METANOIA

CHAPTER 3 "SPHALLOLALIA"

SPHALLOLALIA
(n.) flirtatious talk that leads nowhere.

His eyes keep staring at the clock in front of him, he can't help it. His legs had been fidgeting non-stop waiting for the bell to ring since the beginning of class. Stressed was an understatement to describe his current state. His heart was beating far too fast and his pen was just slipping through his damp fingers.

When the bell rang in the classroom. He stood up quickly, putting his pens in his pencil case and his notebooks in his bag, being careful not to damage them. His legs, mechanically, take the way to the library. He didn't care about anything else. He had told himself that going without thinking would help him fight his stress. Kallan simply wanted to die on the spot, cursing Mr Adams for having put him in a group with Eden Grey.

With the library door in sight, his legs slowed down, probably wanting to turn around and run. Unfortunately, he took his grades too much to heart to allow himself that. So he slowly made his way to the wooden doors, but just as he was about to push one open towards him, giving him only a tenth of a second to avoid it.

"I didn't see you. Sorry." Pronounced a nonchalant voice before revealing its owner who didn't even glance at the boy.

Kallan was sure that the girl who had almost broken his nose is friends with Eden. They are always together, inseparable. Which brings him to the realization that Eden must already be there. She must surely be waiting for lui.
So after a breath of air which helped him to take his courage, he enters the library, the smell of books filling his nose bringing him a certain comfort.

His gaze roams the large room before settling on the girl on her phone sitting at a table. She has a middle part and two strands of hair are slicked back her ears without bumps, the rest of her hair is straightened and falls behind her shoulders. With no effort or particular expression on her face she looks charismatic, confident. Making her intimidating. Too unapproachable for the boy.
With a hesitant step, Kallan approaches her.

Eden must not have noticed him since she continues to write something on her phone, not paying attention to her surroundings. He swallows thinking of the good way to attract her attention. The simplest solution would be to give her time to notice him but he couldn't just wait standing next to her until she took her eyes off her phone.

"Hello." He finally says in a weak voice.

The girl looks up slowly from her phone detailing the man in front of her from bottom to top before locking eyes with him. The boy reflexively looks away.

"Hello. Sorry, I wasn't paying attention, did you just get here?" She smiles, that same cat-like smile that marks her constant and obvious flirting. "Sit down" She points the chair next to her with her chin.

The boy pulls the chair out slowly and sits on it, his hands on his knees clasped together.

"So we need a theme..."  Eden tucks an invisible lock of hair behind her ear before analyzing the boy next to her with her eyes. He was uncomfortable, that was obvious. She loves it."I thought about the Civil War, we could talk about the causes and consequences and the differences in daily life in the north and the south. If you agree?

— Yes. That sounds good." Kallan wonders if there was a handprint on his thighs from his stress sweat.

To be honest, he too had planned a theme, but he was far too shy to express his opinion and he felt so bad for being so weak inside. So he had simply accepted without saying anything. Eden's theme wasn't awful either, it was... correct. It was better than he had expected from her. The dark-haired man was even surprised that she had prepared something before coming.