Loving Kiera

8| Pain

Shane

"Get to work right now. You have only ten minutes." Mr. Dalton announced to the class, and a collective groan arose.

Mr. Dalton asked us to write an essay about any issue at all. All he wanted to do was check our writing skills.

God, this was so dumb, I thought as I dropped my pen with a bored sigh and pulled out my iPhone. I clicked on Instagram and scrolled down for a while before I logged out from boredom.

Like they had been doing all this period, my eyes travelled to the front where Kiera was sitting and chatting in undertones with the school's biggest geek about what Mr. Dalton had asked us to do.

She was so cute, Kiera. I loved the way her ponytail swished around everytime she turned her head. I couldn't help it. When she turned around to talk to the Afro-american one more time, I discreetly pulled out my iPhone, zoned in on a portrait capture and snapped a picture of her.

It was the most beautiful photo I'd ever seen.

The world was blurred around her while she stood stark clear and beautiful in the midst of it all. The pout of her lips in that side shot, the way her glasses sneaked into the soft baby hair framing her temple.

She's taken, that nasty voice in my head reminded me again  and I slowly laid my iPhone back on my desk and closed my eyes.

There was a very excruciating pang in my chest.

"All right, folks," Mr. Dalton boomed after the ten minutes was over. "Time's up. All pens down."

My pen was never picked up in the first place.

The class read out their writings, some about their pets, the stars, holidays, love and...stuff.

I waved my hand in a "pass" manner when it was my turn to read, and Mr. Dalton moved on without a word.

The school's biggest geek read after a long time, and after her, Kiera was next.  For some reason, I braced myself. I dropped my phone and watched her every single move when she moved to the front of the classroom.

She cleared her throat.

"I wrote about 'Pain'." She said, and I stilled. " 'We choose to write about the happy stuff all the time, but we tend to overlook the pain that we all try to hide so much. The feeling that crushes us so hard that we feel we cannot breathe, when our chests hurt so bad that we fear the world is ending.' "

Her voice was soft, and it sounded like whispers to my ears. The class had gone deathly quiet, and Mr. Dalton was watching her with very sharp eyes.

She continued, " 'the feeling you get when you thought someone would be there to catch you when you fall, but then you fall, and you realize the person was never there in the first place. When people enter your life and promise you they're gonna stay, but then they walk away later, just like everyone else. What you feel when someone abandons you at the time you needed them the most, when all you wanted was to hear the faintest hello from them, the faintest smile, but they just look at you like a stranger and simply pass you by.

"That feeling you get inside of your chest, your head, your whole being, is pain." She paused, then turned to look at Mr. Dalton. The fierce passion she'd used to read vanished from her voice as she said, "this was what I could try, sir."

"Excellent." He nodded. "You have so much passion, and your writing evokes emotions. Good work...?"

"Kiera."

"Good work, Kiera." He praised her.

"Thank you." With a little smile, she walked back to her seat and faced the board again. The class moved on, people kept on reading their work, but I was lost in whatever was going on.

It was all about me, the essay Kiera wrote.

The pain in her voice as she bashed me line after line. Her words stinged me more than anyone could've imagined, and if I said I was guilty at first, I felt worse now. I felt like dirt, so angry at myself and so frustrated my head hurt.

Kiera wanted me to at least say "hello" to her, and I didn't do even that. Why am I so awful? Could I be any worse?

She dashed out right after English was over, and I unfroze and hurried after her. The school's biggest geek was walking alongside her, but one glare from me, and she scurried away from Kiera, who didn't even notice that her companion had slipped away.

She walked with purposeful steps to her locker, and even in my misery, I admired the way her ponytail bounced back and forth against her back as she walked.

I followed from a distance, watched as she sagged against her locker. She removed her glasses and pressed her small fists against her eyes. The action made me clench my own fists. When she was like this, she looked so small and so broken.

Two girls approached her, and I watched as Kiera's posture immediately change from it's previously tired posture to a defensive one, making me widen my eyes in surprise and wonder how the heck she could do that.

The girls were talking to Kiera, and she was snapping answers back at them. Judging from her rigid and defiant posture, there was no way this could be a friendly conversation.

Then it hit me.

The new geek.

She was Kiera.

From what I've heard, the new geek was known to associate with the school's biggest geek, and I had seen Kiera sit next to her at English class, and if I hadn't glared at her, she would've followed Kiera out here to her locker.

It meant Kiera was the one whom almost all the school's population were plotting against. Jefferson High wanted to bully her.

Shit.

I took furious strides to where she stood arguing with the two stupid blondes, who batted their eyelashes at me until they saw the rage in my eyes.

"Leave her alone!" I seethed, fists clenched, and they scurried away without saying another thing.

Kiera looked at me with relief in her eyes. Maybe she would've hugged me as a thank you, but she caught herself and let her guard up. She masked her face into an emotionless one and took a step away from me.

"Kiera." I called. I didn't even know what to say, except that I was hurting inside, that this pain she carried within her was contagious, and whatever she was feeling, I was right there with her. "Please."

She walked away, and I followed her, catching her by the arm. Was it strange that this busy hallway was now deserted, and it was just the two of us? "Kiera, wait!"

"I have a class to go to, Shane." She sounded irritated, and I winced.

"I know. But-"

"It's okay, you don't have to say anything." She tried to smile, but it didn't reach her eyes. "It is okay if you don't want to be friends with me. I totally understand."

What the-

"What? No, Kiera, that's absolutely not-"

But she ran, and I could've sprinted to catch her in a heartbeat, but I held back.

What did she just say?

***here's another update! Thanks for reading!

How's life going at your end? For me, I'm back in school, and I'm trying to settle.

Anyway, what do you think about this chapter? Is Kiera overreacting or her feelings are valid?

I'm going to work on the next chapter of my other book, Blue Fire. Do check it out if you haven't.

See you next chapter.

Ann out. ;)