Getting It Straight

Chapter 4

I held my breath for who knew how long. Refusing to move from where I was standing, I tried my best not to be shaken because a boy was just an inch or two away from my face. In a normal case scenario, I'd think that I was going to be kissed, but this was the opposite of such normal case scenarios.

Right now, how I wished I had studied the way the opposite gender's minds worked before coming here. Because seriously, I did not know what was going on, and why this boy was on my face. And really, I was the only one freaking out. This boy was so composed, as if he had been doing this all his life. Take note, he did it with his face right on whoever he was staring at.

Literally.

'They'd sniff you and they will know,' I heard Paige's voice echo in my head. For the first time, I welcomed the thought. What if she was right? What if they had already found out? But I hadn't even done a thing. I hadn't said a single word yet.

So instead, I'd rather believe that every newcomer must undergo something like this, with this boy looking closely at your face and taking in every single bit of you. Even his breath started tickling my skin. I had already forgotten to breathe, focusing only on not collapsing to the ground—because that would be embarrassing. Risky. Very dangerous. I couldn't lose consciousness now.

After looking closely at all of my features, his eyes landed directly on mine. I felt a hefty load dropped on my shoulders in return. This was some bloody torture. Tears were already touching the corners of my eyes.

I was so busted now. He already knew. This boy had sniffed me, and he instantly knew that I was a girl. And the ridiculous thing was, he wasn't looking away. Not in the least. Surely, since he was already aware of what I was, he should now take his face off mine and maybe make some announcement to the group.

'Boys, we have a girl in our midst. Arrest her!'

But he continued holding me in the eyes, as if telling me, 'I know you're a girl. You can't escape your cruel fate. I've sniffed you! You smell like one. And guess what? You will never know who your brother is. Your dad will lose his job tomorrow. There's no deliverance for your family. Mwuahahaha!'

I was getting insane by the minute, thinking that he was some super villain in this story. It must be those lucent eyes that drove me crazy. And speaking of his eyes, I might as well take in his features. I should at least remember this weirdo's face.

I wanted to hold a grudge.

First, the nearest to my face was his black hair, which was a bit wavy and had the shade like those of the midnight skies. His eyes almost had the same shade as well, only lighter. Okay, that was an interesting match-up. He was tall and had to lean down in order to study me. And also, he smelled good, like the fresh scent of evergreen, if that even made any sense. At least that was a good thing. Imagine if he had leaned close and smelled like crap.

Oh, and did I mention he was so into it? The staring. Right. He wasn't even showing any signs of backing down. Instead, it was I who instantly cut off our momentary eye contact, because it felt weird.

Should I back off a little? The last thing I wanted to happen, next to some random boy studying my face this closely, was for the rest of the population of this room to find out that I was a girl—if they hadn't yet!

But seriously, maybe I should really do something. Thinking that I should start by speaking, I carefully said with the manly voice that I'd practiced for the last few hours, "Is there something wrong with my face?"

As soon as I said those words, chairs moved back, everyone around us became animated, and they started talking to each other. All right, so they weren't just pieces of decorations placed around this hall. They were real and breathing and alive and men. I heard echoes of their words, but I wasn't able to understand anything, since they were still several feet away from where we were standing.