Positive: Chapter One

It was almost four in the afternoon when Reed left campus on the last day of orientation for his freshman year of college. The sun was just barely beginning to sink, and the sky was peppered with lazy white clouds, drifting between the sparse high-rises of the quaint Midwestern college town he had wound up in. Adjusting his backpack and double knotting the laces on his old, worn-through blue sneakers, Reed ambled down the sidewalk, drinking in the sights and sounds of his new home. He was staying in an apartment with his cousin, Jason, who was a year older than him instead of living in the dorms, which meant walking across town twice every day, but Reed did not mind. He actually rather enjoyed his time outside, given an excuse to mosey around. The trees and gardens were still colorful and lush, the grass still bright emerald green. Everything about this town was positively provincial, neat, and picturesque.

            A few people were out for late afternoon strolls, or sitting on their porches with tall glasses of lemonade, watching the summer slowly fade into September. Reed brushed his wavy brown hair out of his soft blue eyes and let his hands drop into his pockets as he walked; he rarely did anything with any great amount of deliberateness. His eyes grazed over the street, cars slowly idling past, the occasional bird flitting to a new tree. He was content to wander, his feet dragging against the pavement, his breath calm and meticulously even. That was how he arranged most things in his life: with a great deal of unnecessary meticulousness. He liked the word meticulous, as well. This often made him a wearisome companion, which had resulted in a particularly quiet social life, but he did not mind that either. People were difficult, and felt the need to assign him tasks, which he would of course accomplish most meticulously. The more meticulous he was, the less he had to accomplish, and the longer he could avoid the questions his parents dangled over his head- questions like “What are you going to do about a career?” and “Do you have any plans for the future?”

            The truth was he did not have an answer for either of those things, and was in no hurry to acquire one. After all, college was the place to explore yourself, discover your potential, unlock hidden talents. Reed expected that once classes began he would begin to do those things, and his future would plan itself for him, no extraneous effort required. There was no need to get all fussed and bothered about it now while the sun was still out and the birds were still singing. There would be plenty of time for worrying and important questions later, when the deadlines were a little more pressing. In the meantime, he planned on enjoying the scenery, and perhaps making a few friends, if they were willing. There were plenty of people around, and plenty of people milling around at his school, he just had to actually talk to them instead of giving them cursory glances and deciding they would never understand why the flight patterns of migratory birds were so fascinating before giving up and walking away.

            As Reed wandered towards his apartment, he noticed that the same girl had been in front of him for almost four blocks. In a town this size, that would not be uncommon, but the way she carried herself stood out from the unhurried, slouchy gait the rest of the area had adopted. She was petite, no more than five feet tall, yet she was far from delicate. Her back was straight, and she held her chin up, confidence clearly on display. She walked with the power and slinking ease of a jungle cat, and Reed could almost see a tail lashing from side to side behind her. Her hair was long, dark reddish brown, and tied loosely at the base of her neck, mirroring the motion of the imaginary tail. As her feet hit the pavement, Reed strained to hear them make contact, but she was as silent as the grave, her steps precise, never hitting a single crack or crevice in the sidewalk. For all he could tell, she was a jungle cat, misplaced, transformed, and unusually aware of gaps in the sidewalk’s continuity.

            His curiosity fleeting, Reed soon shifted his attention to a mother duck crossing the road. She was followed by a brood of six little ducklings, beginning to lose their golden fluff in favor of darker adult feathers. The mother easily climbed over the curb and began a hustling waddle into the trees of someone’s backyard, and most of her young flapped and wiggled after her. The smallest, however, struggled to make it over the curb, fear getting the best of him at the last minute. Finally, he shut his eyes and jumped the small ledge with a burst of courage and hurried after his aquatic family, his pointy yellow tail wiggling frantically back and forth, causing Reed to chuckle. The duck feet made soft slapping sounds as they disappeared, as though the ducks had brought their own pond with them to place it in another part of town.

