Heartstrings

Chapter 5: Bruises

Emma's perspective

I spastically pumped my foot up and down as the tardy bell rang for first block. Jake's theatrics from the night before had confused me beyond all rhyme and reason and I'd tossed and turned the entire night trying to make sense of what had happened. 

Faint, purple rings outlined my under eyes and my messy, unkempt hair rebelled against the lazy bun I'd thrown it in. I couldn't focus after the way things had ended. Jake had come within millimeters of kissing me – and I had let him – and then to top off our evening, he'd all but thrown me off his property when his dad got home.

My imagination whirled with every possible explanation, but above all, I felt this deep, writhing sensation in my gut that something very horrible had happened. I stared at the door willing him to appear with each passing moment.

- Ms. Knight?

My head snapped towards the front of the classroom where my calculus teacher, Mr. Howard, stood impatiently.

- Could you please pass your homework up?

- I... oh, so sorry.

Just as I was scrambling through my binder to retrieve my homework, Jake walked into the classroom. I looked up to see him wearing a black hoodie under his letterman jacket; his face was hardly visible, and his eyes were glued to the floor. I peered at his face, trying to get a better look.

- Ah, Mr. Healy. How nice of you to join us.

Jake pulled his homework out and handed it to Mr. Howard as he walked by. He brushed right past me, making a beeline for his seat towards the back of the classroom.

- Jake, would you mind taking your hood off please? You're late enough, I don't want to bother with sending you to the office for a dress code violation.

Jake slowly pulled his hood down from over his head and my heart completely shattered. Bruises wrapped around his neck, and he had gashes in his lip and above his eyebrow. I stared at him as my eyes welled with tears. Nobody noticed the state he was in except for me – no one even looked his way.

I felt sick to my stomach. Suddenly everything made sense. The panic in his eyes when he heard the car. The way he urged me to leave so quickly. The fact that he slept over at my house almost every goddamn night. I kept staring at him hoping he would look up from his desk and meet my eyes, but he didn't. He wouldn't look up – he wouldn't look at me.

- Alright class, I graded your tests from last Thursday, so pick them up from my desk at the end of class. Today we're going to review asymptotes. Anyone want to tell me what asymptotes are? Emma?

I turned and finally faced forward in my desk, looking up at the board blankly with tears still welling in my eyes. I looked at the board as I processed what Mr. Howard had asked -

- An asymptote is a line that approaches an axis but never touches it.

- Correct. No matter how far you go into infinity, the line will never actually reach the axis, but it will get closer and closer.

Asymptotes. Asymptotes. Like the way Jake's lips got closer and closer to mine last night, but no matter how many times I replay the scene in my head, our lips never touched.

Mr. Howard droned on, but I stared numbly at my notes in front of me. Finally, the bell rung, and I looked up to see Jake move swiftly to Mr. Howard's desk, pick up his test, and promptly leave without a single acknowledgement of my existence. I hurriedly grabbed my test, too, and raced after him in the hallway. But he'd already disappeared somewhere in the melee.