The Room 503

Chapter 7

"STOP IT!!!" I screamed. I woke up from my nightmare with a feverish feeling. Chills were sent down my spine and all I could think of was the talk that Lucas gave me yesterday afternoon. 

My body was really sore. As I struggled to get out of bed, my phone went off. Who was calling at this time? Rolling my eyes, I picked up the phone. 

Hello...? I groaned, my voice was lower than usual and a bit hoarse since it was early in the morning. My eyes made its way towards the clock; the clock read 5:00 AM.

I sighed, my head hung over my opened legs. The phone was supported by my left hand at my left ear while the other hand was busy ruffling my curly hair.

"Oh, hi. It's me Eric. I heard about Victoria having a picture of us or something...er, look, we should uh, we need to keep our ties low. How 'bout we just focus on our classes cause mid-terms are coming up?" I heard him take a long deep breath then exhaling. 

Tears crept up my eyes, the same old burning that you get in your face to your eyes. It was stinging and my heart began to ache. Inhaling while biting my lip I muttered, "Y-Yeah, I get it Eric. It's best if we uh, you know, keep things low for now. I'm just-" 

My voice was cut off by the croak in my throat. I had to pause, "-Er sorry, excuse me. I'm just having a hiccup, sometimes I have it in the morning." A forced chuckle went through my slightly parted lips.

Eric was silent on the other end, with the occasional "uh huh" and "hmm..." with every sentence or paused that I made when I spoke. Eric then spoke, "Okay, well, I have to get ready now. I will talk to you later, that is, when I got time. These physics students are acting really stupid lately. They were suppose to tell me that I messed up on the lab set up yesterday!"

Eric grunted then sigh, I simply laughed, not knowing how to act. But I loved the way he talked. He was always speaking in tones and prolonging his last words. 

"'Aight, I will see you later...." I hung up first, I wanted this tension between us to go away. Since it was always this bad on the phone, then I wouldn't be surprised if it was worse in person. 

I toss the phone onto my messy bed. My blue bed sheets were wrinkled, it looked like a whirlpool. My eyes traced the curled sheets over to my wife's foot, then along her slender, tiny body. My eyes finally settled onto her gentle face. I loved it when she was pouting in her slumber. Her arms were still holding my ghost form from the imprints that my body left on the crinkled sheets. Her long black lashes laid perfectly on her apples. 

Her medium length black hair was draped over her shoulders. Her unconscious habit of her fetus-like position had one leg sticking out as the other was over the sheets. She looked like a caterpillar slowly emerging from it's pupa.

I felt guilty every time I watched her breathed in her sleep. 

I couldn't understand why I couldn't bring myself to tell her what's been happening. I should've told her about my incident with Eric but my guts were telling me that it'd be better if I kept silent. This is why I couldn't stand myself. 

Standing up, I walked over to the dark bathroom. I flipped on the switch and groggily made my way towards the shower. Turning on the shower, I began to strip from my grey-blue boxers and white t-shirt. I jumped into the cold rain, I couldn't feel a thing. I could't react. 

I was numb. I felt heavy, miserable, and useless. I was a nuisance to almost all the staff. 

After I was done shower, I wrapped my large towel around my hips leaving my semi-deep v-line exposed. Grabbing a spare small towel, I started to dry my wet coffee colored hair. My hair always looked darker when it was wet. The ends of my hair curled.

Using the hair oil and wax, I used the hair blow-dryer and began combing. Ever since I chopped my ear-length hair last year, I grew to like the side-parted hair style. 

I gave my one last look in the big mirror and smiled, Its for the better Daniel.

- AT SCHOOL -

When I walked by the History Department, I heard some distant murmuring straight ahead of me, near my left side.  With curiosity, my paced began to pick up as I grew closer to the area. 

"Yeah I know right? He's such a doofus. Like, man, every time I go to the Math Department I see him doing nothing!" The familiar ghetto voice belonged to Lucas. 

Those words hit me like a released bow from extreme stress. I decided to walk slower to listen more.

"Ridiculous, riiiiidicccuuulous. Ughh...tsk, tsk." The other person said. It had to belong to Michelle Zimmons. 

Michelle and I never got along. She was neutral from the beginning and really informative about the school when I was still in training. However, she gradually grew farther away from me as she got closer to Lucas. 

"You know," She began with her well-known Californian valley girl voice. "I can't stand him! Like, I was just talking to him the other day annnd (making that annoying stress on the 'n') he was talking to me as if I was a stranger. Can't you believe that?! And you know what (making a sharp accented 't' sound) he has changed, really, he has changed. I can't stand him anymore. He's not the same!" She was ranting over my behavior. 

I felt my blood rush to my face. When I made it to the door and decided to casually stand at the lockers, leaning my back against it, I pretended to play on my phone. I had my left hand in my trouser pocket. Today, I was wearing my black slacks with black dress shoes and my favorite light blue button up dress shirt. 

"Yeah man, he's really dumb. Babe, we gotta get ready for advisory 'cause it's like almost 7:00 AM. Look, I gotta run to the office to print out the rubric for the upcoming assignments. Finals are near, you ready?" 

"Heavens no. Me no gusta. I'ma head to my department now. I promised Antoinette that I'd make her some breakfest bars." She muttered. I felt her voice grew closer. 

Freaking out, I slumped even more to make it seem as if I was too busy being attached to my phone. I heard her footsteps stop right at my foot.

"Oh! Goodmorning, D-Daniel." She stuttered. 

I internally laughed, "Good morning Michelle." My jaws were somewhat clenched. I tried relaxing my shoulders. "It's such a lovely day today, isn't it?" My eyes were dull, I had to show no emotion. 

She can't read me. If I can't read her famous poker face, why should she be able to? It's not fair.

"Hmm." She scoffed then walked away, becoming tinier as she made her way down the corridor.

Fuck you, I thought. 

Walking over to the Math Department, I nearly crashed into someone when I realized looking up from the ground to the person's face was Eric. 

I almost screamed but he placed his hand over my mouth and burst out into laughter, "You're such a little girl Daniel. Anyways, gotta head over to the lab to see if those stupid kids messed with my materials. These kids! I tell you!" He marched away, leaving me breathless. 

Every time he got close or made contact with my body, it felt as if he had stolen my lungs. My head was faced his way while my body was still frozen, facing the Math Department entrance. 

Grabbing the handel, I pressed down and took a deep breath. 

"Daniel, we need to talk." That's all I could make out when I saw that I was facing one of the staffs. Her name was Laura Tellers. She never gave me a welcoming feeling.