Fan Fiction ❯ Room 316 ❯ Chapter 2 ( Chapter 2 )

Chapter 2

     They pulled up to the small restaurant. Duncan was gripping the side handle as if his life depended on it.

     "Oh, come on." Abby said rolling her eyes as she put the vehicle in park. "I’m not a bad driver." Duncan released the door handle from his white-knuckled grip once the engine ceased to run.

     "Depends on where you learned." He unbuckled his belt. "In your case, I’m guessing hell." Abby was already out of the car and bent over to look at him through the doorframe.

     "Actually, the Autobahn." She stood up and shut the door. When he stood up he gave her the strangest look. "What? We spent our family vacations in Europe." He just rolled his eyes at her and shut the door. She took her key chain and pressed the lock button twice and the car beeped. "Ya, ready?" He nodded, and they walked in.

     "So, what’s the limit?" Duncan queried. Abby motioned to the entire restaurant.

     "Whatever you want. Though I’d prefer to go." Duncan held his stomach in a wrenching position.

     "If I have to ride back with you, I think that might be best." He smiled playfully up at her as she smacked him with her purse. He feigned injury and fell to the floor in a fit of laughter.

     "I see someone’s feeling better." He stood up and dusted himself off.

     "When you stare death in the face, your problems kind of get put into perspective." He kept his tone completely serious.

   &nb sp; "Ha, ha, ha, and I thought that I was going to be the funny one." She pushed him into the line. When they reached the register, she made him order first. "Put his on a separate bill please." The cashier nodded, and looked to Duncan for his order. Duncan scanned the menu. Abby looked at him and shook her head. "I understand what you’re going through. They bill themselves as a Tai restaurant, but in reality, they serve every type of food from Asia, and not just the Orient. Frankly, it makes me sick." He ignored her comment and made his order.

     "I’ll have a number three with extra honey chicken and the noodles instead of the rice, and an extra order of the steamed vegetables on the side. To go. Oh, and give me a cherry soda for the drink." One of the workers from behind the counter began filling his order.

     "That total come to twelve ninety seven." The cashier turned to Abby. "And what will you be having tonight?" She brought he finger to her lips and scanned the menu.

     "Give me an order of sweet and sour pork." The cashier rang it up.

     "Is that all miss?"

     "Yep, and make it to go."

     "That comes to three sixteen." Abby did a little happy dance and paid for the food. Once they had made it back out to the car Duncan gave her a weird look.

     "Do you feel like explaining what that little display in there?" He jerked his head towards the restaurant.

     "Oh, it’s just a little quirk of mine." They got into the car and Duncan dropped the food into the back seat so he could get buckled in as the car started. Abby turned the key in the alternator.

     "And that quirk would be?" Duncan braced himself as she pulled out of the parking space, and sped out of the lot.

     "Oh," she calmly flipped her hair, "ever since I was about thirteen, I was able to go out, make my own purchases.." She talked awhile about the things her parents allowed her to do, but for Duncan, the words flew out of the window along with locks of her hair. He made the decision that he should either get used to her driving, or start to find a new mode of transportation. To his relief, they reached the dorm’s parking garage. "And ever since, anything to do with numbers has always ended up being three sixteen."

     "You could have just done it on purpose, come on, you only ordered an entree." He jerked his head back towards the food. She turned and stuck her tongue out at him.

     "For your information," she made and expressive gesture with her hands, "They did not have the drink that I wanted, and anymore than an entree is too much MSG for me. Thank you, little man." She made an act out of leaving the car, and waiting for him at the dorm entrance. He grabbed the bags and drink, then headed out after her. She was very silent to him as they made their way back to the room. By the time they entered, he had felt kinda bad for questioning her.

     "I’m sorry," he was a bit quiet, "I didn’t mean to put down your little quirk." She just started laughing. "What?" He cocked his head in surprised.

     "You are the first guy ever to fall for that!" Then she stopped to talk a little more clearly. "None of the ones I have know have ever apologized, much less stated what for." He glared at her, failing to see the humor in her comment. "Then again, you just might be a little more sensitive when it comes to how women feel." Now, he was just pissed, and he didn’t know why. He never got like this unless someone else around him was feeling the same way. Something to do with his being ultra sensitive. He brushed off the feeling as he threw the bags of food onto the counter.

     "Anyways." He stated to change the mood in the room. "Let’s eat!" He grabbed his cherry soda and bag of food, then sat down on his bed. Abby grabbed her sweet and sour pork then stopped.

     "Oh, poo! I was so busy explaining about three sixteen, that I forgot to stop somewhere for my drink." Duncan slurped in some of his lo mein.

