Masked love

Chapter 9

Joseph will never forget that look on Nikita's face, as she closed her eyes. It matched his sister so perfectly before her final plummet. He could still remember the whispers of his sister's final words, "I'm sorry Joseph." He didn't want to hear those words from Nikita.
As he walked over to her seat, he felt weaker with each step. When he saw her wounds, that was the final blow. He kneeled down beside her and took ahold of her hand. He could tell, from the amount of blood soaked into the bandages, that the wound was really bad. He broke. Her sadness was his sadness. He couldn't stop the tears from falling, as she looked at his face. He let out his last bit of strength, as he said, "I'm not letting you disappear when you're right in front of me. I know this can't just be about Stella. You can't hide this sadness from me. I want to know what's going on. Will you tell me?" Then the bell rang. Nikita answered him with only silence. He pulled the tears back in. They had to get to class, but Joseph didn't want to let her off that easy. Nikita looked down towards the ground. Joseph followed her gaze down to her hand, which was slightly shaking in his grasp. He loosened his grip, but kept holding her hand gently. He reached over and held the hand connected to her wounded wrist. Although it was partially reluctant, she let him pull her hand closer to him. He unwrapped the bandages delicately to reveal a cut about three inches long, but only an inch deep. "You need new bandages, these are over soaked." He said soberly.
"I have more bandages in my backpack." She said, trying to hide her emotions. He let go of one of her hands and opened her backpack. He saw the bandages, lying next to his letter. He pulled them out and wrapped up her wound carefully.
"Are you going to tell me what happened?" He asked more seriously. Nikita shook her head. She was hiding something big and Joseph knew it. He looked up into her eyes, showing her his worry and sadness. She quickly looked away. What was she hiding? He sighed deeply, "well, we better get to class." He stood up, letting go of both of her hands. He walked over and grabbed his backpack. Nikita grabbed her backpack and stood beside him. His jacket was now hiding her bandaged wrist. He couldn't stop thinking about it. He looked at her face to see an apologetic look in her eyes. It was like she was asking him to wait, without saying anything. He may not have liked it, but he understood. "Do you promise not to make that wound any worse?" He asked, taking ahold of her hand gently.
"I promise." She answered quietly.
"Ok, then I'll wait until you're ready to tell me what's going on." He decided. Nikita nodded, and they left the cafeteria. In the commons, people were scurrying to class. They fought through the crowds and made it up to the third floor. Joseph led her down the ninth hall and stopped at her classroom. He reluctantly let her go into the classroom, and glared at Stella as she followed after Nikita. He didn't want to leave her, but he did.

