Part 2: innocent smiles and true tears.
Winston:
The lingering taste of waffles which were abhorrently bathed in maple syrup along with that tangy raspberry sauce was as worst as my anxiety. Today was the day. The day. That damned chemistry test. Practical, that too. I sighed as I entered the lab, the smell of all those beautiful and horrible chemicals entering my nose and destroying my nasal sanctity.
I go to my station. A tense fifteen minutes later we were given the question paper and I started. Two hours and the exams would be done. We would be free and I would finally be able to go to that trip.
About 45 minutes into the test, my forehead is slack with sweat, my hair was everywhere and my face must've looked pity worthy. Just as I'm contemplating about this test going nuclear and was walking towards the window to clear my head, I crash into someone.
'Boys. Watch where you walk' the overseer says, and I feel his hand going into my pockets.
'Sorry! Dint see' he tells me blandly like he dint mean it, and goes back to his station. Which was beside mine. How did I not notice that there was a guy beside me this whole time?
After peeping out of the window for a short time, when I realised that peeping wouldn't help at all, I go back to my station and keep my hands in my pocket.
I felt the crispness of paper and my face instantly heats up. I look towards the guy, who was busily filling away the answers.
'See what I'm doing and repeat' was all that was written on it. At that moment he looks at me, straight in the eyes and smiles. Was he some angel sent from the heavens to help my poor self? I laugh at my own internal joke, and began whatever he was doing.
Clement:
I had no idea why I was in a party when I had another task at hand. Mom and dad were depending on me for it, but all I cared was attending a party Hugh threw which Selena so gracefully convinced me to attend.
Seriously, what am I doing here? I ask myself like some logical answer would come out from me. The exams had just finished and everyone were partying like there was no tomorrow.
I pick up a red plastic glass and take a sip. I instantly spat out the beer, I shouldn't be drinking now. Not because I was underage, or for that matter of fact, everyone around me were underage but because I was at work. Or I was about to go to work.
I decide to stay for another hour, talk with my friends and then leave. But my sloppy self ,made me stay for 45 minutes longer than I intended. By the time I was walking towards my car, it was 11:45 pm and I was late.
I open my car, and sit inside and on the ignition. The door of the back seat opens, making all my instincts alert. I involuntarily reach for my gun, when a voice sloppily says –'You're late. I've been waiting for an hoouurr'
I turn back and lo and behold, it's that chemistry guy. I remember him from his grey eyes, his everywhere dirty blond hair and his standing out-ly pink lips. Seriously, who has eyes that grey? I ask myself, but instead say out loud-'Who the fuck on this godforsaken planet are you?'
'WHAT?' he asks. Drunk fuck.
'I ordered an uber. Aren't you uber?' he asks with a tone so gentle that all my anxiety leaves.
'No I'm not an uber' I say, as gently as my temper allowed-'Get out please'
'oh' he says and like the drunken mess he is, blacks out on my backseat.
I let out a sigh. A grand, huge, fury filled sigh.
Winston:
My head hurt so badly that I thought I was shot. Which is weird because I was never shot in head and so I should not be knowing how being shot in the head should feel like. Nonetheless I feel that this is how being shot should feel like.
I open my lead eyes, and through my blurry vision I see lights floating in front of me. When my eyes clear, I notice that those lights are cars. They're driving by. I'm in a car.
'WHERE AM I?' I shout to no one. The car takes a sharp left turn, the boy beside me looks at me like I'm a ghost, then takes control of the car and halts it.
'You scared me' he said, his normal brown eyes really looking scared. I think I saw him somewhere. That clean skin on his face, those same night black hair.
'Where am I and where are we going?' I ask. And then it stuck me. OH SHOOT AM I BEING RANDOMLY KIDNAPPED?
'To your home. You shouldn't have drunk so much' he explains plainly.
Then he explains me what happened. After I passed out at his backseat, he moved me to the front, checked out my phone for my mom's number, called her and asked her the address so that he could drop her drunk, irresponsible child home.
'Thanks' I tell him. He only smiles in return. I see a flicker of irritation for a moment on his face, but that probably was just my imagination.
'Do you not recognize me?' he asks, his brown eyes lit by the oncoming traffic, his face taunt in concentration as he drove the car.
I try to recollect who this boy was. He looked familiar, but I couldn't pin point. It was probably the alcohol. Or no, I wasn't adept at remembering faces.
Sensing no reply, he says-'Remember that Chemistry exam—' and realization dawn on me. My face must have revealed my excitement, and so he let out a short laugh.
'YEAHH!' I say out loud like an obvious idiot that I was.
'You dint even thank me' he replied instead.
I dint know what to reply to that.
'No need to blush for that. I don't demand gratitude for all my helps' he says, and I could feel the heat rushing to my face.
'I'm Clement' he says-'Clement Hybern'
'Winston Smith' I say my name.
After a minute of awkward silence, he asks-'So what were you doing at the party?'
'Hugh asked me to come. This was the first time I drank. I swear it was the first time' I say, in an attempt to clear the image I might have built of myself in his head.
'You know, I always say that even when I lost count of how many times I've had drunk' he says with a merry tone.
-'What? Don't judge me then. I know I shouldn't have drunk so much' I retaliate.
'You know, you thought I was your Uber. The way you barged in was both annoying and funny'
-'The way you checked for my details when I was blacked out was both creepy and adorable' I said back. If he wanted banter, I'll give him banter.
'And the way I even bothered to not leave you on the sidewalk must be both pious and kindly?' he asks, lifting his brows.
-'You know if you stop talking, and instead concentrate on driving, we might not crash' I say and he loses it and begins laughing out loud.
The car stops abruptly. His laugh stops abruptly. He looks at me, dead in the eyes and says-'Get out'
I open my mouth, scared shitless when he begins to laugh again. Maniac.
'No seriously, get out. I've seem to run out of fuel' he says.
I get out, noticing that we were only a few blocks away from my home, I say to him-'Home's near. I can walk from here'
-'Yea, yea. Please do, and when I get your mother's call asking why I dint drop her son to her house, I'll know that your drunken highness has tumbled into some other car again'
I look at him, speechless again.
Like some unspoken agreement, he begins to walk beside me.
