Fly High | ✅

37 | Credence

◈A D R I A N◈

Three days had passed and I came to a conclusion.

Damon had vanished.

Laying on the bed with the door locked, I've spent numerous sleepless night dreading to feel his hands wrapped around my throat crushing my windpipe. There were nights when I drifted off to sleep feeling exhausted only to jerk awake to the sound of howling wind, mistaken for his taunting laugh. Days when I'd rolled down the blinds and wrapped myself with my blankets tightly.

I hated this. Hated the constant need to listen to every minute sound. Hated the way my heart will stutter whenever a shadow fleeted past the corner of my eyes. 

I supposed it was safe to say I was on the brink to paranoia.

And that wasn't enough to keep me out of school, unfortunately.

So here I sat with my hoodie drawn over my head and a mask to cover my face, listening to Mrs. White going on about her heyday in Norway. Totally unrelated to differentiation but she didn't seem to care, nor the rest of the class judging from their unwavering gaze on their crotch where they switched from Facebook to Instagram.

Because let's be honest, nobody likes maths.

I leaned against the wall behind me and sighed. Being out in the open was a feat for me since I was still convinced that Damon was out there for my blood. I had pretty much picked the busiest route to school this morning. As much as I hated people, I couldn't deny the fact that I'll be safer in the crowd. At least someone would call 911 when Damon strikes.

I yawned openly, not having to worry about getting caught by Mrs. White since the mask proved to be a handy accessory. Her flat voice was a great lullaby to rock me to sleep as my eyelids were growing heavier.

"And Nora was such a dear friend of mine for years. After all these years, I still couldn't believe her ancestor was the great playwright Henrik Ibsen!" Mrs. White gushed out in excitement. Her bespectacled eyes twinkled and her two crooked front teeth were on full display.

The class was as excited as watching two snails racing against each other. Her smile fell a little when she noticed none of us shared her enthusiasm.

Heck, people nowadays only recognize Henry Cavill. Besides, nobody knew or even care to know who the fuck was Henrik Ibsen when the school was pinned to have us study Othello and Hamlet. She cleared her throat indignantly and continued her way down the boring Norwegian memory lane.

I was getting restless, my face was feeling stuffy from the mask and the heat irritated my skin, making the scabs on my cheeks to prickle. I was tempted to pull the mask off but that would only attract more stares and gossips. Not that there weren't enough fingers pointing at me this morning.

I came to know later that the police came to notify the principal of my assault a couple of days ago and somehow words had gotten out. Now, everyone treated me like I was the survivor from the Black Death.

My fingers ran over the bumpy skin over the fabric. Three long stripes of scab lined each of my cheeks from the day of assault. I didn't even realize it until Helga came with antiseptic and a patch of gauze, sympathy swimming in her eyes.

I heard a hiss and looked up to see Dan holding up a piece of paper, showing me a hideous drawing of an egg-shaped face half covered with a mask. He then scribbled something under the drawing and held it up again.

It read: You rockin the Hannibal look!

His shoulders shook with silent laughter and I couldn't help but to roll my eyes at him. You would think a sixteen year old would outgrow his childish games but that prick proved otherwise.

Dan proceeded to sketch something else on the paper but thankfully I was saved by the bell. I shot up like an arrow from my seat, blatantly ignoring him and shuffled out of the class before Mrs. White could dismiss us.

"We're not done yet, Mr. Davies!" I heard her yell but I couldn't care less. Since the whole school knew about my case, I might as well play the victim and blame my misdoings to PTSD.

Soon enough, I heard a series of footsteps following me before a familiar weight rested on my shoulders. Holding up my breath, I prepared myself to face a barrage of questions from her.

Kelly stepped in front of me, her bright eyes wide with concern as she asked, "Hey, are you okay? I haven't seen you for days and nobody seemed to know what happened to you until the cops came."

I shrugged a little since I didn't really know how to explain my situation. However, Kelly wasn't satisfied with my response and pressed on. She glanced around us and pulled me to a tight corner when a group of people spilled out from the room next door.

"Dan was telling everyone that you were involved in a gang fight. Something to do with a rivalry between drug cartels," Kelly dropped her voice to urgent whispers, her eyes darting around to make sure nobody was eavesdropping.

So that was it. That was the reason why everyone scurried away when they saw me.

Fucking perfect.

"Of course I know he's lying. I mean that's...that's just preposterous. He probably watched too much Breaking Bad" she joked awkwardly.

When I didn't say a peep, her face fell and replaced with a serious expression. "You're not into some shady business, right?" she grabbed my forearm and squeezed. "Are you?"

The imploring look in her eyes betrayed her declaration in trusting me. Apparently, trust did not work both ways for us. Her empty words made me angry and as much as I hated to admit it, there was a tinge of disappointment in me.

So, I decided to toy with her instead.

"I don't know," I started slowly. "Maybe I wasn't the person you made me out to be." Having said that, I sidestepped and walked past her heading to the loo. My cheeks itched like crazy and I needed relief in private.

Kelly seemed to have recovered fairly quickly from my ambiguous reply and caught up to me.

"That wasn't funny, Adrian. This is not something you can joke about."

Hah! Now that's funny, I snickered at the irony. I turned on my feet and faced her squarely, not giving two shits if we were causing a scene in front of the toilet.

"The point is you don't even know who's the joker now. Who do you really trust, Kelly? Me or Dan?"

She looked torn and that was the only answer I needed.

"That's what I thought," I spat and stormed into the loo leaving her tongue-tied. The door rattled in the frame as I slammed it close and slumped on the covered toilet seat. I tore the mask away and let out a huge breath.

Welp, guess we're back to square one.

✈

Author's note

Adrian deserves some friends and I sucked at giving him that ><.

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{Song: I Believe You by FLETCHER}