Secretly A Computer

Love Is Dangerous

Break was everyone's favourite hour. Everyone but Maria, who has always sat alone at her lunch table, having no friends and being mocked at for having hairy arms. The jocks and their girlfriends would come every now and then, to pick on her and call her names. So she had resolved to camouflaging in dark places with a book, which led to her terrible eyesight and very thick glasses. Unfortunately for Maria, this led to more people mocking her, calling her four eyes, and such. So Maria shunned herself from the rest of the world, and has never known any love other than her mother's, that is, until one faithful day.

Ebony walked up to the emptiest lunch table she could find, near the back wall, half covered in shadows. She could only see one girl sitting there, in a black hoodie and a black book hiding her face. Ignoring the girl, Ebony plopped down across from her and began eating her food.

"You don't have to do this, you know." A tiny voice perked up from across Ebony.

"Do what, exactly?"

"Be nice."

"I'm not being nice, I just hate being around people."

The girl in the black hoodie looked up, she was wearing a mask, and had thick, square glasses perched on her nose. "You're pretty, you should go out and make friends," Maria couldn't help that her tone came out in a low growl.

"I don't need someone else picking on me."

Ebony rolled her eyes, "Look, I'm here because I want to eat here, and if you really don't like people, then stop talking to me!" she snapped at Maria.

Maria looked stunned for a while, then muttered something and shrank back into the shadows.

"What was that?" Ebony felt strange, she felt something weird, like she was angry. But that's not possible, is it?

Ebony shook her head and sighed. "Look, I'm sorry, I'm Ebony. I'm a new student, and you are?"

Maria almost couldn't believe the girl. The nerve she had to snap at her and then pretend to be all nice! She remembered the time when her own best friend turned against her to join the cool kids club. Now here was Ebony, who was supposedly a new girl, wanting to be her friend. She must think I'm stupid, thought Maria. Maria frowned at Ebony, "I'm not that stupid, I can tell when people are faking," then she collected her things and left.

Ebony was bewildered, what was wrong with Maria? She shrugged it off and sat down to eat her lunch. Just then, someone tapped her shoulder, "May I?" a deep voice rang out from behind her. Without waiting for an answer, the person plopped down beside her. It was none other than John. Could this day get any more stressful?

John chuckled and ignored the fact that Ebony was definitely glaring at him. He smirked and began to poke at his stale meat loaf. "Why do you hate me so much?"

Ebony shot a look that she hoped sent daggers piercing through John, but he simply smiled, and Ebony couldn't help softening. She shielded herself from all boys, because, as she learnt from the history books her father used to read to her, if you chose the wrong one, the whole world could be doomed. Ebony laced her fingers together and heaved a sigh. "Stay away from me. I don't like people of the opposite gender."

This didn't clearly state what she meant, of course, which was that she was just afraid to fall in love, but John thought of something else. "You're gay?" John whispered, looking bewildered. "I mean, of course, I can keep it a secret, but—"

Ebony cut him off. "I'm not! It's just... I don't want to fall for someone. It's... dangerous..." she didn't know how to put it properly — she sounded as if men were like bombs or something. John was in deep thought, chin on one hand and eyes looking skywards. Then suddenly he began to eat really quickly, stuffing pieces of meatloaf into his mouth. Ebony was shocked, she cleared her throat and began to eat too.

"Fie fufu fink fofing fi fefofo?" John's mouth was so full Ebony could barely understand him. Little pieces of his meatloaf flew around at Ebony as he spoke.

Ebony swallowed, what kind of manners were boys taught at home? She wiped off some pieces of meatloaf, but John barely seemed to notice. "Could you repeat that, please?"

John looked down at his meal, then at Ebony. He chewed for a few more seconds — very vigorously and looking like a horse — then cleared his throat and spoke to Ebony.

"Why do you think loving is dangerous?"

Ebony was stunned. She didn't really think that, but loving the wrong person could be dangerous. Like the Chinese emperor who killed off hundreds of people just because his wife wanted to. Or the ruler who forgot how to rule a country because he was too taken by his wife's beauty. There were still thousands of other stories that were told about bad outcomes from falling for the wrong people, and Ebony just couldn't risk that. She knew Kohn wouldn't understand, no guy ever would, right?

Ebony sighed. John was no different from other guys, right? He was still a guy, after all, isn't he? Ebony massages her temples. "It's a long story, besides, you wouldn't understand," and she walked off with her things, leaving a stunned John behind.