[ONGOING] NOT JUST PENELOPE

36: Clark

CLARK

"Bring in the pizza!"

"I'll miss you guys!"

"See you all after two weeks!"

"Survived 1st semester, yay!"

"I'm still alive. Thank God!"

"Congratulations to us!"  

We're in our classroom now, having a class party and I'm here in the corner of the room, not really in the mood to have fun because beside me is Zach, looking like a zombie.

I bet he did not sleep well last night. I went to the bathroom at 3 am this morning and I saw him still wide awake, staring outside the window. I decided not to disturb him and to just do my thing.

He's drowning himself from his own thoughts. Is he thinking about his article? Zia? Or Penelope? I'm not really sure, but after his conversation with that stranger he met at Starbucks last night, he didn't say a single word to me or to anyone. 

Actually, I do not even think he was a stranger to him because he was excused from work yesterday just to meet him. 

Was that a VIP customer or something?

Sometimes, I really think he's so weird and mysterious. We've been roommates for three years now, but I really do not know anything from Zach's past because he never talked about it. I tried to ask, but he casually changes the topic so I choose not to bother him with that.

Whenever I ask him, he always diverts the topic so I never tried asking him again. All I know is that he lost his parents at a young age, then his aunt took care of him.

I know there's something more, but I respect him if he wants to keep it all to himself.

I pretended to yawn to get Zach's attention, but he didn't even notice me. I yawned again, but still, no response from him. 

This time I yawned, no I yelled.

Every one in the class was looking at me like a I'm a lunatic and they're laughing so hard right now.

I got used to it already. I'm like the clown of this class anyway.

"Dude, what's wrong with you? You're getting everyone's attention again." Zach turned to me. 

Finally! I got him to nice me. The embarrassment was worth it. 

Zach really hates it when people have their eyes on him. He hates attention.

"Don't disturb me while I am busy ignoring you." I pretended to ignore him and turned my back at him. 

I thought he would talk more to me but when I peeked at him, he was starting at nowhere again.

"WHAT THE HELL ZACHARY!" Our classmates looked at our direction, but then went back to doing their thing.

They are obviously used to this scene anyway - Me yelling at Zach and Zach trying to calm me down.

"What's wrong with you, today?" 

"I'm jealous." 

His eyebrows met. "What are you even talking about?"

"You're not talking to me since last night. You're always thinking about Penelope." I joked. 

I know how he'd react if I mentioned Penelope. 

Honestly, Penelope is really not my type. She's too intimidating.

"Again? You know I don't like her!" I laughed. He really looked funny now.