Ghost Blog

Ghost Blog 000 | It Begins

This original novel is dedicated to my friend, giapohonjati. In one of our frequent conversations, the idea for this story literally appeared out of thin air. Thank you very much my friend. :)

***

Monday, 8:00 AM

It seemed as if the world was suddenly in slow motion as Gavin's mobile slipped from his hand and shattered on the hard tiles of the university hallway.

He stood frozen; a look of complete horror on his face as he slowly turned his head from one face to another. The morning crowd of students usually milling around before classes started were equally immobile. Not a few were whispering amongst themselves and all looked at him as if he were an alien species and not one of the most popular guys in school.

"I couldn't believe it," someone exclaimed from the crowd, jolting Gavin from his shock. He could hear a multitude of voices, one on top of that another and it was beginning to drill into his eardrums.

Over and over again, he heard his name being spoken. The faces became a blur as moisture seeped from his eyes and escaped from his eyelashes to stream non-stop on his finely sculptured cheekbones. His mouth remained opened as the incessant whispering of what seemed like the whole university became a deafening roar.

He was trembling. He felt cold and hot at the same time. He wanted to scream, he wanted to shout at each one of them; especially to some who were pointing accusing fingers at him.

He felt exposed yet trapped at the same time.

The air in his lungs wasn't nearly enough. He took gulps of oxygen to compensate. But he was getting claustrophobic in an ocean of faces that were all staring at him.

"Gavin!" shrieked a vaguely familiar voice as one side of the crowd parted like the Red Sea and a statuesque girl with wavy black hair walked purposely towards him; her face a mask of rage and distress.

The tall young man just looked at her approach, unable to move an inch. Noticing that she held a mobile phone in her hand.

"What the fuck is this?" she screamed like a banshee, her face merely inches from him.

"..."

"What? Answer me you asshole?" she demanded, "Is this some kind of a joke? You used me!" Gabrielle continued to shout at her shocked boyfriend, she could see the tears flowing from his eyes. She could literally feel him vibrating as he trembled at what was happening. She didn't care, she felt like the joke was on her and she was never one to take jokes lightly.

Smack!

The resounding sound of a slap echoed among the crowd as her well-manicured hand met with Gavin's face, the imprint of her fingers slowly reddening on his cheeks.

Still, he had nothing to say. Even when she broke down and cried, "What the fuck are all of you staring at," before she stormed off into the direction of the car park.

"It's such a shame," someone else muttered and Gavin could not take it anymore.

He ran.

Ran without any sense of which direction he was going, all he knew was that he had to run far away from all the stares, and the voices and the mutterings and the whispers; far from everyone.

"No shit, it must be true then. Gavin is a freakin' tootsie. Who would have guessed?" someone voiced out as everyone followed the retreating back of the most handsome guy in school, the guy voted as the most popular, the guy that always had a smile on his face for everyone, the hottest junior from the Engineering Faculty, the one with the highest grade.