Atrophy

“Are you excited kid?”
Vernon Ekhort looked at his mother Amanda, and smiled. “Would you stop treating me like it’s my first day at kindergarten. I’m about to be a sophomore for Christ’s sake!”
Amanda threw the back of her hand to her forehead dramatically and sighed playfully. “Whatever shall I do? You won’t be home until Christmas.”
Vernon kissed his mother on her cheek, “Get a hobby.”
“You have to admit it is a very pretty school, and beautiful building.”
Vernon looked at the building in which he would be spending his school year. The edifice seemed strong, he noticed its deep red colored bricks, and the green ivy that crept up its walls. The windows were long and clean and he could see the sun behind him reflecting onto the glass. Polished brass knobs that looked like gold poked through doors and shutters, glittering despite years of use.
“Yes,” he nodded softly. “Beautiful.”

* * *
After leaving his mother at the gates of Bellamy College Prep, Vernon trudged up four flights of stairs until he reached his room 450. When he pulled out his room key and started for the hole, he could not help but notice the way his hands shook. Excitement and adrenaline were pumping through him at full speed, he felt that once he opened this door his entire life would change.
He had waited for his chance to attend this school since he was 12. His father had attended as well as his grandfather and it was up to Vernon to keep on the tradition. When he was not accepted the first year and was crushed and worked ten fold to get in the next year. After all his pain and anxiety he had finally made it and he could not have been more proud. He took a deep breath and pushed open the door.
As he peered into the room, all of the beautiful images of the building were destroyed. The room was a pigsty and he could only imagine the pig he lived with. Covers were tossed around floor and books lay strewn across his roommate’s bed. Even his own unused bed was completely covered with term papers and pencils. Vernon picked up a particularly heavy book from on he bed and read the cover out loud. “Apology to Socrates, not bad, at least he’s a smart pig.”
“That’s was they tell me.”
Vernon quickly turned around and came face to face with his roommate. The boy stood only at around 5’5 and seemed to hold too much weight for his small frame. His face was round with high cheekbones and two chins. Bright green eyes shined from under thick, fatty eyelids and his head was covered with a thick curly mass of blonde. Despite his weight he held of posture of pride, almost aristocracy and his face held a smug smirk. Vernon’s first impression of the boy was that of a cocky genius. Someone so smart that everything he said turned idiotic. He wasn’t sure what made him think that the boy was a genius, maybe it was his eyes that said, I know more than you do and I want you to know. He didn’t think he would like the boy very much.
“Well, what are you just standing there for? They sent me up here to make sure that you came done to breakfast, what was your name again?” The boy stood impatiently and tapped his foot although it didn’t take long for him to reply.
“Vernon,” he said nervously. “Vernon Ekhort, and you are-” he rustled through his pocket for his dormitory information.

“Faduous Truman.” He said curtly, cutting off all of Vernon’s movements. “Now come on, I’m missing breakfast.”
Too shocked to know how to react or retort to Faduous’ rudeness, he followed the boy out of the room and into the long corridors. He did not talk to Vernon during the duration of their walk to the Cafe Hall. He trailed after the large boy quietly through the unfamiliar halls of his new school. From what he noticed so far, he could tell that the girls and boys lived on alternating floors and that breakfast was not mandatory. He could see late risers dragging from their respective rooms to the shared bathrooms to get ready for the day.
When they reached the Cafe Hall, Vernon’s elated emotions returned. His eyes traveled along the great mass of students. The cafeteria was filled with round tables that could seat about 6 or 7 students. He saw boys and girls of all shapes, colors, and sizes, and caught small glimpses of conversations. As he continued to follow Faduous, his eyes rested on a girl of around fifteen. Her hair was thick, and black, and landed somewhere around her mid back. Her eyes shined a bright blue and seemed to reflect everything around her. Her smile also appeared to shine, her cheeks were flushed from her contagious laugh. She caught Vernon’s eye and winked before turning back to her friends and the joke. Heat was slowly beginning to rise to his cheeks when Faduous pulled his arm.

