SoA- Chapter 3

Chapter 3- A Meeting Unlooked-for

Rain sat at a round table off to one side alone while she did her neglected literature homework, rather than eating lunch.  She had her headphones on, listening to her FRV¢ CD, and trying her best to ignore the existence of the rest of the school.  It wasn’t that she disliked them really, or even that she felt like they disliked her.  It was just that she didn’t feel like part of whatever world it was to which they all seemed to so contentedly belong.  They were all so happy, so involved with one another.  She felt no need at all to be one of them.  She was alone because that was how she wanted it.  She enjoyed silence, reveled in solitude.  It wasn’t a thing most people could understand.  There had been a time in her life when people had tried to make friends with her, even though she usually did not return their warmth.  As she grew older, however, it was almost as if people didn’t even see her.  She would wish people out of her way when they stood by her locker, and they’d move.  She would whisper for silence, and chatter would end.  For a long time she had delighted in this happy coincidence, and now she just took it for granted.

The raven haired girl was startled from her homework on Hemmingway when someone set their lunch tray down nosily beside her.  Rain turned her jade eyes on the first person in almost three months to make any kind of contact with her and pulled off her headphones.  She said nothing, but raised a questioning eyebrow at the girl who smiled at her cheerfully.

“You know,” said the pretty girl, “We’re going to have to put some lovely dark blue streaks in that black hair of yours.  It would suit you so well.”  The girl sat down cheerfully and completely oblivious to the doubtful look on Ranev’s face.  “I’m Echojin, but most people just call me Echo.”  The girl paid no regard to Rain’s look of confusion and went about attending to her lunch and talking at the same time.

“Umm… Do I know you?” Rain asked raising a delicate eyebrow.  Though the girl was definitely not like the normal kids who attended her high school, Rain was still wary.  Echo had hair bleached so blonde it was white, and there were light pink stripes in it.  She wore a white corset over a light pink fishnet shirt, matching floor length split skirt, and pink fishnet stockings.  Cute black Mary-Jane platform shoes with light pink flames finished her look, and Rain was curious to see this seemingly perky Goth.

The girl turned her sky blue eyes on Rain, a secretive smile playing upon her angelic face.  “Perhaps we met in a past life,” she said softly.  There was something in the look, the way this girl held herself, that told Rain she was part of some grand joke she was obviously not getting.  Brightening, Echo continued her monologue, completely ignoring the odd looks Rain was still giving her.  “You looked like you could use some company.”  She looked at the paper before the green eyed girl.  “Ránëv?  That’s a pretty name.”

“It’s pronounced Rain-eve,” she corrected, “But most people just call me Rain. And I don’t need company, thank you.  I really have to get this done.”  She slipped her headphones back on and tried to ignore the cheery girl, intent on getting her neglected homework done before the end of lunch.

Echo smiled even more brightly.  “Sure you do, and no you don’t.  Miss Lexington’s out today.  There’s a sub in her class and all we do is watch some boring movie on the life of Hemmingway.  I slept through it in 3rd hour.  There’s some awful assembly about civic pride after that for the rest of the day, which means we can skip.  Come on, Rain, let’s go.”  She put Rain’s stuff in her bag, ignoring the stunned girl’s protests, took her by the hand, and dragged her out of the cafeteria.  

“What are you doing?”  Rain asked, by this time completely confused and more than a little irritated.  Who was this nutty girl who seemed determined to mess with her day?  “I’m not skipping class, Echo.  And I don’t even know you.”  They were standing by the front door just outside the office, and she was trying to get the white clad girl to let her go.

Echo paused a moment, a light coming into her eyes, and a look of depth which completely surprised Rain.  “I’ll never make you do anything against your will, but I’d like you to come with me.  Please?  I think we could be very good friends, you and I.”  She sighed and dropped the other girl’s hand.  For a moment she grew serious, and a truly heartfelt sorrow seemed to come into her lovely face.  “I see you every day and you just look so sad.  You try so hard to be invisible that you are, but I can see you.  No one else may notice, but I do.  Someone like you should never have to be so sad.”

