THE COIN; The Lie Meets The Truth

Act I (Heads) Chapter 1 I Watched It Begin

*slap*

It was the beginning of the second semester of the 2011 intake diploma groups at M University in 2012. I was in class, no one wanted to sit next to me. I felt lonely, alienated, and left out. The lecturer was blabbering on about business trade that no one seemed interested in until the class's door opened and in came two unfamiliar faces. Those two were the polar opposite of each other - one had such as sweet smile while the other looked like she was about to bite someone's head off; just like the majority of the class was towards me.

The boys in the class were head over heels for the sweet-looking girl while the other just stuck closely to her. Like, who are you? Her bodyguard? No need to stick to her like glue, please. But they look like fun people to hang out with; wonder how I should approach them.

Hey! What the heck, Jane? Come on, you got this!

I approached their table and they glanced back in confusion.

"Hi, you both must be new here." I introduced myself to them. "I'm Jane, it's nice to meet you. What are your names?"

"Um, hi?" Did that sweet girl just hesitate to say hi? Surely she must be confused or overwhelmed by the sudden friendliness. "I'm Emi."

"Hi." The other one just greeted me shortly. Geez, no need to be rude about it. "I'm Hannah."

*slap*

"Wow, those are great names! Welcome to our diploma group! If you need anything, just look for me!"

"Sure?" Emi replied while Hannah just nodded.

Is this girl for real? Maybe she's just a recluse seeing how the others are too scared to approach them. I wondered how these two were friends. Emi must have a lot of patience in dealing with Hannah. Or so I thought. Turns out, I might have judged them too early; a week later, Hannah seemed to open up to the class a little. I found out she has a tiny sense of humour, although her kind of humour is dark. Well, at least she tried. Even the class is warming up to her and Emi. She was a great listener and even treated me to a box of chocolate milk after I told her about my inner problems.

"Here," she says as she hands the box to me. "Drink this, it helps me to clear my head and chase away my problems at times."

"You are too kind to me," I told her.

"I'm kind when I need to be," Hannah replies shortly.

"Do you always have an answer ready?"

"That's up to me to decide what I want to answer."

"Wow, I'm so glad to have a friend like you." She said nothing; guess she chose not to answer that as we headed back to class. I thought she would be a keeper but I guess she has other plans for me.

*slap*

In our classroom, it's just the two of us; three if you count Emi. But really, it felt as if Emi was not present when Hannah delivered that slap to me. The one thing that never changed was her cold eyes staring before me as she withdrew her hand. I just went through a rollercoaster of emotions after that slap. I felt a violent shake ringing through my ears and the goosebumps pricked up the hair on my skin. Tears rolled down my eyes as I faced her with such sorrow and betrayal. Picking up the courage, I asked her why.

"Fuck...." She muttered. "Jesus, you're just disgusting. I can't even look at you in the eye."

That was a question she chose to dodge.

"Why did YOU do that to me?" she reversed my question.

I stared at her. What is she talking about? What did I do to her? I treated her so well and this is how I was repaid?