Temptation Not Included

Stacked neatly on one of the many tables centered against the right cove of the second floor to Baltimore’s Best were books varying from old literature, world government, SAT study tutorials, college application 101s, science for dummy replicas and everything in between or surrounding. Meru stared in astonishment that her teacher had narrowed the range to her curriculum so well within an hour.

But, at the thought, her expression dimmed. He did, after all, have an entire hour of doing nothing but wander around the bookstore. What else was he looking for? Kama Sutra books?

Meru’s mind completely fell into the darkest depths of the gutter. If she hadn’t have been wandering her eyes over the books in front of her, Lennox would have assumed she was flat-out ignoring him. It wasn’t until he asked for her opinion that he caught on. Ten minutes too late.

“Meru.”

His voice was demanding, but subtle and soft enough to not alarm. Even so, she was startled out of her daydream and locked her now undivided attention onto Lennox’s feathery blue eyes. Whatever was on her mind had yet to diminish entirely from her eyes. He had seen it in other’s eyes before and it bewildered him that she could so easily let her mind wander. Perhaps Sauvageau had been precise with her attention span. He cleared his throat at the thought.

“Focus, Meru. I don’t need you daydreaming. You’d only be wasting mine and Principal Roeth’s time.”

Lennox’s voice soothed over Meru’s ears as she sunk into her seat more comfortably, a sudden depletion in energy taking her for a whirl. She had almost forgot just what he and her principal had gone through to approve her private sessions with Lennox. She couldn’t begin to fathom all the paperwork sent back and forth. Compared to her duties as student body vice president, she had it easy. Aside from the fact that she is only a student and that both Lennox and Roeth are professional advisors.

She willed herself to completely divulge in everything Lennox was saying. Apparently, he had only wanted to sort through what she needed most in her studies. He gave her various tests proving her strengths and faults. As he had suspected - from sneaking a peek at her more than just her transcripts - she desperately needed his skills in mathematics which would in turn would help her advance in her AP Chemistry course. Her grades were, more or less, finely acceptable. She had a lot of slack classes, but what would he expect from a senior? Like she had said just Friday afternoon, she had a steady GPA. But, hopefully now, she saw just why she needed an extra few lessons. Especially with her desires to attend a prestigious school such as Colombia University.

And just for good measure, he threw a few wild curves at her. He could tell she didn’t favor him at the moment, but she kept her lips tightly sealed and followed his instructions. She needed to be completely prepared for all the exams the university required of her, and with her current standing, she would be lucky if she even placed within the region for being considered. He knew her fairly well enough to predict her, but he wasn’t sure if being rejected from her dream school would break her. She did make it quite clear that she needed to get away from the city, but he had no distinction as to why.

“Why Colombia?”

They were now picking the books that she would progress more from and cleaning their mess from the table. Meru looked up from the sudden noise in their quiet shuffling and shrugged. “Well, that’s Aeron’s dream college as well and it’s already a for-sure thing that’s he going next Fall. He’s my best friend and I thought it’d be nice to apply to the same college and hope we’d both be accepted.”

“Do you do everything he does?”

He didn’t mean it as offensive, Meru knew, but it still caught her off guard. She looked away for a short moment before looking back to her patient teacher. “It’s not so much that we do everything together. In all honesty, I just want to get away from my mother. I’m surprised I’m still alive.”

She laughed to herself before carrying her stack of books and discarding any evidence that she was ever there. Lennox stared after her curiously before taking the rest of the books and following after her. He met up with her at the line in front of the store register centered in the middle of the second floor to Baltimore’s Best. Unlike the rest of the people in front of the two, not everyone was purchasing novels to take up space on an empty shelf in hopes of sparing the dust.

When they were only one body count away from the register, Meru bounced in her step when they moved forward. “Get ready to break out that wallet of yours, Mr. Lennox.”

She looked up at him with a smile and was only returned with a look. A look that screamed something she couldn’t definitely place, but it made a large lump form in her throat. She had trouble swallowing and fear immediately clouded her vision.

“I-I didn’t bring much money with me.” she stumbled over her words as she picked through the books in her arms. “I mean, I can pay for something, of course. I can… ah ha! I can pay for this.”

It was a mini flip Sudoku book she had snuck into their pile over two hours ago. “You picked that out. Of course you can pay for that.”

