~ Sometimes the heart sees what is invisible to the eye. ~

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Important note: The chapter which was previously marked as Chapter 5 is a part of CHAPTER 2 now. The current Chapter 5 was previously marked as Chapter 8, 9 and 10. These three chapters have been merged together. If you still have any confusion while reading, feel free to PM and ask away:)

                         ***

Ricky came to my place just after dinner the last night. Honestly, I didn't expect him to come back this quickly. Typically, when Ricky says a trip is going to last for two weeks he usually means something like a month. But this was the first time he took me by surprise. So, imagine the fear that I felt as I came out of the bathroom after finishing my business at night wearing only a big comfortable T-shirt that belonged to Ricky ready to run under the cover. I shrieked as soon as I saw him peacefully lounging on my pillow.

"What the hell?"

"Calm down woman, it's just me," Ricky replies while holding his stomach and trying his best not to laugh but failing miserably.

Looking at him, I wonder just how good one can be. I might end up making a fool out of myself if I had happened to laugh like him. And my friends think my laughs are always hideous anyway. Is it my fault that I do not always sound sweet like other girls? I mean how people can even have you admired when you laugh.

I don't think I'm going to live up to a day when one day I unexpectedly burst out laughing and my guy's like "It's the most beautiful sound I've ever heard the baby." Aaargh ..!! But I don't mind if that guy would be Ricky again because Ricky always says things that make me feel good. That sounded wrong now, didn't it? Of course, I didn't mean it that way.

Just then Ricky calls me out of my thoughts by snapping his fingers. Then he looks suspiciously at me, "You're not even pleased to see me back," he simply states.

"The moment you saw me I sort of expected you to jump my bones but you didn't. Instead, you were just gawking there, gazing into space with this dumb look of lovesickness on your face."

"And what is your point exactly?" I retort back.

"Oh June," he said. "Spill the beans already. You sure look like you're in love."

To that, I just answer him with a look that clearly screams "Are you kidding me?"

"Tsk .. tsk ... liar. I can see right through you. Your eyes give you away from love," he says, raising a brow as if it were challenging me to say something else.

If Ricky could actually read my mind, he'd find out how mad I'm about him already. But he doesn't know that. I've never thought this way before about someone. I'm not going to say he's the best looking guy or something in our school, but yeah, he's one of the good looking guys. But that's not what attracts me to him.

I love how he always wants to communicate with everyone in the school. He never gets upset over whether or not they are from the popular group. He is mates with people in our school who are tagged as nerds or outcasts. That fact never bothers him.

But because its Ricky, no one talks anything about him interacting with these students who are infamously known as "losers" as addressed by the popular kids. Pretty harsh, right?

But that's high school life. I respect how focused and disciplined he is. He manages to get straight A's in all subjects while maintaining a GPA 4, despite being the captain of the basketball team and the president of the Student Council. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that on our graduation day, Ricky will be the Valedictorian.

Yet one of the reasons I love him is that he only respects and loves me because I am myself. He understands when I need space and knows how moody I am, particularly when I wake up from the naps in the evening. He picks and eats from my meals the carrots and beans because he knows how much I hate them, even though he dislikes them equally.

So, how can I possibly stop getting these odd feelings for him in my heart? It's not wrong yet it doesn't feel right. Why? Sometimes I'm afraid of how he would react if he found out all this time that I was crushing hard on him. I come up with a short lie not wanting him to pry deeper into this matter.

"Yeah ... you're probably right. I think I've got a crush on this guy who's also an accounting firm intern and I think he might have a thing for me too," I finished.

"Told you, missy," says a smirking Ricky. "You can't hide shit from me."

"And you guys did not hook up yet?" he pushes on even.

Releasing a breath of annoyance, I question back, "You are not going to let this go, are you?"

"Not until you fill me up with all the juicy details. I am sure if Naomi finds it out, she will annoy you way more than me. Oh, and let's not forget to include poor old Nick."

"Nothing happened okay, nothing will happen anytime soon. I just want to get over this internship as soon as possible."

He sighs at that before he places his hands on my back and lets me sit on the edge of the bed. "You are great but you already know that. Every time you don't have to be so uptight. Don't mean to say you're a prude or something because you're far from it. You need to come to terms with your self-worth and stop blaming yourself."