“Don’t start to come in a start having puppy eyes for her,” he sighed exasperatedly and plopped him into a seat. “Trust me, she’s a horrible vampiric, man-eating, heart-breaker.”

Vernon tore his eyes from her and gave him a confused look. “What do you mean?”
“Every school has one I’m sure. A girl so pretty she doesn’t know what to do with herself. She sees you and presses those voluptuous breasts on you and you think, ‘Damn, this girl is hot!’ Then she takes you to her room and lets you reach new heights, exploring new sights, visiting every-man’s land. You feel special then the next day you see her pressing her breasts into Joe Nobody, and you’ve become John Everybody.”

“You mean...she...with everyone?”

“No, that’s Sally,” he jerked his thumb to the table to his right at a girl with short red hair. “Narkisa, she’s almost as virginal as Mary. It’s everything else that is the problem.”

“Narkisa,” he said softly and glanced back at the girl.

“Man, I know these things. For your own sanity, stay away from her.”

* * *
For Vernon, the first week of school passed in a chaotic blur. He saw Narkisa almost everyday but they had never communicated. On the first day of class she introduced herself as Narkisa Rune but outside from occasional winks in his direction, he was sure she did not know he existed.
Although he was invisible to Narkisa, Vernon definitely kept her in his eye. In that span of five days he felt like he could’ve passed any test on her. He noticed the way she seemed to know ever possible fact on Georgia O’Keefe, or how she always forgot to dress for gym. Vernon gathered a large amount of his information on Narkisa from fleeting comments or eavesdropping. He found that she was learning German in her spare time in addition to the required class of Spanish. He learned that the swim coach wanted her on the team but she never showed up and that she never went to the ladies room to powder her nose with the rest of the girls in the vanity. Vernon tried to point this out his roommate but Faduous argued that she probably found nose powdering plebian. For long spans of time his mind would be fixated on the thought of Narkisa. It was not until Saturday did he actually meet up with her.

On this particular weekend, many students found themselves outside, enjoying the crisp September air. Although most of the grass was still green, the leaves of the trees were beginning to change into the many shades of autumn. As Vernon walked outside he could hear and feel the leaves crunch under his feet. He took pleasure in the way the golden leaves would crumble under his shoe, and smiled each time the brisk wind lifted the earth around him. Vernon was also content with watching the dark still lake. Despite the murkiness that lurked beneath, its smooth glassy surface managed to reflect the excitement that seemed caught in the air. He was inhaling fall’s sweet breeze when someone slapped his behind. He spun around quickly, his eyes as wide as half dollars.

“Chill, you act like you’ve never been touched before, I’m Narkisa Rune” smiled Narkisa Rune. Her eyes glistened in an innocently amused way. At a closer range, Vernon could tell that her eyes were flecked with green and yellow.

“I know,” he replied quietly. “We’ve met before.”

“Oh, well- I was watching you in Trig and you seem like a really good student. I was wondering if you’d help me. I’m pretty hopeless in math.”

Vernon nodded quickly, hoping not to seem to eager. “Yes, I’ll help. It doesn’t matter when.”

She bit her lip slightly and smiled coyly. “How about at eight thirty tonight. I’m in room 180, see you tonight.” Before he could agree she turned on her heel and walked away giggling. She waved grandly to him without turning back. Vernon was grateful for this, he would have been quite embarrassed if she had seen the scarlet that bruised his cheeks.

At ten forty-five that night, Vernon was still in room 180 attempting to explain trigonometric identities. She was not doing as bad as she made it seem and he spent the majority of the time trying to convince her of her own abilities.

“Don’t be so hard on yourself. There’s more than one way to answer a problem. As long as the general process correct you’re doing fine,” Vernon insisted.

“I guess,” she complained before tossing her pencil on her bed. “Why don’t you believe that I suck at this?”

“Because you don’t.”

“Whatever.” Vernon started to push the point again, but he lost his train of thought when she began to advance on him. He’d been sitting in an armchair while she was on the bed but in and instant she was on the prowl. Before he could speak against her he found himself straddled.