He walked to his English class, fighting through the crowed hallway. In the classroom, he took his seat and laid his head on the desk. He closed his eyes, trying to calm his worrying thoughts. That moment was quickly interrupted.
"Hey, you having a rough morning?" a familiar voice asked. Joseph opened his eyes and looked to the desk next to him. His old friend, Adam was looking back at him curiously. "Or are you still pushing your friends away?" It had been about a two years since they had talked, right around the time when Joseph's sister had died.
"I'm sorry about that. I was going through some rough-"
"You don't need to apologize man. I was worried about you though. I'm glad you're talking to people again, and you're going to have to tell me about that cute girl you've been hanging out with. Wasn't she the one you had on a crush on few years back?" Adam spoke kindly, making conversation easily. This was what Joseph liked about him, he was so easy to talk to.
Joseph laughed slightly, "god, I have missed you, and yea she is. A lot has happened in a short time. We're only friends though, so don't be getting any ideas."
"That means she's free game right?" Adam asked, jokingly. "Is she the reason you seemed so stressed this morning?"
"You could say that. I'm worried about her. She's going through some stuff." Joseph replied gravely. "And she's not free game."
"Ha ha, I get you man. I hope she's okay though. She seems like a nice person." Adam said with care. Joseph's face became masked with worried. He couldn't get his mind off of her. The teacher began to teach, as the two distant friends were catching up. Adam tried to keep Joseph from worrying, but he wasn't succeeding. Towards the end of class, Adam just had to ask him. "So when are you going to introduce me to her? I mean if I'm going to become a brother-in-law, I should meet my soon to be sister-in-law."
"Aren't you jumping the gun a little bit?" Joseph couldn't stop himself from bursting out laughing.
"Maybe, maybe not. So are you going to introduce me to her?" Adam replied with a sneaky smile.
"Sure, sure." Joseph said, still laughing a little. "After class I'll introduce you."
"Hey you remember that 'bros for life handshake'." Adam asked, holding out his hand.
"Of course how could I forget." Joseph answered quickly. Joseph clapped his hand with Adam's hand, then backhanded the back of Adam's hand, finishing it with a knuckle bump and hand explosion.
"Bros for life" they said simultaneously. They both laughed at themselves.
"It's not as cool as it used to be." Joseph said.
"Yea, but still fun to do every now and again." Adam argued. Joseph nodded, as his eyes looked at the clock. His thoughts went straight to Nikita. Was she okay? Was Stella really leaving her alone? His mind was on overdrive, and his face was masked with worry. Then the bell rang. Joseph couldn't stop himself from rushing out of that classroom and down the hall. Adam followed behind him. He could tell the situation was dire, and Joseph wasn't in the mood for talking or stopping.
Finally Joseph stopped near a classroom. He was breathing hard. He felt instant relief when he saw Nikita leaning against the wall. Her face looked so peaceful with her eyes closed, but she also seemed sad. After quickly catching his breath, he walked over to her and gently touch her shoulder. Adam was right behind with a worried expression on his face. "Are you ok?" Joseph asked. Nikita looked at Joseph, attempting to smile. She nodded quietly. Behind Joseph, she spied Adam staring at her with worry. Joseph noticed her questioning face and looked behind him at Adam. "This is my stalker, Adam." Joseph said jokingly.
"Whoah, stalker? And people say you aren't funny. I'm the closest this guy's got to a brother. Nice to meet you." Adam quickly assured her. He stuck his hand out for her to shake it. Nikita looked at Joseph for assurance. He nodded encouragingly.
"My name is Nikita, nice to meet you," she said, shaking his hand tentatively.
"Joseph sure knows how to pick them." Adam said jokingly. He got close to Nikita's ear. "If this fool ever messes up you can always come to me. I'll teach him a lesson or two. Or we could just hang out without him." He whispered, but Joseph heard the last part. Adam quickly moved away from her ear, as he received a harsh elbow to his stomach. "Ow! What was that for?"
"Come on Nikita lets get to class" Joseph said, evading the question and taking her hand out of Adam's hand. They started to walk to their next classes. Joseph noticed that Nikita was keeping her injured hand in his jacket pocket. Adam left them early heading to chemistry class, with a simple wave goodbye. Joseph held her hand, but something was bothering him about her silence. "Did Stella say anything to you in your last class?" He asked carefully.
Nikita tighten her grip on his hand, and Joseph looked at her face. "She was shocked that you stood in front of me, and took every punch without punching back. She said that you must really care about me, and it almost seems too good to be true..." Nikita answered, but it seemed as if she wanted to say more. Joseph sighed with little relief, as they walked into the classroom and took their seats.

After the teacher was finished teaching, they got to work on some practice problems. Joseph helped Nikita with the problems that she had trouble with. Things were fine, besides the fact that all the students were whispering something. Nikita heard her name mentioned, and Joseph caught sight of a piece of paper being passed around. The paper had started behind them and was making it's way around. It was passed to the front of the class, across, and then to the back again. Everyone was seeing the hateful message. Then it got passed to the person next to Joseph. He peered his eyes over their shoulder, as they unfolded the paper. It was a note about Nikita. He quickly snatched the note out of their hand, and read it to himself.
Sici Niki thinks she's all mighty. She can't even fight her own battles. She can't face her own problems. She's just a crybaby, hiding behind Josie. What will she do when she's all alone again?
Nikita looked up from her math problems. "What's that?" She asked looking at Joseph. His eyes held guilt and sadness.
"It's nothing," he said quickly, crumbling up the paper. He turned behind him to face Stella. She was smiling slyly. Zeak was sleeping beside her. "Stella when are you going to grow up? Get a life!" He raised his voice slightly. He was lucky the teacher had stepped out. "Stop being such a bully! This is just so childish! You know what it feels like to be hurt by others and yet you're doing the same thing! You're no different than they were!" He was now standing up, with Nikita looking at him cluelessly. His voice woke up Zeak, and he was staring at Stella accusingly. Other people stood up with Joseph. Everyone was staring at Stella. Her smile wiped off her face. Joseph sighed deeply with anger. He walked to the trashcan and threw away the piece of paper. He walked back to his desk with one last look at Stella. "You're going to be the one that's all alone, if you keep this up. That's a promise." He sat down by Nikita. She stared at him, looking for an explanation. Everyone else sat down, but there was still tension in the room. In the next minute the teacher enter the silent room and sat in her desk.

End of Chapter Nine