"When this man who also happens to be your colleague has a crush on you, why not just hang out with him sometime? Perhaps go for lunch or coffee, don't have to be a date you know. You don't want to be co-oped all day long in your room. If it weren't for Naomi and me, you'd actually consider doing that."

Oh, Ricky if you only knew who my heart really desires. But then, behind a false smile, I mask my anger and disappointment, "I'm going to try, okay? I'm not going to say anything but I'm just going to try to keep an open mind. Happy?"

                             ***

In a blink of an eye, the next two weeks passed. Once Ricky was back he usually would accompany me from time to time for my summer job. He also tried to drive me out with that guy a couple of times, I said I had a crush on. The first day of the senior year will be tomorrow and I am so excited. There's something that tells me, maybe an intuition inside me that this year will be different. I don't know exactly what's in store for us all, but just thinking about going to school tomorrow makes me anxious, I don't know why. But little did I know that night, how right my instincts were.

                      ~~~~~~

This morning's breakfast was quite uncomfortable, to say the least. I went downstairs for breakfast at 6:30 a.m. just to find my father and mother seated at the dining table already. Sensing my presence, they both turn around to look at me, dad folding and putting away the newspaper.

My mom folds her hands together and places them on the table in front of her, leaning a little forward on her seat not before offering me one of her soft smiles once in a while.

“Good morning Sweetheart. Sleep well?" She asks as she pats the seat next to her. I do as requested, taking up the seat next to her.

"I've slept well," I respond to her, filling my plate with toast, pancakes, bacon and an OJ mug.

My father clears his throat and says "What are your expectations for this school year? Surely there must be some new goals."

"This is the first school day that hasn't even begun yet, what do you expect?" I retort rolling my eyes at his lame parenting attempt.

“Don’t roll your eyes at me, young lady!" He yells while bringing his fist down on the table.
Okay, moody much I think to myself.

I look up at him and question, "What do you know about goals? The only thing you will ever know is money. More money. So do not come here and demand answers for your ridiculous queries when both you and mother are always gone for months leaving their daughter home alone."

I don't wait for his reply. After kissing my mom goodbye, I push my chair back picking my school bag with me and leave the house.

I may have overreacted but I was not in the mood for his questioning today in all honesty. He does it all the time. Now, it's become a pattern. They're going to be gone for months and then unexpectedly they're going to be home for a few days, my father decides to ask me about school and other issues. See the issue isn't that he's asking me about stuff related to education. Parents will do that.

The issue lies in his attitude. One minute we're talking about how my new History teacher is and the next second he's turned the subject to how I should stop fantasizing about the English teacher in class. Because according to them, this terrible habit of mine has caused me to lose my grades in History. See! See! There is no connection between the two subjects. And for the love of God, my English teacher is a divorcé who is 50 years old. I guess I don't even know what else to think anymore.

Just then a familiar car pulls up in front of our driveway and a head pops out of the window smirking at me "Let's go, babe," Naomi calls on me.

I get into the car's backseat and Naomi looks around to look at me,
"I am so excited did guys!!!! Finally, we are in our final year." she squeals with excitement.

I would have been squealing too had my father not spoilt my mood early in the morning.

"You've earned a couple of pounds girl and so have I. Soon we have to hit the gym."

"Yeah whatever," I shrugged.

“Rough morning? What’s a wrong girl?" she presses further.

“Just dad being dad, you know,” I say rolling my eyes.

"Okaaayyyy... "she looks like she's going to ask more, but she gets the hint that I don't want to talk about it, so she just drops the idea and turns to the front and switches on the stereo. Within a few minutes, we entered the parking lot of the school. Nick parks the car and we got down after finding a decent spot.

“Slowly, we three started walking towards the entrance to the school where Nick said goodbye to us because he was going to hang out with the football guys. We all said goodbye to him and moved on without talking. I know Naomi was itching to talk to me. She's just hesitant because she thinks I'm in one of my moods and might just explode any moment.

We get into the corridor and are greeted by both familiar and new faces. Those are the freshman, obviously. Now that we are seniors, life can only get more interesting, who knows. We reach our lockers and just as I started putting away my stuff and sorting out some things inside the locker, then all of a sudden, I felt a chill going down my spine. That's strange because this is mid-summer yet I didn't give it much thought. I turned around in the process of closing my locker and then wanting to speak to Naomi.

