Transcend

I decided to avoid Liam as much as I could for the rest of the week, thinking it best to put as much distance between us as possible until I found that I was for the most part not angry at him, though of course I realized that that would take more than seven days to accomplish. I found different ways to go to any classes where I usually saw him, such as Study Hall in the Davidson Hall building I went to by entering the through a small door towards the back of the building which may have been for staff only, though I'm sure they would have understood. I stay away from the Moor building, where Liam had two classes on Mondays and Wednesday, as much as I could and left through the back entrance of the English building, determined not to enter a place where it was common to see him.
My plan worked for the most part, and by the time the week was finished and I was driving home for my Math Study Hall on Thursday to go home, my anger having had decreased to only a fraction of what it had been earlier that Monday when Liam and I had had our argument. I had more or less reverted back to the same amount of frustration that I always held towards him, that I had been carrying for years now and had learned to live with, and had let the things he'd said about our break up go. I knew I could always remain that angry at him, though having him out of my life for a few days sped up the process.
"Oh man...." I murmured as I stepped down the stairs slowly while looking left into the kitchen, seeing my younger brother sitting at the counter with a variety of folded up pieces of paper around him, all in different shades of red and pink. Samuel and my mother, who was standing on the opposite side of the counter facing him, both glanced up at me, my mother laughing lightly as I walked towards them and stared down at the folded papers, not even having to ask to know what they were.
"It's that day again..." I groaned as I picked up one of the Valentine's Day cards from the counter and read that it was from Samuel to someone named Sarah, most likely one of the students in his class where he had to give one to everyone. Samuel took it back from me saying, "I have to write these for everybody, Nora. We're having a Valentine's Day party in my class on Monday." I nodded toward him, trying not to visibly express my dislike of the Holiday only a few days away, then turned towards my mom standing a few feet away from me watching Samuel write the names on the cards.
"Are you and Dad going out on Monday?" I remembered that they usual did something for the annual event, whether it was to go see a movie or even go out of town if they day fell on a weekend. My mother shook her head as she leaned against the counter and answered, "Your father and me both have to work on Monday, so we're just going to wait until next Saturday and go out to dinner." I nodded at her answered with a smile, happy that after being married so long they still managed to find time to spend with each other. "I can watch Samuel that night then," I concluded after a small pause, knowing that it wouldn't be a big deal since he mostly just played video games in his room and I didn't have anything planned for that Saturday.
"Actually, he's staying at Mrs. Anderson's house that night," My mother answered quickly, "Her son and Samuel play together and Samuel has been asking if he could stay the night at her house for weeks." Samuel nodded in reply to my mother's explanation, though still working hard on his Valentine's Day cards for his class.
"Oh alright," I answered surprised after having expected to have the responsibility of watching my brother given to me for the night while my parents went out, only to find that I would not only be free of watching him that night but that I would be the only one at my house. "That's good, I'll be able to study for the test coming up then," I laughed as I moved away from the counter and towards the refrigerator for a drink, the entire reason I had come down from my room. My mother agreed with me and if there had been any worry in her voice about why I always seemed to stay home instead of going out with friends these days, I chose not to acknowledge it and instead grabbed a glass of water before returning to my room and leaving my brother and mother to finish the Valentine's cards.
Though I'd been dreading on going to the University Monday morning since I'd discovered that it was the 14th of February, I was surprised to see the difference between Valentine's Day on a college campus compared to in a high school. In high school when the day arrived, everyone carried around the balloons, giant stuffed animals, bouquet of flowers, and boxes of chocolates as if it were some sort of contest as to who could receive the best gift. Thankfully, at my University it was much more toned down than it had ever been on high school and compared to the mass amount of gifts I'd seen back in high school, there were almost none on campus. It was refreshing and another example of how different University was compared to how it had been when I'd been in high school around everyone competing against one another.
I went to my two classes that day as usual, English and then Art History, and spent my spare time in between in the library as I had been doing since the event with Liam a week ago. I read most of the time I was there, doing any assigned reading for my classes or the occasional homework that needed completing, keeping myself busy as not to have too much time to think. Once in Art History, Heather gave me a small box of conversation hearts that she planned to give out to our entire circle of friends who had graduated from our school and I thanked her, feeling bad for having not even thought to buy anyone a gift for the holiday. Heather told me not to worry about it, that she didn't need any more candy than she already had, and I smiled with relief that she wasn't angry for not receiving a gift from me.
Once I returned home that night I found that my parents had left two heart-shaped boxes of chocolate on the counter in the kitchen, one for my brother and one for me, to find when we came home. I smiled to myself as I picked up mine, indicated by my name written on it in my mother's handwriting, and unwrapped it to eat one of the various chocolates inside. Afterwards I set it back on the counter and waited for my brother to come home and find his and later my mother and then my father so that I could thank them for the gift and tell them Happy Valentine's Day.
Tuesday was another day for friends who only saw each other on Tuesdays and Thursdays due to their class schedules to exchange presents, though there were even less gifts passed around than there had been on the day before. I saw both Vanessa and Caitlin on campus in between walking to different buildings, since either of them were in any of my classes, and they both gave me more Valentine's candy for the holiday. I thanked them, feeling bad once again that it had slipped my mind to buy something for my friends, and they said that it was alright just as Heather had.
