ღ Finding Cinderella- 18 ღ

-Kylie-

I woke up with my neck hot and my feet cold. I wanted to pull myself up, but a heavy feeling pinned me to my sheets. A knock on the door came. Lacey entered, dressed up like a magazine model.

"Hey, I was about to wake you up," she said, coming to the side of my bed.

"What time is it?" I asked. My mouth tasted like death. Through my hazy eyesight, I noticed the room looked so gray. Was it only four o'clock? Five? My head was throbbing too much to make sense of everything around me.

"Oh, look, it's already skin-thirty," Lacey exclaimed, looking at her bare wrist.

I wanted to smile, but my throat was suddenly itchy and I ended up coughing.

"No, seriously, you need to get out of bed. We're running late," she said.

Late? Shit.

I let out a groan. "I can't get up. It's like there's a strange force pulling me down, restricting my freedom of movement," I slurred.

Lacey crumpled her nose. "Uh, by force, you mean laziness?" She studied me for a bit. "Are you okay, Ky? Should I get you water or..."

"No, I'm fine. I'll be up in a bit." I wanted to go back to sleep and wake up when school ended, but I couldn't skip my classes. I mustn't.

"Okay. Do you want me to ask Tristan to drive us to school?"

I jolted upright, ignoring the headache that occurred after. "Oh God, please no."

She laughed. "Well, hurry up. You have 22 minutes left," she said before skipping out of the room.

I rolled my eyes and dragged my lazy feet to the bathroom. I stopped when I caught a figure in the corner of my eye. His and my bedroom windows were facing each other; therefore, I could clearly see Tristan on the other side, leaning on what I supposed was his mirror. With his earphones plugged in his ears, he was rocking his head while mouthing the lyrics to a song.

As if something signaled him, he turned his head to me. Our windowpanes were hazy from all the dewdrops, but I could see him forming a smirk as he grabbed his backpack and exited his bedroom.

My phone buzzed on the desk, and regardless of what I was feeling right now, I lunged at it, half-expecting it would be Erik. Instead, much to my disappointment, it was Tristan, saying: Ugly.

Scowling, I texted back: Shut up. I always wake up with a good attitude, but then idiots like you happen.

Then he replied seconds later: Meh.

Me: I swear I'll get back at you for what you did!

Him: What are you talking about?

Me: Don't play dumb! You know, back in Crest?

Him: That was two days ago! Get over it. It was just Erik. No big deal.

No big deal? I rubbed my temples as I threw the phone on my bed. He wouldn't understand it, of course. What a royal pain in the ass.

ღ

I scratched at the back of my head as I listened to Julianne's speech about limits and all the devastating equations in the notebook.

"...so you have to factor both the numerator and the denominator"—she pointed her black ballpoint pen to the equation—"to circumvent the indeterminate form, get it?"

You know that awesome feeling when you finally understand Math? Yeah, me neither. How was I supposed to know all this stuff when I didn't even know the meaning of "circumvent"? I should've been checking the thesaurus.

I nodded at her response and sniffed. My nose felt disgusting.

"Are you sure?"

"Uh, there's only one thing that I can't quite understand."

"Okay, point it out and I'll explain it again."

"Great! Let's see, uh..." I began to say, coughed, and pointed to the first solution. "I don't get this part."

"Uh-huh, so in that—"

"This one, this one, too, and... Ah! And this, this, this, this, and finally this one," I said as I pointed at the work from top to bottom, page one to page two. I paused, took a deep breath, and continued: "Or better yet, repeat the whole thing."

Julianne widened her eyes. "But Kylie, I've explained this to you a gazillion times. Do we really have to go back to the start? I'm running out of saliva."

This was always my main problem whenever my brain cells were dead.

I massaged my forehead. My eyes were kind of heavy and blurry, and I wanted to doze off for a moment. At the same time, however, I didn't want to take a break and spend my free time resting. I had a lot of catching up to do on schoolwork, and if I didn't complete it, I'd be screwed for life.

"Okay. Let me solve this one, and then you tell me if it's right," I said, sniffing again and grabbing the pen from the table. I worked on the easiest equation I could find. My mind was whispering, "I have no idea what I'm doing," but my hands continued to work by themselves.

Minutes later, I put down my pen and smiled in triumph. Julianne took the notebook, her eyes scanning rapidly my work. In a little while, she handed it back, giving me a hard look.