Just when I opened my mouth and called her name, it all of a sudden became very quiet. Everyone decided to stop making a sound at the same time, like out of nowhere. The temperature dropped marginally for a couple of seconds, but let me tell you the seconds felt like hours and then just like that it started to get a little warm slowly before falling back to normal.

A few breaths later, he comes in. A 6'5" man with the built of a Greek god with silvery coloured hair that looked like they were bleached almost white was brushed back to perfection, his eyes reminding you of the colour of hot chocolate that fascinates you in a way that makes you want to dive in those warm brown pools. They look almost like they're twinkling. Slightly crooked at the peak of his nose, which makes one wonder if he ever broke it. Such defined cheekbones and chiselled jawline, it was hard not to stare. But it was the smile playing on his lips which seemed to steal away my breath.

Suddenly, after the terrible start my day had, it felt like my morning just got better with this stranger's smile. Clad in black jeans and a simple white T-shirt that clung to his body like a second skin, one can already imagine the delicious abs hidden underneath. He walked with another guy who was just as beautiful but not as charming as this brown-eyed dude, smiling and talking. This guy gave off a whole different atmosphere.

A powerful aura that was something inexplicable yet difficult to ignore. They're walking along and passing us on the way. Not once did he look at any of the girls who were all busy gawking at him and checking him out not even bothering to hide it, same could be said for the other guy who looked like his mate. It's almost like they just weren't involved. They didn't seem like the type that would play hard to get but their attitude also gave off the impression that they just had their own company to be concerned with.

And just like that, everyone went back to talking normally but also whispering among each other. I think I caught on to something like this "..New guys? " and words like "Dangerous" and "Devil".

“Hey, June! What do you have for your first class? I got Calculus." Naomi asks me from behind.

I turned around to answer but realized I hadn't even checked my schedule. I see that I have History after unfolding it. Fuck! Fuck them! I despise history. Don't even ask why I've got this subject. The last three years have been a horror. One to go. Yayyy!!

She looks down at my schedule, peering over my shoulder. "History," she chuckles.

"Well, I can't do anything about it," I replied making a grumpy face.

"By the way, right before these two guys came in, did you notice a temperature change for just a few seconds? Like all of a sudden, it got a little cold and then warmer," I decided to inquire.

She looks at me perplexed. “What are you talking about, J?”

“Nothing,” I brush it off. "Let’s get to class. I will meet you for lunch.” I say and then start walking towards my history class.

But what was it I felt earlier, I wonder? Is it only me? Did I hallucinate? Did nobody else notice the temperature increase and the chills?

I walked into the classroom with those thoughts and took a seat right next to the window, completely oblivious to the fact that a certain brown-eyed guy had his eyes on me the entire time.

  
                        ~~~~~~

Just before the lunch break, I had Geography. Aaarghhhhh Mrs Todds in her classes needs to stop attacking me personally. Honestly, she attacked me in all of her Geography classes since freshman year. At first, I was confused about why she didn't like me. I mean ever since I attended her first class, the woman had something against me.

A few months later, when mom was home and we had dinner together, one night, she was casually asking how things were at school. I vented out all my pent up frustration towards Mrs Todds. I informed mom how she's biased with the other students and in all her classes she deliberately keeps targeting me. But guess what my mother has said to me?

Apparently, Mrs Todds, who goes by the name of Hannah, was a high school classmate of both mom and dad. She had a crush on dad and assumed that dad likes her too, but by then dad was already mad about mom. Yeah, so she later realised she had no chance of standing against mom. She despises mom and long story short,  because I am their daughter, hates naturally spreads to me as well.

And one might wonder what were we expecting from adults anyway.

I look for Naomi after strolling through the doors of the cafeteria. Seeing the students swarming like bees and unable to find her, I decided to call her, but nobody responds. Just when I  enter the lunch line, someone embraces me from behind.

“Hey, June what’s up?” Naomi asks me.

“I already called you Mi, you did not receive!” I informed her.

“Oh come on June. Stop being upset now. I was busy... you know with what!” She grins sheepishly.

“More like busy with who. Yes! Busy eating Nick’s face.” I  retort back.

We take lunches and sit down at our usual table. Nick is already seated on one of the chairs.

"Since when are you waiting like a princess and sending your girlfriend to grab your lunch instead?" When I sit down and pop a French fry into my mouth, I ask him.

“She insisted. And some days, I grab it while I let her wait here. Unlike you and Ricky. You just want him to do all he can for you." He says suggestively and wiggles his brows together.

