Falling Like The Stars || UNDER HEAVY EDITION ||

Seven

"Okay, time's up!" The instructor announced. "Get up with your partners now."

The students plunked up with their collaborators. The coach frowned at me, "You're not affiliated?"

I shook my head, "I'm afraid not, sir."

He nodded at the other edge of the room. "What about you, Jake?"

Jake?!

I couldn't believe he didn't choose anyone from the girl group. That's strange. I examined him as he stood up, viewing me. His eyes penetrated through my soul.

"No."

The teacher laughed, "This must be the first time I've noticed that you don't have an associate."

The class humiliated the hazel-eyed guy and he snickered with them. His eyes were however fastened with mine. And just a gentle reminder, I wasn't guffawing.

"Well, you both are welcomed to serve detention," the coach snorted, leading the students to the field.

Leaving me with the most abhorred person, Jake.

For the primary ten minutes, we both were quiet, hurdling ourselves to scribble the gums out of their location. Nonetheless, that silence was broken with the explosion of my curiosity.

"I don't understand. Why didn't you go with those girls?" I eventually burst out.

Jake twisted, facing me. A withdrawn show of a smile lingered on his lips. "Because you said no."

"Exactly. That means you had more admirers to choose from."

He motioned his shoulders upward, then lowering them back. "Guess I wasn't interested."

Weird.

"Now I get it," I swamped on the floor, confronting him. "You're that type of guy who likes to fool it around, searching for a new girl each week and then disheartening them. You're the player of the class. And you think that's cute."

He traversed his legs, tilting his head at me. "Do you think it's cute?"

I clenched my fists and grunted noisily, but restrained from speaking. Tranquility drove the scene again.

"With the silence that you usually give me, I've calculated that you're still enraged with me for..." He wavered a minute, "the previous skirmish."

I raised my eyebrows. He just noticed now?

"Seems like you're at least good in calculations. But just for your information, I'd never forget this unpleasant day. All thanks to you."

I rolled my eyes, continuing to cleanse the filth under the desks. I could feel his gaze on my being, and that suffocated me. I unlatched my mask, hidden from his ethics, and removed the tubes gradually. I inhaled heavily, hooking them back in their location. The mask hugged my face.

"You should visit the nurse, you know." The deafening voice screeched again. I didn't bother to turn at him. It would have been so pleasant if he did not dare to speak up.

"I'm serious. You can't breathe properly. I'm guessing it's a delay of medicines, or some kind of horror past swinging in your head," he mumbled again.

"It's nothing." I uttered and clenched my jaws. I had to admit, he was appealingly correct: I didn't take my prescriptions this week, and the fear of...

"Okay, class, back to the room." The manly accent tuned the stillness. I gulped down my pressure and scampered off the floor. The coach bobbed his head at me.

"How many gums you collected?"

"Eighteen."

He furrowed his brows, twirling to Jake. "You?"

"Twenty-one."

"Well, guess what? The period's over and you're free to leave."

The group of pupils larked at us, snatching their bags for the depart. Ah, this gave me the best satisfaction till this era. I was amused as the lot rushed out the genre, gossiping their way out.

I stretched my legs and lifted my bag. "Finally."

I unveiled the mask and unbolted the tubes to breathe some calm school air. The crave of doing this tensed me for hours, but ultimately, I survived school.

With one enormous inhalation, I closed down my tubes again, fastened by the mask. Time to leave.

I reached for the door when I realized a jaw-dropped yet beaming guy leaned against it. And the mood of happiness suddenly cringed.

Jake.

"Whoa..." He muttered under his breath. "You—"

"WHY CAN'T YOU JUST LEAVE ME ALONE?!" I wailed at him, both flinching and embarrassed with the thought that he got a glimpse of my tubes.

Yet he continued, "You look so different without the mask..."

"Please go away," I stated and hastened out of the room. He followed me, progressing with his comments.

"That was worth waiting for, you know."

Avoid him.

I quickened my motion, desperate to get myself thing out of here. I was right. I shouldn't have come to school. I shouldn't have watched out of that window, nor should I have twisted around at the mess. School, as I knew now, was just a masquerade of hell. And this guy, for sure, was the devil of it. He ruined my complete day at first, and is now chasing after my life.

Pondering upon such irritation arose a sudden antagonism in me. I respired deeply, tuning down my anger level. But as he advanced speaking, my fury startled me. I halted in the middle of the huge campus and turned at him.

"Just shut up for once, okay? You've already done enough in my life and I really don't want you here anymore. What more do you need? You let the entire school dread on me, and now, you're ruining what was left. Why can't you just understand that YOU ARE A BLOODY PLAYER NOBODY LIKES?!"

I was fretting at my own speech as I ended it. The intact school was staring at us. No one moved. No one spoke. Was I so loud? It came out a lot harsher than I had expected. I didn't detect that I was breathing rather unusually rapid. My lungs considered to have circulated all its vigour.

As for Jake, he just abode there, gazing at me like a crashing hawk. Nothing could be interpreted by his face. His fists were clenched around his bag straps. And for the first time, I could listen to his steady heartbeats.

The bell rang again, and noises stuffed the emptiness. The students marched lapsing us, eyes secured on our figures as they chatted crisply. I rotated towards the gates, the ringing heartbeats swirling in my mind.

***

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