Riven starred at his math book trying to decipher the foreign text as he scanned over the pages.
"When did they start putting letters in math?"
"About three years ago when you started sleeping in class." Brandon said while pretending to study his history book. Riven laughed, "I started sleeping in class long before that!" His friend just starred at him, he then continued. "Anyway, back to these letters. Isn't math supposed to be numbers? What the hell is wrong with these people?" He said raising his voice.
Sky glanced up, already finished with his work and laughed slightly. "Really Riven, if you would just pay attention in class, or even show up, you wouldn't be so lost." Before Riven could retort, Musa sat down at the table, pulling out her iPod. "Wow, all of you are studying? I'm impressed!"
"Where's Andy?" Brandon asked innocently. Musa turned to scan the library, then the door. When she turned back to face her friends she responded, "I'm not sure, he was supposed to meet me here."
Riven slammed his book closed, "I just remembered, I have battle training soon, see you guys later." As Riven walked away, Brandon called after him, "It's only three-thirty, practice isn't until five!" The brooding boy pretended not to hear him as he ducked out the door and hurried down the hallway to his dorm room.
Why did he have to pretend like everything was okay? He knew why—because he didn't have to, he wanted to. That way no one got hurt, well except him.
When he reached his dorm room he unlocked the door and threw his bag on his bed with unnecessary force. While he changed into his battle uniform, he tried in vain to get his thoughts of Musa out of his head, it seemed impossible to him.
By the time he reached his destination, he realized he was about an hour early. In his hurry to ditch Musa and avoid seeing her with Andy, he arrived too quickly. With a shrug he decided to take a few blows with the practice dummies. Picturing Andy as the practice dummy, he let out all his rage with every swing.
He hated Andy.
He hated Andy with Musa.
He hated pretending like everything was perfect.
He hated his feelings.
He hated having these feelings.
By the time he had taken a swing for every problem he was exhausted and the dummy was finished. He sat on the bench with his head in his hands.
Why couldn't Musa see that Andy was no good for her. Why couldn't she see what was so obvious to him. They belonged together.
He shook his head eager to get rid of the thought. His heart tore as he thought of her. If only he was good enough for her, if only she could be happy with someone like him.
With a sigh he rose. He decided to lock away every thought about her. As long as she was happy, he was happy too. Or at least he would pretend to be. He took another swing at the dummy, slicing open its' chest with his sword. He was so focused on his battle strategy and keeping his mind from wandering, he didn't even notice her sitting in the stands watching him.
"Why does he have to be so stubborn…if only he could love someone like me." She whispered as she stood to walk away.