But, I can’t miss classes. If I get behind and get bad grades the situation at home will become even worse.
Inhaling a deep breath, I stare at school and the students lingering on the grounds. No one has noticed me yet. As usual, they’re all busy talking and laughing among themselves, not paying attention to others.It’s good. Please act like you don’t know me.
Holding the novel open in my hands, I fix my eyes on the page and start paving my way into the school. I’ve only taken a few steps when I hear their voices.
‘She’s here.’
‘Did you hear her boyfriend beat up her dad?’
‘He spent the night in cell.’
‘She went to visit him.’
I was wrong. So wrong. They all know.
My skin crawls under the sheer attention of every single person who’s watching and talking about me. I feel like scratching and making myself bleed because all at once theblood flowing through my veins resembles a river of hot, molten lava.
Turn around and leave.
I can’t.
I close my eyes momentarily, then stare back at the paragraphs of the long monologue that are best for this occasion. Blinding, I climb the stairs and push through the doors of the hallway. The eyes follow my movements.
Don’t look at anyone.
Walk straight to the math class and take the seat in the back and pretend?—
Silence reigns over the hallway, the second I step inside. The air thickens and tension fills the space.
I can feel it.
The attention. The stares. The voices.
My hands start shaking.
This is too much for me. All I want to do is get out of here.
Out of all the days in my life, today I want to be invisible. I want to wrap myself in invisibility cloak and just sit in the corner while the world moves on.
Tears build up at the back of my eyes and I truly have no idea where I’m going. At this rate I might collide with someone?—
My book jams hard into someone’s chest.
“I’m so sorry—” My voice cracks. I’m one second away from having a meltdown right here, right now.
A finger settles under my chin and tips back my head. Through my blurry vision I see him.
Heath Travon. His blue eyes stare down at me.
My head quietens. The voices subduing to nothingness.
“You never watch where you’re going,” he says. Lifting his other hand, he wedges his finger between the pages, closes the book, and plucks it out of my hand in one effortless move thatleaves me surprised in the way that butterflies fill my stomach and dispel the cloud of anxiety.
His arm wraps around my waist and he pulls me to his body.
“Heath—”
His soft, warm lips brush against mine and just like that the whole world fades away. He is the only person I can focus on.
