Eventide
Chapter III
The bell rings and we are dismissed from the class. Hiro keeps looking at me with stern eyes. He is dead serious. Does he know about the monsters that lurk in the shadows of the darkness? It sure seems like it by the way he said it.
"I-I have to go." I quickly close all my textbooks and picks them up.
The seriousness washes away as quickly as it came and he is smiling once again. "Okay, I will see you around." He gets his stuff and gives me one hinting smile before he walks away from me.
I couldn't get him out of my mind. Was Hiro able to see them too? Does he know more about the monsters that I do? It isn't that hard to know more than I do since all I do know is that they come out at night and disappear before sunrise, they kill and feed on humans, but I don't know why really. The monster that has been pacing outside my window hasn't eaten a person in months, it seems like it doesn't need to eat people that often, or they eat something entirely different and maybe kill humans for their own amusement.
Walking out of the classroom, there were so many things on my mind. This Hiro person, he is something special. He seems to have an understanding for me and for the monsters in the dark. If he can see them, I need to know everything he knows in order to protect my father and the ones around me. I can't let that monster kill anyone because of me.
I wasn't even paying attention where I was walking, bumping into other students and took my math books instead of my bag with my sport clothes.
Tsubaki wasn't in the locker room when I arrived there. She did the right thing by avoiding me since I really need some time alone to figure things out. I can't have Soul and Tsubaki on my mind when Hiro is so much more important. We hadn't even known each other for three hours, but just in those mere hours he had occupied my mind.
As soon as Soul and his gang of jerks walk inside of the inside track course, actually on time for once, with Tsubaki walking beside her boyfriend, the air sizzle with tension. Two hot spots burn on my neck and I know that is from Soul's intense stare on me.
What is up with him?
"I want you all to jog around the track five times before you do twenty push-ups. Then you await further instructions." Our Physical ed teacher, Sid Barett says and I'm running on the track as soon as we are dismissed. To my displeasure, Jaqueline was quick to run pass me. Damn her, does she has to rub it in my face? She already got Soul, she won over me, but now she has to rub it in my face that she's faster than me too! She may have her back always turned toward me, but I can feel her snickering in joy for being better.
"You know you don't have to look at her like that." Soul says when he catch up to me, not running pass me.
This day just turned really badly.
"It's none of your business." I wanted to add a mean comment, but that wouldn't make the matter any better. I'm very much scorn at him for cheat on me, but I have to focus on the good stuff. He was an asshole and now I'm free from him. "Or wait, I forgot, everything that goes on about your friends is your business."
"Exactly." Even though it was meant to be a mean comment, Soul had the ability of turning everything against me. "That means you are my business as well. You are my friend―"
"Save it!" I come to a sudden halt and Soul stops a few feet in front of me. This is the first time I notice his lack of shirt on his upper body, exposing the glistering curves of his perfectly shaped muscles. I hate him for pulling such a low trick on me. "We aren't friends. You are nothing to me. So why don't you run along and catch up with Jaqueline. You two seem to be such close friends."
Soul grabs my wrist when I try to pass him, successfully cutting my path off with his body. His face so close to mine I can smell the sweat odor off his body. His breath hitting my lips and his eyes stare into my own. "You know you can talk to me. About anything. I won't judge you or tell anyone. I'm all ears."
Oh, I want to give in so badly, to smash my lips against his and feel his body pressing against mine. I want him to crush me against his body while his hands hover over my back. The attraction I unfortunately hold for him is still painfully obviously there. "Never. Delete my number because yours is already gone." That's a lie. I still have it programmed in my phone. "I won't ever confine anything in you." Roughly I rip my hand away from his grasp and I push pass him.
"Then how about your mother? I have heard she died because of an animal attack." He says boldly and I feel the seriousness in his voice.
I stiffen. How does he know about her? I know I never told him anything about her or my father. It was on the news years ago, so how in the world does he know about it? Has he googled me and read the articles about her? There isn't any other possibility.
"That must have hurt consider she was your mother, but don't you find it weird that her whole car was utterly destroyed. You know a bear couldn't have done something like that." He's on to me. Does he know about the monsters too? If he knew about them, why didn't he ever tell me anything about them? Why is he hinting that my mother's death wasn't an animal attack? What is he getting at? This doesn't make any sense!
I clench my teeth, anger boiling in my veins. "Don't talk like that about my mother."
