Starry Eyed

Chapter Forty-Five

Chapter Forty-Five

I quit classes as soon as the lesson was over. I didn't tell anybody, not even Star. I just stormed away and raced down the hallway before anyone could follow me with any jeering or stupidity. Even before I was facing the consequences, I knew it was a bad idea. But I couldn't deal with sadist teachers and my classmates teasing me all day just because I'd let myself go into a poem. My dormitory was the safest place and the most comfortable for me right now.

I kicked the door open and let my insanity take over, not bothering to think anything through. I'd already done the stupidest possible thing anyway; the day couldn't get any more screwed up. My hands flew towards the bed sheets, and I tore them off the mattress in some kind of rage, tossing them across the room and growling like a total freak. Once all the sheets were gone, I moved on to the pillow, grabbing it and punching into the center, fueling myself with the crazed feeling that gushed through me with each hit. When this turned out to be less satisfying than I wanted, I started hurling it at the wall, over and over again. But pillows don't feel pain. I needed to make something, or somebody, hurt the way I was hurting now.

I ran out of energy- and insanity- before I could go any further. Eventually, it occurred to me that I was kind of being an absolute moron. I threw myself across the bed and screamed into the now completely stripped mattress. As my dull screaming changed into me gasping for air, the door swung open, and instantly I realized that I was being tossed directly into sudden oblivion. Somebody had come to take me back to class, or more likely, the principal's office. Star's dad didn't like me in the first place; he'd murder me on the spot now.

At the climax of my heart's hummingbird beat, I caught the face of my guest peeking around the door, flinching even though it could really have been considered a gift compared to who I'd been expecting. My roommate smiled at me slyly. "Wagging off, are we, Luca?"

Even though I was grateful that it wasn't actually a staff member on their way to hang, draw and quarter me, it was still incredibly annoying to realize Finn would be spending second period pissing me off. "Get out."

"Of course not," he grinned. "My dorm just as much as it is yours."

I was never going to win this fight, so I simply gave in. He sat on James' bed- or more like his bed now, as I so hated reminding myself- and started chewing a stick of bubblegum. I pulled out my computer, trying to remember how to breathe with every hideously wet, smacking sound he made. Angry at myself and at Mr. Jacobs for screwing me over, I hammered out random words into the internet search bar, too afraid to type them. Curse words and insults littered Google. I laughed under my breath humorlessly, still completely unamused.

Finn should have been giving me the look that would have suggested I was a total loon- which would have been understandable- but instead, he lay on his back, blowing pink bubbles. It was a cunning way to piss me off without making me snap too easily. I fought to hold onto the last ounces of self-control I had left.

Pop.

And all I'd tried to hold on to was out the window.

"Shut the hell up, Finn," I growled. He just grinned back at me. He'd gotten to me, and he knew it.

"Why? Got a death wish?"

"You got what you wanted. You pissed me off. Now just leave me alone."

Surprisingly, he was too 'mature' to poke his tongue out at me. "But that would leave you so lonesome and sad," he said sarcastically, a look in his eyes that just screamed about how much of a jerk he was.

"I just left class because I'm already up to here!" I snapped, my arm stretched as high up to the ceiling as I could reach without standing up. "Could you just get out? Go skive off outside, or in an empty classroom, or... or something!"