Luna's Ghost

20

The next day, I walked into Art and was shocked to see Jackson already sitting there. He had his hood pulled over his head and was staring down at his lap where he was tapping away at his phone. And, of course, Will was there.

"Be careful," Johnny whispered to me.

I gave a slight nod as I sat at my usual seat. I eyed Will as he stared at me coldly. Jackson didn't look up once.

Madison came bouncing into the room but came to a halt when she saw Jackson sitting there. She frowned and sat beside me.

"What's he doing here?" she whispered to me.

"He's in this class now," I whispered back, not knowing how she didn't notice that her ex was in our class.

I could tell she wasn't happy. She got out her phone and began tapping away on it.

Jackson glanced up and caught me staring.

"What?" he snapped.

"I--"

"Look, I already told you I wasn't interested, alright? Now can you stop stalking me?"

My jaw dropped. "Stalking you? This is my table! I was sitting here first!"

"I saw you at the movies this weekend, and when I went inside that church, and the time before that, and every time you're around, things get worse. I don't know what you want from me, but forget it. You're some weird ass chick who's bored because you don't have a life and you need--"

"Hold on!" Madison cut in, staring at her ex-boyfriend in outrage. "What the hell is wrong with you, Jackson? I know you've been having a hard time dealing with--"

He lasered his gaze on her and said, "I'm just being honest. And why do you care? You told me you hoped I died last summer."

I realized that the whole room had grown silent and were listening to everything we were saying.

I glanced over at Madison and saw that her face had grown sickly pale, a pained expression on her face. Tears glistened her eyes and she got up and ran out of the room. Ms. Haynes called for her to come back but it was useless.

Perplexed by the course of events that had taken place in just a span of a few seconds, I could only stare at Jackson in bewilderment.

He shook his head and turned his gaze back to me. For a brief second, I thought I saw a flash of regret in his eyes but it disappeared as soon as Will whispered something incomprehensible in his ear and his expression darkened once again.

He pointed a finger at me and said, "I mean it. Stay the hell away from me."

"I was not stalking you," I tried to explain. "Those were all coincidences--"

"Just stay the hell away from me, bitch."

Oh, hell no.

I felt my face grow hot with anger and I wanted to leap across the table and slap him so hard his neck would turn completely around.

I heard Johnny cuss Jackson out while Helen tried to get me to calm down, but I wasn't listening.

How dare he call me that?

Jackson stared back his eyes that weird, gray blue, but then, for the briefest of seconds, his eyes went back to their original green color, and with that came a pleading expression for help.