Don't Catch Me!

Chapter 2 - Chocolate and Hair

Chapter 2 - Chocolate and Hair

I closed my eyes as the bell signalling the lunch break rang.  Chocolate, I reminded myself, buy lots of chocolate today.  Chocolate was the one thing that would pacify Elise.  When humiliated and rejected some girls went for ice-cream, some went for fast food, but Elise was in the chocolate camp.  Me, well I wasn’t the wallowing type.  I liked to get even.  But that was another story.

There was nothing I could do to stop the public ridiculing Elise was about to walk straight into and, in some ways, nothing I wanted to do.  She brought it on herself.  I couldn’t stop hoping that sooner or later the penny was going to drop and she would see what she was becoming.  But hey, I wasn’t holding my breath.  I was an optimist not a daydreamer.

I didn’t hurry to lunch.  I never hurried to lunch.  So the hallway was deserted as I slowly walked rehearsing the various soothing speeches.  

So, I wasn't exactly concentration when the wall of air hit me immediately in front of the smooth, flat surface that rushed to meet me.  A blunt pain struck me in the centre of my chest.  My eyes flung open and my head snapped up.   I fell backwards landing unceremoniously on my bum.  My books scattered around me. 

“What the...” I looked up at the door now directly in front of me and half opened. 

My books, which were luckily held to my chest, took the brunt of the collision.  The handle of the door, that was opened so abruptly directly in my path, left a dent one of my text books. I wasn't going to complain though, this saved my nose and face from the impacting with the edge of the door.

The swearing on the other side of the door indicated that the other party involved had not been so fortunate. 

I struggled to my feet, slightly stunned, the door swung back revealing him, the new guy, who was now holding the side of his face, still swearing.  He turned clearly about to shout at me, then his eyes widened and dropped away from mine.  His hands fell to his sides forming fists.

“Haven’t you done enough yet?” He growled low and with undisguised hatred.  “Why are you even here?”  His face had a long bruise forming down the left side where the edge of the door must have come in contact with his cheek bone.

“What?”  I took a deep breath and pushed my annoyance down.  He was injured and lashing out.  I ground my teeth.  “You have hurt yourself, you should get...”

“Hurt myself?  I don’t think so!  You need to look where you are going.”

“Where I was going?  It was you who opened the door!”

“And what, that’s a crime?  In case you haven’t noticed – the doors all open outwards.”  His voice was seething with anger, “Normal people might look out for these things.  Normal people might walk in the middle of the hallway to avoid this sort of event.  Normal people might be careful.”

“I never claimed to be normal,” I growled back quietly.  “And who died and appointing you Lord and Master?”

His face immediately paled which made his bruise more pronounced.  Ohh hell, he was going to faint.  His eyes quickly found mine, they were wide yet overflowing with some unspoken emotion, something painful.  He just stood there and just sort of gaped at me.

“Hey are you alright?  Do you want me to take you to the nurse?” I asked worried now. 

“What? Are you going to push me down some stairs on the way?” he scoffed quietly as he hid his expression by turning away.  When he looked back his eyes were hard and cold again.