Where Two Collide

Chapter Thirty-Seven - Alice

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Alice

"Do you think Mikael is cute?" Tia asked. She was sat beside me at a table in the cafeteria, nibbling at her sushi lunch.

I glanced over at the boy she was talking about. Mikael had the looks of a movie star from one of those old movies, very tall and dark, but not quite handsome yet. He'd shot up over the past term and was now the tallest boy in our year. He was still growing into his looks; give him another six months and he was probably going to hit the mark on handsome. "Aren't you dating Ashton?" I asked, putting my sandwich back in my lunch box. I felt queasy and food wasn't helping.

"Yeah, but he's kind of boring," she said, stretching like a cat. "He keeps inviting me over to watch movies instead of going out anywhere, and then he puts on soppy movies and cries during them. It's awful."

I thought it was kind of sweet actually, I'd always thought Ashton was just a goof like the other boys on the rugby team; he clearly had a side he kept to himself.

"I'm going to go talk to him," said Tia, pushing her sushi away from her as she stood, I eyed it up, but my stomach churned at the thought of eating that too.

I sighed and sat back, raising an eyebrow at her. "Ashton?"

"No, Mikael," she said flashing me a smile. "I'm going to find out if he has a girlfriend."

As soon as she was gone, Owen appeared as if by magic, taking her seat. He shuffled the seat, so it was turned toward me, and I tensed as he examined my face. "Why are you in such a mood today, every time I've tried to say hi you've run in the opposite direction?" he said, tilting his head. "People think we're in a fight."

"What people?" I asked, putting the lid on my lunchbox and sliding it into my bag.

"People," Owen scoffed. "So, what's with the mood?" he pressed.

I shrugged. Surely he knew, why did I have to spell it out for him.

"Just tell me or how am I supposed to do anything about it."

Fine, if that's what he wanted he could have it. "It's you. You've been really awful to me lately and I don't like it."

Owen blinked, it's obvious I'd caught him off guard. "Me?" he repeated, then moved in close to whisper at me. "I've only acted that way because of you, you make me do it. You keep trying to wind me up and do things you know will hurt me, it's like you have me wrapped around your little finger and I just do stuff for you all the time because I love you, but get nothing back and I just have to accept it. You treat me like I'm not important, like I'm just this accessory you have and bring out to show when you feel like it."

I froze. He was right, I had been doing that. Hell, I'd even described him as a bracelet to Cat. Since when had I been so callous. Of course, he'd reacted that way with me when all I did was treat him like l didn't care. I shuddered at the thought, I'd clearly deserved it. "I'm sorry I've been weird," I whispered back. "I'll try not to be so thoughtless."

Owen perked up at that. He reached out, touched the side of my face and said in a soft voice, "That's my girl."

In class I'm staring distractedly out of the window, watching one of the younger years doing PE out in the sunshine, when my teacher called out my name. The girl in the seat next to me jabbed me in the arm with her finger when I don't respond, bringing me sharply out of my trance. I turned my head to see the whole class staring at me, the teacher waiting expectantly.

"What are your thoughts on what we've been discussing, Alice?" The teacher asked me. Likely not for the first time.

I wasn't even sure what class I was in, let alone what was being discussed, I glanced over at the board searching for a clue. I could feel my ears turning red. I didn't know what to say but I had to say something to stop them all staring. "I don't know sir."

He nodded, as if that was what he'd been expecting me to say, "Try to pay more attention in class, school isn't optional, how you do here effects your entire life," he said, then turned his question to another student in class.

I covered my face with my hands, I needed to get my shit together.

When I got home from school I got changed and headed straight out again for a run. I had homework to do but I knew I wouldn't be able to concentrate until I'd cleared my head, so I headed out of our road and into town. My feet thumped rhythmically against the pavement.

It's fairly busy for late afternoon, I blame the sun, it makes people want to be outside when they'd usually just be sat in their houses. I moved out into the road several times as there wasn't space for me to run on the pavement when people were walking in groups, and most of them didn't go single file to let me past.

When I turned a corner off the main high street, the pavement clears of people and I managed to be able to up my speed without too much interference from other pedestrians. There were shops down there, but they were the smaller boutique kind with flats above them and a small cobbled road between them, so small that cars wouldn't be able to fit. The buildings are all painted a mixture of different pastel colours, and the windows in the little flats above have flower boxes hanging off of them, it's pretty, like some seaside fishing village.

I'm still looking up at the windows when someone steps out from a shop door onto the street in front of me. I collided with them, sending their bags of shopping flying into the cobbled road.

"I am so sorry," I exclaimed, coming to an immediate halt and bending down to grab up one of the fallen bags from the floor. The contents spewed out as I lifted it, the paper torn at the bottom. "Oh god it's broken, this is my fault." I started reaching for the items from the bag: a bag of sugar, a carton of milk, a punnet of strawberries. I piled the shopping in my arms and looked up to see familiar ashen curls. "It's you!"

Damien was gazing down at me as with pure amusement. "And it's you too," he said, sounding very tickled. "I'm starting to think you're stalking me, Alice."

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This guy always turns up at the weirdest times! Thoughts on Damien? Comment below!