I Owe The Bad Boy My Heart

Chapter 6: Curtains

".......and the very folds of the curtains contained secrets and sighs." - Anais Nin

*Chloe Armel*

The next day I was sitting in my classroom. In my usual desk. It appeared as if no one had taken my place. Cole was sitting beside me. He didn't ask me anything. Why I was absent or anything. His face was blank and I couldn't make out what he was thinking, like as if I would have been able to, even if he had some sort of expressions. And after all why would he even bother?

The teacher was taking the attendance. After my roll call the teacher asked me,

"Chloe Armel you have been absent for the whole of the past week. You are supposed to submit an application to the school specifying the reason as for which you were absent. It would be better if you could submit the application before the period comes to an end."

I was scared, and a nervous expression covered my face as neither did I prepare any leave application nor were my parents even aware of my absence. And surely enough if I would not submit the application today they would call my parents. This means that my parents would bombard me with their questions which surely I would not have the answers to.

I give a slight nod and take out a piece of paper to do what I am good at. I start scribbling a vague excuse on the piece of paper. I am interrupted by a voice which I can make sure is not of the teacher. I look up to see who is the one who has interrupted me while doing such an important work, only to find Cole smirking at my helplessness,

"So what excuse are you gonna give the teacher?" Cole asks. His face was giving me the look which I could not again decipher. GOD!! Why is he so unpredictable? I think I would die trying to just make out what the look on his face even means.

I wonder if people feel the same when I do not let them know what is going on in my mind.

"What do you mean by 'excuse' Mr. Cole? Of course I am going to write down why I was actually absent." I say raising my eyebrows at him and giving him one of my skeptical looks.

My mind starts calculating things as if to remember if he could have known what I was actually doing. It is because his smirk deepens even more when I say so. It seems that I am making up things in front of someone who already knows the truth.

"Are you sure? Because don't say me that you are going to tell the teacher that you were drinking the entire week" he says. His smirk deepening with every word he says.

Initially I am caught off guard due to his sudden confession which is actually what I was doing the entire time. Though he has hit the nail at the right point by asking me that question but I am sure that he is just speculating. In fact he cannot know.

His light brown eyes darken even more as if he is trying to figure out something. But what he does not know is that it is not that easy to know about my life.

"Thanks for the joke Cole. It was a good attempt but I am not up for it right now. You see I have got a lot of things to get done." I say putting on a firm expression on my face, and trying to emphasize on the fact that I do not do jokes well.

"I am dead serious" he says, and this time I notice no hint of humour or playfulness in his voice.

I give up the idea of playing dumb and directly ask him, "How do you know? Don't say me you or your friends were spying on me or something?"

I give him my best questioning look and even glare at him.

Realizing my confused look and maybe even my rage filled eyes, as I am sure that my eyes must have gone totally red and expanded to the biggest size possible, so do my friends used to say me when I used to be angry, he quickly speaks up and says, "No, nor were we ......"

He is cut short by the teacher who asks me once again to submit my leave application. I hurriedly write that I was ill and faking my dad's signature I give it to her. I am pretty good at faking others signatures, especially my dad's as I usually need to fake his signature.

I come back and take my seat beside Cole. I nudge him indicating him to continue speaking. He starts speaking again, "Actually we were not spying on you. After you ran that day back to your house from the park I regretted being rude to you because clearly you were not in that state so I thought to follow you. I saw that you had already entered your house. I returned back home from there. Later that day Andre called me up at around 10 pm at night and told me that he saw you drunk and you were crying in your bedroom when he came to his terrace. All of us were concerned for you.

"We didn't know what had happened. The next day we waited for you in school and when you didn't show up, we decided to go to Andre's house so that we could see how your condition was. Unluckily your curtains were put up and for the entire week we didn't know what you were doing. But I guessed that you must me drinking. And it seems that my guess has come pretty true. So would you bother to say what exactly happened?" Though his smirk was not there but this time he seemed to be a bit concerned and skeptical also, if I am right. As I think that it is the first time I am actually being able to read him.

I put all my thought away and start to ponder on how they saw me and I remember that the day I had entered my house I had forgotten to put up the curtains as I was too stressed to think about anything but what had just happened. When the next morning I woke up and realized that the curtains were open, my conscience pricked me and I hurriedly put up the curtains.

I thought that no one must have seen me. But now it seems that I was pretty wrong. I was pulled out of my trance when Cole exclaims, "Hey! Are you trying to come up with some story to tell me?"

It takes me time to actually understand his question properly, though it was not that difficult to be understood. After I actually grab what he just asked I shake my head in rejection and say, "No, not an excuse actually. I....I just don't want to talk about it."

I try to smile so that he would understand my situation; though I wanted to do anything but smile.

I just didn't trust him yet and I didn't want to accept that in front of him. I only wanted to avoid every conversation regarding it. It took me almost one week to regain myself even though it was not the first time, still, I just didn't want to talk about it. The more I avoid this topic the better for me.

What if he too would use it against me just like how Ashton did? He stares at me for a while as if trying to read my thoughts, and after he is done with whatever he was trying to figure out he nods in approval.

Our first class was Math and the teacher soon begins her lesson.

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Hey Readers! Hope you all are fine.

So here goes the bonus chapter for today. The next chapter will be up on Saturday as usual. I hope you all will enjoy reading it. Do Vote and Comment to show your support and appreciation. -Surls