Teen Romance Fantasy

Act 5 (Ch)

I seriously didn't expect to run into Sarah on my way to the classroom. She calmly sat in front of the door and didn't even notice me walking by. Her face was covered by the usual black mist and even the strong smell of her perfume was present. Sometimes I wondered what colour her eyes were. Brown as wood or black as the night?

Once I stood in front of her, she finally noticed me. She suddenly got up, as if she was hiding something. I eyed the door behind her but she wouldn't let me get past her.

"Oh jeez, I didn't expect to see you here Christian. Nice weather we got today." Sarah sounded a little out of breath. She was startled by my sudden appearance. I pointed at the door but she just shook her head.

"The door? I see... You want to go in there. Well, you can't do this! Why don't you go around the school like once more? Actually, you can help me out! I got this book from the library. You can give it back for me." She hastily pulled out an old book from her simple black bag and shoved it right at my chest, before she motioned for me to leave. I was honestly too stunned to resist, so I did what she asked of me. Besides, I had a feeling that she really didn't want me to enter the classroom just yet.

On my way to the library I analysed the book curiously. "On Friendship" by Tina Arthur. Never heard of this book before. It seemed to be a story of a group of friends growing up together. Not really the kind of story I would read but I guess Sarah must have been into this kind of stuff.

The moment I entered the library, I noticed how filled it was. In every corner I saw students. I felt as if all their eyes were on me and even though I couldn't see them behind the mist, I knew exactly why they were looking at me. I couldn't take another step. Time was frozen endlessly and a dark void opened inside my heart. Finger after finger pointed at me. Ugly and disgusting laughter. The world around me painted in black. No light and no hope.

"Christian? Are you alright mon ami?" I felt a hand on my should, which brought me back to reality. No laughter and no fingers pointed at me. Only books, people and mist.

Anthony glared at me nervously. I took a deep breath and told him that I was fine. I just got a little distracted. Obviously he didn't believe me but didn't want to make a big scene out of this either. Instead he decided to simply change the topic.

"I didn't expect you to come today. Nevermind, we have art class after this, non?"

We noticed that we were a little in the way, once a student bumped into me. She instantly apologised and I forced myself to motion to her that it was fine.

Anthony had been sitting in the corner of the library together with Louis. I didn't know Louis well. We shared a few classes together and he generally speaking seemed like a nice guy but I just couldn't really get along with him. Louis was part of a group we called the 'gymbros' in our grade. Those guys spent literally every day at the gym and I was quite sure that they sometimes even fell asleep there.

One of the things I didn't like about Louis was that he always wore his shirt in a way that you would see his abs and his trained arms. It kind of felt to me as if he was just straight up mocking me, which made it especially hard to look him in the eyes. Anthony didn't expect this reaction from me at all, since this was my normal behaviour towards girls but Louis was different. Louis was a guy with gorgeous dark skin and perfectly cut short black hair.

Anthony however was especially surprised, when he saw the book in my hand. I told him that it wasn't mine, which made him curious. He begged me to tell him who the book belonged to. I didn't think too much about it and admitted that it belonged to Sarah. Instantly I noticed the disgusted look on Louis face.

"You mean Sarah Archer, the freak?" I nodded.

"Better not get too close to her. She's crazy."

I arched an eyebrow in confusion. What did he mean by that?

"Haven't you noticed yet? Anyways, you should definitely stay away from her, if you don't want to get in trouble."

I shrugged. Clearly we were talking about two entirely different people. Sarah wasn't crazy. Sure, she didn't have any other friends besides Luna and perhaps she did in fact put on too much perfume but why would anybody think of her as crazy? It was probably because of what she did to Mishka. God, I hated people sometimes. How could they be so damn stupid?!

"Trust me, I know what I'm talking about."

I glance at Anthony but he didn't say anything about it. He just crossed his arms in front of his chest and told me that he didn't know Sarah well. Of course most of the stuff he knew about her was from Mishka and Aisha.

"Any other people you consider crazy or is it just her?" Anthony jokingly asked. He didn't take the conversation serious at all and instead simply enjoyed the drama.

"Actually, I can give you a few more names like Nikola, Tristan and Aisha but I guess you look more like a villain to Aisha, since you-"

Suddenly Anthony interrupted Louis, as he choked on the air he was breathing.

"Well, aren't you funny Louis. Christian, you wanted to do something... with the livre. You should hurry up. The break isn't going to last forever."

In the end I left before Anthony and Louis. I figured that Sarah would finally let me go into the classroom. Well, at least she didn't seem to wait in front of it anymore. Weird. Still, I didn't even think twice before entering the classroom. Inside it was colder than anywhere else in the entire school building. In addition, it was quiet. Eric and the others were sitting in the corner of the room, mumbling about something. As I stepped closer, they suddenly stopped talking.

"What's wrong?" I asked. Silence. They all looked at each other, probably since they didn't expect to see me. None of them wanted to answer me. Kadir even avoided eye contact with me. I asked once again what was going on. This time however Tyson broke the silence.

"A few minutes ago Mishka and her friends were here."

"And?" I demanded.

"You know how they are. They've been gossiping about some people like Nikola, the freak..." I thought my heart stopped beating for a second, once those words left Tyson's tongue. Did I hear wrong or was this actually real?

"They were gossiping about Sarah? Did she say anything about it?"

Silence. Uttermost silence. Their eyes widened as if they had just witnessed a murder.

"I don't know. Sarah wasn't here, when we came." Eric explained rather unsure.

"When was that?"

"Don't know. Ten minutes ago?"

I left exactly twelve minutes ago. Did she hear them gossiping about her?