Hidden in the Night

Chapter 3 - Stuck With Me

"Class starts in five minutes!" Daniel, my partner for a school project, exclaimed from beside me. His hands were fidgeting with each other nervously as he bounced on the balls of his feet.

We had been working on a project for our business management class the past few days, and he had decided to take it home last night to add a final touch as he had said. However, he had accidentally left it there this morning when he left. So now, we were waiting for a family member of his to bring it to him. I was anxious, I really did not want to fail this assignment, it was a large portion of our grade. But, I also knew that he felt guilty for forgetting it and I didn't want to make him feel worse than he already did.

"Don't worry. I'm sure they'll be here soon," I told him reassuringly, trying to offer some type of consolation. I hardly knew him, but he seemed like a nice guy.

"How are you so calm?" he snapped, his eyes showing agitation before he proceeded to look back down at his phone to check the time. I chewed on the inside of my lip as I felt my face heat up, I should have just stayed quiet. Now he was obviously mad at me.

"I... I'm sorry, I'm just nervous," he suddenly remarked with some hesitance, refusing to meet my eyes. His hands ran through his curly, untamed black hair as he took a deep breath.

"T-that's alright. Me too," I responded quietly. My plan had backfired because he now felt bad about yelling at me and the paper. We stood in an uncomfortable silence for another minute before I heard a deep voice calling Daniel's name from down the hall.

"Yes! Thank you so much! I owe you," Daniel exclaimed quickly, acting as if he didn't have the time to pronunciate each word. I smiled, glad that the paper was here on time and that his mood was better.

"Yeah, you do," Daniel's family member replied, his tone contemptuous. I looked up to find the same threatening face that I had seen a few days ago in the flower shop, his blue eyes meeting with mine. His face looked shocked, which was a change from his usual stoic features.

"You guys met before or something?" Daniel asked, obviously seeing the recognition both of our eyes held.

"Not really," he said impassively. My eyes dropped to the ground, not daring to meet his judgemental glare.

"S-sorry again about eavesdropping," I responded quietly, fidgeting with my hands just as Daniel had been doing minutes ago. He just rolled his eyes, obviously irritated by me. I had only had good intentions when I was listening to him and his friend the other day, but maybe he was a very private person. I truly hadn't meant to invade that privacy when I got those flowers the other day, but maybe that was how he saw it. Or maybe, he was going through a hard time, I knew what that could do to a person. How it could change their entire personality.

"Thank you. For bringing the paper," I said gently, looking up to give him a small smile before turning around and walking towards the direction of our classroom. I would refuse to treat him with anything other than kindness. I wasn't sure why I was so adamant about that, maybe it was because I had been deprived of it so much in my life.

Making my way towards the back of the class, I took my usual seat and began to look out of the window. The sun was shining outside, several clouds were scattered throughout the sky. I knew that summer was coming towards its end, so I should be soaking up all of the nice days that we have left. I also knew I shouldn't let things ruin my mood so easily. But I was inexplicably bad at ignoring what others thought and said, as hard as I tried not to care.

The normally vacant seat that resided besides me was suddenly being sat in by a now calm Daniel. We hadn't ever sat by each other out of choice, only because we were partners on this recent project. Now that the assignment was over, I had assumed things would return to the way they were before. The confusion I felt due to him sitting by me must have been evident on my face because he let out a small chuckle.