Entangled (Entangled Trilogy #1) (2 page)

I’ve had those weird dreams
before, ever since the “accident” about nine- ten months ago and I
have never been able to perceive the discussion between me and him.
I just wish I could’ve been able to see his face properly. I’ve
asked Elliot many times who he was, what he meant to me, only to
encounter Elliot pressing his lips into a thin, inhumanly straight
line, shaking his head at me and saying, “I don’t know. So, hey,
how was school today?” in a cheery tone every single time even if
he had asked me that question moments ago.

Elliot had golden blond hair that
had beautiful sandy blond highlights with it. He had royal blue
eyes rimmed with a dark shade of blue. He had thin lips and a thin
nose almost similar to my mom’s. His hair had a few vague red
streaks that blended in with his hair perfectly, just like my mom’s
hair. He is about six feet four and has a kind personality, again
like my mom. It’s as if he is really Darla’s son and I am the
adopted child. I tried not to think too much about it, but the
thought just formed in my mind.

Sure, Elliot was a heavenly older
brother, my only brother and all and a little over overprotective
sometimes but I couldn’t help thinking if he had anything to do
with my accident. It’s very ironic that I’m questioning the person
who is really like a parent to me but, I just desire some answers
to the “accident.” I can’t remember anything, not even a little
bit. Every time I tried to recall the dream, just so I can remember
even a single detail of it, my mind is filled with darkness. I
can’t recall anything. Whoever that guy is, I need to find him,
soon.

All I can remember is his
unnervingly beautiful aquamarine eyes that would flash through my
mind once in a while. His eyes were so blue-green; it was hard to
tell if it was more blue or green. I was irrevocably in love with
those eyes.

I quickly shook my head, trying to
get these thoughts out of my mind so that I wouldn’t seem crazy for
dreaming about eyes. Or even falling in love with a pair of
eyes.

I did a double take as I glimpsed
at the clock and groaned, reading the alarm clock by my bed that
currently read 5:17 am. I had woken up way too early for school and
now I had to sit on my bed, sulking about how life was cruel and
unfair. I got up, despite the remonstrations my body was making and
screaming “STOP!”, and retrieved my clothes before angling into the
shower to warm up and unclog my mind off . . . well,
everything.

* * * * *

After what felt like ages, I got
out of the shower, all ready for school, slowly creeping out of my
pale apricot colored room and making sure I didn’t wake Elliot up
from his “beauty sleep”. Every time I got scared at night, I
wouldn’t even dare to try and go to him otherwise, that would
simply distract him from his sleep. Surely, at any moment, Maddie
would arrive to pick me up for school like she did every day. I
insisted each time that I had my own car and a driver’s license so
I could drive to school myself, but all she would say was “Relax,
Alice. I know that as a matter of fact. I just don’t want you to be
in danger or anything.” It was almost as if she was my guardian
angel which I had mentioned to her once. All she had done was let
out an uneven laugh and reply to it by simply declaring, “You have
no idea.”

Madelienne Rebecca Meschter,
famously known as Maddie, has been my best comrade since I could
hark back to. I can’t even envision a world deprived of her. Elliot
would constantly tease me about not spending an adequate amount of
time with him and always hanging out with her, but I really didn’t
notice. I have always called her Maddie and even M&M sometimes.
On the other hand, she called me Alice, a moniker that betrayed my
actual name. She had always told me that since my one of my middle
names were Allison, a name Maddie had always wanted to be hers, she
shortened it and called me Alice.

Outside, a car honked, bringing me
out of my reverie as I hassled out the door and locked it. Once I
got out, first I saw her glossy black BMW and then the driver’s
side of the car unbolted, illuminating a fine-looking girl with a
head full of golden blonde hair that stretched midway between her
shoulder and elbow. Her hair was usually straight from the top and
nice and curly around the end, but today, it was all straight. She
had a heart-shaped face with thin, pink lips and those
pale-not-so-pale sapphire eyes with the irises rimmed with a
shadowy shade of sapphire that maximum guys in the school seemed to
fall for.

I watched carefully as Maddie
strode towards me and hugged me, smiling slightly enough to make me
smile along with her. Even her smile was contagious.

“
Shall we?” she asked, sounding
all jovial, but only I knew how hard it was for her to put on that
cheery mask of hers because she absolutely loathed school. I
nodded, following her into her car, our heels click-clacking
against the stone pavement.

“
So . . . you excited for Biology
today?” I asked curiously as the birds chirped peacefully
outside.

“
No! Why would I?” Maddie said a
bit harshly, her face masked with an unreadable, rigid expression.
Looking at me once, her expression softened and she immediately
said, “I’m sorry.”

“
Well, I thought Biology was your
fav . . .,” I trailed off, not wanting to continue the sentence.
She just seemed a bit exasperated today, her cheery face gone with
the wind.

When we arrived in school, I went
inside to drop off my stuff in my locker while she parked her car.
As I entered, I felt all my problems and my whole world slip away
from me as I went to my blue locker. I could feel all the
unpleasant, funny looks people were giving me. I’m what you may
consider a nerd in school, always reading, getting high grades that
seemed to piss off my peers.

Although I fabricated not to
notice, I always felt a sharp pang, prodding at my heart whenever
they looked at me that way. If something good happened to me, they
would seem surprised. Like that time I had gotten a boyfriend.
Everyone would gawk at us, but none of my boyfriends lasted very
long. I’ve only had about three of them and the longest any of them
ever lasted was three weeks. Elliot would always demand to meet
them and once he talks to them in private, he would tell me that
the guy’s a bad influence and it’s not worth it. That clearly meant
a whole “Hey! I hate this guy! He doesn’t know how to treat you so
why don’t you two break-up and stop pretending to love each
other.”

