Meetings and Plans.

   Brittany and I were sat by our usual table in the library. Since Vasilis would be joining us today, we decided to leave the comfy sofas for the table, so there would be room for him.

For once, Brittany was silent while we waited for Vasilis to show up. She was drumming her fingers on the tabletop.

I'd noticed she did that whenever she was anxious or agitated about something.

"Are you okay?" I asked cautiously, and she turned her head to look at me.

She stayed silent for a while, worry clearly shining through her big, emerald eyes. Then she sighed and started speaking.

"It's just, I don't like being associated with anyone from 'The Eight' and having one of them as a partner might just be the fly that attracts more flies. I've had enough run-ins with them this past week to last me a lifetime. They honestly scare me."

Brittany explained, her fear and worry apparent in her shaky voice.

I opened my mouth to attempt to say something comforting, but someone beat me to it.

"I agree that my friends are assholes. But I promise, you don't have to worry about them or me hurting you. That will never happen."

A small, inaudible gasp escaped my lips as I turned around to take in the sight of Vasilis's tall frame, casually leaning against the polished, wall-length bookshelf our table was sat in front of.

Although his demeanor was so casual and relaxed, his gaze burned through mine with an intensity that almost had me reeling. It felt like his words were a promise meant for me, even though Brittany was the one who was worried.

When did he even get there! How on earth had I not heard him coming?!

"You're here," I cleared my throat, and attempted to calm my racing heart. "Good. Let's begin."

Vasilis silently slid into the chair next to mine, and I immediately realized with a pang of panic, how close our chairs were.

His arm brushed mine, and he seemed to recoil at the same time I did, as a crackling jolt of electricity bolted through my body from the contact.

What the hell...

"So, we already decided on a theme, topic and prompt while we waited for you to show up. Hope you don't mind? Although, we can always deliberate on a new topic if anyone's unsatisfied with the current one."

Brittany cleared her throat and began, oblivious to what just happened and how my heart was racing at 100km/h, at the very least.

Vasilis's eyes were flared with shock just as mine was, and I wondered if he'd felt it too?

He cleared his throat as heat rushed into his pale cheeks, and then he looked away from me before opening his mouth to speak.

"Um...no. No, it's alright. Let's go with whatever you guys have decided on." He cleared his throat again. "I'm sorry I caused a stall in our work. I didn't mean to hold you guys back and make you fall behind." He said seriously, and Brittany looked so shocked, she didn't say anything for a few minutes.

She just blinked, and blinked. She appeared stunned, as if she had never expected an apology from him, then she cleared her throat.

"Um, well, it's okay. I'm sure we can still catch up just fine if we work hard enough." She said hastily, and I stared at Vasilis for a while before deciding to ask what was on my mind.

"Where were you? What happened?" I couldn't keep the worry out of my voice, though I managed to school my expression into one of nonchalant curiosity.

Vasilis seemed taken aback for a while, as though he had not expected me to notice that he had been missing from school for the past couple days, then he swallowed and opened his mouth to speak without meeting my eyes.

"Something came up at home. It was urgent and I had to leave immediately. It's personal, sorry." His voice was curt, and the way he said it was supposed to let me know that he didn't want me prying in his personal business.

But for some reason, I didn't care about the curtness of his voice. I wanted to press on.

I wanted to ask why the rest of his posse had also been missing along with him, but I glanced briefly at Brittany who had a look on her face that said she didn't want to be here for that conversation, and I let out a sigh and nodded instead.

"Okay,"

"Are we ready to talk about the project now?" Brittany asked, not sarcastically, but there was an edge to her voice that I didn't like, and I nodded without saying anything.

"Okay, so the prompt we've decided on is, poetry." Brittany began, handing over the few notes we'd taken on the themes and prompts for the project to Vasilis.

"The theme we think would be fitting is romance, so the topic or headliner we decided on is, 'The Evolution of Romantic Poetry Through The Ages, and its Influence on 21st Century Poets.' We haven't really talked about the other aspects of the project in its entirety, but we decided to split up portions of it into three, so that everyone can have their own section and personalize their input."

Brittany paused to take in Vasilis's reaction, and he was nodding, a faint smile on his lips as his eyes skimmed through the notes Brittany had taken in her scraggly hand-writing.

"That's really good," Vasilis finally said when he was done going through the notes and he looked up.

"Yeah, so, the plan is that we each pick at least two romance poets. One from as far back as from the Elizabethan era; The likes of Shakespeare. And one poet from the early 90's till date. The goal is to write a thesis that is based on the lives and works of these poets and compare and contrast their art, not for the sake of competition or to see who was better, but just to analyze how poetry from years back might have have had influences on poetry now."

Brittany explained further and Vasilis kept nodding. He definitely had a smile on his face now. He wasn't even attempting to hide it anymore.

Was he a literature nerd like I was? The possibility made my heart skip a beat, and I suddenly found myself looking forward to working on this project with him more than anything else. Finding out his thoughts on certain books and poems, finding out who his favorite poets and authors were...

I was starting to feel so jittery with excitement, I had to force my face to remain a perfect mask of indifference so none of the emotions could peak through.

"Alright, so there's that. Now, what we have to discuss is how to work together effectively on it. Are the weekends good for everyone?" Brittany glanced between me and Vasilis, and I nodded slowly, but then added.

"Yeah, but I might have to take a rain check next weekend. We have a family thing planned," I said, feeling slightly awkward to be talking about my family.

Brittany nodded. "That's fine. We can just replace that weekend with two break periods during the school week. What do you say? Since we might not all be free on every weekends, we'll just replace those weekends with break periods during school?"

I shrugged and nodded in agreement. Vasilis nodded too.

"That's perfect by me," he said, then he continued. "So, do we have a location where we meet up during the weekends? Cause I don't think the hostel supervisors will allow non-boarder students on the school grounds during the weekends."

Brittany nodded, a response ready at the tip of her tongue. She seemed to have thought everything out carefully.

"Yeah, about that. We haven't really talked about it, but I was thinking since the school library is not an option during the weekends, we could meet up at my house or Jade's house. We could rotate it. One weekend at mine, one weekend at yours."

I froze immediately the suggestion left Brittany's lips. But then I realized it wasn't that deep.

Brittany and Vasilis were both harmless teenagers who went to school with me. They clearly were not spies sent to kill me and my family. Plus, I've never had friends over at home ever before. Not that I'd ever had any friends to begin with, but it was something I'd always wanted to do.

I nodded slowly. "Yeah, sure. That's fine."

But my heart was hammering so loudly against my chest, I hoped no one could hear it.

Friends in my house...

Vasilis in my house.

I felt like I was going to throw up, but Brittany continued, oblivious to the turmoil within me as she talked and talked about plans.

Eventually, her family's driver arrived and she had to go, and she hurried off, waving with a huge smile of relief on her face.

Our first meeting was tomorrow, and we were to meet up at my house because Brittany's parents were hosting a party at her house over that weekend.

I felt like I was going to die in my chair.