly turned away.

    “If you have that much of a problem being near me then go ahead and leave.” He spat, leaning back in his chair.

    “Me?” I hissed incredulously. I looked at him, lividly. “You are the one that seems to have a problem with being near me! I don't even know you well enough to have ought against you!” I returned. When he did not answer, and gave me a stoic look before shivering away an unknown feeling, I decided that I’d had enough. “You know what, you win. I will switch my classe-”

    I started from my seat when I felt that familiar cold grip on my arm. “Wait.” Turning to him, shock apparent, I saw what almost looked to be alarm before he retracted from me. “You-don’t have to do-that.” He stumbled, clearing his throat. We both looked around and saw that we had apparently gained a small audience of curious eyes.

    I gulped, giving a nervous smile before sitting down in my seat once again. “I-could ask, the teacher to switch my seats if that’s what you-”

    “Jus-don’t!” he exhaled deeply and turned his face away from me. “Worry about it.” He calmed himself. “It’s not that serious. I’ll deal.” He hissed.

    “Fine.” I spat.

    Admittedly, I was offended at his choice of words, as if I were the problem that had been causing him so much anguish and yet he was the one making the fuss of everything. Deciding it best to ignore him, I turned away and opened my history book of texts.

    “I’m sorry-” The apology came sudden and surprisingly. I turned to see that he was gritting at his teeth. “about earlier.” He harshly sighed. “and-just a second ago.” He added. “I-uh, shouldn’t have grabbed you-like that I-I guess.”

    “You know, if your apology is not sincere, you don’t have to bother with apologizing at all.” I said before I could think twice about it. 

If I did not know any better I’d have though i heard him growl before he let out what sounded like an exasperated sigh. 

Maybe that was a little harsh, I thought to myself. He did apologize so I should have just accepted. Just because he was mean did not mean I had to be.

“I apologize.” I said. “That was rude.” I said.

“Yeah.” I heard him say in a low voice.

“Just because you’re rude does not mean I have to be.” I further countered with a sigh. From my peripheral I saw him shoot me a glare. Admittedly, I found this amusing before I said. “Thank you-for your apology.” I added, turning away from him as he had already done to me.

I assumed our interaction was over and proceeded to read my textbook, when silence between us once again became interrupted. “So-where does your friend get the idea that I saved you?”

    I harshly took in a deep breath, abhorring the fact that Max opened her mouth and said such a thing. In so doing, she’d completely misguided Roman Dharke’s thoughts and assertions toward the situation. It was obvious that he was aggravated and trying to abstain from showing it in his voice.

    “Saving me-is a strong term.” I replied.

    “Yea, yea-what kind of story did you tell your friend anyway?” he asked.

    Completely perturbed by this factually incorrect conversation, I shook my head. “Not the one that she led you to assume, I am sure.”

    “You don’t know what I’m assuming.” Roman Dharke retorted in mock smugness and still a hint of curiosity.

    I looked away from him, impatient of the direction in which the conversation was unfortunately headed.

    “So are you going to tell me why your friend is under the impression tha-”

    “I do not know.” I intervened before he could finish his question. At such a point in the exchange of words I just wanted the conversation to end. “She-has an imagination that I cannot control.”

    My suggestion had apparently seemed amusing. “There are a lot of things going on in Max Power’s head, but I don’t think an imagination could be considered one.” He murmured,

    I turned to him, curiously. “How would you know?”

    Roman Dharke did not answer my question; only smirked before Mr. Bradley returned to the class. I glanced the teacher’s way momentarily, before I looked at Roman Dharke to answer. His attention, however switched away from me and into what I perceived to be his own thoughts.

    “Alright, alright! Settle down!” Mr. Bradley yelled through the class. By this time, more than a few kids started to become disorderly.

    As the teacher continued on his lecture, Roman Dharke acted as if I had never existed. Or at least he attempted, seeing the fact that it seemed quite obvious that he was not completely oblivious to my presence.

    Mr. Bradley passed a stack of papers down each row for the student at the front to pass back. When the stack finally reached me I grabbed a sheet of paper and passed it to the next person behind me, impressed by the teacher’s form of getting the papers out quickly, without going around the whole classroom.

    “Alright-now if you haven’t guessed it already, I’m giving you a small project.” Mr. Bradley announced to which proceeded a murmur of sighs and harsh intakes of breath to what I assumed was a dreary bit of information. “Oh cut it out.” He countered. “I’m showing you at least a little leniency.” He added.

    “Oh yea? And what do you consider leniency?”

    I could not help my curiosity as I turned around to see who inquired of his lenience. The guy who asked, when saw that I was staring, grinned and winked at me. Timidly, I found myself flushed and quickly turned around and returned my gaze to the worksheet.

    “I’m pairing you up.” Mr. Bradley simply replied. Then he made his way past the rows and ultimately between Roman Dharke and I. At first thought, he was about to speak to me, when in an instant he turned his gaze over to Roman Dharke. “Lucky you Mister Dharke.” He smiled. Roman Dharke did not reply. He only looked at the teacher with an indecipherable expression, waiting for him to finish his thought. “The class is even now, so you get to have a partner.” He looked at me. “A very impressive partner too. And by impressive, I mean intelligence of course.” He added. “Among other things of course.”