Maddie had caught up with me as we
arrived at biology class, our first period together on the Monday
morning. I thought I heard Maddie sigh heavily, unmistakably
frustrated that we had to go through Biology on a Monday morning,
but I pretended not to hear her as we both sat down at our assigned
seats.

Class had begun and what I
expected to be a really fun class, turned out to be very wearisome.
I tried to concentrate on what Mr. Moore was saying and found it a
true challenge. I thought I felt someone staring at me throughout
the whole period, so I kept glancing back over my shoulder, only to
find everyone genuinely jaded and gawking off into space or
something.

“
And that is why I decided that I
will assign all of you a very collaborating activity,” Mr. Moore
finished.

“
Wait, what?” a kid asked from the
class, his voice all muzzy as if he just woke up from his
sleep.

“
Since all of you are like
‘corporeal rivals’, your assignment will be to find out as much as
you can about your biology partner and write a report based on
him/her,” Mr. Moore replied and the whole room was filled with
pleased chatters among their friends, already forecasting on how to
write the report. I was so blissful that he assigned us that
assignment because my biology partner was Maddie and I knew
everything about her. I didn’t even know why he assigned this to
us; it has nothing to do with biology.

“
SILENCE! Oh, okay. On top of
that, I’ll be the one assigning each of you students a partner,
making the reports very interesting,” Mr. Moore finished off. The
smile from my face fell as the whole room filled with a
simultaneous chorus of complaints.

“
Alright, alright, settle down.
Here are the pairings: Mr. Matterazzi and Ms. Meschter.”

As he announced Maddie’s partner,
Maddie ascended from her seat and went off to sit next to Mark, a
student from the football team who was really tall and had a head
full of chocolate brown hair and a confident smirk on his face
24/7. Maddie waved a quick goodbye before leaving. As she left, I
thought I heard her muttering something about senseless, big-headed
guys and inadequate assignment.

“
Mr. Saunders and Mrs. Ross,” Mr.
Moore continued.

With that newsflash, I was
immobilized in my seat, incapable of moving a single muscle. I
turned around faintly to see a towering, about six feet four, blond
guy heading towards my seat. He plopped down on the seat next to me
without even looking in my direction. Once he took his seat, I
noted that he had elegant blond hair that had some natural brownish
highlights. His hair, which fell to the bottom of his nape, was
straight from the top and wavy around the bottom. His overall
appearance from my side seemed pretty . . . ordinary.

“
Alright class! Your task is very
simple. All you have to do is, you know, intersperse with your
partners and get to know as much as you can about them. Then, you
will have to write an essay based on them that is due Friday.
Remember, at least five pages,” Mr. Moore finished with enough
emphasis on mingle to create a chorus of groans from the classroom,
again.

I didn’t even have the slightest
idea of how I’m supposed to gather information about him. I didn’t
even know his name, for starters. Here I am freaking out about my
grade as my partner wrote down a whole book about me, which was
very surprising and a bit disturbing.

Wow! I don’t know a thing about
him but he knows so much about me. How is that even possible? Is he
a stalker or something? I thought to myself. Just then, my partner
responded. He actually spoke to me for the first time.

“
It’s because I truly pay
assiduity to my surroundings and I’ve found out a lot about you in
the past three years. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, actually, I
do know that. You haven’t even noticed me in the past three years,
sitting all the way in the back of the classroom, in the same
classes as you, have you?,” he snorted in a very arrogant voice
while I just gaped at him like his blond hair had been supplanted
by millions of miniature, petite heads. How had he been able to
mirror my thoughts? Abnormal much? On top of that, he used big
words that were supposed to be umm . . . impressive?

“
How long have you been in the
same class as me?” I asked quietly.

“
That’s not important right now,”
he said, shaking his head full of blond hair. I suddenly had this
strong urge to reach out and run a hand through his hair, but I
held myself back. Where did that come from? I silently scolded
myself as he glanced over and smirked at me. He looked as if he’d
just read my mind or something. My cheeks suddenly felt very warm
and I looked down at my notebook, trying to get my temperature back
to normal.

Across the room, Maddie gave me a
thumbs up and mouthed, good luck, before beginning her assignment.
I unquestionably would need a lot of luck if I wanted to
successfully pass this class.

Twenty five whole minutes passed
and all I’ve managed to inscribe was:

* He is big.

* He has blond hair.

* He is a boy.

* He goes to my school.

* He seems very . . .
normal.

* His last name is
Saunders.

* I hate my life.

In the meantime, he looked as if
he could go on and on and on about me like he knew me since
forever. Every five minutes, I would glance at his notebook only to
find a whole page already filled with information. At one point, he
had glanced at my notebook and laughed quietly to himself, then
frowned, then actually smiled a real smile. This had enraged me so
much that I had even considered slapping him across the face, but I
dismissed that idea. Again, he had smirked as if he could
telepathically read my mind.

“
What are you writing?” I ask him,
quite curious by his actions.

“
She does speak English. I was
right all along,” he smiles, looking down at his notebook and
writing that I could speak English. “She smells of sunshine, loves
to read books more than anything else on Earth, loves funny people,
hates chocolate—“

“
How do you know all of this?” I
asked him, a little surprised, but I was able to mask my
horror.

“
Has an older brother, thinks that
the library is the happiest place on Earth, has a blonde best
friend, gets good grades, lives in—,” he starts, but I cut him
off.

“
How do you know all of this?” I
ask him again and this time, he shrugs.

“
I just do,” he replies, pissing
me off even more.

With that, the bell rang, letting
me get out of this diminutive abyss like place I was stuck in. I
basically ran out of the classroom, but once I got to my locker, he
was already there, leaning casually against my locker and checking
out his nails and frowning like he desperately needed a manicure.
This was just great.