(Random snippet I saw based on a prompt. The prompt is the first line and I kinda just continued it. Enjoy! 🙃 ~Willow)

I saw a face that wasn’t mine in the mirror one morning, and instantly fell in love.

I stared into the mirror in disbelief. The boy’s face, instead of reflecting my confusion, had a small, unsurprised smirk on it, the corner of his eyes wrinkling in a quiet, hidden smile. His dirty blond hair was unruly, he had a dash of freckles along his nose, and dark brown eyes.

I watched as slipped one of his hands into his black pants pockets and rubbed his slightly stubbled jaw with the other.

Unsure of what I was doing, I waved.

He waved back.

I opened my mouth to speak, to see if he would do the same, but instead he smiled and waited patiently.

“Who are you?” I wondered, my voice barely above a whisper. He shrugged, his mouth moving as if he was talking but no sound came out.

“Can you hear me?”

He nodded, and then spoke again.

“I can’t hear you,” I admitted, hoping he’d asked the question which I responded to. He nodded slowly, realizing our problem.

The boy held up a finger, telling me to wait, and he disappeared from the frame of my mirror. His disappearance woke me up, in a way.

What was I doing? Who was he? What happened? And…where had he gone inside my mirror?

I pressed my face against the mirror, trying to find the world he’d gone in. All I saw was glass. Not even my reflection was there.

He reappeared, walking into the frame and jumped at the sight of my face so up close.

Immediately I stepped back, embarrassed. I apologized and he grinned, waving the apology away. He held up a dry-erase board and marker and wrote a few hasty words on it before showing me.

You’re good. Common mistake. What’s your name?

Common mistake? Did that mean he’d met people through mirrors before? I pushed that thought into a corner of my mind for later.

“Emilee,” I said. “But—not E-m-i-l-y, it’s spelled differently.” I quickly spelled it and the boy nodded. “What’s yours? And…where did you go?”

He nodded, pulling the board down to his lap and writing on it for a few minutes and then held it up again for me.

Tristan. It’s nice to meet you Emilee. That’s a pretty name. When I walked out I went to a place outside the frame. It’s hard to explain, especially on a small board like this.

Proving his point, he quickly erased those words before writing more and showing it to me. I’ve never had anyone not hear me before.

“So…you’ve met other people in their mirrors before?” I clarified. He gave me a thumbs up and a grin. “Um…” I ran a hand through my hair, and then realized that I must look like a mess, considering I woke up a few minutes ago. “Oh crap. Uh, I’ll be right back.” Snatching a pair of jeans and a relatively cute top from my closet, I scurried into the bathroom and changed and ran a brush through my hair quickly.

When I reentered my bedroom, I saw Tristan writing furiously on his markerboard. I cleared my throat and managed a sheepish smile. Tristan glanced up, and his eyes widened at the sight of me and with his elbow, he erased the words he’d written on his board and replaced it with new ones. Shyly, he raised it to face me.

You look really good Emilee.

I flushed but smiled, fingering the edge of my shirt. “Thanks. Um, anyways…” I shot a question at him, one I’d been wondering while I got dressed. “How many people have you met in mirrors? And why?”

For some unknown reason, I felt…jealous. I wasn’t the only one. He’d probably met other girls, girls who did their makeup in front of that mirror and who only showed their gorgeous side. Not that they had an ugly side, but that just proved my point. I was probably the only one who he saw like this.

About ten other people. But you’re the first girl.

Oh. That was…unexpected. I suppose that I’d assumed him to have met tons of girls who showed him their beautiful worlds through that one of their many mirrors. But it was just me. I felt bad for being the one to show him what girls actually looked like.

“Wait, so you’ve never seen a girl before?” I gaped at him.

No, I’ve seen them before but not in a mirror.

“Right. Um, we’ll go back to that. How did you get in my mirror?”

Like I said, it’s hard to explain all of it on one board, but I live in Noitcelfer.

“How do you say that?” I laughed, trying it out. “In…in-oo-aht-sell-fer?

That’s about right. Tristan’s smile grew as I repeated the word over and over again and I noticed he had nice teeth. White and straight. Shut up, Emilee! I scolded myself. He’s a boy in a mirror. Just a really cute boy in your mirror.

“So, Tristan,” I began, “how old are you?”

Eighteen, came his short reply. Hm, okay. Only a year older than me. I shook the thought out of my head. Not important.

Tristan added a line to the board. How about you? And what’s your favorite color?

“I’m seventeen.” For some reason I felt inclined to add, “But I’ll be eighteen in a few months. And…probably green. Like, a deep emerald green. What’s yours?”

Blue, like a grey-ish blue.

We both sat there, quiet—well, not that he chose to be quiet, but whatever—and then I spoke again. “Are there others?”

Other whats?

“I’m not sure. Others of you. In mirrors, I guess. Are there more in my mirror?” I peered around him, half-expecting to find a group of teenage boys hiding behind Tristan.

He laughed—or, I think he did, his shoulders were shaking and he was smiling—and nodded as he flipped his board around. Yeah, there are more. Not in your mirror, I’m the only one. But there are more. There’s about fifty other guys and about ten girls.

“It’s a group?” Woah. This was wild.

Yep. We can appear anywhere there are reflections. Glass, water, mirrors, metal, all sorts of stuff. It’s like a portal basically. But there is a single place that doesn’t have reflections that we are allowed in.

He paused, letting me read this, before turning it around, erasing the words, and writing more.

It’s called the Safety Room. Dumb name, I know, but it’s our hiding place. The only place we can be together all at once.

My brow furrowed. “You can’t be together in a single mirror?”

Tristan shook his head, eyes on the board. Flipping it to face me, he shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. Nope. That’s not how we work. We find others in mirrors, and interact with them if necessary. But only one at a time and only one to a person. It’s like your guardian angel thing. But we’re Reflectors.