Erasure

5

The next morning, I woke up to a text from Wendell telling me to meet him at the library. I quickly got ready and ran out of the door. I don't know why but I was nervous, like I was scared for what endless possibilities of things he could say to me. He was sitting toward the back, looking around constantly until he laid his eyes on me. I sat down next to him and he immediately turned to face me. "Mal, I need you to stay by me at all times, you cannot get out of my sight." He was never demanding but I could tell this wasn't one of his stupid jokes and I could almost see the fear in his eyes that he was trying to hide. Is it bad that I'm finding this hella attractive? Probably.

"That would practically be impossible. We don't even have each other in the majority of our classes and even if we did, why would you even want that?" I explained. "Just... please. I don't want to risk anything happening to you... like last time." He mumbled the last part but I still heard him. "Since when did you become so protective over me?! Why did you change over something Gregory tells you about?! I'll be fine and if something does happen, you'll know." I didn't want to hear what else he wanted to say so I just got up and walked to my class. I did feel bad for yelling at him but I don't deserve to be treated like a defenseless dog. I didn't see him the rest of the day but that doesn't mean I stopped thinking about him. Before I realized it, it was study hall. I sat in my usual corner and started to watch videos on my phone when Maya suddenly appeared in front of me.

"Hello!" She basically yelled at me, clearly excited. "Oh. Hi. When exactly did you get here?" I asked, confused as I never heard her come up to me. I noticed that her hair was up in a ponytail and her black and white flannel that she usually wears was around her waist. "Oh not that long ago. Wanna get outta here?" "Thanks but I'm interested in someone else." I just said, continuing to look at my phone. "Oh.. you mean little Wendell? He's not as great as you think he is." She said, teasingly as she dragged her fingers up my leg and moved so she was next to me. What in the world is she talking about? "What do you mean?" I asked, putting my phone away and standing up. "Let me take you somewhere and I'll tell you." She answered, holding her hand out to me. Still skeptical, I held it and suddenly, we were on a cliff in a place I didn't recognize. "How.. how did we... where are we?"