"How did you do this?" she asked.

"You mean I did it correctly? Hell yesss." I pumped my fist.

"Nope. Don't get too excited because you made a lot—I mean a lot—of mistakes. You're nowhere near the correct answer."

"But it was the shortest equation and was somewhat easy to solve..." I uttered, voice dropping on the last word.

Julianne flicked her finger up, saying, "Math rule number one? If you found the equation easy to solve, go back and re-check since you must be doing something wrong."

I blew out an exasperated sigh. "I'm out. Can't take this crap any longer. Dammit, this is the only subject that drags down my whole average. Mom is so going to kill me once she sees it. I'd better prepare my résumé for McDonald's in case I don't pass Calculus."

"Girl, don't say that. I thought you weren't a quitter!"

"But it's different when it comes to Math." I shook my head. Then my eyes lit up when an idea occurred to me. "Hey, why don't you tutor me after school? I think it would be a lot of help."

"I'm busy with school activities. You know, the school paper? Film club? So I can't. Sorry," she said with a small shrug. "Why don't you ask Tristan to help you? It'll be much easier for you to contact him since you live right next to each other. Besides, he's way better at the subject compared to me."

My headache amplified when I heard his name.

"No way. Come on, Jules, just for this week. I swear I won't be a burden to you. Pretty please? With cheese and pepperoni on top? You know you like that."

"I told you I have after-school activities. What's wrong with asking Tristan for some help?"

"Everything!"

"Oh please, Kylie. For once, let go of your pride and hatred, and work with him. Trust me, you need him for this."

She was looking into my eyes, forcing me to consider her words. But I didn't spare a second to think about it. My decision was final.

"Never mind. I can do it myself."

"Right." She sighed, dismay evident in her tone. "If you say so. But don't say I didn't give you any advice."

"Fine, Jules, fine."

"Okay, okay, relax. You've been so worked up since yesterday. What's the matter?"

I rubbed the back of my sweltering neck. "I'm fine," I replied.

"You're not."

"I am," I assured her with a firm nod. I've been acting like I'm okay since yesterday, Julianne. Please don't interrupt my performance.

"No. Have you seen your face? It's white all over. You're sick, aren't you? Let me check." She lifted her hand to touch my forehead. I tried to dodge it, but I was too feeble.

"Jules," I complained.

"Crazy! Why did you force yourself to come to school?"

"I don't want to miss my classes."

"Wow. Such dedication, my friend. You really have to go to the clinic. No, better yet, let me drive you home so you can rest better."

"Don't bother. I'm gonna be fine in a while. It's just a headache."

A ringing sound blared all of a sudden. Julianne reached into her pocket and took out her phone.

"Another emergency club meeting," she announced.

"Go." I nodded at her and began to gather my things on the table. "I'm gonna swing by the library to return a book."

She frowned. "You sure you can handle yourself?"

"Yeah, swear. I can swing by the clinic, too, to get some Tylenol. Catch you later."

ღ

My teeth chattered as the cold breeze from the AC seeped into my skin. I wrapped my arms around me and wished I'd brought two thick jackets along with my blue cotton sweatshirt.

I was scanning the bookshelves for another Calculus book. My vision was blurring so badly that I needed to rub my eyes in order to see. After I had, I noticed a person on the other side of the shelf, looking at me between the books.

When we both stepped out in an opening, my jaw dropped.

"Erik."

"Hey. Kylie."

"Jeez. You scared me for a second."

"Sorry. You came alone?"

"Yeah. Julianne's at her club meeting right now," I said, then remembered something. "Oh, um, about the message you got before. It wasn't me. It was Tristan. He pulled a prank on us. That jerk."

Erik laughed. "I see. It got me good. I really thought I was bothering you."

"If any of us was a bother, it was him," I said. My cheeks heated up when I realized it sounded a little bit wrong. "Sorry if it made you upset or whatever."

"Nah. Let's forget about it. So... what's up?" His eyes wandered over me as if he was looking for something to talk about. I suddenly felt self-conscious. "What do you have there?"

"W-what?" I looked at the Calculus book in my hand and showed it to him. "Oh. This? Yeah, I'm turning into a huge nerd now," I said in amusement. "You?"

