FRIDAY'S GIRL ·ϿʘϾ·

Chapter 36

April was acting strange, really, really strange. She kept looking at me in a way I couldn't quite understand, as if she were evaluating me all the time. Had she found out something about my active sex life? After all, she worked for the school newspaper, and one of the girls I had hooked up with might have let something slip. That thought made me uneasy.

"Is everything okay?" I asked her between classes, dragging her by the arm into an empty classroom.

"Of course, why do you ask?"

Even though we were alone, April kept glancing around, as if she was afraid someone would walk in and catch us there. It was ridiculous that she was the one who seemed scared, not me.

"Because I'm dying to be with you, and you seem like a porcupine trying to avoid me all the time." I got closer to her and grabbed her by the waist, surprising her with a kiss.

"Don't be silly. Someone could see us!" she whispered, pulling away from me. "If you want, we can meet later during the break in the boiler room. But for now, shoo-shoo."

April gave me a quick peck on the tip of my nose, and with a wink, she slipped out into the hallway, looking around to make sure no one saw her leave the classroom. A tender smile spread across my lips because that sneaky thief-like behavior seemed adorable to me.

I left a minute later and headed to my locker to get the books for the next class. When I opened the metal door, I found a letter with little doodles and a note that said:

"From my heart come words untethered, sincere verses, flickers of a dream. With each heartbeat, I find you, I feel you. You are my secret, my sweetest breath. In my thoughts, you are never absent, for you are the spark that ignites my mind. Your laughter is the music that makes me dance; your eyes, two stars that invite me to dream. From my soul come desires to be by your side, to be an unexpected delight in your life. Every day that passes, you will receive a new one. This is my gift, my present: your happiness. Thirty you will find, only thirty, and nothing more."

I wondered, who could have left that in my locker? Was it meant for me, or was it a mistake? I had been with so many girls, and I didn't know which one it could belong to. I made a mental list. I immediately ruled out Maddison; it wasn't her style. Chloe? Yeah, probably. Or maybe it was that redhead from two weeks ago or the blonde I hooked up with in the bathroom shortly after...

The letter was written in a rounded and neat handwriting, almost like lettering. The author clearly didn't use that style every day. There were hand-drawn and cut-out hearts decorating the envelope. It reminded me of the notes girls used to give out in elementary school, though the content of the letter was much more mature and deep. It was hard to imagine Chloe writing something like that. Could it have been one of the cheerleaders I'd hooked up with? Or maybe, could it have been April's idea? Impossible, I couldn't picture her doing something so sentimental. The paper had a soft, almost imperceptible scent of perfume. My mind kept spinning around the matter.

"Anything interesting, bro?" Oliver asked, suddenly appearing beside me.

"Nothing, just some nonsense," I replied, trying to hide the bright envelope beneath a few books.

Oliver raised an eyebrow, amused.

"What was that you just tucked away? A letter from a secret admirer?"

"I found it on the ground. Must be from a first-year kid," I confessed, shutting my locker. "It's embarrassing, really."

My "friend" stretched, grinning cynically.

"I get a lot of those too, and texts with pictures, you know, topless. I've got them saved in folders, sorted by size."

"Quite the organizational skill... You should save their details in an Excel sheet or create a program to filter them," I remarked with disdain, not hiding my look of disgust. It sickened me to know that there were people so superficial and shameless in the world. A little voice whispered that I wasn't much different from him now.