Traces of You

Chapter 8

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He had a science lab today— a dissection. He wouldn't say he liked opening and cutting up dead animals, but it was a lot more interesting than just reading about one in a textbook.

"Miles, can you put these trays away in the cupboard after?" his science teacher asked.

He, who was putting his apron on the rack, said "Sure," and quickly got the trays from the sink and started stacking them up.

From behind, Iggy stood next to him with his backpack already on, a gym bag in his hands. "Want me to help?" Iggy, his science partner, offered.

"I'm good. You should go to your next class before you're late," he said.

"You sure?" Iggy said, a little guilty.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. My next period is study anyway," Miles said. "Besides, you made me pack up before during my first P.E. lesson, right? So, I got the hang of putting things away," he joked.

Iggy made a sheepish smile and rolled his eyes. "I shouldn't have offered my niceness."

Miles just smirked and shrugged. "Go away already."

Iggy patted his back and gave him a thankful smile.

The teacher had already left because they had a meeting, so it was just him packing away the equipment. Teachers here really seemed to rely on students. What if he stole some chemical from the shelf and made some dangerous formula? Of course he wouldn't do that. Not saying he was smart enough to know the formula for one of those. He was just too lazy. Not to mention too much drama.

The only problem he needed to focus on right now were the questionable number of trays left behind. Half of them were still wet too. He quickly grabbed some paper towels and began wiping them.

Four. Seven. Ten. Eighteen— done.

Not long before the end of it, the halls had become quiet again because all the students were in their classrooms.

When he finally closed the cupboards, he packed his things and went to the door where the light switch was. There, he promptly turned it off and opened the door without realising a person was standing right in front of the entrance.

He jumped back in surprise and nearly fell over. When he looked up, he found himself staring at a guy a little taller. His face looked like the type that everyone knew about. 

"Oh—uh, sorry." Miles said in a hurry.

"No, it's my bad," the guy said looking at him.

Miles eyes blinked. Somewhere in his brain, it was trying to tell him that he knew this person from somewhere but he couldn't put a finger on it. He wasn't good at faces after all.

"Hello?" the guy asked, looking at him weirdly.

His body flinched, and he immediately snapped out of his trance. "Sorry, what was that?"

"Is this room being used?" the guy asked, peeking inside.

"Miles looked back at the dim room. "No, we were the last class," he answered.

The guy nodded in approval and stood there for a brief amount of time without moving.

When Miles looked closer, he found the guy staring at the door fervently.

"Did you need something from here?" Miles asked.

The guys eyes whipped back in his direction. "Ah, yes. I do."

"I would offer to help but I'm not sure where half of the things are in here," Miles said regrettably.

The guy made a thin line on his lips. "That's fine. I'll be good by myself anyways."

"Sure?" Miles asked, feeling a bit worried for some reason.

"Yeah, definitely. I'll close the room for you so you can just go ahead."

Miles didn't know what to do. Should he just leave? It wasn't like he had anything else to do with him. The only thing bothering him was the little speck of doubt in the back of his mind that seemed to hold him back, but he quickly waved it off. "Well, if you excuse me," he tried to say as politely as he could.

"Yeah sure, thanks," the guy said, stepping out of the way.

Miles made a small brief smile before stepping out of the dark classroom and walking into the empty hallway.

When he looked back, he caught a glimpse of a notebook he was carrying and saw the name 'Rhys' sharpied along the top of the book in bock letters.

He knew he heard that name somewhere. It felt all too familiar. 

That's when his mind clicked. That was Nina's stepbrother.

His eyes immediately whizzed back toward the classroom in a curious gaze. That was the man who was also dating Terra. Though, it was a wonder why he would date someone like Terra. Or more like Terror. 

Speaking of Terra, Myles wondered if the boyfriend knew about his bitchy girlfriend treating his stepsister like trash a few days ago.

He wondered what Rhys would have to say to that. If the guy saw Nina like that, would he have done anything? Surely, he would have said something. If not, then it gave him a little hope that he couldn't be completely perfect. Good looking and supposedly smart— from the looks of his advanced chemistry textbook. It was no wonder that he already had a girlfriend. He hated to be that person, but did the guy not have any flaws? Maybe a personality flaw?

He should've taken the time to talk to the guy longer. He figured he could though. Theoretically, study period was a free period to study and he could potentially "study" Nina's mysterious stepbrother. Or maybe he was just nosy and bored.

Either way, there was something strikingly odd about the stepbrother and stepsister duo. Something about them made both his head and heart hurt. It wasn't a disease. Or he'd like to think it wasn't a disease. He didn't know what, but it was more than an average classmate ever did.

"Why didn't you pick up sooner?" Rhys' voice echoed out of the room.

Miles paused and eyed the room from a few steps away from it. The sudden sprout of noise made him turn. The sudden movement caused him to drop his notebook onto the floor. The pages flew out and sprawled across it like a wind of dust.

"Shit," he whispered to himself. He knelt down and began picking them up. Subsequently, he unintentionally began to listen in on Rhys' phone call that could be heard from the other side of the door.

"I'm in the second-floor lab," Rhys said.

The first question that popped into his mind was why the guy had to call someone about his whereabouts.

"What do you mean you can't? I know you have art class right now, you can skip it," Rhys said, with a frown.

A bit demanding. The guy did have personality flaws after all.

"You better be coming now or I'm telling your dad about that thing you've been trying to hide from him," Rhys threatened.

Blackmailer too? He wondered what else the guy had in store for the poor victim. Wait, don't tell him—bullying?

"Come on, there are locks on the door this time. No one's gonna come in," Rhys smirked.

Miles instantly rolled his eyes. It wasn't bullying— it was a booty call. Did they mean Terra was coming? He knew some couples liked risky, but this dude seemed to have a whole outside-sex kink.

"Who cares about Terra," Rhys huffed.

Miles immediately widened his eyes. The guy seemed to be answering his questions. However, that should have been the least surprising thing.

Now he found it— the biggest flaw: he was a total douchebag, a cheater. Not to mention the blackmail.

Who on earth was he cheating with?

He wondered why every good-looking dude he met so far ended up with a shitty personality. The potential to be a perfect boyfriend was there, all he had to do was just be a respectable human being. This was not to point out his obvious source of hurt of not having been in a relationship in his life.

Call it jealousy, but those with flaws in their physical appearance often had to make up for that loss with an extra smile or over-the-top kindness a good-looking person didn't have to exert. Maybe that's why he gets frustrated when seeing a perfectly attractive person with a horrible personality.

"Just shut up and get over here," Rhys said frustratedly.

Miles picked up the last piece of paper off the floor when he heard footsteps coming up the staircase. He instinctively hurried to the nearest corner so that he wouldn't be called an eavesdropper.

Before he walked off, the door of the science room opened and Rhys' voice came out. "Took you long enough," he muttered.

With one final attempt to catch a glimpse at the mystery girl, he found his eyes slowly catching her hair that entered the room.

Maybe the lighting was a bit off, but it seemed to be a brunette or a darker colour. Needless to say, it definitely wasn't Terra's.

He could only imagine the horror of Terra once she found out her perfect boyfriend was cheating on her. Speaking of her, weren't they supposed to plan an anniversary party for him?

He figured Nina wouldn't be helping with that anymore since they fell out in quite a brutal way that even he was still shocked at Terra's brutal commentary that day. But now another thing to think about— what exactly did Nina do to make Terra hate her in the first place? 

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