Meru stared at the books in her arms and continued staring regretful holes into their covers as they finally met the counter. Slowly, she placed each book down one by one and took a step away to allow her teacher to do the same. As the cashier began to scan each one, she looked to Lennox and he could remember seeing the same look in a begging dog.

“I only have seventeen dollars, Mr. Lennox.” she spoke softly, momentarily glancing sideways at the cashier. “I swear to god I will pay you back tomorrow. I just didn’t think we would actually buy anything, much less, this heavy load.”

In a flash, amusement sparkled in Lennox’s sky blue eyes. Meru blinked erratically to make sure it wasn’t just her imagination when he turned from her and leant elegantly against the counter. “I did say in our little talk Friday that I would cover all expenses, didn’t I?”

She crept up beside him and stared up at him. “Uh, yeah.”

“Then I’m going to cover all expenses. However, I’m a little wary about this.”

A blush crept up her neck as she realized just how immature she had been when she persuaded Lennox to carry the mini flip Sudoku puzzle book. She snatched the little book from his grasp and thoroughly embarrassed, made to turn around and place it back where she had found it. Before she could even pivot on her heel, the book had been plucked from her loose grip which caused her to whirl around in a circle.

“Mr. Lennox?” she questioned, reaching out to take back the little book.

“This may just save your sanity for the next few months.”

Even though it was a joke, Meru took him seriously. She only had a taste of what he was going to impale into her thick skull. If she was going to excel, she would need a little break and divulge in something sweet. As sweet as more math puzzles could be. She had only considered buying it and teasing Lennox about it because it looked cute.

“Would you like to sign up for our Baltimore’s Best card? Every time you use it, there’s a twenty percent discount on your entire purchase. In store and online.”

“Yeah. I have a feeling we’ll be coming back here.”

Meru tried to sneak a peek of the price but Lennox’s muscular body covered the scanner. However, when she took a look at the two large brown paper bags, neatly styled with the store’s logo, she no longer wished to know the price. She’d feel too guilty and stupid at the same time. Just how many books would it take her to get into her dream college and pass all the tests just to graduate from high school?

Suddenly depressed, she wandered from Lennox when it was apparent that it would take some time. She passed all the bookshelves that seemed to wink a taunting eye at her and then some she did not have the pleasure of walking through with Lennox earlier. He may have, but she didn’t. He made sure she didn’t leave the table for the entire morning. After all the hot cocoa and coffee she drank, she was lucky she didn’t have to use the restroom. She was sure he wouldn’t have even given her the luxury of peeing. And she had the slight distinction that his answer would be the same further down the lane in their sessions. She sighed bitterly. Her entire outlook on her favorite teacher just might change.

“Won’t even allow me to pee? Man, I hope he doesn’t whip a limb and become more like his friend. Oh god, I don’t think I can take that. I’d have to drop this tutoring thing dead in its tracks. I already don’t like showing Mr. S my-- ooh, he’s still here?”

Meru’s mind fell silent as she looked over the railings of the second floor and into the café to see that Ivan still sat at the table she left him at over two hours ago. She leant all her weight onto the railings and smiled. He was sorting through papers - she assumed schoolwork - and occasionally glancing at his photos - different from the ones he showed her before - and jotting down something quick in a dark green notebook. He was proceeding diligently with whatever he was striving for, that much Meru could depict. She never before found a guy more handsome than she did Ivan in the slow minutes of watching him. And then he did one thing she found irrefutably alluring.

He tilted his glasses on his nose.

She released a squeal within her throat and took a few steps back so he wouldn’t see her if he had heard her. She took a deep breath and smiled wickedly. Pulling free her cell phone from her pocket, she crept slowly up to the railings once again and waited for a good pose from the handsome young man.

“Excuse me?” a high-pitched saggy voice questioned, a finger tapping soon to follow.

Meru whirled around and in her surprise, dropped her phone over the railings. Noticing her surprise, the old woman and Meru looked over the railings to watch in perfect timing her phone bouncing off the cushioned floor to the bookstore on the first floor. Meru stared horrifically at it and, reluctantly, followed her gaze to watch Ivan stare at the phone and trace its fall up to her. She instantly retreated from the railings and without realizing, pulled the old woman with her. When she realized her hands were gripping the old woman’s forearms, she dropped them with apologizes spewing one after the other.

“I’m sorry about your phone. I apologize for startling you. I shouldn’t have been creeping up on you like that. ” the old woman giggled, smiling beautifully from the groan that slithered from Meru’s lips.

