Chapter 4
My alarm clock woke me up for a few seconds, but I bet it totally blew off David’s drowsiness. The next thing I knew, I was thrown onto my empty bath tub. In my bathroom. With David. Bathroom. David. Bathroom?! And DAVID?!
No, no ,no. this is just so wrong. The bathroom’s where I basically stay naked. I looked down, to myself and sighed with utter relief when I realized that I was NOT naked.
“There you go.” David heaved a breath, a deep one, “It’s really pretty hard. Waking you up. Maybe that’s why people here wouldn’t really bother to wake you up.” He was leaning on my bathroom door. Good heavens. Gorgeous guy. And bathroom.
“I’ll go now.” David said, “It’s 30 minutes after five, you’ll have plenty of time.”
I blinked at him blankly.
He shook his head and went near me to pat my head. “Bye, She-male. I’ll see you later.”
“Yeah.” Was all I said to him.
David went out of my bathroom, then out of my room. I started peeling off my clothes and soaking myself on the bath tub. I heard him greet my mom a good morning. My mom was quite surprised, but did not bother to elaborate. They all trust David. I’m just not sure if David’s parents would trust me if they knew that I’d been lusting on him.
“I asked Skye about our history research—“ I heard David say, and a few seconds after that, he was crashing my bathroom door. The door was opened. I am naked. And David’s here. NOOOOOOOOOOOO!
“Oh CRUD!” David said, covering his face except for his eyes, yes. I AM just glad…that the tub is now filled with bubbles so David couldn’t see me naked, just my head.
“YOU COULD”VE KNOCKED YOU KNOW?!!” I screamed, splashing some water onto his covered face.
“Sorry. But you could’ve locked the door, you know?!” He said, still doing the cover thing, “Uhmm. About…… the history homework—“
“It’s on my bedside table, dorky.” I said.
“Yeah…Okay..Uhh…Uhmmm…Thanks…”He said, scratching his head. He turned his back on me and walked away, “Thanks.” He called out.
“Shut up.” I called back.
“BYE!” And he was out of my bathroom. My room. And our house.
I closed my eyes, soaking a little deeper in my tub.
August 6; P.E.
I am NOT the Goddess of Balls, I daresay.
After Mr. Hilton collected out printed assignments when we were inside our classroom, he told us to step foot on our gymnasium and that we’re going to have to play basketball ten minutes later. Wearing our gym clothes—gray knee-length shorts and a white shirt with NHS logo.
“Chop! Chop!” Mr. Hilton called, as students came rushing inside the gym, “Ladies! Tie your hair, please! This is about ball bouncing not hair bouncing.”
I tried not to think green. GREEN. GREEN. GREEN. GO GREEN.
I grinned and looked around while I finger-combed my shoulder-leveled black hair into a high ponytail.
Mr. Hilton, with his red knee-length shorts and balboned legs, prepared the basket balls along with my guy classmates.
I spotted David. He grabbed a ball from the wooden floor of the gym and started dribbling it. I don’t know how you call it, but he does the action wherein you dribble it past yours… Yes. And then David shoots it high. And he scores! A three-point shot!
Awesome!
I smiled broadly, pride enclosing me. That’s my best friend! Yoohoo! And he’s very good in basketball!
But my gaze diverted into another scene that’s catching my eye. Mark Superman is coming inside the gymnasium. This is NOT his class. We’re not classmates, anyway.
What is he doing here, then?
“Mark!” Mr. Hilton called out to Superman, “Good you’re here. Come on, kid! Grab a ball.”
Wait. Why is he here? Why. Is. Mark. Superman. Here? Doesn’t he have a class?
Oh right. His first class is Computer and Mrs. Trapp is on a maternal leave. MY GOD. This is so not happening. But it is.
Mark looks my way and I feel myself blushing to the fullest—like I could burst into flames or something. He waves and mouths a “Hi!” and there…I’m in the darkest shade of red. It was like my blood went directly to my face and stayed there for who-knows-until-when. What should I do? Should I ignore him? Or should I wave back a HI?
“Hi!” I mouthed back at him. I couldn’t stop myself. He’s goddamn gorgeous and I am just too attracted to him. He winks at me and then he goes away to grab a ball. Which was good, so then I could let myself melt into nothingness of cupid-love-LOVE-LOVE.
“Girls… Skye Mills, your turn.” Mr. Hilton said as he chest-passed a basketball.
But then he’s there. Mark’s there, grinning right at me. And before I knew it… WHAAACK!
The ball hit my chest with a whack that echoed inside the gym. OUCH! OUCH! OUCH! I think I’m going to have a breast cancer.
And to think, it’s because of my P.E. teacher! This is so not cool. This will never be cool.
OUCH. I fell on the floor, still clutching my chest. OOOOUUUUCHHHHHHHH!!!
