Unacknowledged

Ch. 2 - "It's called 'self-defense', dummy."

How could she have been so stupid? It was fairly obvious that Dean had never been playing along with her. He was certainly, beyond any doubt, peeved off at her attempts to get him to talk. Well, Nicole certainly got what she wanted. She had never heard a tone so venomous before. It was dripping with such resentment that she couldn't dare to describe, and for the first time in years, she actually felt frightened.

Ever since the predicament that happened at lunch, Nicole went on complete opposite mode. She never spoke a word to Dean, and she never got anywhere near him.

Carter finally noticed that something was off about his sister as he was driving her home. “Okay; talk to me. What happened at lunch?”

Nicole didn't look at her brother. “What do you mean?”

“Something obviously happened. Dean had you by the collar.”

Nicole hid her cringe. He saw what had happened? That's embarrassing... “I ticked him off, is all,” she droned.

“How long had you been bothering him?”

“Since first hour...”

“Seriously?” Carter sighed. “Look, when you said you'd get him to talk, I didn't think you'd be harassing him all day!”

Nicole thought about blaming her brother since he was the one who has piqued her interest in Dean, but she decided not to. “I made a mistake,” she admitted. “He didn't seem bothered by it at first, and I took that chance to continue bothering him.” She leaned back into her chair more, knowing that she had blown her chance of possibly making a new acquaintance. “I did get him to talk, at least...”

“Oh, really? And what did he say?”

“He told me to leave him alone.”

Carter wasn't at all surprised. “Well, just lay off him for a while. He'll open up eventually if you don't push him.”

Probably not after what I've done, thought Nicole to herself. What was it with her and shooing off people? It was both a blessing and a curse.

~.~

Nicole came to a halt, facing the back end of the classroom. Inadvertently twirling her hair with her fingers the way she always did when she was tense, she played out several scenarios in her head.

Even though only two possible things could occur—Dean forgiving her or not forgiving her—she couldn’t help but wonder what exactly would happen. Would Dean actually speak to her? Would he remain silent and ignore her? Would he give her the evil eye? Some sort of warning?

The more Nicole pondered on the situation, the more she began to realize just how intimidating Dean was. Sure, Trevor was intimidating as well, but that was based off his appearance. Nicole found Dean’s demeanor far more frightening because of his emotionless manifestation. You could never quite tell what was on his mind, let alone how he was feeling.

Well, as a quote from one of her favorite movies says: “You always fear what you don’t understand.”

Realizing that class could begin at any moment, Nicole told herself to suck it and not be such a coward. She assertively marched over to Dean, but as soon as she opened her mouth—as soon as he just blinked at her—she sputtered out her words as fast as she could. “My behavior yesterday was uncalled for, and I apologize. I acted more persistent than I should have and I went way too far. You have every right to hate me. I don’t blame you; a lot of people hate me, actually. I promise not to bother you ever again, but all I want to know is if you forgive me.”