The Tangent Lines

Chapter 27 - Human is a beautiful mix of light and darkness

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It's being here now that's important. There's no past and there's no future. Time is a very misleading thing. All there is ever, is the now. We can gain experience from the past, but we can't relive it; and we can hope for the future, but we don't know if there is one.

—George Harrison

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Chapter 27 - Human is a beautiful mix of light and darkness.

"Still mad at me?"

Here I am, standing on the extra Deutsch class after school. I was going to fetch my Deutsch dictionary on my locker before the lesson starts, but he stops me. I definitely forget that Tyler attends this class too. He's been following me since God knows when, and I have always found a way to avoid him.

You know, like Tom and Jerry.

He barricades the class door, and so far I'm still quiet as...

"Move, Tyler." I noticed he is wearing the tie today, the school's compulsory attribute that he never wears. Not even once. He doesn't even bother wearing it although Mr. Harrison never forgets to scold him every day on the disciplinary room.

"No, Chello. I will not move until you tell me why you are avoiding me."

"I'm not a—"

"Yes, you are!" His jaw tenses, which isn't good because I don't like seeing him mad. But then, I realize I'm the sole reason he is mad right now. See the irony?

"No, I'm not," I insist stubbornly, lying. I can't look at his eyes, or his lips. I just can't. If I do, I'll just make my heart beats frantically. And I don't want that to happen. I really need to stop this before I'm getting too attached.

"Look at me." God damn, I can't. His fingers touch my chin and make my eyes the same level as his. I can't help but feel electrified when he does that. What's so wrong with me?

His eyes look so intense and they pierce through mine, looking for the unwritten answers. Oh my God, what am I doing? I am hurting him because of my overthinking. What kind of person I am?

"I'm so sorry," my voice comes out barely a whisper, in croaked voice. His face softens when I apologize, his jaw relaxes. A soft sigh slips from his parted lips, probably because of my apology earlier. "Did I hurt you?" He asks, his fingers still linger on my jaw.

"No. I... I'm so sorry. I... I was... Trying to prank you." I hope he would not hate me for my attempt of lying, because it's simply so stupid and ridiculous. I can almost see Tyler twitches his eyes in confusion. I hope he buys the lie.

"Prank?" He gives me an are-you-kidding-me look and crosses his arms, "You're really a terrible liar, you know?"

"I... Uh... Just..." I stammer nervously, rummaging my own brain trying to find a decent reason but nothing comes out. "I was busy with my council work."

"Find another decent lie," he raises his right eyebrow, and I let out a nervous chuckle to ease the situation. "That's the most decent lie I can come up with."

"So you were lying, huh?" His eyebrow raises in challenge, satisfied that he found out I was lying. I just realized I admitted lying to him, which was so stupid and ridiculous. "I... Uh... No, I swear I wasn't lying. Just consider that I was busy slaying dragons or something," I gulp nervously, looking away. The red-haired girl, Pam, who always sits next to me on Deutsch is staring at us in curiosity, but quickly looks away when I caught her so. Just seconds later, she stands up and leaves the class, causing both of us alone on the class.