            In the yard across the street from where the ducks were now happily quacking at a leaky bird feeder, an elderly man was watering his garden. The bushes were perfectly pruned, and the flowers were bright, cheerful colors. The man was wearing a tweed coat that was far too warm for the season, but he smiled at Reed, waving, as though he were the happiest man on the planet. Reed thought that perhaps he was the happiest man on the planet. Perhaps there was nothing more to happiness than the peace of old age and the fragrance of a garden. Or, conversely, perhaps he was just out of his mind, suffering from dementia and unable to differentiate between what was happy and what was wearing a tweed jacket in late August. These were the sorts of things Reed liked to ponder on his walks home.

            On the next block, Reed could squint down the middle of the street and see the glittering complex on the edge of the town that housed the local dentists, a law firm, and a toothpaste factory. The windows were opaque and reflective, sending the sun back into Reed’s eyes. The effect was dazzling, as unwelcome as sunlight to the eyes usually is. Above the main entrance in giant blue and red letters was the name of the toothpaste company, “CleanBrite CO”, glittering like a set of freshly brushed pearly whites, only redder, and bluer. Reminded of teeth in general, Reed ran his tongue over his own chompers to see if there was anything stuck in them. He came up empty, and was satisfied with his successful eating of breakfast and lunch, never more proud of his enzymes than at that moment, his teeth slick and polished.

            A hand flew out from between the buildings to his right and yanked him into a narrow alleyway. Before he could make a single sound, someone’s hand was over his mouth and the arm it was attached to was slung across his neck, pinning him to his attacker. He struggled to move his arms, but those were pinned against his body by the assailants other arm. He wiggled feebly one more time, but it was useless. Stuck, and vaguely panicked, he simply relaxed, no other plans occurring to him after raw panic and adrenaline failed to work. His heart beat rapidly against his ribs, thumping his entire frame.

            “Why are you following me?” growled a low female voice in his right ear. He tried to shrug but was unsuccessful, the girl still keeping him motionless. “Who sent you, huh?” she demanded, jerking back a little on his head. Reed now acknowledged mentally that he was not going to get an opportunity to answer these questions, and he might as well stop struggling. “I’m going to let you go in a few moments; you’re clearly useless to whomever you are working for. So here is what is going to happen, ok? I’m going to let go of you first. Then I am going to leave, and you are going to stay for an entire thirty seconds. Clear?” she concluded. Reed found he now had the ability to nod his head, and he did so promptly to avoid further angering this girl, who was obviously not above wrenching his head from his body.

            As suddenly as he was grabbed, he was released and she was gone. The last thing he saw as she whipped around the corner was the tail of a long reddish brown braid. He sighed inwardly, and cursed himself for not paying attention to how long he had given the appearance of following her. He should have turned off or slowed down or told her he wasn’t following her. Reed could be so dumb sometimes. Remembering her instructions, he began counting. At ten or eleven he realized he had absolutely no reason to be standing in a strange alley following the instructions of a strange girl who had just attacked him in a strange town. That would be even dumber than following her in the first place. He ran out of the alley and peered down the street, but whoever she was, she was long gone.

            Shrugging it off as the day’s requisite bizarre experience he continued his walk towards home. It was only a few blocks away now, and the streets were beginning to look more familiar. Friendly neighbors waved from their porches and children skipped rope in their yards. Reed was particularly amused by the children skipping rope. Antiquated children were always a great amusement to him. Finally, Reed was standing in front of the apartment building, his brand new home, free of rules and regulations from adults, equipped with an Xbox and pringles, and best of all, the company of his older and decidedly cooler cousin, Jason. Reed giggled to himself, imagining Jason’s reaction to the story he was about to hear, and then entered the building, reminding himself that giggling was a little creepy, and not at all the way to impress his cousin or  make any new friends, either.

            Opening the front door and tossing his backpack into the nearest corner then slamming the front door, Reed announced his arrival with a loud “Jaaaaason! I’m hooooome!”

            “Hey, come into the living room, there’s someone I want you to meet,” his cousin called, his voice decidedly more polite and refined. Reed did not notice.