    Inappropriate, yes, but I smiled nonetheless, nodding in gratification of his compliment; when I noticed Roman Dharke’s grimace was quite apparent as he turned back to his paper, his hands gripping it tighter than was probably necessary.

    “I-can work on my own, Mr. Bradley.” I suggested, as I saw the panged look on Roman Dharke’s face.

    “Well if that’s what you prefer-”

    “No, teach.” Roman Dharke broke off in the midst of Mr. Bradley’s comment.  “We’re fine.”

    “Well, if that is alright with Miss Fros-”

When Mr. Bradley paused, I looked up from my paper to see his eyes locked on Roman Dharke.

    It was then that I noticed that Roman Dharke seemed to concentrically look into the teacher’s eyes, as if wordlessly cutting him off. “We’re fine.” He reiterated.

Almost robotically, Mr. Bradley nodded. “You’re fine.” He stated in validation before turning away and heading to the front of the class again to further explain what the project was about. However, I found it odd that he had so abruptly moved on from the subject at hand.

    I looked around, noticing that everyone was shifting their desks closer to their partners. I hesitated, knowing that it would probably not be the best idea to move any closer to Roman Dharke than I had too. Especially considering the fact that he was very unbalanced concerning my presence in the first place. So instead of following suit to the students surrounding me, I opened my textbook and began through the pages, when I felt a tug on my desk.

    Unsettled, I looked to my left, realizing that I was practically elbow to elbow with Roman Dharke. Looking into his direction incredulously, I started to at least stutter a response, but his grimace granted me a second thought to keep my thoughts to myself.

    He scoffed, his gaze rooted to the front of the class, hesitating before he took in a deep breath. “I won’t bite.”

    Those words were the seeming end to the subject, so I left it alone. I listened to Mr. Bradley’s lesson on how to perform the project that was assigned. When I understood the gist of his explanation, I started on my textbook and read as I always would when time granted me a free moment.

    “Alright, get to work!” Mr. Bradley ordered of the class.

Following his demand, I begrudgingly put away my book, having stumbled upon an interesting era of what was called ‘The Cold War’.

    “Why do you stay in that book?” I heard a random inquiry.

    Taking in a deep exhausted breath, I answered with another question. “Why is that a subject of interest to you?” I returned.

    He scoffed. “Was just trying to make conversation. Forget I asked.” He hissed.

    I looked his away with disbelief forming throughout my mind, befuddled as to what to think concerning this mysterious guy sitting next to me.

In my short time of consciousness on this earth, Roman Dharke had to have been the most confusing specimen I’d ever come into contact with. It was obvious that he held some sort of disdain toward me, yet he would offer in walking me home; and then still, he could not be but for so close to me. However, he saw fit to pull my desk seat next to him. The full thought, I knew would have caused a short in my own mind had I not taken into consideration the oddity that I was in the first place. So, to digress, I simply answered his question.

    “It interests me.” I replied. “I find it an intriguing read.”

    To that answer, Roman Dharke took me in for a silent moment and then turned away from me again.

    There he was; being-odd yet again. Nevertheless, I instead grabbed an ink pen and wrote my name on the paper before rereading over the instructions concerning our class project. As I read, I could hear someone inhale. I flinched in shock when I heard something resembling a growl. Alarmed, I looked up at him, his hands gripping the edges of his desk.

“Are you alright?” I asked. No, Roman Dharke and I were not on the best of terms, however, the last thing I would wish upon him was an ailment.

    He nodded in an uneasy manner. “Fine.” He said almost as swiftly as I asked my question. “Just hungry is all.” He muttered. I noticed him start to aggressively bite at his lips, a small grimace etched on his mouth.

    “Oh.” I replied. I understood well how strong of an effect hunger could have on a person. The feeling was very unattractive. I was unaware of the rules concerning eating in class, as while I saw students frequently doing so, they never did so when a teacher was around. Nevertheless, I figured it would be quite rude not to offer some sort of nourishment to pass him over until the lunch hour considering I did possess it. “I’m sure it is not much to satisfy someone of your-stature, but I do have some strawberries, yogurt and bananas in my lunching bag.” I offered.

    He looked at me with surprise and then amusement. “I’m not hungry for yogurt and fruit.”

    “Oh, alright.” I turned back to my paper.

    “Thanks.” He awkwardly returned. “I guess.” He murmured.

    I looked at him, indecisive as to whether I should say anything, so I didn’t, when once again I felt him hovering near; this time deciding not to look his way, in an attempt to avoid awkwardness.

    “Wilhelmina.” I heard him smirk.

    I turned my gaze to him and simply nodded, awkwardly, I returned my eyes to my syllabus once again.

    “Bit of an old name-don’t you think?”

    “Well-it is not something that I necessarily had the opportunity to input on.” I pointed out. “However, despite my lack of a decision concerning it-” I hesitated, actually thinking about my name. “I am very fond of my name.” I defended.

    I heard him scoff. “Fits you.”

    Unaware as to whether it was a compliment or not, I left the subject alone. Sure enough, I’m certain he preferred it that way in the first place.