“We’re so sorry, Anna. We thought you already went home. We kept looking for you but Andrew said you already went for a ride with someone. So I thought why don’t I call you for sure. But then I realized I don’t have your cellphone number.”
They were now at their lunch table. Bea, Victoria, and Keira sat opposite Anna, who was having a hard time eating her lunch. She still couldn’t believe what happened earlier before School. As soon as she had left Jake inside his truck, she immediately went to the bathroom to wash her mouth, not being able to handle the taste of his lips stinging at the back of her throat. Why did he even have to kiss her? It would’ve made things so much easier if he just told her his specific age.
“Wait.” Anna frowned, looking at Bea. “You said Andrew told you I went for a ride with someone?”
“Well, yeah. You know Andrew, right?”
She nodded her head.
“And you did go for a ride with someone?” Victoria asked, wiggling her eyebrows.
“Yes.. and no,” she said. “I didn’t go for a ride with someone before you guys left. I was actually looking for my phone which I had left after the football practice. I didn’t see Andrew in the parking lot nor any of you guys after I found my phone.”
The girls frowned at her, confused. Anna couldn’t really blame them. Why would Andrew even lie about something like that? Perhaps it was all a misunderstanding?
“Well, then,” Keira said, interrupting the silence on the table, “Looks like Andrew has an explanation to do.”
“Oh, my! Holy cow!” Bea exclaimed suddenly, looking closely stunned at Anna. All the girls’ eyes turned to look at her and gasped also, eyes widening and mouths hanging open.
Anna flushed at their stare. She frowned, confused at their actions. “What?”
Bea leaned over the table and whisper-yelled, “Oh, God. There are hickeys all over your neck! Is there something you’re not telling us?!”
Anna’s cheeks turned red as she quickly pulled her hood over her head to hide her face from their suspecting eyes.
She heard their silent laughs and if possible, she turned even redder.
“OK. Talk,” Keira demanded, slamming her hand on the table and smirking at her.
“It’s just a hickey,” she muttered under her breath.
“A hickey, huh?” Bea questioned. “Just a hickey? There are more than what I saw and I bet there are much more down your chest.” Bea smirked.
Covering her face with her hands, Anna groaned, cheeks burning.
“No secrets are left unrevealed here, Darling. So who is it?” Victoria asked, grinning.
Silence stretched onwards. She wasn’t really sure how she would answer their questions. She wasn’t even sure if she had been dreaming or awake that night! All she definitely remembered was his lips. Those soft lips caressing hers. Those warm lips sucking the burning skin of her neck and shoulders. Those lips igniting pleasure and burning her core.
“Anna, who’s the lover boy?” asked Keira, interrupting her thoughts.
“Well,” she sighed, cheeks flaming. “I actually have no idea who he is.”
She shyly looked at the girls who were gaping at her answer. After three seconds, they burst out, laughing their ässes off.
“Oh, God! You’re serious!” Bea laughed. “And you let him kiss you even though you didn’t know who he is?”
How could she ever stop blushing like an idiot? she asked herself.
“Maybe,” Anna mumbled shyly.
“Was he all over you?” Keira asked, seeming so interested. “Tall, dark, and handsome?”
“Uhm, I didn’t.. I didn’t see his face,” she murmured softly.
“What?!”
“It was dark. And it was hard to tell–”
“What?!”
“Well, I.. didn’t really care who he is,” she softly muttered under her breath. “But it felt like.. like there are sparks flying everywhere.. You know what I mean?”
The girls looked at each other knowingly and Anna frowned.
“It was your fücking mate!” exclaimed Keira just as Bea quickly covered her mouth. But the words were all left already hanging in the air.
“You mean, my soul mate?” Anna asked, breaking the silence. “Yeah, right.” She remembered John said the School was full of horny teenagers searching for their soul mates. Keira’s words just proved what John had told her.
Bea looked at Keira, as if telling her something with just the look in their eyes and Anna watched the scene, confused.
Just as she was about to ask something, groups of guys entered the cafeteria: football players. They entered all at once and the Junior team quickly went to the girls’ table. Anna glanced around and saw John, Andrew, Jake, and Zach in the Senior football team’s table, along with two other unknown guys.
“Hey, Anna.”
Anna turned around to look at Ben who sat beside her. “Hey.” She smiled, forgetting everything about when they ditched her yesterday. Despite the fact that they still left her, she couldn’t really blame them about it. She had forgiven them. She was that kind of girl, a forgiving person to the very core of her soul.
“Is something wrong?” Bea asked the boys who were now sat at their table, noticing their very happy faces.
“Everything is absolutely wonderful!” Harry exclaimed and the other boys let out their laughs and grins, agreeing.
Victoria raised her eyebrow at their sudden happiness. “What’s up with you guys?” she asked.
“We won several times over Seniors,” said Liam. “Jake’s been really so out of focus lately.”
“He’s been so lost in the game earlier,” Ben said. “I asked him what’s up with him because he looks like shït. He doesn’t even talk. I think he’s become mute or something.”
Hearing that Jake had been really so out of focus, Anna felt guilty for somehow but she ignored the feeling.
“That guy is insane! Look!” James pointed at the table of the Seniors’ team. All of them turned their heads to look. There were girls surrounding the Senior team’s table, all of them flirting with the guys. However, Jake, who looked like he was drunk, was shoving his tongue down a blonde’s throat.
“Disgusting,” Victoria muttered under her breath.
“She’s kinda hot, though,” Harry commented, smiling to himself.
Anna stood up suddenly, feeling an uneasy feeling in her stomach. “I gotta go.”
“Wait, what? But it’s been only a few minutes after lunch break started,” said Bea.
“Sorry, I just gotta do something.” Excusing herself, Anna pulled back her seat and quickly walked out of the cafeteria.
Outside, she went to her locker to get some good novel book to read for the mean time instead of thinking what happened in the cafeteria. She had stocked some good books inside her locker before. Once she opened her locker door, she was surprised when a small piece of paper fell down her boots. She picked it up and saw words written in capital letters:
RED,
I’M SORRY.
JAKE