I don't wanna be your friend

Chapter 12

"Lancaster, I've decided to give you another chance to submit your presentation on polymers. But I'll only consider 20% of it for your final grade. You lose the remaining 10%. Anyone in the class has any objection regarding it?" Mr Patterson announced in his composed, authoritative voice and was answered with silence as none of the students presented any complaint towards his decision— leaving Cedric doubting himself if he had heard the words right or if the hallucinations were finally kicking into effects.

But as Mr Patterson kept glaring at him pointedly and the class continued to hold the pin-drop silence, Cedric realised that they were waiting for his answer. He nodded quickly, mentally hitting himself for zoning out and said, "thank you, sir", while trying to duck his head from all the attention that he was receiving.

"With that sorted, let's start today's lesson", Mr Patterson said, making everyone straighten their backs and listen to him attentively— that was just the effect Mr Patterson had, and most students didn't understand how he managed to affect them in that manner. Cedric got suspicious at Mr Patterson's words because the whole deal didn't make sense. Cedric kept trying to piece it together; about what could've changed Mr Patterson— his strictly strict teacher's mind.

A nagging thought poked him at the back of his head, and Cedric tried to predict the possibility of it being true. He turned around and looked at the raven-haired boy— sitting diagonally behind Cedric— who was pretending as though he was writing down something important in his notes. But one look at Damien and that subtle smug smile he was trying to hide, and Cedric knew it in his gut that it was Damien's doing. He kept shooting daggers at Damien with his glare, willing Damien to look at him and the scowl that he was trying hard to suppress. But Damien acted all nonchalant though he knew Cedric was trying to get his attention.

Sighing frustratedly, Cedric turned front and tried to put aside the bundle of emotions swirling inside him and feel relieved about his chemistry assignment's new status. But he inwardly hissed at the thought of being grateful to Damien again. After around two minutes, his phone vibrated in his pocket, indicating that a new text was waiting for him. Cedric didn't have to take a guess even for once to know who it was from. Even in a whole month, he hadn't received as many texts as he did in the last three days, and even in an entire year, he doubted if he rolled his eyes as much as he had in the last three days.

It all started with Damien's first text to Cedric:

I don't want to know that the sandwich I gave you ended up dying due to the suffocation in your bag. I spent my precious money on it.

Cedric had rolled his eyes as soon as he read the text, but then he remembered that he forgot about the sandwich altogether. Stuffing his phone back, he angrily chewed onto the sandwich before his tennis practice started.

And then followed a random series of texts at random times, all from Damien, which were loaded with random lame stuff. It confused him at first— about why Damien would waste his time texting Cedric crap; but when he took a closer look at the situation, Cedric realised that all the text were delivered with only one intent— to keep irritating Cedric. And naturally, Cedric didn't find any of them significant enough to reply. But just like all other times that his phone vibrated, he gave into his stupid curiosity and pulled his phone out to read the text.

Eyes on the board, not on me.
But you can't blame them. 😉

Cedric rolled his eyes again and sighed deeply in frustration and cringe. Damien was so corny at times that Cedric started questioning his entire existence and life choices about how he could ever think that Damien was attractive. He shook his head slightly to prevent those intrusive thoughts from making their way into his head and tried to focus on the class— which proceeded smoothly after that.