His Jinx 👾

2. The Stalk

The next day, Manuel had only one class in the morning. He planned to dedicate the rest of his day to getting information on his remedy which was gonna be pretty hard considering he didn't know her name and he had no picture of her.

He watched the lips of the lecturer move up, down,up,down as his brain cells screamed in agony for the class to end. Good thing he always kept his camera on record. He would play back at home and get the whole lesson.

Some giggles from the seat close by caught his attention. Amy the newbie stared flirtatiously at Joey who seemed giddy. Typical Joey to do just what he had said.

Now, Amy felt accepted by the whole student body just because she had passed the fril test. Manuel rolled his eyes, he had better things to do than waste time on new branding of the same old product. His mind played over the scene looking for something he didn't know yet.

Then it clicked, the scene had seemed so accidental, which it obviously wasn't, so it meant every step had been carefully calculated.

As he thought through it, he was sure any member of the frils had some information about the remedy. His head whipped back to Amy as she tucked a strand of hair beneath her ear, She was a member of the frils and Manuel was sure she'd love the attention.

"Mr. Maxwells, do you mind staying after class?" the lecturer asked.

"No."Joey answered a bit hushed.

Perfect! Manuel thought, he could speak to her while Joey waited. With flirting he would get anything he wanted from her, easy peasy.

From then , he anticipated the end of class like never before. If before his brain cells had been screaming now they were tearing his scalp apart.

And at the tiniest corner of his mind he wondered why the possibility of finding a out something about his jinx excited him so much.

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As Joey left the lecturer's office he couldn't help the excitement he felt. He was gonna be with Amy soon. She had promised him a date the next weekend, dinner preferably, the his party.

He planned to spike their drinks a bit so they would both loosen up a bit before he claimed her as his for a few weeks till he got bored and dumped her. His face lit up in a bright smile which immediately disappeared the moment he saw them.

Manuel's lips hovered lightly over Amy's lobe letting out short breaths.

" Thanks beautiful." He whispered, leaving her shivering for life. He'd puke later.

She'll be stunned at least for a while that'll leave him with enough time to get away and right now he needed all the time he could get.

"Hey! Manuel! Don't mess with... " Joey started but before he could finish, Manuel was long gone.

Why is he in such a hurry ? I've never seen him like that . Joey thought. Bet he's running, he knows what he's done. He smirked enjoying the thought that he could scare his friend.

"Room 37b, room 37b." Manuel chanted as he descended the stairs. He had to find her, study her,her attitude,what she does and where it would be easy to 'bump' into her. He flew down the stairs as his eyes searched the hallways in urgent hope.

The moment his eyes landed on the figure 37b on the door he lunged for it. From afar you'd think he was late for an appointment with someone important not stalking.

He faced the empty chairs in disappointment then his eyes flicked to the backdoor where he saw the tails of silky brown hair.

He could swear it was her.

Closing the door he melted into the sea of students out in the hallway.

Finally he had found her. His Remedy he thought as a strange warmth flooded his chest. He shook it off as hope for his mother's freedom and continued to follow her.

"Hey, Manuel! My man." Emmett hollered in his booming voice clapping him on the back.

" Shh shush!" Manuel whispered ducking as half the crowd in the hallway turned in their direction.

" Why man?" Emmett whispered back worried.

"She's gonna see..." Manuel started eyes wide but caught himself mid-sentence when he realized who he was talking to and cleared his throat.

" Who?" Emmett whispered back.

" Can't explain now. Cover for me, don't tell anyone u saw me." He said jogging to catch up with her.

"Okay man, my lips are sealed, memory erased, never saw you." Emmett said to no one in particular since Manuel was nowhere in sight.

She skipped to the cafeteria, mind fogged with too much worries. She mixed up perfectly with the crowd yet stood out that u couldn't mistake her for anyone else.

"Radlee! Radlee!" A girl passing said to which his Remedy turned in response.

So that's her name: Radlee, Manuel tried liking how it tickled his tongue. Radlee he repeated.

The girl approached his Remedy with packets of something square and utterly bright.

Her eyes seemed to glow as she studied it. They muttered something Manuel couldn't hear hugged and then she was left alone like before.

Manuel had never stalked someone before but in the movies it seemed very boring. Doing nothing while u waited for someone to do something but now as he watched the small smile on her face he felt excitement instead of boredom and anticipated her next move.

He followed her off campus to the ice cream parlour then library and then the park. She always had a the ghost of a smile on her lips .

And at the park Manuel almost couldn't stop himself from asking her what she was reading as her face contorted from from anger to joy, excitement, interest then nothing.

She would burst out laughing, stop, look around then shrug.

Later as she watched the sunset , she removed the packets the girl had given her, wrote something and tore it off.

Sticky notes, Manuel whispered recognizing the packets.

Her street home was quiet , it made it difficult to stalk incognito, every 15 steps she'd turn and look around almost catching Manuel totally off guard.

Once he walked face first into a sign board. In frustration he gave up and went home.

What a day! Manuel muttered kicking off his shoes and stripping, then falling asleep just when his head hit the pillow.

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