His rough fingers and calloused hands caressed her petal soft skin. She held his hand to her face, not wanting it to disappear. Closing her eyes to lock in the forthcoming tears and remember everything about this man that was leaving her. The tears started to leak just as he removed his hand from her face. She watched his retreating back and tried to say something but her throat was too tight. Her mouth moved but nothing came out. She reached for the man's back that was moving quickly away from her. She screamed something indecernable. It was slowly turning into a sharp ringing than a slow dull beeping.
Cassandra Olsen's hand came down on the snooze button with vengeance. She eyed the blurry green numbers of her alarm clock. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she slipped on her glasses and looked back at the clock.
8am. She had class in an hour. Ruffling her hair, she removed her glasses and wandered into the bathroom she shared with her college roommates. She pawed weakly at the closed bathroom door.
"Cass?"
"Jess...hurry up.." Cassandra leaned against the sinks opposite of the door as she waited anxiously for it to open. Something caused her to look over her shoulder at the mirror behind her.
Looking back at her was not her own reflection. She was breath takingly beautiful, tho she looked a little dirty. There were smudges of dirt on her face and clothing. Her clothes looked like something a Japanese princess of old would wear, the many layered kimono that appears to weigh as much if not more than the wearer. Her hair was amazingly long. Her small pale hands were pressed against the mirror and had a pleading look in her eyes. Her mouth was moving but Cassandra couldn't hear her.
"Cassandra!" She jumped. Jess was holding her shoulder. "Where were you?" Cassnadra gave her a blank stare. "Bathrooms open."
"Thanks..." she replied distantly.
'I must be stressed out to have that kind of hallucination,' Cassandra thought crudely. She paused while pulling on her shirt. 'But wasn't she in my dream this morning...?' Pulling her shirt on the rest of the way defiantly, she decided 'no', that things like such don't happen in this day and age. Especially to nobodies like her in the middle of frozen wastelands like Fairbanks.
She gave a fleeting glance outside her window of her second floor campus owned apartment, deciding if a jacket would be even necessary or not. She hugged a light jacket while walking down the stairs, pulling her mass of unruly black hair into a half-pony tail. Jess was finishing her cereal as Cassandra started her Toaster Strudels.
"You're so unhealthy," Jess remarked. Cassandra stuck her tongue out at Jess.
"They're quickish..," she retorted. "Is Yumi up yet?"
"No." Cassandra went back upstars, calling Yumi. She opened the door of their shared room to find a lump under Yumi's blankets. Cassandra poked at it.
"ne...okite...kesa, jyugyou ga aru yo."* Nothing. Cassandra made a face. Peeking under one corner of the blanket to make sure it was actually Yumi, she grabbed the blankets and sheets and gave them a hard pull.
"O-KI-TE!" Unveiling a fragile looking Japanese girl that was curled up in a ball that gave a small whine and a yawn.
"ohaiyo..."**she said sleepily.
"ohaiyo," Cassandra said flatly. She started to say something else when a burning smell reached her nose. She hurried down the stairs as Yumi rolled back over and back to sleep.
"Jess~! Rescue those!!" When Cassandra reached the kitchen, Jess handed her a plate of the charcoal remains of her Toaster Strudels. With a defeated look she started nibbling. Jess gave her a look.
"You don't HAVE to eat it, you know..." Cassandra grimaced and choked down the rest of her burnt Toaster Strudel.
" 'Waste not'. Besides...it's not burnt to the point where consumption is inadvisable." Jess eyed the black crumbs on the plate.
"Bullshit." Cassandra brushed the crumbs that her fishnet shirt hungrily kept and cleaned up the dish. She could feel Jess's scrutinizing eyes on her.
"You've changed so much since we first met..." She gave a small laugh.
"What do you want to criticize today, Jess," Cassandra asked shortly.
"Well...when we first met...you were the jeans and t-shirt girl that slept in until the last moment. Rarely cleaned up afer yourself and you always had a cluttered clean mess." Jess was smirking. "And now..." She looked over Cassandra's ensamble; Fushia fishnet stockings under a Lipservice red pleated skirt and black sleeper-tank under a black fishnet shirt. Cassandra also had blood red extensions through out her hair against the modest black eyeliner. Cassnadra just blinked at her a little confused.
"All that means is it's gotten a little harder to buy for you." More confusion.
She felt a boney hand come down on her shoulder.
"happi basudei, Kasshii,"*** Yumi said sleepily.
"What she said," Jess said grinning. Cassandra blinked. 'Birth....day? Already...?' Something hit her in the forehead with such force that it sent her head back.
"You're as forgetful as your brother!!" Cassandra caught the object that hit her as it came back down. Her lighter.
"I'm sorry! I've been too busy to notice..."She gave them a puffy, pouty face.
"ne...Kasshii...osokunatte..”**** Cassandra's eyes flashed to the clock on the wall. 2 minutes till her class started and she had a 10 minute walk to get there.
"Wa~!! I BLAME YOU!!!" She yelled at Jess as she grabbed her messenger bag as she darted out of the door. She started to her class in a brisk walk but was stopped short by bumping into someone.
Stumbling backwards, she grimly thought to herself , 'This is SO not my day'. She looked up and came face to face with a youth whose looks were strangely familiar.
"Gomen! Excuse me!" She said flustered and dashed off to her class.
The youth stared after Cassandra coolly. His silky dirty blond hair was slightly obscuring his cold gray eyes. His features were sharp but smooth and had thin lips that curled slowly into an almost cruel smile. Something dark glittered in his eyes.
"I found you."
Author's Chapter Notes:
All names have been changed to protect the people. XP (^_^)
* "Hey...wake up. You have class this morning, y'know."
** "Good morning."
*** "Happy birthday, Cassie"
**** "Hey...Cassie...You're going to be late..."
* "Hey...wake up. You have class this morning, y'know."
** "Good morning."
*** "Happy birthday, Cassie"
**** "Hey...Cassie...You're going to be late..."
