Hello (Georgia as seen by Elliot)
I’m not quite sure exactly how she first introduced herself. She didn’t say hello, I know that for sure. I think she just laughed at me. You see I’d asked her “what have you done?” which I know is a strange proposition for a first meeting but it made sense at the time. She had arrived on her first day landing herself right in the isolation unit of Queen Anne’s Academy. She wasn’t being rude or anything it’s just she isn’t the kind of person who generally has time for hellos, she likes to get straight to the point. Meticulous and unrelenting she sussed me out right away. Like I do to everyone else. But still she answered all my questions if only ,as she said, “to shut me up”. She answered methodically, with no unnecessary explanation, only occasionally pausing to laugh at my awkward stance and intrigue.
She told me that before she moved she lived near the sea. The physics of how the moon pulls in the tide was fascinating to her. I said that the science behind it kind of took away its magic and it’s poetic merit. We were both told to shut up. We were told that seeing the beauty of something was what was important rather than the place from where we view it. Her standpoint was new and I at least know that there was poetic merit in her - even if it couldn’t be found in gravity.
Not once since that day has she started a conversation by echoing my “Hello”. Instead she would ask me what was on my mind. She could always find patterns in it and she learned a from me a few ways to be able to tell what other people were thinking. “You make predicting other people’s actions look easy” she chucked. “You make algebra look easy. I guess it’s just something to do with perspective” for once she didn’t laugh just looked into my eyes like I had said something profound, like I’d introduced her to the sea. For once no witty cleverly calculated reply came but surprisingly I was the one who had changed despite the apparent effect my words had on her. Like a pebble who was once a boulder: sharp and unabridged.
I will admit I am overconfident but with her I forgot all of that.It was strange because I can normally stride right up to the line drawn in the sand and know exactly where to stop. With her I was stood on the pier looking at the boundless sea as it came into the shore in perfectly timed waves and I thought god I wish I knew how to hold it. I wish I knew where I fitted into her unmatched ambition. I’m drowning in the weight of her. Perhaps that means I like her. Perhaps that means it’s love.