Frostbite

CHAPTER 7

Dalene

Artemisia's POV

I reached school early that morning. I was determined to keep a close eye on Orion, whatever his motives were I just couldn't ease up on him. 

Right before when school started he appeared in the doorway. He walked inside with his left hand in his pocket and eyes darting towards me without having the difficulty to find me. I held my eyes on him, if I looked away he would think that I was getting soft on him. He walked towards his seat beside Ben, all the while he held eye contact with me. Finally he looked away when Ben greeted him.

That was it! He might tell him. They were talking cheerfully when Orion stole a glance at me and went back to talking. I was sitting far from them which gave me the disadvantage of not knowing what was he talking about. I slowly got up from my seat and casually walked towards the row where they were sitting and that was when Orion spoke out loud, like he was trying to get someone in the room listen to him.

"Oh you won't believe how I got this cut on my cheek." He practically yelled. Everyone heard him and a few curious girls and boys headed to his table to listen to his Oh-so-adventurous tale. 

I took big steps as I joined the small crowd around him. He saw me and started rubbing the nape of his neck. What was he going to tell? I pretty much knew what.

"Well......." He trailed, "yesterday after school I went to buy a flower for......"

Before he could finish his sentence I barged in, "Hey Orion!" 

For a few seconds it was like everyone and everything froze. I had called him out rather calmly and everyone was staring at me like I had grown some horns on my head. I knew they were wondering over the fact that I had greeted someone for the first time in this class and more of it the person was a guy but such minor details weren't the priority.

Finally Orion broke the silence, "Heyyy....." He trailed off awkwardly, "Sorry I don't know your name." 

The fuck that he didn't know my name, he had an appointment with me yesterday. But to keep him from revealing all that I had to play along.

"It's Artemisia Frost." I told him and he nodded.

"It's nice to meet you Artemisia! " He smiled but only I could tell what was he implying with that smile, he was teasing me.

It's so not nice to meet you jerk!

For a good one minute everyone was silently staring back and forth between us when they realized that it was bad manners to stare at other's faces and returned to their work. Orion ignored me and looked at others.

"Yeah so I was telling you how I got this cut...." He continued but I jumped in again. "Orion can I talk to you for a moment? It's urgent." 

Once again that dramatic silence filled the air with stares. Shit! They were most likely thinking I was seducing him or I was desperate. 

"Umm...yeah talk! I am all ears." He stated with fake concern.

"Not here! I want to talk to you alone." I said coolly despite the uneasiness in my stomach from all the stares.

He opened his mouth, most probably to argue, but Ben placed a hand on his shoulder and mouthed him to go.

He got up and followed me out of the class. All the while, everyone was dead silent but I could hear screams and squeals once we were outside. I didn't know what to say to him, all I needed was to keep my shit together and stop myself from strangling him. I mechanically climbed the terrace stairs and opened the door to find myself under the grey-blue sky. I heard him closing the door as he was behind me.