6

Quin’s POV

Strange, that is how I'd explain my ride with Dawn. It was an ordinary morning, that much I'd known, and anticipated, but in a way, something was different about it.

I could feel the difference. I was a bit too excited about the presentation, which was both nerve-wracking, and weird at the same time. The car ride was just a typical radio session on low volume, with the sun just making everything look pretty.

The whole ride Dawn was attending to Marie, but now and then, a story would pop in about how the kids in her school did this or that, or how the children that I treat were doing this or that.

As I said, just a typical Monday morning. We got to the school, and it has a separate parking lot for the parents and the teachers, because the school is high ranking and some parents are just snobs and feel entitled to their space.

Hence why the school thought it would be better if the parents just had their parking so the teachers are not inconvenienced. I park my car, and the moment I open the door, I smell fresh black coffee, with iced mint and pine water and I halt. I look around the vacant parking lot, trying to see who came with such strong coffee to no avail.

Dawn sees me looking around and her face starts to shift towards concern.

"Are you okay?" She asks.

"You smell that?" I get out the car, and I look around trying to locate the smell.

"Smell what?" She whispers, and she looks around with me, rather startled.

"Fresh coffee made from fresh pine water with mint." I utter, still looking around.

"How do you even know what fresh pine water smell like?" Is the question she graces me with instead. When I shake my head also in awe at how I know fresh pine water, she continues, "No, I don't."

" You sure? I mean, it's rather a very strong smell." I insist, trying to convince her, knowing full well I'm not imagining things, nor is it just wishful thinking.

"Honey, you are trying to detoxify the caffeine in your body remember? " She reminds me, and takes Maried out the car and carries her away, "Maybe you just hallucinating the feels of coffee in your system." she adds.

Then I felt it, the tingles on my fingertips. But this time, it felt different. Before when I felt the tingles, it was because I was in danger, and my heart would pick up the pace.

But this time it was more than that. This tingle had a sense of excitement to it. I could even feel butterflies in my stomach, and that has never happened. It felt like I was gonna meet someone important to me in some way, but I didn’t know who.

I shake the feeling away by letting loose and shaking my arms and shoulders. take my coat and my bag, and I was ready to invade the new place with nothing but my light. I meet Dawn a few minutes later in the main hall where everyone was stationed to be.

Then I felt again, the tingle that it. But it felt more intense than before. I looked around the room, and then, just like how everything in the world felt wrong, in this moment, everything made sense.

My breath hiccupped.

This was one handsome man that was in front of me. In a room full of people, his presence was the only part that felt important. He had sandy brown hair that was styled in gel, melanin clear skin, and his eyes held a golden shade to them that was hypnotizing. He was wearing a brown three-piece suit with a white shirt buttoned with a brown tie.

He had a kid next to him. The boy had the same features, with melanin skin and sandy brown hair that had curls, and the boy’s eyes were stormy grey. I tilted my head a bit when I noticed what he was wearing.

The kid was wearing a navy suit, with black loafers.

He was a kid. And if a kid looked like that on the first day, it’s either he had strict parents, or he was peculiar from birth and I’d like to think it was the latter.

So, all I could do was blink, and blink, and blink.

The man was looking at him like he knew me from somewhere, that I was somewhat familiar to him. His eyes had a golden flare to them that made me just stare at him. For a second, his pupils glowed. I took a step forward then stopped.

What the hell was I doing?

He had a sense of comfort to him that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand.

“Earth to Quin…” Dawn snaps her fingers at me, and I come back to life.

“What are you looking at?” she asks.

“I…well,” I start stuttering, slightly touching my hair, tucking the loose strands behind my ears.

“I…well what?” She starts looking around, and I immediately divert my eyes away from the man in brown.

“I well, nothing.” I clear my throat, trying to gather my thoughts, “I’m good.”

“Are you sure, you look rather pale for a melanin-skinned person?” She comments.

“I’m certain. I’m fine,” I assure her.

We take our seats and the principal starts addressing the parents and children, and the guy suddenly stands up and leaves the whole. And as sudden as that was, I start to feel cold, like the whole room was warm because of him in the same way, it's now cold because he has left.

I try to shake the weird feeling away, but it doesn't go away. All I can think of is that I want to stay by his side and talk to him.

What am I saying?

The guy is probably married as he has a kid. Minus that, let's assume the easiest far-fetched story, a girlfriend. Not just a normal girl, but those crazy, 'I'm going to stab you if you look at my man' type of girls.

I quickly shake my head and look at the seat where he was seating, and I realize the little kid looking hazy, and not just that, I felt the danger for him.

I stand up and start to walk towards him feeling a panic inside of me, and whilst I was still walking towards him, he falls out of his chair and he passes out. I am fast enough to reach and catch him in my arms before he lands with his body on the floor.

"I got you, buddy," I whisper.

Forthwith, people start to turning towards us, and I have no idea who screams bloody murder but the room goes into havoc mode after that. I am not fazed by the commotion behind me as I'm used to it from hospital. My focus is on the little boy who doesn't look so good, nor promising to do so.

His pulse was weak, and I had him under my arm for support. I can't explain how, but I felt his father coming close, and true to me, he was there in seconds. He checks his son's pulse on both hands and in the mist, our hands' touch.

We both look at each other then, because I don't know about him, but I felt sparks running within the moment our hands touched. My heart did flip jacks, as everything just felt like it disappeared for a second and it was only just him and I in this non-perfect world and my heart calmed down.

Whilst I was still dreaming, he picks his son up and he stands up and leave.