The Others

Chapter Ten

I turned the corner and saw him.

"Chuckie?" my voice shattered as I ran toward him.

It was only when I got closer to him that his features became more distinctive. His eyes were bloodshot and his right eye swollen, he against the 'Chica' shop window clutching his stomach.

"Chuckie?!" I stood in front of him now.

"Sav...," he smiled weakly.

"What happened to you?" I said even though I knew the answer. I brushed my hand against a scar on his face, but he pulled it away almost instantly.

"I'm glad you made it" a tear rolled down his face. I took his hand and squeezed it.

"Where is she?" I said.

"She's gone, Sav," he sighed.

"What do you mean she's gone? Where?" I said confused at her sudden disappearance.

"I don't know. All I know is that, she's gone. She was scared that you would rat her out, so she left," he said trying to hoist himself up to stand straight against the wall.

"She... she's gone?" a tear rolled down my face.

"She's gone Sav," Chuckie let out a little smile and wrapped his arms around me.

"You don't have to be scared anymore," he said as he kissed my forehead.

I closed my eyes and buried my head into Chuckie's chest, the tears now streaming down my face.

Yona was gone.

***

The next few months were a blur. I took a few weeks off school to regain and recollect my sanity. Dad got moved to another location for work which was a blessing in disguise as it meant I could switch schools.

Going back to that school didn't feel right.

Chuckie and I had drifted apart as we were now practically on different sides of the country. I still missed him like crazy.

The new school was a nice little place.

The people were nice.

The teachers were nice.

New start.

New memories.

Good memories.

***

It was a Tuesday morning, and I had woken up early to get a head start on my work and go to the library. Unlike my old school, this library was always populated with students and teachers alike.

Guess that tells you something about the work ethic of the people here.

I chose the emptiest table to sit at which only had one boy on. The boy wore a black-short sleeved t-shirt which was fit tightly to his muscular physique, had dirty—blonde hair and fashioned wireless headphones. I sat opposite to the boy, pulled out my laptop from my bag and placed it on the table in front of me. I plugged in my almost-broken headphones and opened Spotify. I navigated my cursor to the Essay Writing playlist and clicked shuffle. With my music playing, I opened Microsoft Word and continued with an essay I had been writing previously, trying to make sense of the countless tabs open on left hand side of my screen on the Internet.

"Hey," the deep voice whispered.

I looked up from my laptop to see the boy who was sat in front of me looking in my direction. Just as I was about to open my mouth to respond, a skinny blonde girl walked past me and in his direction.

"Hey!" she smiled as she wrapped her arms around him.

"Pick me up after my dance class tonight?" she said.

He groaned and nodded.

"Love you!" she giggled as she kissed him on the cheek and walked away.

I quickly looked back down at my laptop pretending I didn't hear anything.

"She always wants something that girl. Sisters eh?" he said starting to laugh.

I looked up and his eyes were directed at me again.

I looked behind me to see if there was someone else behind me.

"You talking to me?" I said confused.

"Well, I don't see anyone else behind you, do you?" as he smiled I noticed his dimples.

I laughed as I looked shyly back down at my laptop.

'I'm Mac,' he said his eyes still fixated on me.

'Savannah' I said looking up once again.

'What work you doing?' he said pulling back his chair and standing up.

'Just writing a story, how about you?' I said blushing.

'Oooh, a story, let's have a look,' he said as he walked around the square table and pulled up a chair next to me.

Did this guy have no concept of personal space?

'Uhm, okay then,' I said as I moved my laptop slightly to face him.

As he leaned in closer, I could almost taste his sweet scent.

'Hey, this is pretty cool,' he said a while later, his hair flopped to one side.

'Thanks, haha, it's definitely not where I want it to be,' I said.

'Don't put yourself down, it's great. I look forward to reading the next instalment,' he winked as he got up and walked back round to his side of the table.

***

The next day I went back to the library and found there was a table which was only populated by a laptop and some books. I ravished in the opportunity to sit down before the person who they belonged to came back and sat down, beginning the ritual of unpacking. I opened my laptop and switched it on and knelt to plug in my charger in one of the floor sockets.

'We must stop meeting like this,' the voice made me jump and I bumped my head into the table above.

'Ouch,' I groaned as I got up from the floor and slumped back into my seat, seeing Mac smiling in front of me.

'Oh, it's you, new laptop?,' I mumbled as I wiggled the mouse-pad on my laptop lighting up the screen.

"Well hello to you too - yeah, I studied so much that my old one broke," his deep voice echoed.

I rolled my eyes whilst I adjusted my position in my seat so that I was upright.

"Hey! Don't deny you don't like me," he smirked.

'You're so full of yourself, gosh," I sighed as I looked at my laptop.

Mac was sporting a white vest with a backward black and white cap and blue jeans. He took of his cap and  ran his fingers through his blonde hair keeping his glance on me.

"Don't you have work to do?" I asked.

"I'd rather watch you,' he bit his bottom lip and smirked.

I rolled my eyes, plugged my headphones in and started to type.

I think I was going to like it here.