            “Ok, but I have the greatest story for you,” he replied, walking towards the living room. “I was walking home from the school, and I got attacked out of NOWHERE, by” -Reed stopped abruptly. “By her. I was attacked by her, actually. In a dark alley,” he finished, pointing to the girl sitting on the couch next to his cousin, her long braid slung over one shoulder, her cheeks a little flushed with embarrassment. Her eyes retained a fierceness, however, that told Reed she did not quite trust him, despite whatever circumstances had just landed them together in this home.

            “Listen, I am really sorry about that,” she said, not sounding especially sorry to Reed at all. “I’m a little on edge; new town and all.” Reed did not think a new town would be too much of a worry for an elf who could fight grown men like himself and win, but he just shrugged again. He was in no mood to find himself immobilized again, and even if he had felt like risking it, he did not know what to say to her. It was probably rude to tell someone she should not worry about living in a tiny college town because she behaved more like Bruce Willis than an easy target.

            “It’s cool. I understand,” he said. He paused a moment, shuffling his feet and trying not to stare, or fart, or anything that could possibly make the situation more awkward than it already was. “So…uh…who are you, exactly?” It was more blunt than he had anticipated, but Jason’s slightly distressed expression told him he would probably find out now anyway, perhaps not in the manner Jason had initially desired.

            “This is Leila,” Jason chimed in. “She’s our new roommate. She’s studying English at the U, and she needed a place to stay. Her mom is a friend of my mom’s, so I offered to let her stay. I hope that’s ok,” he offered.

            Reed raised his eyebrows. Jason had invited a girl to live in their apartment. A real live, honest to God girl, who would probably want to clean things and turn the music down, and hog the Xbox to watch corny girl movies. Girl movies about romance and-Reed’s thought train came to a screeching halt, nearly falling right off the tracks. Could this Leila girl be Jason’s girlfriend? That was the only real reason he could think of for a girl to be taking up residence in their apartment. Wouldn’t Jason have talked about her sooner, though? Reed had been there almost two weeks and there had been absolutely no mention of any girl, friendly or not, and this one was not particularly friendly. Something was a little off. Surely Jason had a reason for keeping his girlfriend secret, but Reed could not for the life of him figure out what that would be.

            “That’s fine,” Reed said, trying to keep the suspicion out of his voice. He thought he did pretty well, but Jason’s smirk told him otherwise.

            “I’ve got some things to do, so it was nice meeting you Reed,” Leila said, sounding indifferent to the whole situation. Then she padded down the hall to her bedroom on those freaky cat feet of hers. Reed arched an eyebrow at her retreating back. He could almost swear it returned the gesture, which only added to the creepiness he felt rippling off of her, like she was some sort of enchanted doll sent here to haunt him. He wondered what he had done to piss of a supernatural being so much as to deserve this. Was there a cat god who sent evil women to the houses of people who disobeyed them? Probably not, but it was a nice image, so Reed held onto it a moment, smiling instead of grimacing.

            Shaking his head to clear it of Leila altogether, Reed plopped down on the couch to play some Xbox, finally. After an hour or so, Leila’s bedroom door creaked open and Jason walked out. Reed wondered when Jason had gone in there in the first place and how he had failed to notice, but was soon distracted by the fact that Leila seemed to be doing some sort of martial arts in her sock feet in the center of the room beyond. Under the guise of using the bathroom, Reed shuffled slowly past her door, taking in as many details as he could in one glance.

            She was in fact going through a pattern of stretches, kicks, hits, and poses, most of which looked like they would be really painful to whoever was on the receiving end. Reed rubbed his neck, confirming this with the bruises of his afternoon. But if the martial arts weren’t strange enough, the contents of the room itself were. Her bookshelves, and there were many, were lined with large books with scientific, academic-sounding titles, like “Life Cycles: The Animal Kingdom, Protista, and the Non-living” and “Math Theorems: Then and Now”. When had she had the time to move all this stuff in and set it up so thoroughly, he wondered? He had only been gone about 5 hours. Unless she already had her boxes in the apartment, there was no way she had unpacked everything in a single day. It was ridiculous to think anyone could be that neat and that fast at the same time.

