Out of the blue

7: Bad boy am I?

Nile's Pov

'Take your jacket off'

I said casually as I took off mine.

'No, I'm good'

Cass shook her head determinedly. Instead of pulling it off, she tightened her soaked red jacket around her body.

I looked ahead of me. The rain was pouring heavily, obscured the buildings and roads like a thin curtain. It was funny how fast things changed. One minute sun shone brightly and the next minute sky got darker and decided to pour water on our heads. We had to stop our little mission of finding something to eat and hid under the roof of bus stop. This was one of the rare time that I wished I had a car.

'You will catch a cold, beautiful.' I tried to persuade her. I couldn't figure out why she had to be this stubborn. It's not like that jacket was the only thing on her or that her t-shirt was white and exposing.

'I'm quite tough' She replied simply. Her hands still clutched to her jacket.

'Why are you so stubborn,Cassiopeia' Seeing that persausion didn't work, I changed my tone to be a little tough. I couldn't help. The longer that soaked jacket was on her, the bigger the chance of her catching cold.

'It's me to ask that' She let out a soft chuckle. 'Why are you so adamant? It's not like you are the one who gonna catch the cold if I didn't take the jacket off'

Her simple question did startle me as I had no idea why.

'Because I'm a very handsome and nice guy?' I said jokingly, hoping that she would drop it.

'Yeah, that would be the last reason I could think of' A smile teased her lips as she shook her head a little. It was almost invisible but I believed I saw a red tint on her cheek. 'Seriously, why?'

Her tone was flat and hard to decipher what she's thinking. Maybe it was because of the fact that she couldn't see me and I felt like there's a little wall between us that I could safely hide behind it or maybe it was the rain that made me feel so exposing and was washed-that made me conceded the embarrassing fact. 'I think I don't want you to be sick'

Cass's smile got wider and it gave me no regret of saying such thing. She did smile a lot but it didn't reach her eyes. Cass stood up from her seat and walked out of the roof. Raindrops fell drastically on her brown hair but she didn't seem to mind vice versa she seem to enjoy it.
After few seconds Cass took a deep breath and took off her red jacket. That's when I knew why she's so persistent.

'Quite frightening huh?' She smiled bitterly. I didn't know it was an illusion or not but among the raindrops that surrounded Cass, I saw tears rolling down her cheek.

I stepped out under the rain to take a clearer view of her. The black t-shirt she wore has short sleeves, almost like a sleeveless. Her brachiums exposed to the air. On the skins of her left upper arm was a two centimeters scar. It was thick line and bulged. The length and width of it was enough to tell me that how painful it was when it's once a fresh wound.

'Is it from the accident?' I asked, my voice merely a whisper. I didn't state directly about the accident but I got a feeling that she knew I was talking about the one that took her sight away.

The corner of her lips tugged up almost like a smile but we both knew it wasn't. 'Well, if you consider a knife cutting on the vein incident in my room that have no sharp object as an accident, then it was'

'Why?' I was surprised at my tone as it was harder than I thought. I felt sick in the pit of my stomach,

'Most people think that cutting on the wrist will cause more bleeding but it's not true. The second place, after the side of neck, that will be like a blood fountain if it's cut is the upper arm' She explained like my biology teacher, Mrs.Stinson. But her voice didn't drive me to a sound sleep like that of Mrs. Stinson, in contrast, it was icily cold and kept me wide awake that if she was the one teaching biology I would never have an urge to sleep or failed the class. The more she spoke the more I felt like I didn't know her. She wasn't the same pure girl that helped little Gabby without hesitation, she was like the gothic girl in 'the girl with tattoo dragon' even if she wasn't covered with those graphical ink.