Ever After

High Expectations

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This chapter is in Mark's perspective.

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Getting ready for school didn't go along with its usual routine, for it was much more of an important date. It was the day after Jack's dispute with Felix, the one that'd sent me flying down and onto the ground, my nose feeling as if it were as broken as the tiles below. I could tell by the look of concern he'd given me after it'd been done, the way he looked at me, and the abstinence that'd been held against us overnight - I could tell that he was dying to see me just as much as I was dying to see him, for I could practically feel his heart leaping out towards me all the way from the sofa I slept on.

Arising from it like the dead, I left the living room and headed for the washroom, thankfully unoccupied - giving out a quick assumption that my brother and father had already gone off to work, I set to washing my face and doing my hair, parting it so that a long cliff of it entered a room minutes before the rest of me did. I even stole into my brother's hair gel, applying it for this special occasion - I could barely get my hands to stop shaking long enough to apply it, let alone grip the door handle properly.

Once I'd equipped myself in a v-neck and pair of jeans (courtesy of Jack's trip to the Lost And Found), I skipped on breakfast and raced out the door, leaping down the stairs two at a time. It was going to be a great day - I could just feel it. The wind chill outside stood no chance against my high spirits (as stiff as my hair), nor did the fence that tore at my jeans, adding an extra bit of flare to their purposely-ripped scars. It took less than a second to get to the classroom and seat myself down at my desk, twiddling my thumbs as I awaited the arrival of my Romeo.

My hopes, once so high, plummeted the second he entered the classroom.

"Stop right there, Mister McLoughlin," Mrs. Jefferson said the minute he entered the classroom. "You have a new seating plan, courtesy of your aggressive punch at Mister Fischbach." She nodded her head over to Naomi's desk, the other half surprisingly uninhabited by Felix. "You're going to sit over there, beside Naomi." She then shot me a glare, not bothering to explain who would sit beside me - I was left to presume that I was to be alone, sharing the seat next to me with no one other than the window next to it.

I watched as Jack shrugged, acting coolly as he always did, prideful in his walk towards his new seat. As much as I should've been affected by it, as worried as I should've been, I found this to be nothing more than a fun challenge, another mile to separate the two of us; within less than an hour, the period would be over and we would be off to gym, allowing the two of us to swim in two side-by-side lanes. If there was one thing I'd learned about Shakespeare when we'd been working on our play together, it was that absence made the heart grow fonder, which translated into the fact that this would just make Jack and I appreciate every second with one another even more.

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Too much abstinence made for distance, and what a great distance it's become between Jack and I. It'd been nearly a week since Jack and I had been separated according to seating plan, and he hadn't gone out of his way to speak to me once - I was beginning to grow worried and didn't quite know what to do with myself.

It wasn't that things had become different personality-wise (although they definitely had distance-wise), but it was definitely hard not to get to speak to Jack at every given opportunity. He always seemed busy; the minute class ended, he packed up and left, not taking the time to come and wait for me as he usually did. Whenever I saw him in the cafeteria at lunch, he always stood up and disappeared into the crowd, fading away as if he hadn't been there in the first place. After school, he was nowhere to be seen.

The hardest part of it all was the fact that I was getting used to not talking to him every day; how could I approach someone who never bothered to even look my way? As odd as it was, I now craved his stare, whether it be the loving glances he gave to me from time to time, or the threatening glares from our first days together. I would give anything for him to even notice me - if only he could just see me through the crowd, if he could make time...