Burning

Chapter 1

Drowning.
You can't escape drowning.
It's not something you can hide from.
I'm drowning and fear it is too late to be saved.
Drowning.
Hoping to taste the air once more.
Drowning.
No one sees.
No one cares.

This was not my ideal day. Stares and whispers. Laughs and giggles. The new student should be a fragrance because it's like these kids can smell me from a mile away.

Pulling my gray hoodie over my thick, auburn hair, I sheltered my face from the world. Who would want to look at me anyway?

I glanced longingly at the seemingly large library, sighed, and continued to walk very slowly. The longer it takes to get to class, the better. Who wants to be stared at for an entire class? Certainly not me, Nia Drewer, the girl who tries to blend in.

Walking into my English class, I was immediately bombarded by the teacher's blinding smile.

"Good morning!" She greeted, her curly blond hair seemed to bounce with her personality. Just my luck. "We're so happy to have you here! How about you just take a seat next to Devan, dear. He'll wave to you." I trudged towards a slow paced, but still waving, hand.

When my gaze reached his face, I almost stopped breathing. I wanted to run and change out of my stained sweatpants and into a nice pair of jeans.

His navy blue eyes peered into my soul, and his shapely, medium sized mouth was twisted into a smirk. His smirk matched his sharp jaw and cheekbones. My eyes snapped towards the floor once I realized that his smirk was directed at me! Oh dear, please tell me he did not catch me checking him out.

"Hello?" His voice was deep and sounded like he was holding back some serious laughter. My gaze was still on the gorgeously tiled floor like look at those shades of grey, and those stains, and...

"Um, are you ok?" For what it's worth, he still had not laughed at me yet.

When I took my hood off and looked up, I heard him suck in a gasp. A normal response. Slowly I sank down into the chair next to him, dreading this class already.

Throughout the period, I could feel him looking at me, his eyes burning a hole in my head. My arm was twitching with the effort to not look back at him.

Usually there are two reactions when people see my face. They gasp, and either laugh or look at me with a pitying expression. Devan, it seems, is an unusual case.

As soon as the bell rang, I booked it out of the classroom, hell bent on not running into Devan. Unfortunately for me, he caught up to me pretty quick.

"Hey, Nia," he said very casually which was unusual as he had to run in order to catch up to me.

I didn't respond, keeping my head facing down and buried inside my hood. Why was he trying to talk to me?

"I just wanted to get to know you more, desk buddy!" He said, answering my unspoken question.

"Can you leave me the hell alone?" I snapped, fed up with his bubbly attitude. Or so I tried to tell myself.

In actuality I just didn't want to look at his god-like face and fall for his charming grin.

He immediately stopped walking, and without looking back, I walked out of the building, trying to ignore the aching in my chest.

I couldn't let anyone get close to me.

Not again.

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This is my first book, so try not to judge me too harshly, but I do appreciate some good ole constructive criticism! I'll try to make longer chapters but I'm just testing this story out. If people like it, I'll continue this book! I don't have an uploading schedule, but I'll do it as often as possible! Thanks for reading!