The Circle

4 | Formal Introduction

Kit.

I notice him as soon as I park my car. There probably isn't a single person who hasn't noticed him propped against the wall, smoking a cigarette nonchalantly, the school rules be dammed. He seems to attract attention wherever he goes. He's just one of those people.

His gaze meets my own, and this time I don't shy away. I won't allow myself. It's almost like a staring contest, and I'm determined to win. We stay like that, looking at each other, observing and sizing each other up, and I feel butterflies in my stomach as his eyes are on me. Kit concedes. He shakes his head to himself and looks away, taking a drag out of his cigarette. The plumes of smoke leave his lips, white against the colour of his dark attire, trailing into the air and disappearing above his raven hair.

I grab my bag from the car and start walking towards school. The simple act of exchanging glances with him made tiny shocks of electricity travel through my spine and my stomach contracted nervously from the exhange. I've never experienced anything like this before, not from a boy. There's just something about him that makes every nerve ending in my body stand to attention, and I don't like it.

There's no time to buy coffee today and I walk straight into the building, thanking god that I managed to get my daily fix of caffeine at home. The corridors are alive with chatter, with movement from the teenagers heading to homeroom and catching up before classes start.

I sit at the same desk I sat on yesterday, and watch as the rest of the students pile in moments before the first bell rings. With headphones on, I try to start the extract of Catcher In The Rye that I'm supposed to finish by tomorrow and before long I forget that I'm reading at all, and fall into the story's grasp.

About five minutes later the classroom door opens with a loud groan. Everyone raises their heads in unision. Selene struts through the door, ignoring every stare towards her. She's clad in leather pants and a black cut-off top. The black eyeliner makes her feral eyes look even more pronounced. Her fingers skim the desks on the classroom aggravatingly slow as she makes her way through the rows, and then the girl finally stops near me, sitting at the desk by my side.

"Hey," I say quietly.

We had lunch together yesterday, and Kaia and Bronte are her friends. Maybe she'd warm up to me.

She stares at me with her piercing brown eyes, and I sense a smidge of curiosity in them.

"Lux." She acknowledges me, then stares at her blood red nails, "figured it out yet?"

"What do you mean?"

I rack my brain but come up short of an answer. Maybe I missed something yesterday, something she might have asked me.

" 'Guess not." She replies with a bored sigh. Selene glances into my puzzled expression, and looks away, completely uninterested in me. Her brown skin shines under the light, glowing as an extension of the sun. Selene is beautiful, and twice as dangerous because of that.

I furrow my eyebrows after she ends our brief conversation, feeling thick. What am I possibly supposed to figure out? I want to confront her, but she'd rip me apart in a second. The girl seems like the type of person that could rip someone into shreds with a few words and I definitely can't compete with that sort of power.

The bell rings and I hastily grab my bag and stand up. Once I'm about to leave I turn and stare at her again. There's something about the girl. Aside from her bad-ass persona, Selene has a very specific aura encircling her, something almost primal in a way.