Reality is Elusive

Reality is Elusive (2)

Of course, I didn’t have Manic Depression anymore, what kind of school would accept someone with that kind of condition? I was currently battling with a much milder form of the disorder called cyclothymia. If I don’t tell anyone specifically, they just think I’m weird or, well a teenager. After all, what teenage girl doesn’t have mood swings?

After curtly telling everyone my name was Gen, I helped myself to one of the two empty seats in the room, the one at the back left corner of the classroom. The seat beside me was empty, and I felt my spirits lift. If nobody sat close to me, nobody could notice anything… odd. For once, Mrs Velletri made the right decision in not informing the school about me. Maybe, if no one was constantly looking at me like I was about to sniff their hair, I might be able to hold off the depressed phase a little longer. I might even start to get better…

My seat was next to a window, and I gazed at the clouds as my mind began its inexplicable wandering. My thoughts flitted from one topic to the next, never focusing on a single thought for longer than 10 seconds.

The sun was starting to come out, it would be getting warm soon. Maybe I shouldn’t have worn jeans today, but at least I now had a locker to put my grey hoodie in if I needed to.

The class door banged open, drawing my attention away from the window to the figure standing in the doorway, rigid and tense.  It was a boy around my age, though honestly he looked a bit older. How that was possible when this was a senior class I didn’t know. His hair was dark and shaggy brown that fell in the way of equally dark eyes.

He wasn’t just athletic, he was built. Jeans hung low on his waist, covering what looked to be strong legs, and he wore a plain black T-shirt that showed very clearly that he definitely didn’t have a soft belly. The boy, no mans arm muscles where flexed, in fact, his entire body was completely tensed, even his strong jaw was locked. He looked like he would be able to snap me in half without so much as a grunt. Actually, his entire demeanour screamed powerful, unstoppable and ruthless. He wore that demanding presence like cologne, one the entire room was aware of. His eyes were sweeping across the classroom, looking for something and finally, they landed on me.

“Hayden, take your seat. You are late to class again.” The teacher reprimanded, only I didn’t really register that until much later, because I was too busy being stared down by a man whose unwavering gaze was impossible to decipher

All the mild chatter and classroom noises faded into the background until all I could hear was my own steady breathing, and I found it impossible to pull my gaze away from a certain pair of deep brown eyes that seemed to be darkening with every step the man, Hayden, took towards me. When did he start coming this way?

His fists were clenched when he stopped in front of me, a snarl on his lips as he spread his legs into a solid stance and crossed his arms in front of him. I craned my neck to keep eye contact, and by this point had absolutely no idea what was I was thinking, or if I was thinking at all. To say this guy was intimidating would be an understatement.

“You're in my seat.” His rough voice, almost a growl, broke me from my reverie. After a long pause where I processed what he just said and he continued silently staring at me, I stood up. I was a pretty average height, but Hayden seemed to tower over me whilst I stood in front of him.

Wordlessly, I shuffled a few steps to the side, dragging my bag with me, before sitting at the desk directly next to the one Hayden was now lowering himself onto. Now that I had moved, he seemed to have completely forgotten my presence, or was ignoring it, and I could now safely divert my attention elsewhere.

That is when I saw the entire class had been silently watching our confrontation, and where now either looking at me in sympathy, or at Hayden with a mixture of fear and respect.

Mostly fear.