Dark Skin

12: h a s t e.

❛There are lots of people who mistake their imagination for their memory.❜
- Josh Billings.

➳

"Hey you," someone called out while I was walking through the crowd of students who were definitely not in a haste to go home, unlike me. I wanted to escape from this hell already. I turned round to see who it was and the face, though somehow familiar, wasn't distinct in my memory.

"Dark skin, right?" He said, smirking like a big fool. The two words he used to describe me sliced a part of my heart, making it hurt. But something told me that he didn't mean to call me like that. You know, when you assign particular teachers with a code name and you accidentally say it? That's how it felt but that was not an excuse.

No, not because I hated being called by it. I actually hated the purpose behind it. They made it sound like an insult when it was supposed to be a compliment for any dark-skinned person.

"Uh, nopes. I'm Julia," I stated firmly, feeling uncomfortable under his radar. "I don't think my parents named me Julia to be called dark skin. It's not even the synonym of Julia."

I wanted to add whether he was a fool for assuming that 'dark skin' was even someone's name but I chose not to. I had some enemies already at school, I didn't need more right away.

He, unexpectedly, let out a small raspy laugh instead of having a shocked face like Claire. I frowned, "What?"

"You're funny, dar- Julia," he shook his head, still smiling. I was glad that he corrected his sentence. However, after all what happened to me today, I was doubting his motives behind this conversation.

Shrugging and frowning, I didn't pay any more attention to him. I just, rudely, walked away in confusion. I didn't even know him but I had a feeling settled in the pit of my heart after the conversation with him.

A bad feeling which, surprisingly, felt good.