The House of Grey- Volume 4 (13 page)

“
Hey
Cyann
.
” Monson
sat down next to her on the window seat.
“
How
’
d everything go with Damion?
”

“
A
l
l
right
, I guess
,”
she
replied simply.

Monson’s next question, which was on the tip of his tongue, stalled in his throat as he watched Cyann
, her
head resting
lightly against the window. The pause in the conversation made
him
realize how beautiful the
day was
.  Shimmering rays of vibrant sunshine reflected off Cyann’s curtain of glossy black
hair
.
I
f only she did
n
’
t
come across as so heavy.

Cyann continued her thought when Monson did not answer her
.
“I still need to give him an answer
,
though
.
”

“Damion asked you to the dance?”

“Yes he did.”

Monson gave a nervous chuckle
.
“What about your Combat for Dates
p
olicy?”

“My what?”

“Combat
f
or Dates, at least that
’
s what Casey calls it; I think he’s
working up
a screenplay off the name.”

Cyann abruptly sat up
.
“Casey
,
what the heck are you—
”

Monson caught her by the wa
i
st
.
“Cyann, I’m kidding.”

She
sat back down as
he
slowly released her
.
“Oh
.
” 

“So you haven’t given him an answer yet
?
” asked Monson
,
puzzled
.
“
T
hen what did you say to him when he asked you for a word earlier?
I assume that is what he was doing. Asking you out.
”

Cyann’s eyebrow twitched slightly. She was surprised.

“I told him that
I
still didn’t know if I could say yes.” Cyann’s gazed resettled on the grounds outside the window. “It’s just a big mess
.
”

“Why don’t you tell me about it
?
” Without thinking, Monson
reached up
to push her hair out of her eyes. He stopped himself after
realizing
what he was doing. He
pulled his hand back and
rubbed at
it
.
“I
know you might not believe it,
but I
’
m actually a pretty good listener.”

“How do you look like a good listener?”

Monson’s cocked the eyebrow. “You know…I have no idea.”

She let it hang…

He smiled. “Please share.”

She pushed a hand through her hair.
“It’s like this. Damion Peterson has liked me for a while now
,
long enough for most people to know, and I’m pretty sure he broke up with his girlfriend for me
, though
I
’
ve never given him any reason to think I was interested. He’s just not my type...I’m not sure anyone is.”

She stopped
,
returning
her gaze to the grounds
.
“My roommate this year has a huge thing for Damion. She is very
v
ocal about it. I don’t know
why,
but she reminds me incessantly. Probably trying to mark her territory. Not only that
,
I heard that Da
mi
on’s ex has been doing
everything
in her power to get back together with him
,
though it looks like recently she
is
maybe starting to move on. Regardless, I feel like my head is in a guillotine.  If I say yes
,
then my roommate is going make my life really difficult and who knows what Damion’s ex
will
do. Also I don’t want to lead Damion on or anything. I don’t want to hurt him.  But if I say no, none of the other guys will ask for fear of Damion
.
T
hough to his
credit,
I doubt he
’
d do anything to them if they did. So
I
either say yes to Damion or go as royalty by myself, which will be problematic. My father is coming to this thing and I don’t want to embarrass him.  I have no idea what I should do.”

Monson’s jaw dropped as the full effect of what Cyann was telling him sunk in. Talk about
complicated
! In fact, it was so
complicated
it made Monson’s head hurt just thinking about it. He finally spoke.

“Wow
.
” Monson grasp
ed
for
words
.
“I am SO glad I’m not a girl
.
”

Cyann continued to stare out the window
;
though definitely not
in a state of anguish, the
self-possessed
calm that Monson had come to associate with
her
was
clearly
disturbed
.

Monson did a quick critical analysis of the drama and came to the most logical conclusion. “You should go with Damion. Who cares who your roommate likes or what Damion’s ex
has
planned
?
Go and have a fun time. Just make it known that you want to go as friends.”

“You really think so?  Should I?”

“Yeah I do,”
Monson
said with
a warm smile, “you are way too cute to go by yourself. Don’t worry about things like that. It’s a waste of your time. Go. Have fun, and for all that is holy
,
try
to
smile.”