Spread out on her desk were dozens of pieces of paper covered in tiny zeros and ones. Reed’s brow furrowed. What kind of English major needed so much binary code lying around? In combination with the strange books, this was starting to look like a serious math habit, not just a few classes to satisfy a gen ed. Regardless of her intended path of study, this girl was weird, and Reed was not sure how he felt about his cousin dating her. How did they meet anyway? Did Jason honestly think he would believe that cock and bull story about their moms being friends? Reed’s own mother would have known her too, logically, as his mom and Jason’s mom were rarely apart. Reed was lazy, maybe, dumb, sometimes, but he was not stupid, or gullible. He’d get to the bottom of this. If he was going to share living space with such a strange individual, he was going to know the real reason why.

            Later that night, the three unlikely roommates sat around the table awkwardly, poking at their macaroni and cheese and trying to avoid eye contact. Leila seemed the least perturbed by this utter lack of social grace; in fact she seemed completely unaware of it. Reed was clearly the most distressed. Jason just sat there, like he had set up some sort of game and was waiting for it to play itself. The pieces were not moving, though, and it was making him nervous, fidgety. Timidly, at first, Reed attempted to broach the realm of casual conversation as a means to begin his interrogation.

            “So Leila,” he began. “What’s your major again? Math?”

            “No, I’m an English major with an anthropology minor. Total liberal arts nerd, I know,” she said with a smile that seemed not altogether genuine, one eyebrow arched awkwardly, like she did not know quite what to do with her face when speaking to people.

            “Hmmmm,” Reed voiced his suspicion. “So how’d you two meet? I assume you met before you decided to move in together.” He let a beat pass. “I mean, you know, before you started living together. Under one roof. In the same apartment…” Jason and Leila were both staring at him curiously now. They exchanged a glance, lightning fast. He quickly ran his tongue over his teeth, but there was nothing there, so it must have been his words.

            “Leila and I were introduced years ago by our mothers. You feeling ok there, dude?” asked Jason, giving Reed a warning look. Rather than quieting him, however, this fanned Reed’s spark of suspicion into a roaring fire, toasty warm to the point of vague discomfort.

            “I’m fine, just curious. There’s nothing wrong with being curious,” Reed grumbled, feeling and sounding much more like a petulant child than he had intended. “How old are you Leila? You seem a little young for college.”

            At this last comment, Leila actually snorted into her bowl of cheesy pasta, her face finally taking on a natural expression, be it one of distaste. “I’m 19, actually. Late bloomer, you know.” Reed was probably imagining it, but he could have sworn he saw the corners of Jason’s mouth twitch, like he wanted to smile, but it was only a flicker, gone in an instant. Leila did not share the sentiment, whatever it was. Her face was fierce, but otherwise unexpressive.

            “I guess it’s easy to bloom late in a tiny town like this one, what with all the slow moving people, and the long leisurely walks. This town is almost romantic, wouldn’t you say Jason? It’s kind of a romantic town where you would want to spend time with, um, perhaps a girl or boy that you love? Depending on your gender and the gender you prefer to…um…spend…time with in that romantic sort of way?” Reed blushed at his questions, wishing he had never opened his mouth, as whatever information he could have gotten was probably long gone by now.

            Jason sighed through his nose and stared at Reed, his gentle blue eyes solidifying into a warning glare. “Reed. Just stop talking, please,” he told his cousin, blinking a few times, letting the message sink in. Whatever had been amusing about his antics had stopped being funny, but that meant Reed had gotten closer to the truth, he was sure. People were always sensitive about the truth.

            “Sorry,” Reed mumbled, shuffling over to the sink to wash the dishes. Leila stood abruptly, grabbing Jason’s plate as well as her own, and plopped them onto the counter by Reed’s elbow, then whisked herself noiselessly out of the room on those irritating cat feet. When Reed had finished cleaning up from dinner, he began the lengthy shuffle back to his own bedroom, which was just beyond Leila’s. The door to her room was ajar, and he could see Jason sitting cross-legged on her bed, while she perched on her desk chair. They were talking in low whispers. It was not quite the scene of intimacy Reed had anticipated, but there was a connection beyond that of acquaintances or casual friendships. They were in league about something, and Reed was desperately curious to find out what.