I have Geography for first hour and I manage to reach the class within five minutes. As expected Mr. Henry is in the class. He sighs on seeing me at the doors but doesn't say anything and motions me to get in. Good, he decided not to lecture about discipline on the first day itself.
One hour goes by quickly. Mr. Henry just gives an intro about the syllabus and introduces himself to the new students. There were a few new students in our class. Every year our school conducts scholarship exams in various schools across the country and gives admission to the students who come on top ranks.
During the break, I walk towards the cafeteria to meet with Kevin, Tony, Sophia, and Amelia. The five of us comprise one of the popular gangs in school. Both Tony and Kevin are with me in Football. Sophia is Tony's girlfriend. Both Sophia and Amelia are on the cheerleading team.
“Hey, Ethan!” Amelia shouts on seeing me walking into the cafeteria. I frown a little at her clothing. She is only wearing a thin red crop top and very short white skirts, freely exposing her body to everyone in the cafeteria. Anyway, she doesn't notice me frowning as I am at some distance from them. I am sure she is going to try something with me today.
But she is hot. She has silky brown hair and beautiful hazel eyes with an hourglass figure, which anyone would fall for at the first sight. I've even hooked up with her a few times. That was during my first month here in Westview, before I actually got to know her. I admit I had a little crush on her at first. But on getting close to her and understanding her nature, I couldn’t keep on liking her and hooking up with her. Not only that she is a heartless cruel person but also she is a total slut who has slept with almost all the guys on the football team and all those handsome popular guys around the school. I was a bit too late to realize the things and when I did, we were already a team and I couldn't suddenly leave.
Sophia is a little bit nice girl though, not completely. But I really want her to break up with Tony as he is a total slut. He cheats on her ever too often but I can't understand why Sophia doesn't break up with him yet. Maybe the girl is so in love with him and his money, influence and popularity or she is too liberal to not mind her boyfriend sleeping with other girls. Maybe she also cheats on him but I haven't heard any such news yet. I think she at least has some respect for her body, unlike Amelia.
Kevin too is a jerk. He is extremely intimidating and his main fun activity is bullying physically weak people and making fun of them. Tony, Amelia and Sophia too enjoy it. Kevin almost got suspended last year for cyberbullying two girls but he somehow got out of it. Probably with money and influence. He is incredibly rich.
You might now be wondering why I am talking like this about my so called gang. Actually I don't see them as my friends or anything. In fact, I hate being with them. But I can't leave the gang as they are too dangerous and won't hesitate to go to any extent if I go against them. I will have to eventually leave the football team and I can't let that happen. So I am just going to pretend to be their friend until I graduate. Just one more year.
“Hey..!” I say and sit down beside Tony with a fake smile plastered on my face. Amelia is opposite of me. She lean a bit forward exposing her cleavage to me. I look away chuckling awkwardly. “So Ethan, how was vacation?” she asks in a supposedly seductive tone.
“Good,” I respond, not really looking at her. I know this girl has a special something for me. She is trying hard to seduce me since the last time we got hooked up. But sadly her efforts don't work.
“So what shall we order?” Tony asks.
“I am not really hungry,” I respond.
Kevin then claps his hands loudly and calls out to someone, “Hey..!”
“Me?” a tiny girl with glasses and hair braided into two fishtails asks pointing at herself. Looks like she is a freshman.
“Yes you!” Kevin says staring at her intimidatingly. “come over here,” he motions his hands and the girl walks to us nervously. I leave an inaudible sigh. This poor girl is our today's prey. “Go buy us five orange juice and some snacks from there,” Kevin points to the counter.
“Why should I?” the girl frowns.
“Oh! why should you, hmm?” Amelia stands up from her chair and grabs the girl's round glasses from her face in one swift motion. The girl surely didn't expect that coming.
“My glasses,” she stutters in fear. Amelia laughs and hands the glasses to Kevin.
“Go buy us the things we said or I am going to crush this thing under my feet,” Kevin says dropping the glasses from his hands but quickly catching it with his other hand.
“No! Please no. I'll go and buy,” the girl says in panic and rushes towards the counter. On the way, she stumbles on a few chairs and people. Seems like she can't see properly without those glasses. Every time she stumbles, the monsters beside me laugh out loud. I also laugh along with them. I know I am no better than them.
The girl comes back struggling with hands full of juice and snacks and places them on the table in front of us. “Good,” Tony says, already sipping on a juice box.
“My glasses,” she whispers.
“Amelia, don't you think this specs are a bit too old-fashioned?” Kevin asks looking at Amelia.
“Yeah, I think so,” Amelia replies with a mischievous smile.
“That's it,” Kevin says and drops the glasses on the floor. The girl gasps and bends down to pick the broken glasses but Kevin steps on it with his spiky sneaker and crushes it into pieces under his feet.
“Go buy a new model one. That was too old,” Sophia chirps with a smile while a tear slips out of the corner of the girl's eyes. I had to fight hard to control myself. My fist was clenched tightly under the table. If someone did something like this to my sister, I would have beaten them up into a pulp by now.
The girl then runs away, crying. I don't know how long I'd continue like this without reacting. To everyone, I am just one among the monsters when I don't really want to be one. And this year I'm sure they are gonna be really harsh as we are now seniors.