“Oh no, it’s my fault.” Meru diverged with a sigh. “I shouldn’t have been dangling my phone over the railings in the first place. Oh, what did you need my help for?”

A light shown in Meru’s eyes as she helped the old woman find the aisle stocked with puzzle books. She told Meru that she had been watching Lennox and Meru at the register and was interested in her pocket book. She wanted to get a few to stow away for Christmas stuffers she would send to her grandchildren in Tennessee. In the entire five minutes Meru and the old woman were together, she boasted about how intellectual her grandchildren were. Although she didn’t realize it, Meru found herself to be the happiest she had been in last three weeks since Aeron told her that he bought concert tickets for her birthday.

“Thank you for helping an old lady out. I hope all goes well with your tutoring, and your phone. I’m truly sorry about that.”

Chuckling, Meru waved it off and gently ushered the old woman in the direction of the cash register. “Don’t worry about it. I think, though, that I should go investigate and hope my baby’s still alive and breathing. Goodbye.”

Giggling a giggle that reminded Meru of her own grandmother, the old woman waved with her free hand. “Goodbye.”

Meru inhaled her euphoria of speaking lightheartedly with a stranger, and exhaled her nerves of having to face Ivan over her immaturity. Meru tried to piece together an explanation and as she slowly took her time down the spiral staircase, nothing came to mind. She felt more humiliated now than she ever has. But, the upside, is that she would never have to cross paths with anyone who might have seen her lack of judgment in gravity.

The moment she stepped off from the staircase, she didn’t see Ivan at the table she had left him at. All of his belongings were still neatly messed around atop the table. Hoping he left to the restroom, she looked over her shoulder to where it was located. She desperately prayed he was in there so she could gather her phone and disappear under Lennox’s massive shadow.

“Were you trying to prove Newton wrong?” a deep, smooth voice spoke from in front of Meru.

She snapped her head around and gasped, almost walking head first into a familiar chest. She rose her gaze and took a step back, chuckling away her embarrassment as Ivan held her phone loosely in front of him. She stared at it, too ashamed to look into his pretty green eyes.

“I always like to prove laws wrong.” she spoke comically.

“I think the saying goes that rules are meant to be broken; not laws.”

“Tell that to the criminals locked away for life.”

Ivan chuckled as he led Meru back to the table they once sat at together hours before. Meru smiled at his chivalrous acts of pulling her chair out for her. Once Ivan took his seat, he locked his bright haze with her dark one and she instantly felt the heat rush to her neck and head. She never thought one boy could be too gorgeous to not look at.

“So, what exactly were you trying to do?”

He slid her phone across the table and she immediately went to take it, only to notice the face of her phone was pitch black. Slowly, she grasped it and was enticed to see that it was functioned on the camera. She looked up to see a small smirk on Ivan’s lips.

“Go ahead, I don’t mind.”

“Oh my god, I am so embarrassed right now.” Meru confessed, burying her smiling face from his view behind her hand.

“I’m actually flattered. Not everyone tries to sneak a picture of me. Especially as Bond-ish as you tried.”

Meru’s blush further deepened. “Tried and failed.” she spoke just loud enough for him to hear.

She hoped he would drop the topic of her intentions and move onto boasting about his aspirations once again. She loved to listen to him, even though she only knew little about him. But, she definitely couldn’t hide the verity that she was drawn to him. She was pretty sure he had already picked that up. As well as her clumsiness just moments ago.

Sighing deeply, she removed her hand to see Ivan placing his camera down onto the table. She glanced at it and back at him, sitting up straighter with a smirk of her own. “Did you just take a picture of me? I didn’t hear the flash go off.”

“Silence costs me a good fortune.” he answered with a smile, tilting his chin up at her phone. “I take pictures for fun, so I don’t mind.”

Meru bit her lip and stared at her phone before resting her elbows on the edge of the table. She winked an eye at her phone and swallowed her nerves. His jade eyes seemed to pierce right through her phone and directly into her line of sight. She sighed softly and hoped Ivan didn’t hear her hesitation. Releasing her lip from her teeth, she captured a picture of him and sat back in her seat.

“My gosh, you should be a model.” she mumbled.

“What was that?”

Meru looked up and stammered. “Uh, I said you should be a model.”

Ivan chuckled and Meru’s blush slowly receded from her face. “Thank you. I’ve actually modeled for a few of my friends who take photography more seriously than I do.”