Rain regarded her for a moment, completely at a loss for words.  She was so confused.  For some inexplicable reason she wanted nothing more than to go with this girl of light, but there was the rest of her that wanted nothing to be left alone.  She didn’t need people; all they did was hurt you.  No matter what this girl seemed to be, Rain knew that she had to be just like the rest of them.  They always were.  They’d be her friend for a while, while she was still interesting to them, like a new toy.  But after a while, when they learned she did not come with any hidden bells or whistles, that the quiet and introspective girl they saw was the real her, they’d dump her faster than a hot stone.  It never changed. So rather than risk getting hurt yet again, Rain just avoided people all together.  It was so much better that way, so much less painful.

“What would you know about it?”  She responded softly, not meeting Echo’s sky blue eyes.

“More than you might know, Rain.” Echo said equally softly.  “To see the world in a way no one else can understand, see beauty where they can see only darkness.  To watch them and wonder why on earth they can’t see how much they’re hurting one another, to wish you could just make them understand.  I understand more than you know.”  She tugged on the raven haired girl’s back pack.  “Come on, just this once.  If you don’t have fun, I promise you I’ll never bother you again.”  She gave Rain a winning smile.

Against her better judgment, Rain smiled softly and relented.  “Alright, but just this once and then you leave me alone.”

Echo laughed and pulled her out the door. “Brilliant, let’s away then!”


Their last stop was the park just beyond which lay Rain’s favorite graveyard.  If anyone had asked Rain why she had led this bright and odd girl to the place she had, in her heart, reserved for herself, she could not have told them.  They had begun their little adventure with a trip to the mall to pick on the preppies, and then proceeded to the raver shop to pick up a new collar.  After that, they made a stop at the local coffee house which was a favorite haunt for the gothic and punk community of the town, or so Echo told her, and then finally they made their way to the park.  They were sitting on the swings as the golden, late fall sun began to set; laughing.

“Yeah,” Echo said with a wry smile on her angelic face, “They call him Byron, as in ‘Lord Byron’ the poet.  What his right name is I don’t know.  However, he’s beautiful, no?”  She turned her warm blue eyes on Rain who smiled back.

“Yes he is, very beautiful.  The tragic poet role suited him, I think, though I did not much care for his attitude.  He acted like he owned the place, and everyone in it was a courtier.”  She pushed off, trying to swing as high as she could like she had when she was a young girl.  “Well… everyone except for me.  He was really nice to me, which doesn’t happen very often.  I’m used to boys just ignoring me mostly.”  She grinned wryly.

“Oh but they are courtiers, Rain, my dear.  He holds court there.”  Echo smiled that secretive smile of hers, and that same odd light from before came into those bright eyes of hers.  She fingered the lovely moonstone pendent at her neck, regarding the raven haired Rain closely.  “Anyway, he seemed to fancy you quite a bit, didn’t he?”  

Rain rolled her eyes.  “Probably just because he’d never seen me before.  New blood, and all.  I won’t deny I found him very attractive, and there was something so familiar about him that I just can’t seem to place.  However, that girl with the bright red hair was looking daggers at me, so I figured he already had someone.”  

“Nope,” Echo replied, following suit and beginning to swing as well.  “I’m sure she wishes she were, but she’s not his girlfriend.  Byron’s a hard fellow to peg, and he tires easily.  He never commits to anyone, and seems to go through pets quickly.  He’s not a bad guy for all that, though.  I heard once he loved a woman so much he betrayed everything he believed in for her, much to his ruin.”  Echo seemed to find this thought very amusing.

“You know him well then?”

“Not well.  Very few know him well… but I know of him well enough, and we know a lot of the same people.  We travel… in the same social circles, you might say.”  That too bright look never left Echo’s blue eyes, nor did that particular rare smile of hers.   “You and he, however, have a lot in common.  Not that I’d ever advise you to date him, or even trust him for that matter, far from, but he’s an interesting fellow.”