The bell rings and we stand up from our chairs. This hour is Calculus for me. Unfortunately, Kevin and Amelia are also with me in this class. Amelia tries to cling to my shoulder as we walk towards the class. I try to discreetly shrug her off but the girl can't take a hint. She remains clung to my side. Her perfume and everything make me sick inside. I don't know what I should do. Nowadays I feel myself a pathetic person. I can't tear off that girl's teary face from my mind. Hope I won't have to see another girl crying today
Nate’s POV A few girls give me flirtatious looks as I walk out of my first class which was apparently Biology. During the whole last hour, I sat mute on a seat in the last row and dedicated my whole attention to the biology teacher, Miss Taylor. Good that she didn’t make us introduce ourselves and just directly went into introducing the syllabus. Or I would have humiliated myself in front of everyone. Since I didn’t try to mingle with anyone or speak anything, nobody figured out my stammering problem yet. And I don’t want anyone to find out. I don’t care if they think I am mute but I don’t want the title ‘Stutter boy'. I ignore the stares from people standing on both sides of the corridor and briskly walk in search of my next class which is Analytical Geometry and Calculus. I don’t try to seek help from anyone to find my class. And therefore it takes me a whole fifteen
He suddenly places his both hands on the locker door and I unintentionally shiver. He moves a step forward, caging me inside his veiny arms with my back pressed tightly against the locker. He is standing at an inch's distance from me. He stares at me with those beautiful brown orbs. But those familiar dark brown eyes that I loved so much are cold and hard. “Why were you staring at me?” he asks in a husky voice. I feel like his voice also sounds similar to Alex's. I feel dazed all of a sudden. I open my mouth to say something but no sounds are coming out of my mouth. I shiver and flinch as he takes one hand from the locker door only to hit it hard against the metal door, making a loud ‘cling’. “Why were you staring at me?” he growls again near my ear, sending shivers down my body. “I-I...I am s..sorry,” I somehow manage to stammer. The girl beside him suddenly laughs out
Ethan's POV The blue-eyed boy's face continuously flickered in my mind as I made my way towards the Hostel office to get my luggage and key, evening after class. His teary eyes and nervous looks made me feel vexed. I slapped the poor boy in the face just for staring at me. I can't get that expression of his out of my mind. His vulnerable state, the way he bit his bottom lip and squeezed his eyes shut. The way he stammered in lose of words. Everything is making me totally reprehensible. This is the first time I am feeling this much guilty for bullying someone. I have bullied many people. Mostly girls. Every time I feel guilty. But that's nothing compared to the guilt I feel today. I was thinking about him the whole afternoon. It's rare I think about a person I bullied for that long. There's of course something special about the boy, Nate. I feel like I have some kind of connection with him. Be
I turned and walked to one of the beds, ruffling my hair in frustration and sat down thinking what to do. He sat there itself, looking at me with wide terrified eyes. Okay, why the hell is he looking at me like that? I admit I slapped him but does he need to look this terrified? I stared back at him intently, thinking what to do with him. He quickly looked away. Maybe on remembering his promise to not look at me again. I sat up from the bed and stormed out of the room deciding something in my mind. I went straight to the hostel office. Miss Rose was now writing something carefully. “Miss Rose,” I called. “Oh Ethan,” she looked up. “Why are you here again?” “I need to change my room. Please put me in some other room,” “What happened?” She asked annoyed and confused. “I can't stay with that boy. He also doesn't
“Oh Woah! Ethan!” Amelia squealed looking at my half-naked body. “Damn! You look freaking hot,” she said seductively, her eyes on my tanned chest and abs, as she walked towards me. Sophia chuckled while Tony and Kevin smirked looking at me. My eyes then met Nate's red teary ones. He was breathing heavily, leaning against the wall. He was looking at me as if asking me silently to save him. I felt my heart throb in pain seeing him like that. By then Amelia reached me and touched on my wet biceps. I yanked her hands away and she furrowed her eyebrows. “It's not time for that, Amelia,” Kevin chirped. “What are you guys doing here?
I waited a few minutes to see if Nate comes out of the bathroom. But there was no sign he was going to come out anytime soon. My clothes were inside the bathroom. So I walked to the door and knocked on it. “Nate, come out. They all left. You can pack your things and leave now,” I said. I didn't get any reply. But then I heard a faint sob and my heart twitched inside my chest. He is badly hurt. Maybe I should let him cry now. I walked back to my suitcase and took another pair of shirt and shorts, quickly getting dressed in them. After that, I started unpacking my stuff. It was almost 8 Pm when I finished arranging everything and made my bed. Nate has still not come out of the bathroom. I guess he should come out by now. That's enough time now. Maybe he isn't coming out because he is afraid I would do something to him. Or what if he did some not so funny business inside there? If something happens to him, I would be
Nate's POV I blink my eyelids thrice before slowly opening them to the morning sun rays peeking in through the creamy white curtains in the room, tickling my eyes. As I try to move a little, a heavy weight locks me back into place. Soon arms curl tightly around me with a small groan. I smile and close my eyes once again, enjoying the warmth of Alex's body against my back and his arms curled tightly around my waist, his hip and legs curved in the same angle as mine, pressing them against mine. Alex always holds me like this, providing me all the warmth I need. Without opening my eyes, I squirm and try to turn around. Alex loosens his hands a little, letting me turn around and place my head in the crook of his neck. Once I stop squirming after finding a comfortable position for my head in between Alex's neck and shoulder, he again tightens his hug. Being warm, inhaling Alex's fam
I look at Ethan once more before slowly sitting up and crawling out of the bed. I walk to the table and take my phone which was lying there. I unlock it and quickly goes to the gallery, searching for one of Alex's pic. I find a close-up pic of Alex and walk back to the bed just to once again compare Ethan's face with Alex's though I know there's no point in comparing him with my dead brother. It's just a coincidence that he looks somewhat like Alex and I shouldn't be this bothered. But I can't help but compare them. After looking back and forth at Ethan's face and Alex's pic, I decide to snap a few pics of Ethan. He is still sleeping peacefully so he won't know. Maybe I will show it to Anna and tell her about him. She would be as shocked as me. I slowly crawl on the bed without making any sound. I tap the camera icon and quickly snap five or six pics of Ethan's sleeping face from different angles. Then I sit there for some more time obse