“Oh really? Do you enjoy it?”

He shrugged, now more preoccupied with the papers, notebooks, and books in front of him. “It’s alright. Not something I would invest in, definitely not. Too time consuming.”

Meru nodded, resting her elbows back on the edge of the table again once she placed her phone safely in her jeans’ pocket. She rested the side of her face comfortably against her cradled hands and watched Ivan neatly replace everything where they seemed to belong. When he was almost finished, he glanced up and smiled at Meru. She returned his smile which evoked him to chuckle.

“You don’t have to watch me. I’m sure there’s something more worthy of your attention.”

“You’re an interesting person.”

He had just placed the last of his notebooks into his bag when he caught her wandering gaze over his face. He picked up his camera and quite elegantly for a boy, took her picture. It had instant film - so Meru called it, she didn’t know anything about photography except that for the most part, the results turned out great - so he slid it across the table to her. Within moments, the colors and emotions came to life. She let out an awe-filled gasp as she held it up. She looked so beautiful in the picture.

“Now, why can’t I look like this every time someone takes a picture of me?”

Chuckling, Ivan shrugged. “Personally, I think you’d carry yourself beautifully wherever you went. You’re very charming, Meru. It’s attractive.”

Meru dropped the picture and chuckled, burying her face into her hands. “Wow, you are out to make me blush every five minutes, aren’t you?”

“A cute trait to you.”

She begged he would stop the flattery. Sure she distributed to her peers healthily, but as for receiving it, she couldn’t handle it well. Lennox watched in amazement from how chameleon-like she was. However, all she was doing was giggling like a schoolgirl. Granted, she is one. It didn’t impress him much. Her interaction with a handsome young man didn’t trigger anything. That is, until the handsome young man looked up to where Lennox stood at the railings leading to the spiral staircase.

He smirked.

Lennox didn’t bother hiding the disgust in his eyes.

“Oh, I doubt I’ll forget you.” Meru said as they stood up, Ivan preparing to leave.

Ivan hung his bag over his shoulder and stared at Meru for a moment. She continued to smile at him, her lips unwavering from their fixed position. He shuffled through the pockets of his bag and retracted something white. He placed it face down on the table and pulled free a marker from one of the pockets on his bag. Meru watched him and her smile brightened when he handed her the piece of paper. Only when her fingertips brushed against it did she realize it wasn’t a piece of paper, but a picture. Ivan placed his hand over hers before she could turn it over.

“It was nice meeting you, Meru. Perhaps I’ll see you around sometime.”

She was too busy staring at his hand over hers to notice Ivan pass a devious smirk over her shoulder before he dropped his hand to his side. She lifted her gaze and was almost rendered speechless from him gracing her with a drop-dead gorgeous smile. Her breath hitched in her throat and she had a hard time staggering out her breathing until he disappeared from sight. Sighing, Meru looked down and noticed Ivan had written his name down above ten digits. She bit her lip, trying hard not to smile. That is, until she turned it over and gasped.

The colors were dull but the picture was of her. It must have been during the first thirty minutes or so when she first entered Baltimore’s Best. She was staring off into space, more than likely wondering where her teacher was and what had been keeping him, when in reality, he was only wandering around in the level above her. One hand held her chin and the other was playing with the handle of the obnoxiously horrible cup of coffee she had, had earlier in the morning. Her natural curls that refused to get along with the clips that messily held her hair together in a bun fell to the sides of her right eye.

Ivan captured her flawlessly, as if making her out to be perfect. She envied him. He had a true talent and Meru had nothing. Sure, she was gifted in very many different fields of life, but she had nothing she felt she was meant to do. The longer she stared at the picture, she wondered if she ever would find her calling.

“Ah, I see I’ve finally found you.”

Meru looked up and smiled politely at Lennox as he came to stand in front of her. “Uh, yeah. I just came to say goodbye to--”

Meru was caught off by her own gasp. Lennox had placed the two bags full of books onto the table and it knocked down the cups of coffee Ivan and her had been drinking. Meru had every intention of finishing it, since Ivan bought it to go for them not even ten minutes ago. She quickly hurried to the other side to prevent the cups from falling, one of them being the hot cocoa she now loved. She placed the cup and plate in the center of the table and was soon met with the girl she ordered her coffee from earlier in the morning.

“I’m sorry. It was an accident.”

