Past the Secrets // ON HOLD

0.2

I could easily see him mouth, "Rosie."

I watch intently as he abandons his friends and surprisingly starts to walk towards me. I look straight at him, my eyes not being able to move. Just as he is about to cross the road to reach me; a white Range Rover revs up in front of him.

To make this day worse, a certain somebody had to show up.

"Jay!" April squeals loudly, as she flattens out her Denim Overall. She smothers him in unusual amount of kisses on his cheeks. He smiles, a smile that didn't really reach up to his eyes. As they both start to walk up to the school doors behind me, April stops in her tracks when she notices me.

She puts on her evil façade. "Oh, Rosie!" She engulfs me in a tight hug, all the scents of her overly expensive perfume hitting me. "Are you alright? Do you know how much I've missed you after you suddenly disappeared? You see, I know everything. It didn't take me 2 minutes to find out what happened that night-"

"Well if you know everything, you should know when to shut the fuck up." I say, a bitter-sweet smile overtaking my face, as I push her off of me while she was still hugging me.

I can't help but notice Jay trying to bite back the smile that was appearing on his face.

She scoffs. "You're such a hard piece of work. We're trying to help you here," She touches my shoulder suddenly, resulting in me flinching. "We're here for you." She whispers, now squeezing my shoulder.

As the bell rings, April lets go of my shoulder and winks at me.

*

After the very long assembly of receiving our timetables and being given our locker keys, I punch in the combination to my locker. I start to memorise the numbers, repeating them over and over again in my head.

"Hey." A fairly deep voice says beside me, I twist my neck towards the voice. It was another Sixth Former. He had rough brown hair with streaks of black seeping through his roots. His smile was genuine, his dimples were complimenting his face. He had those mesmerising hazel eyes that you would easily get jealous of.

So basically, he was pretty cute..but why was he approaching me?

"Hey." I say, closing my locker, my eyes never leaving his. He opens his mouth to say something but the burst of the school doors leaves him to be quiet. A wave of students fling themselves to the side of the lockers, leaving a path available for this person.

Why does everyone look so shaken?

I poke my head around the boy that decided to talk to me, to get a better view of all this commotion.

Oh.

Leading his group, Jake Oswelli had arrived. His sleek aura and his 'I-Don't-Care' attitude had left everyone in the hallway to be absolutely quiet - He's changed, a lot. His eyes were directed forward, not once flicking to the side. He's sporting a white long-sleeved shirt with a few buttons undone, along with black jeans and solid black boots.

The boy next to me scoffs. My eyes flicker to his. I almost forgot he was here.

*

"What's wrong?" I ask, as I notice him give a glare of disgust into Jake's back. "You don't like them?" I continue.

He covers up his glare with a polite smile then faces me, "Do you want to sit with my friends and I, at lunch?"  

If this is out of pity, I'd say no. But it seems like he genuinly wants my company, so why not?

"Um, I guess. What lesson do you have before lunch?" We start to compare our timetables, deciding when to meet up. "So, I'll see you at English Lit then?"

For a few minutes, I find out a lot about this guy. His name is Elijah, but his friends call him Eli for short. We actually have a lot in common, now that I think about it. He's creative like me, we both study Fine Art. He also likes to make music and is interested in Drama.

Overall, he's like the male version of me.

I finally find class 'S20' which was the class for Physics, and enter. I find a seat at the back of the class, not wanting to be seen. I slump back into my chair after taking out my equipment and I briefly close my eyes, waiting for the class to hurry up and finish.

*

"Is anyone sitting here?" A rather loud voice says, tapping the small of my arm. I slowly open my eyes and sit up. I shake my head to say the seat was available. I could see that the teacher had just arrived, writing his name on the board.

The girl sitting next to me looked quite fierce. She was wearing a pair of dark denim skinnies with a tutu style skirt layered with tulle. She wore a forest green cotton t-shirt. Her boots were tangled up in buckles, almost giving off a motorbike vibe and her raven hair sported streaks of purple highlights.

Making the choice that we both had no choice but to be eachother's partners for the current activity, I try to make conversation  with her.

*

Later on,  I find she's pretty cool and easy going. I'd hope we would become good friends. She wasn't very open with things that she liked or her personal life but I didn't mind. I'd come round to it. We had decided on hanging out with her group at break.

She lead the way into the canteen, I try averting my eyes to the biggest table here.

Realising that we had stopped, we were standing in front of her group. I look around, smiling at each one of them. I introduce myself, shaking each of their hands. It's when my smile grows bigger when I spot Eli, he was part of this welcoming group.

"Sorry, Elijah. I got caught up with Jade and totally forgot about meeting you at your English Lit class." 

"All good." He smiles, nodding his head briefly. 

I find it a little bit difficult to remember all their names but so far all I know is Jade, the one in my Physics class, Eli the guy who I met as my locker neighbour, Charlie, Nick and Angelo.

Charlie can be sometimes quiet. She didn't speak a lot but she would always give in her opinion here and there. She is mixed with Italian and Ghanaian, and has the most curliest blonde hair ever, with her rounded glasses sitting on top of her freckled nose. 

Nick is very funny, he'd always say something random that would make us all burst out in laughter. He had blonde hair which faintly looked white, and had a pair of sea-like blue eyes. 

Angelo was quite charming and sometimes flirtatious, he was very chill but had that streak of mysteriousness added to him. He was brown-skinned and had a high top fade hairstyle with a highlight of blonde at the top of his curls.

"So tell us all about yourself!" Charlie says excitedly, shoving a handful of crisps in her mouth.

***