Page 49 of Thrust into the Light

There is a message back from her fast. “Who is this?” My phone says.

I hold the phone up to my mouth and say my name, then send the message. There are little bubbles at the bottom of the screen. And it stays that way for a long time.

Connor looks up from his phone. “She might be trying to think of what to say to you sweet girl, give it a bit of time, if you haven’t heard anything back from her after we eat, maybe send a message and see if we have the wrong number?” I hand my phone back to him. I don’t have anywhere to put it. He sticks it in his pocket. The door to Rhi’s classroom opens and people come walking out. Some of them I remember seeing from the first day in the big room, after everyone else left. Some of them stare at me as they walk past, but others just talk to the person they left with. After no people walk past for a bit, Connor starts pushing me to the door.

I walk into the room. Rhi is sitting at his desk, looking at papers in front of him. “Whatever it is, you’ll need to come back later. I have a class that is going to start up again in about ten minutes.”

“Oh, okay!”

His head looks up at me fast and I blink and he is right in front of me.

“Sorry gorgeous, I thought you were another student coming in. I will always make time for you.” He puts his hand on my cheek and I push my head more into his hand.

“What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be in shifter class?”

“All done. Connor brought me here. We are waiting for Vashu and Xander to get a new big table, and they are going to bring back food, so we came to see you. Oh! During shifter class, I was supposed to talk to my beast. I talked to it, but I can’t remember what it said. It’s like every time I try to remember, it just gets fuzzy. I do remember that it said my magic is hurt and it can’t heal it.” He walks me over to his chair and pulls me into his lap when he sits down. I feel his hot breath on the back of my neck.

“Hmm, does it say how it is hurt, and why it can’t heal it?” He presses his lips to my neck each time he says one word. And nowI can’t remember what we were talking about.

“What were we talking about I don’t remember?”

“Why can’t you remember gorgeous? Are you thinking about other things?” Again he presses his lips to my neck each time he says each word, and there’s something hard poking me in his lap.

I don’t know what we are talking about, but I don’t want him to stop what he is doing with his lips. It feels so nice, even though all of my muscles low in my stomach keep getting more tingly. There is a knock on the door of his classroom. He grumbles and stands me up.

“We’ll talk about it more tonight when I get home. Now, gorgeous, you should probably head back to the house. If Connor brought you here, that would be him knocking to let me know that students are starting to line up outside.” He stands up and gives me a big hug. Now something on him is poking my stomach. There’s another knock, and he chuckles. He presses his lips to my forehead and lets me go.

I smile at him and head to the door. I open the door and all I see is Connor's back. There’s a lot of talking and feet moving in the hallway. Connor looks back at me and grabs my hand and pulls me away from the door as a bunch of people walk through it. He gives my hand a squeeze and hands me my phone.

“It started vibrating a lot while you were talking with Zachariah. Did you have a nice visit with him?”

“Yes, I tried to tell him about what my beast said about my magic, but he started putting his lips on my neck and I couldn’t remember what we were talking about.” The dark part of Connors’ eyes gets bigger. He takes a deep breath.

“Why don’t you check your messages, sweet girl?” We walk outside and I look at my phone. I open it up and there’s a message from Faith. I press on the message and my phone starts talking to me.

“Oh my Gods, I thought that jerk of an instructor was lying to me when he said he’d give you my number. Looks like he really did it. Why didn’t you text me back sooner? I have been so worried about you! It’s not every day that you meet someonesmaller than you, well I guess if you are anyone but us and the younglings at the school. What happened? I hear you’re a shifter! That’s cool. What can you shift into? Are you a cute little rabbit, oh you’d be so cute as a rabbit. You’d be all white and be so soft and oh so fluffy!”

“They moved me into the night classes because it will be easier for me to do the things I need to and not to expend so much energy. Have you been touching other people's freckles or are you keeping your hands to yourself now? That reminds me, the Instructor said that he is one of your matches, and that you found another two of them. Girl, how many matches do you have? I have four myself and haven’t found a single one yet, but I’m in no hurry to, you know. They tend to lose their shit about the smallest things. But man, would it be nice to have someone carry my stuff! My legs and arms are small. How much weight do they think I can carry around with me? Not everyone at this school is a fucking giant!”

“Why aren’t you replying? Is everything okay? Do I need to come find you? Damnit I don’t know which match house you are staying in! I’m going to ask my brother and see if he knows anything. He’s been here a while and has had your instructor match for like three or four semesters now. I can’t remember. They still can’t place his magic. I keep telling him it is because he’s a giant freak, but he doesn’t listen to me. If you don’t reply back soon, I’m sending Kram to go bug your instructor about what house is yours and then I’m going to show up and try to beat down your door!”

I look up at Connor. He laughs at me. Connor holds his hand out and I give him my phone. He presses a few buttons on it and holds it up to his ears. I hear Faith scream at him.

“Farlen, stop scaring me like this! My heart isn’t as big as some people at this damn school. I can’t take all of this! Where are you? Are you okay?”

“Farlen is fine. She’s a little overwhelmed by your text messages. No need to bother Instructor Fry. We are in match house 46, stop by anytime.”

“Oh uh, sorry about that. You sound like Connor. Uh, I need to go so I can call my brother off!”

I don’t hear her anymore and Connor gives me back my phone.

“Seems like you’ve made a friend, sweet girl. I hope you are okay with me inviting her to the house. It seems like it would be the easiest way for you two to talk, and then she could stop freaking out because she thinks something else happened to you.”

“It’s okay, though I am afraid. What if I say something bad and she leaves? She talks so much, and it still feels strange for me to talk. At least it isn’t as hard for me to talk anymore.”

“I have a feeling that Faith is going to do most of the talking, you just say what you feel comfortable saying to her, if she asks you a question and you don’t feel comfortable telling her that, just say it, I’m sure she’ll understand.”

“What if she doesn’t understand?”

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