The girl huffed, throwing a towel she produced from an apron hanging around her waist. “It’s okay; happens everyday.”

Meru had grabbed the other towel the girl threw with the other absentmindedly and was just cleaning up one corner when she felt the atmosphere change. She looked up and quickly looked down, smirking to herself.

“I’m truly sorry. For my incompetence, please accept this.”

Meru’s smirk widened when she finished and walked around to wipe the other corner. The girl was staring dumbly into Lennox’s eyes, his hands holding hers. In the middle of their hands was a twenty dollar bill.

‘If a guy as hot as Mr. Lennox was giving me twenty dollars after that, I’d be staring stupidly at him too’ Meru thought amusingly to herself.

“O-Okay. Sure.”

Lennox smiled at her and thanked her. He grabbed the bags and led Meru out of the bookstore. When he turned to ask where she parked, she wore a wry grin. “Charming, Mr. Lennox.” was all she said before she led him to her car.

While Mr. Lennox placed the bags securely in her backseat, Meru looked around the parking lot for his car until she realized she had never seen his car. She had only see Sauvageau’s car. Only when she turned around from slyly looking over Lennox’s build for his car, she noticed what she always noticed when she looked at the parking lot at McElderrey High. Aloofly, she pointed to the blood red car and hummed out thoughtfully. Mimicking her gesture, Lennox stood up and shut the car door gently, turning to see what had Meru’s volatile curiosity.

“You used Mr. S’s car to drive here?” she questioned curiously.

Lennox looked at the car across the lot and then back at Meru. “That’s my car.”

“Oh.”

“Why?”

Meru chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of her bare neck. “Uh, the other day, Friday actually, I kind of wished Mother Nature would spite Mr. S’s sports car with lightning. But uh, I guess it was never his car to begin with.”

Lennox laughed at her wary approach to admitting her ill thoughts. “But I always see him driving the car, so I only assumed…”

“It’s alright. Since we live together it’s easier on us to drive together.”

This was news. “What? You two live together?”

“Yeah. We’re friends. It’s--”

“Easier on us.” Meru finished blandly, despite her curious need to learn more.

Lennox nodded, amused from Meru’s reaction. He hid it well by patting her shoulder and guiding her to the driver’s seat. “Drive home safely, Meru. I would like to apologize, though.”

“For what?” she asked as she climbed into the driver’s seat.

“For making you drive so far. I forget that not everyone lives so close to my convenient locations.”

It took a moment or two for Meru to gather the implication. She looked around her before placing both of her hands in her lap and staring up at Lennox who hunched over the top of her car to be able to look her in the eye. If she were standing beside him, she would have found his position amusing. Such a big man as he with a hunch to his back… portraying his muscles… gouging from his thin material shirt…

Meru’s mind fell and she shook it off before she hoped Lennox would catch it. He did, but she didn’t need to know. “You live close to here?” she shook a hand in front of her to indicate her meaning.

“Yeah, about twenty minutes from here actually. Nice neighborhood.”

Meru nodded, not wanting to pry but wanting her curiosity to leech onto his probes. “Oh. That’s nice.”

Lennox smiled before leaning back and closing her door. “I’ll see you in class tomorrow. Drive safely.”

“You too!” she piped, smiling and waving enthusiastically before starting her car. She waited until he was safely in his car before she pulled out of her parking space and drove away.

Lennox made sure Meru had accelerated from the red light once it turned green for him to relax. He fixed the heater on him and adjusted his seat for him to lean back in the slightest. He listened to the low beats of the music from his stereo before he pulled something from his pocket. As he opened his eyes, he stared at the picture. It was of Meru. He ignored the theme of the photograph and turned it over. It was a number, and the area code he recognized to be of New York. His eyes narrowed at the name.

“So, his name is Ivan. Hm.”



Meru stared indignantly at her cell phone. She had just sent out a massive text message to all of her friends about the intricate detailing of her encounter with a handsome young man. A little late since she returned home around one in the afternoon, and was only now informing her friends nearing the hour of nine at night. When she had returned from her bookshop adventure, both of her parents kept her busy with inquiries about just what the tutoring would entail further in the future. She knew she had no choice to tell them because of the obvious reasons, but she wanted nothing more but to actually follow through with Lennox’s wish in being purely devoted to their cause. She wanted nothing more than to sleep the rest of the day away, but she had a strange intrigue to actually probe each book and absorb every detail of the published knowledge. Quite frankly, she wanted to impress Lennox with her intellect. Especially since she would have his class the very next day. How more casual could she be than bringing up academics?

