The hallways were as usual bubbling with life, annoyingly noisy as I left Seth, waved goodbye at him and then went straight to my locker. Needless to say, I hadn’t been approached by anybody… what, with my having Seth as my only friend, there was no wonder there.
I retrieved what I needed, slammed the door of my locker shut and then, sighing, rested my forehead against its cool metal, trying and failing to clear my mind a little bit.
All of a sudden, the bell rang, startling me out of my musings, making me realize that that failed attempt of mine had taken much more time than one would have thought. I straightened up and then turned around, preparing myself for some running-in-the-hallway exercise, but found my gaze caught under the spell of those mesmerizing electric blue eyes I had desperately tried but failed to hate… true, I hadn’t gotten to the point of loving them but I most definitely did not despise them as I had hoped I would.
“Good morning,” his voice was what broke the spell.
I was finally able to break the eye-contact and let my stare fall on the black dress shirt that stretched across his toned chest, and then on his dark blue jeans that were just the right seize neither too tight nor too baggy.
The sight was pleasant, yes, but it was too soon much too soon for me to confront him. I had hoped I would have more time to get my wits together, but life wasn’t that simple and luck had never been on my side when it was most needed.
“Hi,” was the weak response he got as I stubbornly and truth be told, cowardly avoided his questioning gaze.
“How are you?” though he had yet to invade my personal space, his nearness was almost overwhelming.
Scratch that, I mentally corrected, as it is, his mere presence is enough to disturb my peace of my mind.
But then again, my mind hadn’t really been at peace to begin with. I had been thinking about him, about the mess that was our ‘relationship’ and whatnots. His showing up was not helping, not in the least bit.
“I gotta go to class,” the hold I had on my things tightened a little bit, my gaze darted to the empty hallway before I scurried away, making my escape… or not, for I could hear him following me.
Space. I freaking need space, I mentally bit out but refrained from lashing out at him in reality.
On a second thought, maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing after all having to face him, that is. I needed to stop running away from my problems and start facing them.
Easier said than done, I mentally snorted. My thoughts, that were spinning out of control, clashing then fading away as quickly as they appeared, were nothing short of an indescribable mess.
“You seem troubled,” he observed from behind me, seemingly courteous enough to let me enjoy the little advance I had on him.
I could almost taste a little bit of worry tainting his words and I had to bite the inside of my cheek in order to stop my bitter, fiercely independent I-don’t-need-you-to-concern-yourself-with-me retort.
“I’m fine,” I was being purposely dismissive, hoping to put an end to the conversation.
“Are you sure?”
Damn is he insistent! My muscles were getting tenser and tenser and the urge to snap at him grew stronger.
“Yes,” I hissed through my greeted teeth, practically jogging through the hallway, wishing I would soon be entering the classroom.
“I’m not buying it,” he replied tautly, “Why must you rebuff me all the time?”
I kept my lips zipped, trying to maintain some sort of composure and not give in to the temptation a snappy scornful retort presented.
My chest heaved with a silent sigh of relief as I finally reached my destination. The classroom was no longer a word synonym of boredom or studies. Just then, I almost pictured it as my sanctuary, my way of salvation for, surely, once inside, he couldn’t carry on like this.
Without a second thought, I turned the knob and walked in, affecting a calm, much slower pace when there was nothing more I wanted to do than run straight to my desk.
I had to free myself from his unnervingly disturbing presence if I ever wanted to have a chance at linear thoughts… but that wasn’t happening anytime soon, was it? He had after all transferred to all of my classes.
I nodded, giving the teacher a pale apologetic smile as he finished his scolding and then made a beeline to my desk where Jonathan, of course, followed me since he occupied the desk right next to mine.
This is going to be long day, I silently sighed.