The Boy with the Snakebite Piercings - Hiatus

Chapter 2 - Dark Times

I took a deep breath to shake off some of my frustration and then I nervously pushed the door open and stepped inside. Mr Hardy gave me a warm smile and asked me to introduce myself to the class. After the formalities were out of the way, he told the class to begin working on determining the empirical formula of copper chloride (whatever that means). He told me that he'd have to assign me a lab partner that was quite advanced in the subject because, as he could tell from the results from my previous school, chemistry wasn't my strongest subject.

"Ah, I have just the right student for you to work with!" His eyes twinkled as he said, "Adrian Hallister should do nicely. He's refused to work with anyone this entire semester and due to his impeccable grades, it has been quite difficult to think of a valid argument for why he should. But now, as he's the only student without a lab partner, he'll have to work with you". I was getting that unwanted feeling again and as I began to think that this was possibly the most unfriendly school that I'd ever been to, Edge came to the front of the class. 

"Mr Hardy, from your intense eye-contact, i think that its safe to assume that you want something?"

"Ah, yes Mr Hallister. Our new student, Miss Carlyle is in need of a lab partner and I think that you would be the most suitable candidate."

"But Sir, I've told you before, I work alone and-"

"-No arguing Adrian. The girl needs help and I've decided that I'm going to start grading you all on teamwork for this project. Now run along. I have Freshman papers to grade." 

Edge grumbled as he walked back to his station. I gave Mr Hardy a nervous glance and he smiled back and waved me along before pushing his spectacles higher up his nose and returning to his work.

I stumbled over to Edge's work station and said "So Adrian Hallister, huh? nice name." 

He glared down at the test tubes that he was arranging, but didn't reply. 

"So how does this experiment work exactly? I mean do you need me to do something or have you got it all covered?"

He glared at me with an irritated expression, then walked over to a shelf and pulled down two pairs of safety goggles. 

"To protect your eyes from the copper chloride", he said as he handed me a pair.

"Aww Adrian! So you do care about me. Who knew the menacing Edge had a heart!"

He leaned forward until there was only a few inches of space between us and my heart-beat accelerated. "Let's get something straight here. My name is Edge." I gulped. "And the goggles are standard protocol. If you don't wear them, you get banned from any experiments for the rest of the semester and we both get an F for the subject". He leaned back and I tried to catch my breath. He was smirking to himself as he continued to set of the practical. 

"Oh. I'm new so i didn't realise... I'm still figuring things out... I'm going to get some more beakers," I mumbled and headed to the supply closet.

I entered the supply closet and easily found the beakers. I turned to leave the room and accidentally knocked over a pile of textbooks. They hit the door and it slammed shut. I was suddenly in pitch darkness. I looked around the room and gasped. See, i have a terrible phobia of the dark. I rushed to open the door what it was locked from the inside! My heart-rate increased and I began hyperventilating. 

"Oh God, not the dark! not the dark again! Help! Help me somebody!" I began sobbing loudly. I tripped and started rocking backwards and forwards on the floor. 

My cries eventually faded until they were nothing but short gasps but the rocking continued. I was stuck in the closet for what felt like years but was probably only ten minutes or so. Edge had gotten curious as to what had taken me so long and so he came and opened the supply closet to see me, looking like an absolute wreck, rocking on the floor. Genuine concern flashed across his features. 

He said "Woah! You look like shit!"

I glared at him and said "Gee thanks! Thats what every girl wants to hear." I rested my head on my knees.

He silently sat down on the floor next to me and wiped my eyes with his sleeve. After several minutes, he said "Are you ok? What even happened here?"

I paused for a long minute before I said, "it's the dark. it terrifies me." 

He looked at me quizzically but didn't ask why.

I paused again then said "it's because of my dad. When I was twelve, he used to sneak into my room at night and draw the blinds and turn of the light until it we were surrounded in pitch blackness and... and then he'd..." I whimpered.

"Shh Serena. Everything is going to be ok. Relax and tell me when you're ready. Now, lets get back to class before Mr Hardy catches us here." He began to get up as if to leave but I pulled him back down.

I took a deep breath, "No. I need to finish what I started. He used to touch me. He... he hurt me sometimes but I don't think he meant to. He was lonely you see". Edge's eyes filled with anger and hate but when he spoke, it was soft and gentle. 

"Take a deep breath, Serena. Lets just get back to the experiment okay?" He picked up the beakers and held out his other hand to help me up. I gratefully took it and and then he enveloped me in a tight hug. 

"I.. uhh... dont usually give hugs but I guess I could make an exception just this once." I smiled up at him. After another minute, we headed back to class. Hand in hand.

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Authors Note

Hey! So Chapter 2 is published *cheers*

I'm worried that the story might be moving too quickly. let me know what you think in the comments and vote if you liked it

Until next time,

AngelOfPen

xx