For the second time that day
,
Cyann Harrison blushed
,
summoning
that same slight patch of
pink
to her olive skin.

“Cyann!” said
her sister
’
s
unbelievabl
y
annoy
ed
voice. Monson and Cyann looked over
to find
Indigo
,
Artorius
and Casey staring at them. Indigo appeared upset,
Artorius
shocked
,
and Casey smug.

Did we miss something?
thought
Monson.

Before he could continue this deliberation
,
however, Indigo
stood
up. “We’d better go
,
Cyann
.
We still have to make
it
to the mall
and back
before
curfew.
”

“Yeah
,
you’re right
.
” Cyann
rose
to her feet.
The room was silent,
Cyann avoiding both her sister
’
s and Monson’s eye
s
. Why was everyone acting so weird? It just did not make any sense. The huffy silence prevailed even as Indigo and Cyann gathered their bags, jackets and shoes,
and
mov
ed
towards the
door
. Cyann open
ed
it,
stepping to one side and allowing Indigo to pass through first. Indigo disappeared from sight. 

Cyann followed her sister
over the threshold of
the door a half second later.  She stopped just outside
,
and then glancing over a shoulder, look
ed
right at Monson. Their eyes locked as she mouthed the words
,
“
T
hank you
.
” He waved it aside
,
his face going pink.
Turning back, Cyann left
,
closing the door with a snap and
leaving Monson with
the increasingly
familiar
feeling
that he was
missing something extremely important.

***

The next couple of weeks were crazy for Monson. The news that Monson Grey was going with Taris Green to the Spring
Solstice spread at
the speed of thought. 
Ever since Monson had arrived at Coren
, it
had been
a common complaint of
his
that he received too much attention.
It
might be nice for some people, but the attention he received was
mostly negative
and definitely not welcome.
And just when he thought he could not possibly get any more attention or be any more on his fellow students’ radar, t
he beginning weeks of his relationship with Taris told him that
he
was sadly mistaken.  He and Taris, Grey and Green, the freshman punk
Horum Vir
and the Junior
g
reen
-e
yed
g
oddess
…i
t seemed that people talked of nothing else
,
and for those first few weeks
,
that
was probably true.

Particular
ly
vexing was Derek, who seemed to pop up everywhere that Monson went
,
undoubtedly with something malicious in mind. Lucky for Monson,
Casey and
Artorius
were always with him
,
so he did not have to worry about someone beating him up. 

The two Harrisons
were also acting
strange
.
Neither
girl came around
much anymore or had much to say
when they saw Monson in the halls or classes. They
also
stopped eating with him
;
not that they
had ever eaten together
a great deal, but
the
couple of time
s
a
week
became never
. It
became
very noticeable. The few occasions
Monson did catch
up with
Cyann
,
she
put on
her poker face and only
responded to
him
with
the bare minimum
required
to
be
polite.
It was incredibly frustrating, because
ever since the
ir encounter
after the weight room incident a few months before
, Monson Grey and Cyann Harrison had slowly become
friends. H
e trusted her
.
H
e
had
been able to tell
her
things that he
had not
share
d with anyone, even
Casey and
Artorius. 

She was the first to know that about
my
memor
y loss, Monson thought
.

Now they were like strangers
;
distant
,
indifferent
strangers. Why was she acting this way? Could it be because of Damion? He heard through the school’s rumor factory that shortly after he
asked
Taris, Cyann
had
accepted Damion’s invitation to the dance. That little bit of gossip actually
supplanted
Taris and Monson for a
brief
period
, but
i
nterest in the topic died out relatively quickly, as
everyone
had
seemed t
o expect their eventual pairing
.
Time may have helped, but
Taris
certainly
was not
helping the situation at all with her flashy behavior
.
He
was not sure what her deal was
,
but she dragged him all over the place
, intending for
him to
acclimate to her friends and
social
life.
I
t was a bit on the annoying side
.
H
e found that he had a sudden appreciation for show dogs.