Fade Into Nothingness

Chapter Seven

Three years
Six weeks
One day

My life has been uneventful the past three weeks, and my hand has fully recovered with only a few scars. My mother has also started talking to me again after the fifth day but nothing else exciting happened after that encounter at lunch with Justin. I went to class right after that and only spoke to him about projects, nothing more, nothing less.

He also stopped eating with us at lunch, which made it easier for me to avoid him and not see his annoyingly attractive face.

And I was completely fine with that.

I enter the classroom with hopes of having my uneventful life continue. I look around the room and realize that Justin is the only person here. He always seems to arrive much earlier than the rest of the class, that part will always remain a mystery to me.

Why would someone want to go to school earlier and stay in the classroom rather than socializing with his friends?

I, for instance came in early to ask Ms. Remington about the project.

"Hey," I hear Justin say, which causes me to freeze and widen my eyes in shock.

Well there goes my uneventful life.

"Uh- hello," I say nervously, as I sit down on the chair beside him.

"What's up?" He says nicely.

I face him, trying to read his face to see if there were hidden emotions underneath this nice facade. But I see nothing.

"Nothing," I say effortlessly. "Why are you here so early?"

I'm waiting for a vulgar response to come out of his mouth like 'none of your fucking business' or 'fuck off why don't you?'

But none of that came.

"I like to just sit here, alone, it's nice."

"It's code word for loner."

He chuckles and holds back a smile.

"You're very blunt, you know that?"

I shrug and tilt my head. "So are you," I say dismissively.

"Yeah I guess we have something in common."

I furrow my brows and give him an unpleasant look of confusion. "Why are you being so nice?"

He smiles secretively and looks at me. "What do you mean? I'm always nice," he teases.

I roll my eyes and wait for an actual answer.

"Okay, I just think we got off on the wrong foot."

"Wrong foot? More like wrong feet, you were a dick."

He laughs at this and gives me a charming smile. "Past tense were? Does that mean I'm not anymore?" He says, hope lighting up in his eyes.

"Uh we've only been talking for like five minutes, who knows what will happen later on in the day or week? Or month?" I says with a hint of amusement in my words with a mixture of seriousness. "What if you get a bad mark on a quiz or something and go back to being your asshole self?"

He laughs quietly as he shifts his body to the side so his legs and arms are completely facing my direction. He holds out his hand while I have the most dumbfounded look plastered across my face.

"Hi my name is Justin Snyder and you are?"

I scrunch up my face with uncertainty written all over it, as I'm thinking about whether he has amnesia or he's just impeccably stupid.