"Look what I found in the deepest parts of the shelves." He lifted up a The Walking Dead comic book. "Someone must've left this here. Thanks a lot. Seems like I'm turning into a huge nerd, too, being a sucker for this comic."

I snorted a laugh. "At least it doesn't make your head spin."

We went to a table and sat across from each other.

"Getting ready for college?" he remarked, nodding at my book.

If I ever pass senior year...

Though I was full of doubt, I nodded, just so he wouldn't be disappointed in me.

"Which university do you want to attend?"

"Um, Imperial."

"The one in London? Whoa, that's great!"

I smiled. "How about you?"

He combed his fingers through his hair. Cute. "Uh, still weighing my options. To attend college or to work out of state. I don't know. There's too much pressure. Sometimes, I just wish for a letter from Hogwarts to appear in my mailbox."

We both cracked up. Erik's words had broken the ice, and somehow, I felt a little better. Someone from the next table made a hush sound, and we tried to suppress our laughter.

A silver trinket around his left wrist caught my attention.

"I don't think I've seen that before. Is that an identification bracelet? Looks cool," I commented.

He grazed his fingertips along the embossed designs. "Yeah, it is. A gift from someone I knew."

"Best friend?"

"Ex-girlfriend."

"Oh," I said in dismay. Then I quickly forced myself to be jaunty. "Oh yes. You mentioned her name before. Cyrene, right? Cyrene Chen?"

"Yeah..."

"Do you still keep in touch with her?" I said quietly.

He shook his head. "We haven't talked since we broke up."

I'd never seen her in my whole life, but seeing his eyes going dreamy, I could tell this Cyrene girl was a total chick. It seemed like he still wasn't over her. My chest clenched.

"Was it because you moved to Florida?" I asked. "Sorry, I'm just really curious."

"No, it wasn't. We could've easily worked out the LDR thing, I'm sure. It's just that... something happened."

"Something?"

"Someone took her from me."

The dreaded awkward silence fell upon us. This was the first time Erik opened up to me. If this was freshman year, I definitely would've made an easy joke to lighten the mood instead of giving him a sympathetic look, as I was doing now.

The fragments of my own heartbreak story flashed through my mind. Back in ninth grade, Lacey and Julianne had pulled a terrible prank on me by locking Erik and me in one room. They said they'd only done it to give me a chance to admit my feelings to him. So, I did. Lamely. But the reply I'd received from Erik was, "I'm sorry, but I already like someone else."

Now, he was just talking about that someone else. I used to hate Cyrene, but it hadn't lasted long because I'd found it pointless and silly to hate a person I didn't know.

"That's too bad," I said, not knowing what else to say. A hot lump formed in my throat, and I tried to swallow it. "Curse the guy who stole Cyrene, then."

"Yeah, curse the guy." He laughed, then his expression gradually turned somber as he looked at me. "Can you keep it a secret? I don't like people knowing about my past relationship."

"Sure," I said, giving him a thumbs-up sign. "You keep my secret, I keep yours. See? We're even."

"Right, right." He nodded. "I knew I could count on you. And as I said before, your secret is safe with me."

We exchanged smiles. His heart might be still with his former girlfriend, and while it brought me back the old ache, this moment with him—talking and smiling like the old days—was enough for me.

The silence, which was comfortable this time, was rising again, so I opened the book to occupy myself.

"Kylie?"

I looked up. "Yes?"

"Uh, remember the time when Julianne locked us—"

Oh no. Please, Erik, don't bring that stupid thing up.

"Um, no. Sorry. I think I should get going." My words tumbled out swiftly. I quickly stood up, forgetting how weak I was. "It's nice talking to you. See you around."

I didn't give him a chance to say goodbye. My vision was beginning to spin, but I forced myself to walk out of the library and down the hall.

"Hey!" he shouted behind me. "Kylie, hold on. Listen, I didn't mean—"

All of a sudden, my muscles tensed as a strange feeling crawled over my skin. A sickening sound rang in my ears. I stopped walking. Pressed my hand on the wall for support. I was starting to see shapes swirling chaotically in my vision. Black spots swarmed before my eyes. I tried to fight them, but they continued to invade my line of sight.

"Kylie? Are you—"

Strong hands grasped my shoulders, and Erik's voice calling my name was the last thing I recognized before darkness overtook me.