Captivated (5 page)

“Of course.” He set his books down and began patting down his pockets. “You never know when you’re going to get a runny nose.” He pulled out what looked to be a hankie. The colors were faded on it. The only things I could make out were thunder bolts and a blue background.

“Umm…no thanks. You know what? I don’t even need it anymore.” I smiled. The rest of my face was in disgust.

“It’s okay. I’ve only used it once today.” He insistently held it up to me.

Students started pouring in the seemingly
claustrophobic room. I heard Markus amongst them. Relief washed over me, but I wasn’t in the clear yet. I took a glance at him and clasped my hands behind my back. Luckily, he caught my distress signal and hurried towards me.

“Hey, germ!” Markus called out to Ben and blasted through us, blocking me from Ben. “Let people through.” Markus swiveled around and grabbed me above the waist, pulling me along with him and leaving Ben yelling behind us.

“It’s Benjamin!” he hollered. “Ben-ja-min!”

“You should try staying out of situations dude.” Markus suggested. He smiled and shook his head after stopping beside my desk. “First, there was that incident with you and Shane…” he started to point out.

In that instant, Dean snapped his pencil in his bunched hand. His face hardened and the muscles on his jaw popped out as he bit down. I could feel the waves of anger emanating from him. Markus also observed Dean’s behavior, but then turned back to me after a few seconds. He raised his eyebrow and tilted his head towards Dean as if he were pointing at him. I shrugged my shoulders and sat down. I was so happy that it wasn’t just me alone with Dean anymore as he gave off an awkward, yet frightening feeling. Everything seemed to frustrate him. He belonged in a private school. Population: Dean.

Jennifer walked in then.
Why is it that I always have to bump into one of them?
They were everywhere. Jennifer grabbed her nametag from her desk a few seats over and switched it with the one in front of Dean’s desk. She sat proudly like she owned it and turned to Dean to ask him something. I couldn’t tell what it was because the class was already getting pretty loud. But I saw no reaction from Dean.

“What are you doing this weekend?” Jennifer raised her voice. She smiled and exaggerated the batting of her eyelashes. Or I should say
fake
lashes. No mascara can leave them
that
long-I didn’t care what the commercials said.

Still no response from Dean. He
did
look like he had calmed down from his pencil tantrum.

“Hello?” Jennifer raised her voice.

Dean looked up at her with a stony expression. She smiled, pleased that he looked. But he just turned away from her and grabbed his notebook from his backpack, setting it on his desk and leaning back on his seat, looking away from her.

“So, I was thinking you and I could go out together this weekend,” Jennifer suggested. She leaned closer to him while pushing out her bust. This situation really started to bother me. I wasn’t sure if it was because it involved Jennifer, but everything that had to do with her bothered me. Her very existence even. But something was different this time.

And that’s when Jennifer noticed me eavesdropping. She quickly turned her attention towards me. “Can I help you?” she hissed.

My eyes widened. I was caught. Dean slightly tilted his head in my direction without looking directly at me. I usually had something to say right back at her, but my voice was stuck in my throat. Dean noticed me eavesdropping. Crap! I was frozen with wide eyes like a deer caught in the headlights.

“You need some hair tips or something?” Jennifer lashed out. “Mind your business!” She turned back to Dean and went back to her flirtatious behavior. “So, where was I?” she eased with a smile.

I reached up to pat my hair and felt frizzes popping out here and there. I couldn’t believe I had forgotten to do my hair today! Dean said nothing. His scorching look stayed locked onto her, telling her to ‘F’ off, until she finally exhaled and turned around.

I could see the failure on her face. It was awesome. I felt victory sweep through me as if
I
were the one that did this to her. I was glad I was there to witness her getting rejected. I turned to see if Markus was also watching, but he was messing with his new mp3 player. I had to celebrate alone. The teacher finally walked in, a very petite woman with short black hair and narrow eyes.

“Hello, class. Your teacher couldn’t make it in today so I will be taking his place.” She continued, “You may call me Mrs. Le. There aren’t any notes for this class so I’ll be starting you off with the poetry unit.” She grabbed a stack of packets from her desk and passed them out at the front of each row so the students could pass them back. I grabbed the packets from the person in front of me, took mine, and then handed the rest to the person behind me.

“William Shakespeare.” Mrs. Le read the cover out loud. “Now, can anyone tell me a little bit about him?” she asked. No one raised their hand. “Well, since no one in this class knows about him, I’ll let you all read the entire packet.”

The class awed in disapproval but I was ok on the idea. It wouldn’t hurt to read; it could be worse.

“Since you’re all so excited about it, we can also have a quiz at the end of class,” Mrs. Le more than threatened, “Ok, let’s get started. Thank you.” she sang out.

The sound of papers shuffling filled the room. The packet was about twenty pages thick and I was already bored. Regretting the fact that I was okay with this at first, I began to skim through it. I was almost half-way through when my eyes began to get heavy. To prevent myself from falling asleep in my seat, I lifted my head and looked around the room. Most everyone in the class had their faces buried in their packets. One person had her head down and I desperately wanted to do the same. Time was really dragging. When I began to read again, I did so without really taking in any information.

Flashes of Dean and Shane’s confrontation started running through my mind. Was Shane someone from Dean’s past? He looked new to me. Brand spanking new. Maybe they had a run-in before. Maybe one of them stole the other’s girlfriend in the past. No. Dean hadn’t had any and
he
seemed to be the one that hated Shane, not the other way around. I wondered if the girls standing next to them heard what they had said.

