Debbie's investigation has been ongoing but exhausting. Instead, she inspects it while doing her things. Simultaneous to these are the unavoidable stares of this newbie to her. One day there will be a confrontation and she knows it.
Hazel just told her the other day that a lot of people are trying to hang out with this Liam. He is a very quiet type of person and even the main director nominated him to be one of the extras. If he knows how to act, he can enter showbiz (slang term for show business) and become the main star of the project that they are doing.
In fact, she has a hunch that the team is persuading him non-stop.
This guy gives off the aura same as the protagonist that she imagined however it is quite distinct in ways she cannot explain, perhaps it is because she knows what the mystery of her protagonist, but the mystery surrounding Liam is unknown to her.
It is probably the same reason why she is undeniably into him. Debbie is always the nerdy ambivert. She can interact with everyone but not all the time, often warm yet detached. Although distant, her mind can be circling about this guy non-stop and sometimes the person she avoids the most is the one she is into the most. She has a sort of a character that loves mind adventure, exploring things astrological, biological, spirtual and psychological facts and events.
Romance became less interesting to her; men are lame unless they are a friend who vibes with her.
She's not into just fictional magic or just fiction alone, not even the things that are just made up and created by the mind baselessly but theories with premises and supporting ideas, proofs/evidence, and things that link together like puzzles. History and customs and how people reacted to those phenomenas so you can critique them.
She looks for things that will stimulate her brain cells, like the Dyson sphere that she discovered recently.
A Dyson Sphere is a hypothetical megastructure proposed to capture most or all of the energy output of a star—like our Sun. It was originally imagined by physicist Freeman Dyson in 1960 as a thought experiment about how an advanced civilization could meet gigantic energy needs.
She is taking down notes on her scratchpad, even draws a possible output. Quite busy that she is unable to notice someone's arrival from behind.
Fingers touched the upper edge of the paper; she finally lifted her head to see who was it.
And from that instance the focus was retracted from her interest to the things that bother her.
Liam is standing in front of her. She was seated at her desk, listening to music.
"What now?" would be the exact rude phrase to say, seeing him making an obvious move for interaction. "Yes, how can I help you? You are Liam the newbie, right?" She said instead while removing her earpods.
Liam sat with her. "Can I sit here" he asked his deep voice was clear.
She nodded. They are at the work's cafeteria. Everyone is in their shift. What ruckus might probably happen?
"Nice meeting you. I don't think we've had a proper self-introduction before. Hi, I'm Debbie," she smiled. She interacts with him lightly. She is a gaslighter herself. She is the first one who appears hostile. She is the first one to make excuses and avoided him, not to mention when they met and crossed paths at the pedestrian yesterday. She was the first to run.
"Liam," his brief answer.
"I saw you yesterday; do you take the same route going home?" covering up the act of ignoring him. "I'm sorry, I'm in a hurry," she said but the real words are. "I don't know you yet and you are creepy. Let us establish a connections first where you and I can be acquaintances at least," because she knows that he knows the answer to her questions. In short, she start beating around the bush first but...
"No," Liam answered. He read what is underneath clearly, like he knows her very well.
Debbie was dumbfounded, "Wait what?" She asked. 'Did he just answered 'No' to my question', she thought.
"If that's how you want to put things?," he muttered. Debbie found herself guilty. She was caught by her own snare. His statement complied and set the conversation phase away from the answer, where her plan is to move slowly towards it.
If everything were normal for Deborah, she might be one candidate for the most toxic manipulators, gaslighter and narcissists. It looks like her predicaments had humbled her greatly.
A delinquent faces another delinquent.
"Wait, can I still?" She was interrupted trying to take back and rewrite the situation. Liam lay his back in a relaxed sitting position looking down on her. He has the dead eyes stare. An emotionless look of a predator towards its prey. She then realized that she made a mistake.
Liam is different when he was with the others. In fact, this side of him is the very same person who deal with the demon who tried to attack her.
"So, this is your true color?" She asked. He smirked one more time and he started the game that she wanted to play.
He looked at the sketch that she was doing. He smiled in a such nostalgic tender way. In that instant he switched personality. "You are really eager of such things that making it for other's sake is...barely effortlessly nothing" he muttered, like it was coming from somewhere deep. They've just known each other for how many days and talk for not even an hour.
"Excuse me?" She said asking, baffled at his words.
"I mean, at work" he said clearing.
He is a man of a few words but would that also mean that it will take time for all her questions to be answered? Does she needs to deal with him a little longer than what she intended to?
'Wild one' she thought. He is also doing this to stay. It is beneficial for him because he knows that she'll remove her back to being 'the stranger at the distant' when her questions are already answered. This narcissist woman is so obsessed with her peace that she remove anything that will destroy what she established.