Book Titles - Zemyx

Zexion turned the page over in his book, smoothing it out with the base of his thumb. He was careful with the page, ironing out with light delicate strokes. The man didn’t want to damage book, avoiding any motions that would cause crinkles or tears in the page. He tucked his long amethyst fringe behind his right ear, letting out a breath as he did. The pesky bit of hair just fell back down, shadowing one of his blue eyes.  Zexion ignored it, continuing to read his book. It was a bit difficult to read with one eye, but it was the price he paid for wanting to style his hair in such a way. He crossed one leg over the other and leaned back against the bench, settling himself into a comfortable position to read.

“Hey Zexion” a loud voice shouted. He jumped in place, his butt visibly lifting up from the seat and falling back down again. The man hadn’t noticed his book had been hit out of his hands, too focused on steadying his heartbeat. “Ah” he heard someone exclaim. A tall person chased after Zexion’s, his dirty blond mullet swishing around with his jerky running pattern.  The person kept running around after the book until he finally caught it in mid-air. Zexion glared at the man, his mind had processed what happened, but his hand on his chest was still trying to steady his heartbeat. The man stared down at Zexion with apologetic sea green eyes. He laughed awkwardly, walking back to Zexion with the book in his hands. “I caught it” he murmured rubbing the back of his neck.  He surveyed the man who had taken his book from him, realising he knew him. Zexion had little to no interaction with this man, Demyx, but he was in a lot of class with him. He had only learnt his name because people loved to shout his name out across the room. Saying things like ‘Hey, Demyx. Come sit next to me.’ Zexion didn’t expect University to be so much like high school.

He stared Demyx in the eye, taking in his awkward stance and apologetic looking face.
“You’re an idiot” Zexion sighed, shaking his head, amethyst fringe swaying with the motion. Demyx frowned at him, tossing the book around in his hands. He seemed to study the book, making humming sounds every now again as he flipped the book back and forth in his hands.
“Is that the name of the book?” he asked, putting on a posh accent.  The book was still under Demyx’s surveillance as he continued to check over the book. “Wait, here it is” he exclaimed, stopping his constant turning of the book. He held it out in front of his face, patting the cover of the book a few times. “It says ‘Zexion’s a jerk’” Demyx stated, lowering the book in front of his to flash the man on the bench with a smirk.
“I know you’re not smart, but I thought you could at least read” Zexion teased, glaring back at Demyx’s smug face. He softened after a moment, something Demyx said finally registering in his mind. “You know my name?” he asked in disbelief. While Zexion had a reason to know Demyx’s name, he couldn’t think of a reason for the other to know his. He didn’t have friends that called his name out across the room and people generally didn’t want to sit next Zexion. That didn’t bother him though because he tended to dislike most people anyway.

“Yeah” Demyx replied unsurely, his eyes shifting down to the ground. “You know, I used your name before, right?” he murmured, his eyes still diverted away from Zexion. He raised an eyebrow upwards at Demyx’s statement, confusion settling over his face.
“When was that?” Zexion asked, his confusion finding its way into his words. Demyx shook his head, looking up at Zexion again with a smile on his face.
“Never mind” he laughed.

“Demyx, why must you talk to every person we run into?” a person groaned. An arm draped around Demyx’s shoulders, dragging him down the pathway. He turned his face away from the person’s red hair which was arranged in death spikes shotting out of the back of the man’s head. Demyx closed his eyes, worried that one of those death spikes might pierce his eye. “We don’t even know this guy” the man sighed, sparing an uninterested green glance at Zexion. He continued to pull Demyx away, ignoring the man on the bench.  Zexion had met the redhead, Axel before. He was in some of Zexion’s classes too, not as many as Demyx was though. Unlike Demyx, Zexion hadn’t learnt his name by other people calling out to him. Axel often made an effort to make people know he entered the room and announced it quite clearly to everyone around him. Zexion had realised too late that Demyx still had his book.  By the time he noticed Demyx and Axel were long gone. The two men had walked up to a girl who stood a fair away from Zexion. She ran a hand through her shoulder length red hair, staring up at them with bright blue eyes. The girl, Kairi wasn’t in any of Zexion’s classes, but he had found out her name because every man and his dog were practically lining up to drool all over her, figuratively and possibly literally too. Guys would not stop talking about her and little to none would approach her. The only guys Zexion had seen around Kairi frequently were Demyx and Axel. He assumed she was dating one of them. Most likely Demyx, he was the better of the two.

Kairi smiled at Demyx and Axel.  She shook her head when she noticed Axel had Demyx in a stranglehold.
“Hey, Kairi” Demyx exclaimed, wriggling out of Axel’s arm. He stumbled a little bit, trying to get used to being on his own two feet again. She glanced at Demyx, quirking an eyebrow at him.
“Do I know you?” Kairi asked, pretending not to recognise her friend. Demyx frowned, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Yes” he grumbled back.
“Wait, is your name Dmitri?” she teased, a smirk on her lips.
“No” Demyx groaned, throwing his head back. “Hang on. I like that” he murmured, looking back over at Kairi. “Yes, my name is Dmitri” he exclaimed with a grin, holding his hand out to her.
“You’re an idiot, Demyx” Kairi laughed, grabbing hold of his hand and shaking it. She was startled when Demyx suddenly pulled her forward. Kairi gazed at with questioning eyes.
“Do you have a pen?” he asked, staring down at her. Kairi stepped away from Demyx a little, getting back on her feet.
“Yeah” she murmured, still confused by Demyx’s actions.

Kairi rummaged through her bag, pulling out a pen. She held it out to Demyx.  He didn’t notice her as he tore off a post-it note from his stack and lightly stuck it to the surface of Zexion’s book. Demyx glanced over at her, seeing the pen in her hand.  He smiled at her before accepting the pen from Kairi. Demyx pressed the pen against the book, moving it around on the cover. Zexion felt his heart drop, hoping Demyx was writing on the post-it note and not on his book. He gave the pen back to Kairi and turned around in Zexion’s direction. He looked away, pretending he hadn’t been watching the trio. Zexion could hear Demyx’s approaching footsteps.  

“I took your book” Demyx said awkwardly. He peered over at Demyx, seeing the book in his out stretched arm. Zexion reached out and took the book from Demyx, surprised when the man ran away straight after. He glanced down at the book, staring at the orange post-it note on his book. He rotated the book around until the writing was the right way up. Zexion looked over the note, reading what Demyx had written.
“I told you that this book said ‘Zexion’s a jerk.’” Zexion shook his head after reading the sentence. He peeled the post-it off his book, finding that something was written on the other side. It was a sequence of ten numbers which Zexion later realised was a phone number.