The next time she saw him, she wasn't alone. Her brother had come along, and, by some strange twist of fate, taken the chair right behind him. Naturally, she sat next to her brother—only partly for familial bonding. Mostly, she just wanted to see him more clearly.
That was the first time she really noticed him.
He was focused, working on something, dressed once again in a light gray sweater. And so was she. She didn't usually put effort into dressing up for study sessions—but that day, she had. Her new sweater, a shade of gray almost identical to his, clung to her shoulders like fate itself had picked it out. She wasn't superstitious… but the matching outfits were cute. Almost cinematic.
At the time, there had been someone else—a fleeting crush, a half-formed feeling. So she told herself this new boy was just a pretty face. He rarely showed up anyway, maybe once a week. It wouldn't last, she told herself. It couldn't. She was here to study, not to chase shadows. Besides, he seemed far too out of her league to even consider wasting her time on.
Still, she couldn't help but sneak glances.
She'd strike up random conversations with her brother, shifting her position just enough to catch glimpses of the boy behind him. She watched him stare into space for long stretches of time, doing little else. It puzzled her. At first, she thought maybe he was autistic. Or maybe just very young and forced into this academic prison by demanding parents. Either way, his detachment stood out sharply against the intensity of her own focus.
There was something about him that refused to be ordinary.