Rain looked over at her, but did not press for any further details.  Though she had tried not to like the girl, and had tried to beg off and leave her several times, she now found herself liking the girl a bit.  Echo’s boundless energy was still irritating to her, but there was just something about her that Rain could not help but to be drawn.  “Did you see that beautiful garnet ring he had?  I love it.  It looked like an antique,” She said changing the subject.  She did not like the subject of dating, it always made her sad.  “It looks a lot like the one my mum gave me.”  Rain did not add, ‘before she died.’

“It is and antique, older than most could know,” Echo replied distractedly.  She was looking at something off in the distance beyond the trees.  She brought the swing to a sudden stop, and tilted her white and pink haired head to one side, as if listening to something no one else could hear.  After a moment her face lit in a lovely smile and she grabbed Rain’s hand and pulled her from the swing.  

“Tearlin’s here!”  She cried as they ran, Rain hardly having time to pick up her book bag before being pulled off.  

“Who?”

“Oh, my love, Tearlin.  I didn’t think he’d be back in town so soon, but there he is.”  She pointed to a lone figure walking their way in the grey and violet of the early evening.  

“Where did he go?”

Echo tossed her a strange and thoughtful look, but answered, “He had some business to take care of, and thought he’d be gone longer than this.  I’m glad he’s back early, though.  I missed him, and I want you to meet him.  You’ll like him.”

The sun was a golden slit in the Western sky, bathing the world in red and gold, as they met up with him.  Echo threw her arms around the tall boy, a look of absolute rapture on her face.  He hugged her tightly to him, burying his face in her hair and kissing her softly on the brow.  “I missed you, my love,” Rain heard him whisper.

After what seemed a long moment, Echo released him and turned back to her.  “Rain, this is Tearlin Ne’Shay, my love eternal.  Tear, this is Ránëv, Rain, a friend of mine from school.”

“Pleased to meet you, my lady,” said the tall fellow with a formal grace, but Rain could only nod.  He was beautiful.  Hair, long and golden like the dawn, fell to his shoulders in the front, though it was short in the back, and his eyes were blue as ice.  The fine lines of his face were angelic and flawless, and there was a depth to those eyes that she felt she could drown in.  His touch was like a shock of warmth and peace.  There was a grace and power in him that she could practically feel radiating off of him, and though she had only just met him she trusted him implicitly for some reason.  He was indeed one of the most amazing people she had ever met.

“H…hi,” She stammered when he smiled at her and released her hand.  He turned back to Echo, a delicate golden eyebrow raised.  She saw Echo nod, and wondered what she was missing.  “I… I umm… should really be getting on,” Rain said to break their silence.  She could see that the two longed for the company of one another and she did not want to get in their way.  Besides, it was just the chance she had been looking for to get away and be alone again.  As much fun as the day had been, the recluse in Rain begged to be alone.

Echo turned back to her.  “Are you sure?  I can drive you home if you’d like, as night is coming on and all.”

“No, that’s okay.  You seem to have a lot of catching up to do with Tear, and I don’t live far.  Just down the block, actually.  I like the fresh air.”

Echo nodded, and Tear gave her a warm smile.  “I’ll see you in class tomorrow, then?” The bright girl asked.

“Yeah, I’ll be there.  I’ll see you at lunch if you want.”  

“Perfect.  We’ll see you later then.  Take care, Rain.”  She waved cheerfully and turned to walk back to her Jeep with Tear.

“M’Lady,” Tear bowed and followed Echo, her hand in his.

Rain watched them for a moment, feeling an inexplicable moment of loss, for no reason she could fathom, as their light left her.  She shook her raven haired head and made her way, rather than home, but back to the cemetery.  Maybe, just maybe, the beautiful boy she had seen last night would be there.