"Eleanor, I need you to stay away from me." He says as he holds tight onto my hand. I look up at him in confusion and hurt. No hint of anger is in his eyes.
"What, why?" I ask, voice breaking.
"I just need you to trust me okay? I don't want you to g...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Walking into chemistry I feel a strange sense that something is off, but I ignore it the best I can. I sit down at an empty lab table, pulling my sweater close to my body. The room is ice cold. I try my best to get rid of the feeling that something is wrong by taking out my notebook and jotting down the notes on the board.
I mindlessly look up from writing, so shocked by what I see that the notebook falls out of my hands and onto the floor in a loud thump. The sound echoes through the class, but I don't notice. My eyes are locked on him, too stunned to be modest in my stare.
"Isaac?" I whisper, unable to stop from uttering my thoughts aloud.
Once the shock of the moment subsides, I realize I'm witnessing a stand off. In one corner is Scott McCall and Stiles Stilinski—pair of boys I only know from a reputation of trouble-making— and in the other is Erica Reyes and Isaac. After a moment of staring each other down, Scott and Stiles race to sit next to Lydia Martin. Erica and Isaac settle for the table behind them. And next to me.
I look over at Isaac, searching for some resemblance to the boy I have known since elementary school. I find none in the boy next to me, only a leather jacket and a smirk. He is sitting next to Erica, a former epileptic social outcast turned model.
I didn't even know they knew each other. I sigh, reaching down to pick up my fallen notebook.
"Einstein once said, 'Two things are infinite. The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.'" I hear Mr. Harris quote, walking to the front of the class. "I myself have encountered infinite stupidity. So to combat the plague of ignorance in my class, you're going to combine efforts through a round of group experiments. Let's see if two heads are indeed better than one. Or in Mr. Stiliski's case, less than one."
I weakly laugh at the joke, surprisingly un-amused with Mr. Harris' usual banter. My focus is on something else. As partners were assigned for the first round of experiments, I couldn't help but wish that I would be put with Isaac. Actually, I was unwittingly and silently begging for it. And just like that...
"Isaac Lahey, and Eleanor Montgomery at station 5." Mr. Harris listed off, pointing to a station in the back. My heart was racing.
"Oh and Mr. Lahey," I hear Mr. Harris mock as we make our way to the table, "maybe you could learn a thing or too from Miss. Montgomery. As you and I both know, you could use all the help you can get in this class."
Once at the station I can't help but shuffle around— readjusting my notebook, securing my long blonde locks into a braid and hugging my over-sized cardigan closer to my body. My hands begin to shake.
"So you can teach me something useful? Yeah, right." Isaac jokes as he sits down beside me. For a moment I just look at him. Same deep blue eyes, same lightly curled hair, same tall and slender body—yet something is off. I ignore it.
"I take it you don't plan on pursuing a career in chemistry then." I reply, earning a half-hearted laugh. He turns his gaze from the front of the class to my face, studying it. For a moment his harsh stare drops. Then, like it never happened, he smirks.
"I was thinking more of an assassin." He replies, pouring too much sugar into the test tube.
I choose to ignore his clear lack of interest in school, including this lab, and focus more on the reason I wanted so badly to be partnered with him. I take a deep breath.
"I knew you didn't kill him." I say, no lower than a whisper. So low in fact, that I was surprised when he whips his eyes back to mine. No trace of the arrogance once in them was left. The look he gave me took me back to the young Isaac I had once been so close with. Like he had never left.
"Oh, El," He said, voice soft and low. His eyes lower for a minute, taking a deep breath.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything. I just thought you should know." I blurt out in an attempt to take back what I had just said.
My shaky hand reaches for the test tube, trying to just go back to the lab. With unfocused eyes, I end up pouring sugar outside of the beaker, spilling it on the table. I sigh. Before I can try again, a warm hand covers mine.
"Eleanor stop." He says taking the test tube out of my hand and returning it to the holder.
"I'm sorry," I sigh once again.
"Eleanor, I need you to stay away from me." He says as he holds tight onto my hand. I look up at him in confusion and hurt. No hint of anger is in his eyes.
"What, why?" I ask, voice breaking.
"I just need you to trust me okay? I don't want you to get hurt," He pleads.
"Get hurt? By who?" I ask, almost afraid of the answer.
"Just listen to me El. I'm dangerous."
With that the first station of the lab is complete and I watch as Isaac walks away. The smirk returns to his face like it never left. Like none of this had ever even happened. Like he never held onto my hand and begged me to stay away from him for my own protection. It was then I start to realize that he was right.
