Love Like Oxygen

The Most Strange Encounter Yet?

Jace's POV

“Listen up,” Aiden bickered at me. “Do I have to remind you all the time that clean clothes should always be separated from the dirty clothes?” He adjusted his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose in irritation. Even if I was the older sibling, he was the responsible one, and I hated that fact. “How many times have I told you?”

I rolled my eyes, sitting up from my bed. “Plenty,” I muttered.

He crossed his arms and tossed me a newly washed uniform. “Here, get dressed in that uniform before first period starts. I have somewhere to go. You also have to go to the principal’s office, too. The old man says he needs to talk to you.”

This had ignited some attention in me, awakening me from the lack of it. The principal, eh? Probably he wants to scribble down my information since I was a new student in the second year. Whatever the reason was, it nipped at me. I didn’t like talking to adults and staff. It was… unnatural, if you call it.

He paused before leaving. “And do it properly,” he warned.

And by properly, he meant inside shirt tucked in, top fully buttoned, and following all those uniform rules, yada-yada. The way I dressed was completely the opposite of that. Aiden always said I dressed like an animal, but that’s what he thinks.

It’s an hour before class, I wanted to say, but he had left anyway.

Disregarding my brother’s guideline, I dressed improperly as I usually did. Dressing “properly” is just way out of my comfort zone. I sloppily combed my hair with one hand, while the other adjusted my tie. As soon as I was finished, I walked calmly out the dorm room and into the hallways.

Woo-hoo, it’s the second day of school.

“Aish…” I muttered under my breath, running a single free hand through my tousled chocolate hair. This ‘Everly’ performing arts school was going to take a lot of getting used to, also with those students.

Aiden took responsibility and insisted on attending this school, both because I was a guitarist, and he was talented in drawing. Categorized under Fine Arts, he took that opportunity to raise himself to become a well known artist one day. For me, I had other plans.

I intentionally had no dreams of my future. No faith in myself, nor faith from others. The only people to blame were my dead parents who left us to become orphans. It was desolately second-rate to discover that Aiden was my younger brother, yet he was the one to act like the older one. Responsible for everything, being the best at everything, getting the most girls… let’s not go there.

I walked into the principal’s office nonchalantly, stuffing my cold hands into my pants pockets for warmth. I found the principal sitting beside a large marble tiled counter, which I assumed to be his desk, while he was currently busy talking to the phone. I raised an eyebrow.

“Ah, yes. I know, I know. Hm, I do too. Well, what do you expect from me?” Carefree, he was spinning in his ebony black office chair, a wide smile plastered on his broad face as his hand was gripping a Samsung phone. “Okay, honey. I know, I’ll make sure to buy more soap. And not the one dollar store this time, I promise.”

The back of the chair was facing me, so he wasn’t fully aware of my presence…yet.

“No need to scream at me, dear. I just said, I won’t.” That lady he was talking to sure had a hell of a loud voice, because I could hear her right through the phone when it wasn’t even on speaker. “It’s not my problem to bathe in cheap soap, okay?”

When he rotated, his eyes grew wide of embarrassment. “Bye, honey,” he muttered gallingly to the phone, and slammed it against the counter.

He folded his hands together, laying them on the smooth table as he forced a stern mood. “Don’t you students know how to knock?” the principal said strictly. Seriously, was he bipolar? One minute, he’s cheery talking to his wife. The next, he’s annoyed about buying soap. And now, he’s severe.