"Hold it off Nick!" I try to throw a fry at him but since I'm Miss Clumsy, it ends up falling on the floor without hitting him first.

"For what? I'm simply stating the obvious. If I didn't know you better, I would think things were going on between the two of you, " he says.

"Leave her alone, Nick." Says Naomi.

Am I that obvious? Nick now thinks something is happening, too. But in fact, nothing is. I've got a huge ass crush on him that he's not reciprocating. It is unrequited. And because Ricky means a lot to me, I can't risk him finding out about it anyway.

“Look Nick, Ricky and I, we are different." I begin to explain it to him.

"It's true that things can sound like we're more than friends, but-" a voice cuts me off.

“Hey. May I sit next to you?”

Confused, we three look at the voice source. I almost felt my eyes bulging out in the next second.

The two guys who were from earlier this morning stood next to me. The Greek God stared straight in my eyes as if waiting for a reply. Only then did I realize that he was asking me. The question was meant for me. No wonder he expects me to answer him.

But we still don't know him, or his mate. I don't want to interact with any of them, because clearly, they both scream TROUBLE!!!! But it looks like their first day and it seems like a pretty shit choice to be impolite to strangers who have done nothing to offend you. So, the first thing that came to my mind, I blurted out.

"Sorry, this seat has already been taken," I answer.

Seriously, June? This seat is taken!!! I should have come up with a  better excuse. Our table is fairly big. Add a few extra chairs and it'll be perfect to fit a minimum of 4-5 more people. In spite of my lame excuse, I hope he gets the idea about how we don't really care about them and leave us alone.

"Nonsense!" He scoffs and plops down next to me on the chair.

"Oh, it's being taken now," he says as he looks at me.

He looks even more handsome from close up. How does one possess such flawless skin? I use lots of skincare but can't get rid of my acne anyway. His face appears to have been carved from marble. So smooth. His hair looks so silky and I know that even from miles away I could spot him. The colour of his hair would give him away. Is this natural, or is it dyed? I'm sure he dyed it. His eyes challenge me to look away and I can not, for some inexplicable reason. There is no smile on his face. He just looks at me with amusement in his eyes as though he is trying hard to decipher what's going on in my head.

“What is your name?" He asks in his deep voice. Surprisingly, his voice makes me feel shivers but not the unpleasant type.

“Why do you want to know?” I question back raising my eyebrow at him.

“What is your name?” he repeats again.

“Bro.. just leave her alone man,” Nick pipes in.

“I wasn’t talking to you. So, instead, why don’t you leave us alone?” He looked at Nick, his voice suddenly raised an octave.

It was suspicious how he spat this single sentence out with so much raw power spurting from within him. His voice resounded cold and alien. Not the arrogance and playfulness that I was feeling, a while back. It made me squirm in my seat and I felt rather uncomfortable honestly. Who does this guy think he is? It may be his first day, but he can't just come demanding to know the name of a stranger or to occupy others' table. He even snapped at Nick. The audacity!

"You should leave," I say breaking his attention from Nick.

He looks on smirking at me. "I'm going to leave you alone after I get the name."

Just then Ricky gets to the table with his lunch tray while talking to a couple of guys from the basketball team. When he sees Mr Stranger appears to be sitting next to me, he glances back and forth between the two of us as if trying to connect the dots.

“June, is there an issue in here?" He looks at me confused.

"of June. So, your name is June." says the new guy. My name sounds so weird as it rolls off his tongue. Not sure if I like it or not.

"Yes, you've got my name. Now leave!" I demand. It's only then that I realise that the whole time his other friend was silent. He never, not even once, spoke up. Just laying back on his seat and watching everything.

So, instead, I try to persuade his friend. "Forgive me but your friend has no idea how to take a hint here. From the start, we were nothing but friendly but we don't want either of you sitting on this table with us. If we're interested in being your mates, we'll be in the future someday but the answer is no for now. Please go!" I finish my rant and turn my attention to Ricky without bothering about a reply from them and ask him to sit down.

As rude as it sounds, I ignore both of them completely and keep talking with my friends pretending that we don't have two unwelcome guests on our table with us. After a couple of minutes that feel like hours, I suddenly hear the chairs scrap and see one of them, storming off.

You know who I'm talking about. Yet my heart failed to understand why, when he left, I felt a pang of disappointment.

                             ***

~XOXO~

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