Darker Than Sin

5.

When the end-of-lunch bell buzzes overhead, I eagerly leap to my feet. The cafeteria has a cold chill to it today, even with the heaters on. It's as if the room is too large for the heat to circulate through properly.

My next two periods are sport, which I'm looking forward to.

"Great. Sport." Heidi grimaces, not sharing my enthusiasm about it.

"I've been waiting for this all day!"

"You're a freak," Kai mutters, shaking his head.

While waiting for my two best friends to get up from the table, spending most of their time grumbling about the fact that we have sport next, I take a second to look for him. I have barely seen Haze all day. I think he's avoiding me, after our run yesterday.

"Where's your boyfriend?" Heidi wiggles her eyebrows at me.

My cheeks burn a scarlet red. "He's not my boyfriend."

"Look at you blushing!" she squeals and pokes my cheek.

I lightly slap her hand away and shake my head, deciding to head to sport and they can either hurry up or catch up later. They scramble to my side. Kai looks sour and Heidi continues to make jabs at me and my transparent feelings towards Haze.

"Heidi, drop it," I beg.

"Fine, fine," she finally gives in. "It's just so cute."

Kai scoffs beside me, but I choose to ignore it. We make our way into the gym. Heidi and I split from Kai, walking in the direction of the girls change room. I slide on my shorts and yank the sport polo of my head. I pull my hair into a tight pony tail and use the mirror reflection to make sure its neat.

"Trying to impress someone?" Heidi smirks, rustling my pony tail as she walks past.

"No!" I protest, shooting her a look.

"You and the new guy, hey?" Carly, a girl in my class grins.

She has dark skin and even darker hair. Her lips pull into a smirk as she notices the colour of my cheeks. I hate that they betray me.

"What? We're friends," I shrug.

"Yeah... friends..." she trails off, exchanging a look with Heidi.

I let out a huff. Clearly, I'm extremely obvious with my feelings.

I exit the room, leaving the girls whispering about me. My steps falter when I see Haze. He's dressed in loose shorts and the sports polo, the sleeves rolled. I gulp. He somehow makes every outfit he wears look so good.

He catches a basketball that is thrown at him. He bounces it lightly and heads towards me. He throws it and it takes me a second to realise I need to stop staring at how attractive he looks, and grab the ball.

I catch it last second and once the leather touches my fingertips, I spring into action. I jog past him, dribbling the ball. He runs beside me, taunting me with his good looks and graceful movements.

"Hi Ellie."

A shiver runs down my back. I shoot the ball. The swish of the net makes me smile and turn.

"Hi Haze."

He catches the ball after it bounces on the floor. We continue to shoot and pass the ball to each other, until everyone is out of the rooms and the teacher calls for our attention.

Mr Casten holds his hands out and I throw the ball to him. He swings his arms to his side, so that the ball is resting on his hip.

"Afternoon everyone. We're going to start with a few laps of the gym to get us warmed up and then it's the choice of futsal or basketball. Have a think about what you'd like to play as you run. Any questions?"