The day I first met Glass it had rained. I don't know if it was still raining when she arrived but when I arrived, early like the one idiot that doesn't have any better things to do, it was raining buckets. It was raining buckets when I pushed through the crowd in the station, dragging 2 ridiculously small suitcases with me, and when I stepped outside, I was soaked before I could even start walking up the steep hill. Glass came in a car. Of course she came in a car. Her mum was driving. I didn’t know then, obviously.
When I arrived at the school, I was the first one there, and the cleaning staff were still cleaning the rooms. So I kinda just dropped my dripping suitcases off in the lobby and started wandering the grounds until I knew where the lake was at, what buildings there were and every good place to hide in the grove. I peeked through the windows of the main school building but I couldn’t see shit because I’m short as fuck and the floor was higher than the ground. I made friends with the groundskeeper, found at least two dead birds and after what couldn’t have been more than 20 minutes, I decided I was going to take a shower and make myself look like I hadn't come out of the lake like an undead.
After putting on new damp clothes (who thinks they’re ever gonna need waterproof suitcases) I just sat in my assigned room and passed the time by looking out the window and watching the other students arrive. Few came alone, from down at the station. most had more or less emotional goodbyes with their parents, siblings, whatnot. I was sharing a room with some other guy because both beds were made. He was one of the latest to arrive. I had claimed the better bed, next to the wall, with more space between the drawers and desk.
I met Glass because I had gotten bored and started wandering the hallways like I was lost. The housekeeper asked me if I was, and I said I was just walking around. He looked at me funny. Probably because I still smelled more like outside than anything. I felt like going for a drink with him. He seemed like an ok guy to go for a drink with. Like he could drink even more than I can.
I was sat on a random chair in a hallway when I met Glass. She was lost. She had the biggest, most waterproof looking suitcase I had ever seen. Her almost white blonde hair was tousled, her fur lined jacket was wet and clung to her weirdly, and her cheeks were flushed, but she still looked unrealistically perfect to me. I thought I was making her up. I couldn’t have made up a girl as beautiful as her. Perfect steel blue eyes, the lightest natural hair colour imaginable, a walk that wasn’t like anyone else’s. It wasn’t as much about how she looked as how she moved. If this was some grandma movie, I’d say graceful. Delicate maybe. Classy. Definitely classy. There are no normal people words to describe the way she moved. Like she wasn’t human. She did seem a little upper class. And I was surprised that she was even talking to me. I mean, I looked like a scholarship kid. Who even smelled more like outside than his cheap deodorant.
Anyways, I was questioning if she was real until she did talk to me. She asked me for directions to some room. I said I didn't know.
“I thought you work here.” I looked at her raised eyebrow for too long. She had raised it like they do in the movies. I didn't know people raise one eyebrow in real life.
I think I snorted and said: “No, I just got here today. I’m a student like you, believe it or not.”
She didn't quite believe it. She said I looked more like someone who would work here. Then she said: “But then again, you do look rather scrawny. Not like you could lift stuff around a lot. You would have to, wouldn’t you?”
She always said wouldn’t you. Or didn’t you. And she said it all, if you know what I mean. She didn’t shorten it down to wouncha or dincha. She even left a split second between the words, for god's sake. But she wasn't as stuck up as she sounded. I didn't know that. And I messed with her a little, in the beginning. I'm sorry now.
“Well, if you let me, I’ll prove to you that I can lift stuff around just as well as the next rugby hulk. Let me carry this” And then, I kid you not, I lifted her suitcase up and started carrying it. It almost killed me. The thing was heavy and it had wheels, so any sane person would just have pulled it. But I carried it. Because I wanted to prove to a girl I had just met that I wasn't as scrawnyand weak as I seemed.
The thing is, I am quite scrawny. I'm rather weak too. Of course I can lift more than any girl, but probably not much more. It's more the willpower, anyway.
She asked me if I knew where I was going.
I said: “Well, assuming you're a girl, I'm taking you to the girls quarters, where I can find your room, since you don't seem very good at knowing your way around.” I can sound rather snappish if I want to.
She was annoyed, I could tell. I thought she would ask me how I knew the way to the girls quarters. But she didn’t say anything. That's what she would do, not say anything when she was getting annoyed with you.
Only when we arrived at the correct room, she turned around again and looked at me. She looked at me for longer than normal. Long enough for me to look at her so much her face was etched into my memory afterwards like a painting. Every single one of her loose strands of hair. It was then that I saw her eyes that were more grey than blue. Her nose was very straight but slightly pointing upwards, which made her look cute. It was the only thing about her face that looked cute. The rest was just hauntingly beautiful. She was wearing makeup but I don't remember how much.
After looking at me for too long, she almost smiled but didn’t. Then she said: “I’m Glass”
I didn’t ask, “like the transparent material you drink out of?”, or anything like that. I don’t ask stupid questions like that. I just said “Glass” like the word had a new taste in my mouth, now that it belonged to this woman. It did. “I'm Jared. Room 106.”
And then I left.
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