To Feel - Part 7
"Care, are you okay?" Elena asks during lunch.
I look up from my plate. "Yeah, I'm fine. Why do you ask?"
She looks down at my plate and then up at me incredulously. "Because you've just been picking at your burger bun for the last ten minutes."
I look down at my plate. It looks like my burger bun has exploded into a hundred tiny pieces.
I shrug. "I'm just not hungry. I had a big breakfast."
I can see she doesn't believe me, but she doesn't push me.
One of the cafeteria staff passes by our table and I throw away the remnants of my lunch, really not feeling like eating.
I try to insert myself into the conversation at hand. We're sitting with the varsity squad and they're talking about the after party that's supposed to be happening after the homecoming game tonight, which everyone is assuming we'll win.
And if we don't win, we'll still party because "#YOLO".
I sigh and nod along when one of the seniors asks if Elena and I will be there.
Honestly, I don't want to go. I don't even want to cheer at the game tonight. I just want to go home where my chances of running into Klaus are absolutely zero.
Not that the chances were any higher here at school.
He seemed to be avoiding me, too. Not that I could wrap my head around the "why" of that.
He'd been late to class everyday since last Wednesday, and had been the first one out everyday. Some days he wouldn't even show up.
I didn't see him in a hallways or in the cafeteria. He didn't even get out of his car when he picked up Rebekah anymore.
Better for me, I tried to convince myself. He was just making this easier for me to forget that anything had ever happened between us.
Actually, hardly anything had happened between us. Hardly anything at all. We had just kissed a few times.
Okay, more like made out a few times.
And he almost fingered me. Almost. That didn't even count. I'm not going to think about that anymore like as if it would have happened. Because it didn't. Nope.
Everyone at the table laughs and that snaps me out of my thoughts. I chuckle a little and duck my head so that they don't notice I haven't been paying attention. But Elena notices. She gives me a look out of the corner of her eye.
"Headache," I mouth, scrunching up my nose.
She narrows her eyes at me, and I decide I really can't take anymore of it. She can totally tell something is going on with me, and I'm not going to be able to shake her.
So I stand and excuse myself, saying that I have to go to the bathroom. I keep an ear out for Elena, but she doesn't get up to follow me. I let out a sigh of relief.
I've done my best to distract myself the last week and a half.
I've focused on school, taking obscenely detailed notes in ever class. I've done my homework when it's assigned. I've thrown myself into every cheer routine like it's going to be my last.
The homecoming committee has been having more meetings since homecoming is tomorrow night, so that has also taken up some of my time.
When I find myself idle, I clean. And organize. And reorganize. And clean again.
But sometimes, times when I leave my brain unguarded, I think about Klaus.
How his kisses were sweet, and deep and cut me to the bone. How his hands were gently, his caresses careful, as if he was trying not to break me.
Sometimes I let myself get caught up in the memories. But then it starts to hurt, so I remember the way he sneered at me out in the cold, the disgusting things that came out of his mouth.
I'm standing in the middle of the school hallway, dressed in my burgundy cheer skirt and a white sweater with the Timberwolves Cheer logo in the front, about to start crying. I've turned into a walking irony.
I rub my face and take a deep breath, pushing Klaus out of my mind for the millionth time, and start walking towards the girl's bathroom.
A door bursts open a few feet ahead of me and two guys come barreling out. One has the other by the shirt collar, and he slams his opponent into the lockers lining the wall.
I blink.
It's Klaus. And Tyler.
Klaus slams Tyler into the locker again and snarls something at him before drawing his fist back.
Matt comes rushing out of the locker room door just in time to pull Klaus back and away from Tyler, although it takes some struggling on Matt's part.
"Come on, man, it's not worth it." Matt is saying, trying to calm Klaus down.
"Mikaelson!" Coach Tanner's voice booms from across the hall and everyone (a crowd has formed at the locker room door) turns to look at him. "Principle's office – now!"
Klaus yanks his arms out of Matt's hold and straightens out his shirt before looking down at Tyler, who's leaning against the lockers, one more time.
Suddenly, he looks over in my direction, his eyes snap to mine.
There's an intensity in them I've never seen before, and I swallow, my throat suddenly dry.
"Mikaelson!"
He blinks, then turns away from me and follows Tanner down the hall towards the principle's office.
"Get to a nurse, Lockwood!" Tanner calls out before disappearing around a corner, Klaus right behind him.
I watch as Tyler straightens up, wincing a little as he does. He looks at me too, but his eyes go dark and his nostrils flare as he does. He stalks over to me, his breath puffing.
"I break up with you and you go and get yourself a boyfriend to pound on me? What the fuck, Caroline!?"
"He's not my boyfriend," I say, my tone flat.
Tyler rolls his eyes. "Now you're a fucking liar, too. Way to go, Care."
And with that last jab he turns around and walks away to find a nurse to tend to him.
I have no idea what he's just said. Klaus, my boyfriend? Far, far from it buddy.
Now Matt is approaching me, a look of pity on his face.
"Care," he starts, but I hold a hand up to stop him.
"Save it, Matt." I don't think I have it in me to listen to anyone say hurtful things to me anymore, so I turn around and walk back towards the cafeteria.
Back as promised!
(I also promise that Care and Klaus will be back on speaking terms by Part 9)
