Page 4 of I Married Kayog
“Oh please!” Tala said in an outraged tone. “There have been plenty of other Temern females in Acadia, and he never spared any one of them a single look.”
The woman shrugged, pinched her lips, and turned her back to us to face the teacher. I couldn’t decide if I felt pity or annoyance for her as I skimmed over the emotions emanating from her. Although bitterness and jealousy dominated, I also perceived a great deal of resignation, sadness, and thatunpleasant aura emitted by people who lacked self-esteem or wallowed in self-recrimination. I had no doubt she was thinking something silly like she had been foolish to think she ever had a chance with him because she didn’t believe herself good enough.
As an empath, I always wanted to reach out and lift up people who involuntarily self-harmed with such negative thoughts.
“Fuck my life, you actually got him! I’m sticking to your ass forever,” Tala whispered.
I snorted. Tala was something else. When you first met her, you could be fooled into thinking she was stuffy, overly proper, and quite the regal Nubian queen. But once she got to know you and dropped the mask her rigid upbringing required, you discovered the funniest, most mischievous, and irreverent rascal ever. And underneath all that, the most loyal and selfless friend one could ever wish for.
The teacher stepping up to the podium reclaimed our attention. For the first time in my life, I truly struggled to focus on a lecture. I hated that we were sitting in one of the front rows as I couldn’t see Kai from this position without clearly turning my head towards him. And yet, I could feel the weight of his stare on me all the way from the balcony. I caught myself more times than I could count moments before I would try to steal a peek at him.
To my total dismay, I couldn’t even get the slightest glimpse of his emotions. It was as if he had erected an impenetrable wall around himself. Temerns all possessed the ability to block our emotions from our peers for privacy. However, it was never fully sealed. You could still glean some surface information. But I got nothing from Kai. Although distance impacted our ability to read others, he wasn’t so far that I wouldn’t get at least something. That bothered me even more, further impeding my ability to focus.
Thankfully, as was often the case on the first day, the professor merely went over the syllabus for the semester, giving us an overview of the assignments we would have, the type of books, events, and subjects we should immerse ourselves in to further assist us in this course.
By the time the professor released us, less than thirty minutes had elapsed. As people started trickling out of the room, Tala didn’t rush out as she initially hinted she would. As I slowly walked my way out of the row I had been sitting in, I could no longer resist the urge to glance at the balcony.
The dumbest wave of jealousy and disappointment swelled within me when I found him surrounded by countless groupies of all genders. To my shock, he immediately turned to look at me as if he had sensed my gaze on him. Stupidly feeling as if I’d been caught red handed, I averted my eyes only to peer back up and find him still looking at me. He smirked, something akin to triumph sparkling in his silver eyes.
That pissed me off and, pushing past Tala, I all but stormed out of the room.
“Fuck him,” I muttered under my breath.
“Wait! Don’t you want to meet him?” Tala asked, half jogging to catch up to me.
“No,” I said in a clipped tone.
“Why not?” she asked, baffled by my sudden change in demeanor.
“Because he’s an ass.”
Tala recoiled then grabbed my arm to stop me and make me face her.
“What? What happened? What did I miss?”
“You didn’t see his smug smirk?” I asked, feeling both annoyed and humiliated.
She hesitated before giving me an apologetic look. “Uh, beaks make it hard to see when you guys smile, let alone smirk.”
I rolled my eyes, gently pulled my arm free of her hold, and resumed walking. “Well,Isaw it.”
Tala made a dismissive gesture. “I don’t know what you saw—or rather what youthinkyou saw—but I can assure you that you’re wrong. And we’ll settle that tonight.”
“Absolutely not! I’m not going,” I said firmly.
It was her turn to roll her eyes. “Aww, come on! Since when are you this emotional?”
I glared at her. “Don’t call me emotional. And I’ve never been into rock bands.”
She huffed. “You need to socialize, and that bar is the best place.”
I gave her an incredulous look. “In all that noise?”
“It’s not always noisy,” she said in a tone that implied I was starting to try her patience. “Remember that everyone here are future ambassadors, special envoys, and intergalactic political and scientific elite. You need to make connections to help build your career. So pull that stick out of that fluffy behind of yours, and don’t be a stuck-up brat. You already look snobbish enough.”
“I don’t look like a snob!” I exclaimed, outraged.
“Yes, you do,” Tala said, this time without the teasing that could previously be heard in her voice. “You come across as even more stiff than I do with strangers. What you don’t realize is that with your pristine white feathers, that fancy tail of yours which looks almost like a train, your melodious voice, and the graceful way you walk, you feel like royalty. People don’t approach you because they feel intimidated or beneath you.”