Once I had attended both my Trigonometry 1317 and Social History 1304 classes and used my lunch time to complete the Social History work I'd been given that day, I made my way towards the Davidson Hall where my last class of the day, Math Study Hall, was beginning in about ten minutes. I'd given up sneaking around campus to avoid Liam along with the majority of my anger towards him over the fight, but I hadn't expected to actually run into him so soon after deciding not to hide from him any longer. But of course, due to how often we always happened to see each other around campus, I wasn't too surprised.
As I'd been walking towards the sliding doors of the building to enter Liam walked out in the opposite direction, looking down at his phone in his hand before he glanced up and spotted me once we were only a few feet away from each other saying, "Oh, hi Nora." I stopped, deciding it was best not to storm away in a rage and stir up the anger I'd more or less buried, and said an awkward hello back. He glanced down at his phone for a second before looking back up at me, standing to his right facing the other direction, and put his phone in the pocket of his jeans as he spoke, "You're going to your Study Hall, right?"
I nodded in reply, turning to where I was facing him with my back slightly facing the building just as he was as I asked, "Your just leaving from your Study Hall aren't you?" I noticed that he kept his eyes from me like he had the last time we'd spoken, though I chose to ignore it and focus on the conversation and our uncomfortable attempt at returning to whatever type of friendship we had after our small dispute.
Liam nodded in reference to my question before he began talking casually about his Calculus class that he was taking, describing what they were currently working on and how difficult it was compare to how College Algebra had been. I listened to him, nodding and agreeing with him when it was called for and adding in my own opinions, how I had always struggled with Calculus even when it was only high school level. After a minute or two I glanced out at the concrete walkway before the Davidson Hall and the light snow that was falling from where the two of us stood under the awning of the large building behind us, thinking of how I had always helped Liam with his Math work when we were together and being thrown off guard when he changed the subject suddenly.
"I teleported on my own last weekend," Liam stated suddenly after a slight pause, randomly breaking away from the previous topic suddenly as if he either had just remembered it or had been trying to weave it into the conversation since it had began. The announcement was so sudden that it took me a second to register what he'd said and what it meant, causing an uncomfortably slow reaction on my part.
"Really?" I questioned after my mind slowly analyzed his words, raising my eyebrows in surprise as I glanced up at him standing to my right with his hands in the pockets of his coat looking ahead of him, his eyes still not meeting mine despite the news he'd just told me. "You were finally able to teleport of your own free will?" I shifted slightly where I stood after having turned around fully to face the same direction as Liam, discomforted by the cold and the light snow falling, though we were kept away from most of it thanks to the building and the awning over the doors behind us. Liam nodded with a happy grin, finally letting his eyes move towards me and meet my own as he explained, "It was only once so it's not that impressive, but still I was finally able to do it."
"That's really great, Liam," I told him after a pause, honestly happy for him and the fact that he had teleported on his own as I looked out again towards the large concrete slab before the Davidson Hall and watched as it filled with various people walking from building to building quickly to escape the snow. My question formed in my mind quickly, and I contemplated the results of asking it for a few silent seconds before I finally resolved to voice it, turning to look at Liam as I asked: "How did you do it?" My breath was visible in the cold air as my question filled the quiet around us, and after a second my eyes fell from his face and to the ground, not returning to him until I heard him begin to speak and make an attempt to explain how he had done it.
"Well… It happened so fast that it's hard to say, but it was sort of like stopping the portal... I just had to think about it really hard, picture where I wanted to land, and before I knew it I could feel everything shaking like usual and becoming cold and then I was in the portal." He looked out ahead of him as he told me about how he had triggered the portal, his face changing as he talked about his accomplishment, and once he finished he turned his gaze over to me and observed my reaction as I nodded understandingly, only being able to picture what it was like to teleport through the portal. He paused to think for a second then with a laugh continued, "I actually tried to teleport to France, just so see if I could do it but it didn't work. But once I decided to picture where I usually try and land I was able to trigger it and land there. So I think I can only go places where I've been before, for now at least until I can control it more, but it’s good that I'm learning more about it."
"That's great," I repeated myself once he had finished his explanation, thinking about how much progress he had made in these few months and that in no time he would be able to master his ability and use it whenever he wanted. Even now, he hadn't landed in my bedroom in almost a month since he could stop himself or even change where he was going. I knew that there wasn't really a reason to still talk to him, since the one thing that brought us together was that he was teleporting into my room and now that was gone. It was pointless to carry on these conversations, but we still did so every time we saw each other for reasons unclear to me.
"Yea..." He replied softly, his mouth hardly moving as he voiced the single word and kept his line of sight straight ahead of him, his facial expression changing once again back to the same vacant, distant look that seemed to consume him when we weren't talking about his teleporting. We both became uncomfortable quickly, the only true purpose of our conversation having already been carried out as much as possible until it met an awkward end.
I ended our meeting soon after, putting both of us out of our misery by saying that my Study Hall was beginning in a few minutes and that I should go so I wouldn't be late. He nodded, physically relieved that the uncomfortable feeling would soon go away once we got away from each other, and said bye before watching me enter the building behind us and then walking off into the light snow and towards the parking lot to drive home, leaving me again with an uncomfortable feeling of loss brought on by how undeniably distant we both were to one another.