Beginning of Something

Blythe did not want to attend school today, knowing she would have to explain to Jude for her odd behavior during the meeting with Alec last Friday. She had spent the weekend at home, contemplating about that strange boy, wondering if he recognized her from the mysterious night. He seemed to have forgotten her, or to have not known her at all, and she was more than confused at that. Had he not appeared in her room just a week ago, or had he really been transported into the past? The mere thought sent goose-bumps up her arms.

“He kissed my forehead,” Blythe mumbled, poking at the peas on her plate with a fork. “He even called me sweetheart. No one ever calls me that.”

“What sweetheart?” Her father appeared behind her and laid his hand on her shoulder, surprising her. “Who called who—”

“Nobody called anybody, Dad,” she said, finishing up her breakfast in a jiffy. “Where’s Mom?”

He shrugged and jerked his chin up. “I think she is not yet up. She does not have work today, it seems.”

Blythe nodded, looking at her father. He was a very handsome man, and looked very young for someone in their late forties. The wrinkles on his face barely showed when he smiled warmly at her. His skin was pale and pink, and she always liked that she inherited his rosy complexion and her mother’s fair skin. She had her father’s brown eyes too, while her mother’s were grey. That thought reminded her of Alec’s pale eyes.

“How is school?” he asked, folding his arms on the table and leaning toward her. “I heard you made friends with a transfer student?”

“I did.” She got up from her seat hurriedly and dashed for the stairs, remembering Jude had asked her to meet him earlier at the school parking lot. “Be careful on your way to work!’

Opening the wardrobe in her room, she draped a dark blue cardigan over her black tank top, exchanged her sleep shorts for a wine-colored flared skirt, and pulled on a pair of black knee-high socks. She was about to leave the room but her gaze hesitated at the drawer where her towels were kept. Biting her lower lip, she opened the drawer. Alec’s gold pocket watch rested at the bottom of it, sandwiched between the towels. She wrapped her hand around it, feeling its coolness, and dropped it into the pocket of her skirt.
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“Cassie, I’m already in school and I’m waiting for Jude,” Blythe said as she answered the call on her cell phone. “Where are you?”

“My mother wanted a ride to work because her car broke down yesterday evening,” groaned her best friend, annoyance clear in her voice. “How come I don’t know that we’re meeting Jude? I thought he has gone off mingling with everyone else but us.”

Blythe felt a pang of guilt. She had not told Cassie about the bizarre night, and she had linked that night together with Jude and Alec. Talking about either of the boys made her nervous and frightened somehow. She was reluctant to even meet Jude this morning.

Just as she had that thought, she glanced toward the front gates of the school and could see the familiar blue-eyed boy as he strolled in. He was wearing a navy blue t-shirt paired with black jeans, and his ebony hair was hidden under a dark red knit cap. With his hands in his pockets, he crossed the school parking lot swiftly and climbed the short flight of stairs up to the building’s glass doors, where Blythe was propped against the left pillar.

Blythe smiled ruefully as Jude came up to her. “I got to go, Cassie. Remember to drop me a text when you’re here.” She could just hear her best friend protest a second before she ended the call.

“I think we match,” he mused, looking from her to himself. “Different shades of red, blue and black.”

She looked down at her own outfit, her cheeks turning scarlet. Self-consciously, she straightened her skirt even though it was not creased. The pocket watch felt as if it weighed a ton as Jude smiled crookedly at her.

As if sensing her embarrassment, he took his cap off and stuffed it into his messenger bag. He went on to apologize for Alec’s rude behavior last Friday, telling her not everyone could stand the way he spoke. She reassured him that it did not bother her with a gentle pat on his arm.

An idea flashed across her mind in that instant. It was absurd, stupid even, she thought, but she wanted to go along with it badly. When an opportunity came to uncover the truth behind the pocket watch, she had to grab at it. If it were yesterday she might have wanted to escape from it for as long as she could. However, looking at Jude’s kind demeanor now, she figured that whatever the truth was, it could not have been as bad as she thought. Jude and Alec were friends, and that fact comforted her in a way nothing had for the past few days.

“About that… Can you ask Alec out again after school?” She avoided his gaze by looking at her cell phone. “It’d be nice if I can meet him properly.”

Jude seemed pleasantly surprised at the suggestion, eagerly nodding. If only he knew what she was up to…