     "You could get a soda from the machine in the hall." She looked at him as if it were an impossibility.

     "I’m sorry, I only drink dragon fruit drink mixes. I’ll just run to the little store on the corner. They should have some." He shrugged and swallowed some of his chicken.

     "Suit yourself." Then he dug back into his meal. Having never set down her purse, Abby, walked back out the door. Duncan turned to the bathroom as he heard a slight growling. He picked up the container with the extra vegetables, and stepped up to the door. "I know you said you weren’t hungry, but from what I’m hearing in there it sounds like you are." He waited for a reaction, but when none came, he continued. "So, I got you some steamed vegetables here if you want. Bye." He turned around, and headed back to his bed. He heard the door open, and shut extremely fast.

     The noise that he heard immediately afterwards mimicked that of a pack of hungry wolves. Though it disturbed him slightly, he walked over to a bag he had yet to unpack and pulled out his own laptop. He then climbed back onto his bed, and retrieved the disk out from underneath his pillow. Once he opened the disk. A single file appeared on the screen. When he clicked on it, the following came up:

Hello, Elf.

Yes, I know what you are. Your scent as well as your name gives you away.

So, Duncan, you are the brown warrior ruler of the elves.

I am honored to be present with royalty.

I am only to guess what the middle initial E might be.

Still, I must thank you for getting rid of Vincent.

Earlier, I heard you break up with the one Charlie.

I’m truly sorry that you would have to go through such pain.

That is the sole reason I have chosen to contact you.

Though I do not trust you, and will not expose my secrets to you,

I do wish to live in a quiet truce.

In return for your continued protection from Vincent,

I give you the following information.

I will come out of this bathroom if you can mange to keep the loud one quiet.

You have already told her may name, though I do not like that fact, but that is in the past.

Whatever you do, do not let me have meat. It is not a pretty picture.

I am able to type as you can see, but it is practically my only way to communicate,

since I have deformity, that makes it very troublesome for me to hold a pen or pencil.

I am not used to people, and therefore have trouble speaking.

As my final bit of thanks I give you my screen name.

<Bubastis>

Though I may not answer. It may be of some help later on.

I believe my debt to you has been paid thus far.

I am no longer required to communicate with you.

Farewell.

     ; Duncan stared at the screen. ‘She knows?’ He thought. ‘How can she know? It says she smelled it. No human can smell that.’ Fear swept over him in waves. Noone, not even Charlie knew this secret. Much less the significance of his name. He logged on to the ethernet to see if she was online. He placed the name into his messenger, and it showed that she was. He was about to send her a message when he heard Abby’s voice on the other side of the door. He quickly logged off and shut down his laptop. Abby stepped through the door carrying a shopping bag full of bottles.

"That’s a lot for three dollars and sixteen cents." She looked at him as she shut the door.

     "Actually, it was thirty-one dollars and sixty cents, but at least I have enough to get me through the next couple of days." She put the bag on the counter, and grabbed her food along with one of the drinks she just picked up. Duncan was trying to think of the best way to put things to her.

     "Hey, Abby, you have a minute?" She nodded as she sat down and began shoveling the sweet and sour pork into her mouth. "I don’t want to offend you or anything, but do you think you could start toning it down on your volume a bit?"

     "Huh?" She muffled out with her mouth still full.

     "You already know that I’m a psych major," he began, "and I believe that we should all be able to get along with each other." He motioned towards the bathroom door.

     "I’m not the one being anti-social." She interrupted. He put up his hand.

     "Let me finish. From what I saw with this ‘Vince’ guy earlier, she’s had some problems in the past. My guess is that this guy was really loud, and really violent towards her. Now, I know that it’s not your fault, but I think that after such a traumatic experience with some one like that, she’s probably scared of people with loud voices. So, why don’t we just try to keep it down around her." He put out his hand. "Okay?" She looked at his hand for a minute, then up at him.

     "Whatever." She put her drink on the floor and took up his hand. "I’m tired anyway. So, I’m just going to throw away my trash and go to bed. Maybe tomorrow, I’ll be able to take a shower." She got up and threw away her and Duncan’s trash. Then, plopped down on the bed with her back to him. He walked over to the bathroom door.

     "Well, I guess you already heard us, but you can come out whenever you’re ready." All he got was a grunt. He too decided that it was time to go to bed. As he covered up for the night, he starred at the roof, trying to figure out what exactly was going on. Only other magic folk knew of those like him. Soon, he fell asleep thinking about how he was going to sort everything out.