Riley didn't usually replay conversations. Most of the time, people said things that didn't matter. But her run in with Alex? Kind of stuck maybe because there is something about him... Not because of what he said. But because of how he looked at her. Like he saw her. not with fear or with contempt but with something she will describe as being neutral. and that's what she liked, unlike that other girl. Like the shimmer around the new girl, Sienna. Faint, almost like heat ripples. Magic, probably though Riley had only seen that once before, in the aftermath of her dad's accident.since her affinity is air she tends to see weaves or threads of air and that shimmer she saw was with air but she couldn't explain it.
And now… Alex. There was nothing overt about him. No glimmer. No strange aura. But something about him bent the air a little when he was near. Like the world leaned toward him and didn't know why.
She liked that. Alex the Mr mysterious,
Still, after their brief encounter, something inside her had shifted. Curiosity, mostly. A gut feeling she couldn't shut up. So she watched from a distance. He kept to himself, just like she did. But not out of fear his quiet felt like amour.
By the time the last bell rang, she was tired already. She didn't head home. Instead, she cut across the field behind the gym, toward the old tree at the edge of campus. The one nobody paid attention to except her. And him. He was already there. Seated at the base of the tree, earbuds in, sketchbook balanced on one knee. Riley stepped out of the shadows slowly, giving him just enough time to notice her without startling.
He looked up. Didn't say anything.
"Didn't think you'd be out here," she said.
"yet, You were watching?" he asked, almost teasing. Almost.
She smirked, shrugged. "Maybe."
A pause stretched between them. Not awkward just thick with questions neither of them wanted to ask yet. "You draw?" she asked, nodding to the sketchbook.
"Yeah. Helps with the noise."
She understood that. She sat down across from him, close but not too close. A safe distance. Alex didn't tell her to leave. And Riley didn't plan to. Something was beginning. A friendship was starting to fizzle, a bond only them could understand.