Piece By Piece | ✓

5 | vanessa

     A warm and familiar breeze gently blew across her face as she hurriedly stepped out of Sterling Hall, her breath ragged and her shoulders heaving from all the running she just did.

     Vanessa couldn't wait for the bell to ring. Her feet were itching to get away from that classroom, seeing as Mr. Henri decided to bring up her absences in his class again, and her friendly classmates just couldn't help but express their excitement to see her again after going MIA for an entire week.

     And there was that annoying blonde guy who shamelessly sat on her seat.

     Had it not been for Mr. Henri's stern expression piercing a hole right through her, she would have grabbed the guy by the collar and yelled at him for sitting on her spot.

     But since she didn't want to get suspended twice for physical violence, she opted to keep quiet and stare at him.

     And boy, were his eyes blue. They were the bluest eyes she's ever seen, they were even bluer than Kayla's. His eyes were like the sea at its most tranquil, curiosity brewing in those deep, ocean-like depths.

     That blonde boy scrutinized her so intensely, it unnerved her—and as much as she wanted him to look away and mind his own business, she couldn't make herself to do it.

     There was something about his genuine curiosity and innocence that made her feel weird, but at the same time... it calmed her down.

     She had been the target of unsavory remarks and insulting comments for as long as she could remember; and all those times she'd been mocked and laughed at, there wasn't a single soul who showed any kind of concern towards her despicable predicament.

     It was as if she had been exceptionally chosen by the heavens to be their plaything, their emotionally indestructible punching bag.

     He was the first and only person to acknowledge her with genuine sympathy. No one else looked at her the way he did.

     And as much as she wanted to disregard it, the warm, unfamiliar feeling that settled deeply in her chest lingered until the rest of their Literature class.

     That's why she hastily sprang to her feet and bolted out of the room the moment she heard the bell rang loudly outside.

     Vanessa couldn't stand being in the same damn room as that annoying blonde guy. He might've thought she didn't notice, but she saw him glancing her way every now and then as Mr. Henri went on with his boring discussion, his face a clear mask of quizzicality.

     It had been a while since she encountered someone else who obviously had some kind of interest in her—not the romantic kind of interest, though, but the I-want-to-figure-you-out kind.

     That person was Kayla Marshall, her fellow barista-slash-waitress at Books and Brews. With her blonde hair and inquisitive opal eyes, an average person would think she was an absolute angel—but she was the exact opposite, really. Well, to Vanessa, anyway.

     Kayla was loud and cheerful and she talked too much. Based on Vanessa's personal experience, the blonde-haired machine gun never acknowledged the concept of personal space.

     Kayla had been the first person to blatantly ask Vanessa about her cold and aloof treatment of other people, her blue-eyed gaze brimming with curiosity and steely determination.

     She had asked Vanessa the same thing over and over again for two straight weeks ever since she had started working at the coffee shop, and it annoyed Vanessa very much; she was never really a patient grasshopper when it came to childishly nosy people.