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I can see his features clearly now that it’s light outside. Jaws and cheekbones that are sharp, hair that is messy. He gives me a cold look that makes me stop laughing. His eyes are brown. I smile at him and mumble a quick “sorry,” getting ready to leave now that I’ve finally woken him up.
As I walk outside to my next class, I can feel holes burning on my head that make me shiver. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t remember me as the girl who ran into him yesterday.
I stop in my tracks all of a sudden. Please tell me I didn’t forget to tell him about the work.
I groan.
Next, I have history. I won’t go back to tell him because I’m running out of time. Skye and I are in the same class, but I can’t find her.
I should have told her to wait for me. I try to find the history class by myself. After walking for a few minutes, I’m outside looking for block B. I can see an old building.
I don’t think this is where my class is supposed to be. I see two boys when I look around. One of them is smoking.
“Is the little girl lost?” he asks when he sees me looking completely lost.
“Y-yeah. Can you help me out?” I ask them, hoping they will.
I see them looking at each other for a while, and then they smirk. Why would they grin? He throws the cigarette on the ground and steps on it to put out the fire.
“Sure, follow me,” the other one with the piercing says as he grabs my wrist and pulls me inside. I try to get my wrist out of his grip because I don’t like being touched. I give up; his grip is too strong.
“But you don’t even know what class I have,” I say, which makes him walk faster and hold my wrist tighter.
I can hear footsteps behind me; the other guy is following me. My blood runs cold. I try to grab my hand, but he holds my wrist so tightly that I know it will hurt tomorrow.
They lead me to one of the rooms. I scream for help, and then I feel a sharp pain in my right cheek. He hit me. He has both of my wrists in his hands, and the other person just stares at me with cloudy eyes.
I scream for help again, even though I know no one is there. What are they going to do? I shake in his grip, and another sting on my cheek makes my head whip to the side.
“Shut up,” the other guy says with a sneer as he holds my jaw tight.
I don’t remember what happened next. I see someone coming in. Is he a friend of theirs? Or did he come to help me after he heard me scream?
I can see black spots in my vision and the hold on me gets looser. My knees start to shake, and I close my eyes and welcome the dark.
The last thing I see is dark brown, almost black, deadly eyes staring at mine. They look like people I know.
I have heavy eyelids and am trying to open my eyes. I can’t see clearly and I don’t know what’s going on or where I am. My wrists hurt and my cheek hurts. I see someone in front of me, and I realise I’m sitting against the wall.
I try to figure out who it is. My heart rate goes up again.
I look at the eyes.
Brown.
I now know who it is. Even though I know who it is, I still can’t lower my heart rate. What if he is in charge of them? The guys. Everything is falling apart for me. I feel a shiver down my spine and try to breathe.
I can’t understand what he’s trying to say because he’s talking.
He tries to touch my face, but I pull away. After a long time, I see him get up and move away from me. It definitely helps me relax a bit. I can finally breathe normally after a long time. I don’t even know when I started crying.
I can hear him say “everything is okay” and mumble something about not knowing how to make someone feel better.
Comfort?
“Who are you guys?” I can finally say it. My throat is dry.
“I’m not one of them,” he says through clenched teeth, and his eyes go dark again. I stop looking at his eyes and pay attention to what’s around me. I see the same guys on the floor again. I feel a wave of relief.
“Did you k-kill them?”
“Should’ve,” he says in a low voice. I can tell that I’m getting calmer.
“Thank you,” I say with shaking lips as I look into his brown eyes.
He says darkly, “They’ll wake up in a few hours,” when he sees me looking at them. He sighs and runs his hands through his hair. “Let’s get you to the infirmary.”
“I don’t trust you,” I say to him honestly. What got me here was trust. I’m not going to make the same mistake twice.
“I get it. Call your friends, then.”
.
“I’m the worst,” Skye says with a sniff.
I roll my eyes. She’s said it more than twenty times, and I’m not even kidding.
“It’s not your fault,” I say with a sigh. “I should have just called you.”
“No, I should have called you,” she says with a groan. It’s been about an hour since it happened, and I’m feeling much better now. We eat lunch in twenty minutes, and I’m already hungry. I feel better after drinking the fruit juice Skye gave me. We are sitting under a tree in the school field.
“By the way, who beat those jerks?” Skye asks as she sits up straighter.
“I’ll show yo-”
“God,” Skye cuts me off. She stares behind me with wide eyes. When I turn around, I see the brown-eyed man leaning against a tree with a cigarette in his hand and a piercing look on his face.
I turn around.
I shakily say, “He’s the one.”
“No way,” Skye yells in a whisper.
“What?” I say, not understanding why she was so shocked.
“I didn’t know he could do that. We don’t know much about him. He doesn’t have any friends and is always alone. When someone tries to talk to him or anything, he beats the living daylights out of them, and everyone knows not to deal with him. Not even the teachers. His dad has connections, so no one can do anything to him. We just act like he doesn’t exist.”
I can’t believe it. I remember yelling at him to wake up, but he didn’t do anything to me except give me a cold look. He might have let it go because he was tired.
I tell her, “That’s scary.” She just shakes her head.
Interesting.
“What’s his name?”
“Austin.”
Austin
“I’ve been paired with him,” I say. “For my English class.”
Her eyes get as big as tennis balls.
“You what?”
“I sat next to him so-”
“What did you say?”
I sigh and look down at my hands. Why is it so hard to live?