But, she only just found herself removing the books from their bags a matter of twenty minutes after she sent out the text to her friends. Like most weekends, she spent the entire afternoon eating and being couch potatoes with her parents. With how active they were on a weekly basis, they could afford being lazy for two days straight.

Sighing dejectedly, Meru plopped herself onto the edge of her bed and held her phone in her hands. Her and her friends, consisting from the Student Council, had an odd routine when it came to a possible significant other. They all had been friends since their middle school days and since even then, they all had some recognition with being involved in the Leadership course. Ever since the text messaging era plagued the mind of the youth they had been following their routine healthily. Whenever they found someone attractive, they would sneak a clear picture of the desired person and send a massive picture text message to each other and ask for their critique and rating. At first they took it as a joke but as time grew, it just happened. If Meru remembered correctly, it had been Ellison’s strange proposal.

Meru tossed her cell phone aside and gathered the Baltimore’s Best bookshop bags and folded them according to their prior folding. She stared at them for a hard minute before deciding to place them in her bag collection stowed away in the corner of her closet. For future social gatherings when she was required to bring some heavy lifting, she would keep those bags in mind.

Variation of senses decorated patterns in Meru’s brain which caused her to turn around and stare at her phone. Within seconds, it lit up and displayed a text message icon. Smiling, she hopped onto her bed and read the message from Kyler. Years ago she had a bubbly crush for the boy. As time progressed Meru analyzed her relations with people and came to the discovery that those she had the strangest feelings for happened to mature into a friendship. The best boys she kept around started out as an eccentric crush. With the exception of Aeron, of course. She absolutely despised him at first.

Meru laughed happily at Kyler’s remark of Ivan’s composure. She replied back and with twenty minutes of constant messaging between the two, she received another response from Yvette. Within an hour, all of her Student Council friends - excluding Aeron, whom still had yet to answer his neglected phone - she sent the message to had replied back and now, she was speaking animatedly with Ellison. Their voices were foolish and clouded by shallow desire of the young handsome man. They had strayed from the topic Ellison had prompted Meru with when she asked Meru to call her. She wanted to hear all about Meru’s ill-fated tutoring session and despite how much of a hot topic Lennox was and is, they immediately began tearing apart the perfect setting of the bookshop and Ivan.

It wasn’t until Ellison mentioned Ivan’s passion for photography when Meru returned to her senses. Somewhat.

Meru rose from her lazy position on her bed and stared all around her room. “Uh, Sonny, I think I’ll have to call you back.”

“Why?” Ellison’s calm voice rose in pitch and fell into a whine. “We were just getting to the good part.”

“I think-- well, I’ll just talk to you later.”

Meru hung up without a response from Ellison, knowing they would spend another ten minutes just saying goodbye to each other and knowing she wouldn’t mind the sudden abruptness. Ellison, including the rest of those in Meru’s social circle, knew just how random she could be. Right now, Meru did not have ten minutes to spare.

Meru immediately disregarded her phone and desperately searched through her books for the picture Ivan took of her. She had boasted about it to her friends and now she had no idea what happened to it. The picture had been the last thing in her mind when she left Baltimore’s Best. It had been the last thing in her mind when she arrived home. She was surprised she had completely forgotten about it when she had been completely exultant to accept the timely gift.

After ten minutes of flipping through book after book three times and tearing the bookshop bags to shreds, her heart dropped at the possibility that she could never contact Ivan. She would never be able to pick his vast brain and wandering mind. She would never be able to hear his laugh, or hear his smooth voice again. Growling in anxiety, Meru lifted herself from her carpeted floor and ventured out of her room and towards the laundry room on the first floor. Her father was watching an action movie in the living room and as she passed the downstairs study, she located her mother at her laptop, more than likely looking up books for her Kindle. Meru gave a small praise when she came to the laundry room and noticed no one had started a fresh load of laundry. The fact encouraged her to throw clothes around even though the clothes she wore earlier in the morning were resting perfectly aloof at the top of the messy pile.

All of her pockets were empty.

Meru let out a pathetic whine. She hung her head heavy as she slowly loaded the dirty clothes back in the bin from whence they came. A heavy cloud rested over her shoulders as she retraced her steps back up to her room, going unnoticed as unnoticed as she had descended.