Vernon’s mind went blank. If he was thinking clearly, he would have remembered Faduous’ warning about the man-eater. For the first time he thought with his body instead of his mind.

“What about your roommate?”
“Who Sally? She won’t be back tonight.”

Soft lips attached to his earlobes and Vernon melted away from his reality.

* * *

After ducking in the shadows and running from a few prefects, Vernon made it back to his dorm. His own clock said that it was somewhere around one fifteen, but despite his exhaustion he could not help but smile. When he prepared for bed he grinned cheekily back at himself from the mirror. “Don’t I look properly snogged?” He asked his reflection and laughed out loud. His hair was mussed and his lips were red and swollen. He could see love bites blossoming on his neck and a small cut on his bottom lip were she nipped him with her teeth. “Maybe she is a man eater,” he chuckled again.

“That’s what I said.”

“Shit Faduous, you scared the crap out of me.” Vernon breathed harshly as he tried to recover from the abrupt interruption.

“Your hair is all crumpled and you’re swollen in more than one place,” he grinned in his pompous, all knowing way as his eyes raked Vernon’s body. “I’d say you had a tryst with one Narkisa Rune.”

“I don’t see why it matters to you, besides it wasn’t a tryst.” Vernon narrowed his eyes indignantly and tried to cover the remains of Narkisa’s ministrations with his hands.

Faduous just shrugged and went back to bed and Vernon followed soon after.

At Sunday morning breakfast, Vernon’s eyes immediately raked the Hall for signs of Narkisa. He wanted to talk to her, even if it was just a greeting. His plans were quickly crushed when he saw her squeezing some Senior’s butt. Vernon instantly felt like an idiot. Of course he knew that Faduous’ words were true but he didn’t know how true they were. He was ready to take his heed so literally. He sat down at a round table with his roommate. The boy just grinned smugly and continued to eat his cereal.

* * *
“You can’t really be upset. You can’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Yes, I know.” Vernon nodded sadly and started to open the door. It had been less than a week since he had been jilted by Narkisa and each night he would walk down the first floor and hope to find her alone. He was drawn to her glittering personality and smile, like a moth to a light or a mosquito to a Tiki lamp.

“You have to stop this. How can you be in love with someone who is already in love with her self. She’s going to waste away in front of her mirror and you will waste away right along with her in this nightly walks.” When Vernon did not respond he shook his head and sighed. “Just don’t get caught okay?”

Vernon nodded solemnly again and walked out of the room. He tried to convince himself that these nocturnal walks were a away for him to get to know this new environment. He did not want to admit that he purposely walked past 180 multiple times. On his usual rounds he turned down a small corridor that held the girls bathroom and a few other unused rooms. He was surprised to find a shrouded figure staring in to what looked like a solid wall. As he edged closer he noticed that the person was looking into the grimy window of an old art room, and to his surprise and embarrassment, the person was Narkisa.

“What are you doing?” He asked quietly although his voice still bounced off the close brick walls. Narkisa did not turn look at him. It almost seemed like she hadn’t noticed he was there. If he had not watched that posture and body for the past two weeks he would have questioned his first judgment. However he had, and he knew that this person was the girl he’d been obsessing over since he arrived. He knew that it was her even though she seemed to lack the brightness that had drawn him to her in the first place.

“What-” he began, his voice echoing and surrounding them in the small hall. Something was wrong but he could not pinpoint it. Eternity passed before she made a move. At a new angle, Vernon could tell that she was crying, her usually pale cheeks streaked red and glossy from tears.

Her next actions seemed to pass in slow motion, although to Vernon it happened too fast. The hand that hung limp at her side slowly rose to the side her head where it stayed for a few seconds as is she were contemplating her next move. The object in her hand, despite her supposedly solid disposition seemed heave in comparison and made her look frail. At this point, Vernon was speaking quickly and softly; telling her what a wonderful person she was; what a great future she had and how far she could go in life. Her hand didn’t move.

“STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP!” His voice rang throughout the hall and reverberated back. He was not heard over the gunshot.