"You know something was weird about her death―"
Quickly I turn around on my heel and punch him hard in the jaw. "Shut up!" I exclaim and Soul gently cups his jaw, opening and closing it to make sure it is still intact. "She died because of an animal attack. Just leave it alone!" Without spending another second beside him, I took off running.
He left me alone the rest of the Physical ed class. Sid gave me a warning instead of sending me to the detention since this was my first assault on a student and it hadn't broke out into something more. The bruise on Soul's jaw turned blue and it looked quite nasty. Maybe I shouldn't have gone so hard on him, but he did deserve it, talking about my mother's death like that. He is right, it was weird because it wasn't an animal, but talking so bluntly about my mother's death did tear up some old wounds.
Throughout the class, Soul gave me apologetic looks but never did I acknowledge any. After the class Tsubaki had tried to talk to me but quickly I had taken my things and left the locker room, still in my training attire. Instead I changed inside of the school's bathroom.
So many things had happened, with Soul and with Hiro. They both seem to know about the monsters, but why now? Hiro's sudden appearance isn't a coincidence. Has Hiro's presence inside of this school pushed Soul somehow? But Soul never saw me around Hiro, I'm sure he didn't see me with Hiro inside of the bus and he isn't in my English class.
My eyes widen. Tsubaki is. She must have told them about Hiro, so does this mean they know Hiro from before? It does make sense, why would they react like this if they didn't know him?
Lunch finally came and I avoided the cafeteria because I know if I go there, there will be drama. Either with Tsubaki, Soul or Hiro and at the moment, I want to avoid it and be alone with my own thoughts. So I walk up to one of the balconies of the school, gently I dangle my feet over the ledge between the fence that frames the balcony. Time from time I take a bite of my sandwich.
"Is this your spot, or is it okay if I join you?" I turn my head and I see Hiro standing at the doorway. "If you want to be alone I could find some other spot."
"Don't you know where the cafeteria is?" I ask instead, putting my sandwich down in my lunch box.
"Yeah, some student showed me it but I would rather eat alone than to awkwardly sit beside some student I don't even know." Hiro smiles gently toward me. "So, can I eat with you? You are like the only person in this school I would consider eating with."
I smile kindly toward him. I can't say no when he is new. If Tsubaki would have denied me to eat with her when I was new, I would still be the lonesome kid. Well, I kind of am now when Tsubaki and I are fighting. More like I'm fighting with her, but it seriously hurt being left after a break-up when my only friend choses his side instead of mine.
"Sure. I don't mind." I take a sip of my water before I put it down.
"Sweet. Thanks." Hiro takes a seat beside me and puts his legs through the fence and swings them softly back and forth. He takes out a large sub with meatballs, dressing along with a mix of vegetables. He takes a large mouthful of his sandwich before he washes it down with gulps of his soda.
We sit in silence; the sound of his loud chewing is heard as we both stare at the view of Death City since the school is on a hill.
"Something is on your mind." Hiro states as he presses the last piece of his sandwich into his mouth. "Want to talk about it?" He says with the sandwich pushes against his cheeks before he washes it down with the last drops of his soda.
"A lot of strange things have happened." I say while I tap my index finger against my bottle. "This day hasn't really proven to be a very good one. Fought with my friend and my ex thinks everything is just fine between us and think we can be friends when he always stood me up and slept with his ex."
Hiro nods. "Wow, that's a lot on one day." Hiro says. "How are you holding up?"
"A little hurt, but nothing much. I can handle it." I take a sip of my water, leaving it still half-full and my sandwich half-eaten. I'm not feeling very hungry. Neither the sandwich nor the water was fulfilling.
Hiro gets up on his feet. "We should do something then. You know, to make this day better."
I giggle and pack my lunch into my bag. "I haven't known you for even a day and you want us to hang outside of the school? Slow down your horses."
He smirks and offers me his hand. "Then let's do something this weekend. We could hit the arcade, go to the movies or just for some ice-cream if you want."
I grab his hand and he helps me up on my legs. "I hope you aren't thinking of this as a date. I recently broke up with my ex and I wouldn't want anything new or anything romantic."
He nods and releases my hand. "Of course. It will just be something between friends." The bell rings and lunch is over. "I promise we won't be out after nightfall."
I smile as we both walk down the stairs to continue with our afternoon classes.