Classroom of the elite | The path that leads to nothingness - OC

The boy with a knife

I turned the key in the ignition, feeling the engine roar to life beneath me, vibrating through the chassis and into the seats. Horikita let out a faint breath, her gaze shifting from the car's polished interior to the dashboard, her eyes wide with surprise. As I shifted the car into gear, I glanced over at her—watching her study everything with a mix of awe and quiet thrill.

The car pulled away from the curb smoothly, its low hum rising as we coasted down the school's main road. Her fingers rested lightly on her lap, but her shoulders were stiff as she took in every small detail, right down to the car's subtle scent of leather. She finally looked at me, breaking into a quick, unguarded grin before she shook her head as if she couldn't believe we were really doing this.

Seeing that look of surprise in her usually serious expression, I couldn't help but smile back, a grin slipping onto my face before I turned forward, pressing the gas a bit harder. The car surged ahead, and Horikita gave a quick intake of breath, her back pressing into the seat. Her hair lifted slightly, flowing back as the acceleration pushed her deeper into the leather, her hand moving instinctively to steady herself. Even her breaths seemed to come a little quicker, but her face betrayed a mix of excitement and apprehension.

The feeling of her presence beside me was grounding in a way I hadn't anticipated. Even with the dull ache spreading in my chest, even as fatigue threatened to weigh down my body, there was something about her being here that made it easier to push that aside, almost as if I felt whole again. It had been a while since I'd felt at ease with someone like this, without the gnawing sense of loneliness that always lurked somewhere in the back of my mind. In her company, the weight of my thoughts seemed to ease, allowing a rare hint of peace to settle.

For Horikita, it was clear this car ride meant something too. Her eyes sparkled as she looked out over the dashboard and back to the road, her hands braced against the seat as she absorbed the thrill of the moment. We'd taken the bus to all kinds of places when we were younger, often sitting in cramped seats that reeked of cheap plastic and rust. But here we were, in a car most people could only dream of, hurtling down the open road. I could tell she was exhilarated—but behind that excitement, there was something more. Her concern for me was still there, lingering in the way her gaze drifted from the dashboard back to me, worry flickering in her eyes every now and then.

I drove in silence for a while, focusing on the road while she occasionally glanced at her phone. It was clear she was feeling a pang of nervousness about breaking the school rules, probably expecting a call any minute now. Maybe she even thought her brother would scold her, call her a disgrace, or worse. Knowing her brother, that wouldn't be entirely surprising. I still remembered the bruise she'd once shown me, a mark on her stomach she'd tried to hide. When I'd finally coaxed the truth out of her, she admitted it was from him. That day, I'd broken into his school and taught him a lesson of my own, leaving him bloodied in his own student council office.

I caught her glancing at her phone one last time and decided to put an end to it. Without a word, I reached over and plucked it from her grasp. "Just relax, will you?" I said, letting the phone slip from my fingers, and it tumbled down into the space between the seats.

"Hey!" she protested, face flushed with surprise. She reached over, trying to reclaim it, and pulled on my wrist. But as the phone slipped from my hand, it fell down the gap near the gear shift.

I reached down at the same time as Horikita, both of us stretching to retrieve the phone that had fallen between the seats. Her hand brushed against mine, pausing for a moment, and just as I moved, my fingers slipped and landed on her thigh. There was a warmth there, soft and undeniable, and I felt it through my hand—a feeling that rooted me in place for a second too long.