Capacity To Love

Chase

I felt myself being swept through the hallways, my books clamped to my chest like they were the most precious things in the world. I heard the daily snickers as I passed the 'popular' crew leaning against their lockers. One girl, Bailey Patrick called out as I passed.

"God she's such a slut!" She turned to her friend leaning against the locker beside her.
"Lily didn't you wear holey tops when you were trying to jump Roy? It only made you look desperate." Lily, the person in question, stared at Bailey, startled.

"Bailey what the fuck!" She shrugged.

"Only trying to prove a point hun."

I scoffed. To be honest, today I was dressed down. All of my multicolour jumpers were in the wash after camp, and I had to steal the top with the holes out of my friend Angel's closet. I hated wearing dark colours. I wanted bright things, and I would have brought out a killer outfit if my stuff hadn't been in the wash. I was thinking bright red and blue jersey, flare jeans, heck yeah, and sneakers. Bright. Pink. No-Fucks-Given Sneakers. But oh well, I was apparently a slut for today.

I continued to walk down the hall, receiving various glances from everyone around me. Oh, I was dressed like a normal human being today? Great. I noticed as well, don't need the looks to prove it. I brought out my cellphone, and started jabbing at the screen until I finally got to Angel's number. I brought the phone up to my ear and started yelling frantically over the noise.

"Angel where the fuck are you? I'm dying over here."

"Yeah babe I'm almost there. This fucking creep yelled at me at the bus stop. God, I was almost gonna call the police on him, jesus! Oh, did you see the new guy? Apparently there's a new guy. Rachel told me." 

"Uh, Rachel meaning Rachel Green who's like the poster girl for gossip. Like, totally unreliable."

"I know, but she's gotten better this year. I think..." I sighed. 

"Ok I'll look out for this new guy. Is he hot or something?"

"Red fucking hot, Ariel. You'll know him when you see him." 

"Yeah, k. Meet me at English ok?"

"Yeah bye!" She hung up and I blew the hair out of my face. To be honest, Angel had the tendency to overexaggerate when it came to b...oh god no she wasn't exaggerating. I stopped, looked straight down the corridor. The guy was tall, dark haired, loping nonchalantly down, the people parting for him, boys and girls alike. I watched muscle ripple as he clenched his bag, watched his eyes move quickly around at everyone, a hint of a smile on his lips. And I was stuck there, watching him, my phone stuck in my hand, my eyes the size of plates. 

Oh shit Ariel move. Legs. You have legs. Move. Out. Of. The-

"Hey." He was looking at me, right there, his hands in his pockets. The hall was dead silent. I looked around and saw pure disgust on Bailey Patrick's face. I glanced up quickly at him, attempted to smile, and then ducked past and started to walk away, trying my hardest not to start sprinting, pulling my books closer to me. I heard giggling as I cursed to myself.

I walked straight to English, sat down at my desk and buried my face in my hands. Oh God that was the most horrible thing in the world. A few minutes later I felt a hand on my shoulder, smelled the familiar sea breeze perfume.

"I fucked up." I mumbled into my hands.

"Yeah...I heard. But, um, guys find that...hot? I mean, it might have looked like a rejection. And guys hate rejection, and so he might like you. Like, see you as a challenge." I looked up, my eyes bleary. 

"Yeah, because running away from a guy looks like a challenge." I said sarcastically.

"Well you should be happy for me. At least I have a chance now." 

"Thanks, Angel. Nice pep talk." She sighed, spun her blonde hair up into a bun like mine.

"Well, someone's got to have him! And it's not going to be Bailey Patrick." I leaned back in my seat.

"Well if it's you against Bailey Patrick I'm on your side."

"Thanks babe." Yeah, they always went to Angel. Once they found out how weird I was it was straight to the hot blonde friend. She was nicer anyway. And understandable. And likeable. Not that they ever went for me, at least not anymore. News spread like wildfire, especially after the last incident. I shivered. I wasn't going to think about that. 

People started to saunter into the classroom. Bailey smirking at me, Lily shaking her head and laughing, Rachel looking sleep deprived as usual, probably on Facebook all night, Anna clutching the hand of her long term boyfriend Adam, who was kind of a sleaze but each to their own, Matt tossing a foot ball to his friend Tom, Laurence attempting to, what, lick his elbow? Yep. They all crammed in. I waited. Then He came in, grinning at something Indigo Knowles had said. Oh shit. Indigo Knowles was like some kind of Greek goddess. She had the chiselled features, the deep brown eyes, long wavy brown hair, the nice figure, and cute dimples when she smiled. If Indigo Knowles started dating him I would be so mad. 

"What?" I jumped, looked at Angel.

"Did I say that out loud?" She looked at me sympathetically.

"Yep. Gotta work on that. But I agree. If Indigo Knowles starts going out with him, I will feel so sorry for you. Man, she's always trying to beat you. Looks like she heard about your encounter with him" I groaned, looked at her glancing over at me and pointing. Probably explaining that I was the total weirdo of the school. I frowned, sat up straight. 

"Wait, how did you hear about it?" She sucked in through her teeth.

"Rachel Green"

"God damnit, that chick is dangerous!" Angel nodded. She turned back to the front.

"Where's he gonna sit!"

"Probably with Indigo." 

"Nah, Matt's sitting next to her. He's gonna have to sit at the front by himself."

The second bell rang and the Mr Sykes came in. Indigo had gone to her seat and was brushing Matt's football stuff off her desk. The new guy was standing up the front, looking around at the stuff on the walls. 

"Hello class. Uh, before I say anything else we have a new class member. This is Chase Anderson." Chase grinned and waved. Angel bit her lip and grinned back. I raised an eyebrow and shrunk down so that he couldn't see me. I might just wait until he forgot about this morning until I met him formally. 

"Chase, would you sit here please." He was escorted to the spare front desk. "Everyone, make sure you make Chase feel welcome. Show him around school, where the toilets are, where the classes are, be a friend." Mr Sykes sighed audibly. Everyone had stopped listening. The girls were staring right at Chase, who was clicking his pen on and off, looking at the whiteboard. 

Oh this was going to be a great class.