Mr. Hilton’s face, I saw, was as pale as a sheet of paper. I felt a hand stroking my arm, “Hey, Skye, are you okay?” I looked up, though I felt like vomiting, and saw mark.
“I..I..” I croaked. I could not speak. I wanted to be as sarcastic as before but I could not even mutter a word.
David rushed by my side and the next thing I knew, he pulled me out of Mark’s grip and carried me to the clinic.
I heard him tell Mark something, something that didn’t sound good.
“You’ll be fine, Skye.” The nurse said as she scribbled down a record of me being injured. How pathetic. And I’m here, lying on this bed with David on a stool right beside the bed.
“She-male,” David said, holding my wrist, “Does it still hurt?”
He said, hesitating to point at my chest. I shook my head. “Not like the way it hurt a while ago.”
He shook his head and muttered words with fury, “Mr. Hilton’s going to pay for this.”
“No, David, it’s fine.” I said, trying to calm him down.
“Fine??” He said as he let go of my wrist, “Fine?! What?! Like you would allow him to do it again to you?!”
“No, that’s not what I meant.”
“And that Mark—“he stopped as I shot him a death glare.
“It’s not their fault.” I said through gritted teeth.
David looks down. “I’m sorry, Skye…I just don’t want to see you this way…” he gestured to the bed I’m laying on,”…I don’t want to see you hurt.”
The chimes in the clinic sounded and David and I stared at the people who came in.
“I’m sorry, Skye.” Mr. Hilton apologized. “How are you? Are you okay now?”
“It’s fine, Sir. I’m fine.” Lie. But, whatever.
“No, it’s not.” I heard David mutter under his breath. I glared at him. Again. There was an awkward silence for a while.
“Mills,” Mark spoke, “I could take care of you while you’re here. I think, Mr. Hilton could excuse you for the rest of your classes today.”
Mr. Hilton nodded. David shook his head.
“I’d take care of her.” David said sternly, standing up, squaring his broad and…yeah, sexy shoulders.
“You’ll have classes later, kid.” Mark smirked at David.
“And how about you?! Don’t you have any class later, OLD MAN?!!” David, I saw, clenched his fist. Oh no.
“I have but…Prof. Wilkins could take care of them.” Mark shrugged nonchalantly. Considering how Prof. acted the first time I saw Mark, I could say she really got it bad-- Bad enough to make excuses for him in his classes if he doesn’t show up.
This time, it was David’s turn to smirk. Mr. Hilton looked uneasy, I bet he also sensed the stupid tension, or maybe he’s still guilty of what happened to me.
“But, I, David de Silva, is willing to cut classes to stay with my BEST FRIEND—whom I’ve known for my entire life.” David said proudly. But, really? Entire life? He’s kidding. Really kidding.
“Mr. Hilton,” Mark said, turning to Mr. Hilton’s pale face,” Do you think David should stay here?”
“What?...Uhm..Uhh. No.” Mr. Hilton managed to declare.
Mark gave an all-knowing look. David grimaced and looked at me,
“You have classes, David.” I said to him. He sighed and painfully went out of the clinic.
“I’m sorry again, Skye.” Mr. Hilton said and headed out the door. And yes, the only people left inside the clinic were Mark, me and the school nurse.
But apparently, the school nurse is busy wiping the all-cleaned thermometers.
“Are you okay now?” Mark said, sitting right on the stool David sat on a while ago.
“When will you stop asking me that?” I snapped.
“What? I can’t help it. You always seem to be in a bad state whenever we meet.”
“Well, you know that I’m in a bad state so you might as well realize that a person in bad state isn’t okay.”
“But you said you were fine. To Mr. Hilton, when he asked you a while ago, I mean.” He gave me a bemused expression and I reached out to push his arm playfully. Ow, my chest. Ow.
But hey, when my hand touched his arm, I noticed that he has huge muscles that’re hiding beneath his jacket.
“Fine. I’ll stop asking you that now.” He said, quite bemused.
“Good… I’m going to ask you MY questions now.” I smiled to myself.
“What are THOSE questions then?”
“Uhh, Uhmm, okay, just tell me about yourself.”
“I’m Mark. Yeah, and you know my family name, I reckon. So there’s no need of mentioning it again.”
I doubled out a giggle. My, oh MY.
“So, I used to live in California
“And?” I asked.
“And what?”
“Is that all?”
“What more do you want?”
Do you have a girlfriend? I wanted to ask that but maybe that’s scare him away. So I gave a decent yet vague question, “Uhm.. why is it good to be here? Like you said…”
“Oh, because—“
“Do you have special someone?” I asked with puppy-dog eyes that, I hope, were innocent like they’re supposed to be.
“Uhhh…Yeah.” He said blankly, I guess my face didn’t look so innocent after all. Epic Fail to the innocent category. Bow.
“Okay, so… who is it then?” I asked, while looking around nonchalantly.
“It’s for me to keep and for you to find out.” And then he winked at me.
“…Alright then.” I nodded slowly.