The pencil I was absent-mindedly playing with accidentally slipped out of my hands and landed on the floor between Dean and I. Without looking, I lowered my hand and felt around for it. I felt a hand already down there. I directed my attention to it and as I glanced up the muscular arm, an uncomfortable chill ran through me. There I was, face to face with Dean. My eyes landed on his, and they were penetrating mine with an extreme intensity. His lagoon green eyes were dark and widening as if he was witnessing something spectacular. I couldn’t look away from him. I had never seen him with any expression on his face other than coldness. My eyes traveled across his face. Yup…freckles. But they were faint. I saw that he had a large scar on his cheekbone, the kind of scar that didn’t even remotely diminish his appearance. In my opinion, it made him more attractive. His eyes sparkled and were somehow a brighter shade of green. I felt a tide of joy wash over me. An electrifying force surged through me, and it wasn’t painful at all. In fact, it felt amazing! Like nothing I had ever experienced before. But, why? I tore my eyes from his and looked down at my hand. It was set on top of his. He left it there, touching mine, and it made my heart soar.

The bell rang. I quickly grabbed my pencil from beneath Dean’s hand and slipped it in my book bag. I still felt his eyes boring into me. I hesitated to look as I stood up and headed towards the door. But from the corner of my eye, I saw him staring at me still. Summoning up some bravery, I turned my face completely at him to let him know I was aware. Usually, guys turned away quickly when caught, but not Dean. His face was etched in desperation.

I met up with Markus at the door. Once again, I glanced back. Dean was standing this time, still looking my way and his eyes were pleading as if he didn’t want me to leave.

What was more unbelievable to me, was that the second I moved my hand away from his…an emptiness had crept inside me.

The next day, Tanya and I walked into first hour just as the bell sounded. Mr. Shapiro had switched everyone’s desk around to avoid as much chatter as possible, as a result, putting me towards the back. In my opinion, the chatter got even louder. Friends he separated had to raise their voices to hear each other.

“Good morning.” Mr. Shapiro stood in front of the class with his hands inside his pant pockets. He glanced over at the time and looked at the door. A moment later, Shane strolled in.

“Late as usual, Shane.” Mr. Shapiro announced. He huffed out and gave Shane an aggravated glare.

“But always here for you, sir,” Shane retorted. He threw the teacher a crooked smile and leaned back in his seat. He quickly noticed me and winked. I rolled my eyes at him while turning away.

After what seemed like hours of Mr. Shapiro going over problems on the board, a crumpled paper landed on my desk. I quickly grabbed it and held it in my fist so Mr. Shapiro wouldn’t see it. I carefully opened it on my lap when the coast was clear. The note read…

You wanna go to The Impulse with me tonight?

I looked up and scanned the room to see who had thrown it towards me. When my eyes met Ayden’s, he showed me a brave smile and tilted his head forward as if he were asking me again. I looked back down and began writing…

No thanks, I have plans.

I had to end it with him already. Ever since Shane and Markus brought it to my attention, I haven’t wanted to do the whole friends-with-benefits deal. It really was stupid. Since we weren’t technically going out, I guessed I didn’t really have to tell him it was over, right? I could just brush him off?

I crumpled the paper back up and threw it at him. Instead of letting it fall on his desk, he caught it in an exaggerating motion that grabbed the teacher’s attention. Mr. Shapiro walked up to him with his hand extended out. Ayden regrettably handed him the paper.

“Such a dive for a piece of trash.” Mr. Shapiro said. He opened up the crumpled paper and walked back to the front of the class. All the students had their attention on Mr. Shapiro. “Ayden over here wants me to read this out loud.” He took a look at Ayden, “I wouldn’t want to be rude while he’s trying to say something…” Shapiro continued, “…so I’ll make sure that he gets his point out. Apparently, he wants to go to the club with Mindy and she rejected him. The end.“ Mr. Shapiro crumpled and tossed the note into the trash next to his desk.

Ayden sunk into his seat and peeked over his shoulder at me. Embarrassment flooded his face.

“I’m sorry.” I mouthed out to him.

“Burn!” Shane laughed out. All the students laughed along with his remark. He leaned his upper body on his desktop to get a better look at Ayden. Shane threw him a taunting smile. It was similar to the one he always gave Dean.

I covered my face with my hands and sunk in my seat. I felt so horrible. I basically rejected Ayden in front of the whole class.

“I’ll let you guys escape a few minutes early today. Have a safe weekend.” Mr. Shapiro announced and dismissed us with a wave of his hand.

The class swarmed towards the door in excitement. Ayden stayed in his desk and as the students passed him, they playfully stroked his head, messing up his hair. After all the students passed his desk, he followed with his head down. I collected all my books and tried to catch up to him.

“Ayden! Ayden, I’m so sorry!” I called out to him. He didn’t turn around. He
must
have heard me though, I wasn’t that far away. I guessed he really was embarrassed. He just kept walking and I didn’t follow.

Amazingly, the day went by pretty fast for a Friday. And everyone was raving about The Impulse. I had only been there once. I would describe it as a lounge, but with no age restrictions. Security guards made sure to catch the underage drinkers. They sometimes had bands there trying to promote themselves. Markus and Tanya were dragging me there tonight. And I really hoped I didn’t end up bumping into Ayden there. We’ll see how it goes.