Meru closed her door with a pensive stare at nothing in particular. She closed her eyes and rewound her actions beginning from when she got home. Her eyes flashed back and forth from behind her eyelids as a light canvas of her memories flashed to the forefront of her brain. Pictures of what she did and said played both slow and fast until she opened her eyes and stared at how organized her room was. She scanned her room and as if layering the past and present over one another, she saw her past self from earlier today stripping her clothes from her body and to be replaced with lounging attire. She watched herself empty her pockets of the spare change she had leftover from the horrible coffee and her little card pouch which carried her assurance to legally be on the road. Her keys fell into their designated place.

She stared at her room as she replayed everything she did from when she entered the room and left to hang out with her parents. It only took a matter of seconds to dissect the occurrence, but it took half an hour to destroy her room in search of the picture. Downstairs her parents could hear everything. From Meru’s cursed words thrown into the air, to her screams of pure vexation in pure harmony with her belongings being rustled around. Ivy Lang had long ago left the comfort of the family study and now stood at the end of the couch her husband, Alexander Lang, sat at. He had muted the television to revel in amusement at his daughter’s actions, while his wife stared up in wonder to the base of the second floor, as if staring would give her any comfort in knowing just what the hell her daughter was up to.

With a final cry of frustration, Meru threw one of her favorite pillows at her colossal windows before dropping herself carelessly onto her floor, her body mass echoing with a thud. She kicked, flopped her fisted arms, and cried pitifully all the while blocking her airways via weaving her nose from side to side in the plush carpeting. Regretful words oozed from her pouted lips when a knock sounded on the door. It opened without Meru’s consent just milliseconds after the knock sounded.

“Meru, are you-- goddamn.”

Meru instantly recognized the voice as her father’s. Sighing heavily, Meru lifted herself to rest her chin in the crescent bay of her folded forearms. She watched her father scan her room with awe until his dark eyes fell upon her.

“Who pissed you off?”

Meru shook her head dejectedly, a pout still firmly located on her plump lips. “No one. I just lost something and I can’t fucking find it.”

Her dad smirked and his eyes left hers to look at the mess she created. “Before or after you destroyed everything you have.”

“Nah uh, I didn’t destroy everything.” Meru protested, lifting herself inches from the ground to point to the vase of fake flowers one of her older - and cheap - cousins gave her. “I still have that neatly intact.”

“Mhmm.” her father noted with a face full of amusement. Meru conjured a face at him and he returned it comically. Laughing, now in better spirits, Meru sat up and stared regrettably at her misplaced things. “You are going to clean this up, right?”

“Yes, Dad.” Meru chuckled lightly.

“Well, it’s getting late and you do have school tomorrow.”

Meru snorted inelegantly at the look he gave her, indicating that she would definitely not get away with begging to stay home to celebrate her birthday. It worked every two years, but presumably with the whole tutoring dynamic to the current state things, skipping school was definitely out of the question.

“Clean this shit up and get ready for bed. Goodnight Ace.”

Meru grinned and for a split second, her father saw the child in her when she would portray the same grin when he called her by her nickname in her younger days. “Goodnight Dad.”

Her father nodded before closing the door behind him. Meru sighed heavily and slouched in her monk-like composure. Her eyebrow quirked when her cell phone vibrated a few feet from her. She crawled towards it and smirked irritatingly at Aeron’s face popping up on her screen. She read his text message and replied to it, a smile ghosting across her lips when she put her cell phone to rest for the night.

Ivan was just another boy with a pretty face that Meru would forget about in a month’s time. Aeron had a way of perfecting Meru’s mind for her when she would get lost in its eccentric waves. Although Meru thought she would treat Ivan differently, she knew she would never be able to understand a mind like his. And she always fully accepted everyone’s mind. She found it fun to learn a person through predicting their actions from observing their mind. She knew Ivan was too different from the boys Meru was normally surrounded by. They were either modest and sweet, or mysterious and odd. Meru always - unbeknownst to her until she dealt with the aftermath - fell for the patterns of the odd mystery in boys. Ivan fell under neither category and even though it peaked her interest and intrigue, Meru knew she would get bored of him down the line.

She knew she was too cynical to think so far into something she barely knew but every situation fell under the same process in Meru’s brain. It just worked for her. And, after all, Aeron is always right.

Meru just wanted a boyfriend for her birthday.