"Are you sending me away?"

"No!" I stared at Amaya.

The classroom was empty and only our voices could be heard in the whole school.

"So, why don't you want me to stay behind with you? You didn't let us walk home with the others and now you want me to go home without you? What's going on?"

"It's nothing, Amaya. Just go home."

"No, I won't. Especially if you're so keen on not telling me what's wrong. Why are you always like this? I'm your best friend, aren't I? What's the use of calling ourselves bestfriends if we can't come out and tell each other everything?-"

"-Every fucking time, you just zone out all of a sudden and start telling everyone to leave you alone. You keep staying in school till God knows when. Why do you do that?" With the back of her hand, she wiped the tears forming in her eyes.

She held unto my shoulders and shook me to my foundation, "Talk to me! I might be able to help. Stop keeping it all to yourself, Sage. Tell me what's wrong."

"Nothing is wrong!" I shook my head, trying so hard to hold back my tears.

She looked into my eyes, "Shut up! Just shut up! Why are you lying? Tell me right now, Sage, or I'll leave this place and leave your life also. Why are you always reluctant to go to your house? Is there something wrong at home?"

At that moment, every beat my heart made felt like when hammers kissed glasses. Painful and destructive.

"I told you, Amaya. Nothing is wrong. I don't just feel well."

Amaya's hand lifelessly dropped off my shoulders and her eyes watered all over again.

She got up from her seat and slowly walked towards the door.

I wished.

How I wished that I could shout her name and tell her all that my heart carried. She would console me and all would be okay.

The sad thing about wishes is that some of them never come true. This, was a perfect example.

Just as she stepped out, she turned around and faced me. More strands of tears rested on her cheek; it was a huge lump for me to swallow.

"I could have helped you, you know?" she forced on a smile.

Turning forty-five degrees to her left, she slowly walked out of my sight with her red backpack in her arms.

I placed my head on the table and let my tears fall out without any shame.

I was fed up of everything.

How did I not get a peaceful life? I was the sweetest person one could ever imagine.

Why did I not get a peaceful life?

I quietly wailed out and listened to the cowarldly sound of its echo.

I was pathetic. How could I make a big deal out of nothing?

People suffered from events more tragic than this. Who am I to cry over a broken home?

I let the voice in my head repeat its statement over and over again, like a never ending loop; They would never understand.

And that is why you can't help, Amaya. You can't help with what you can't relate with yourself.

Suddenly, the classroom door slide open and I froze. My head remained still, facing downwards.

Who is that? Amaya?

Soft footsteps traced behind me and over to my left.

My left?

I heard his chair draw back and watched him take a seat from underneath my arms. He placed his bag on the floor and pulled out a notebook.

Why did it have to be this moment? And where the fuck is he coming from?

I stayed still, even trying not to breathe too audibly.

He dipped his hand into his bag once more and pulled out a black pen with gold indents.

That was my pen!

I needed that pen. Even as I had up to a hundred replicas at home, I couldn't let go of one. It was of that much importance.

I quietly exclaimmed.

You'll think of how to get it back some other day, Sage. Right now, you need to get out of here without letting him notice you nor the tears on your face.

I pressed my forehead further into my arms.

Maybe he'll soon leave. We'll just pretend he isn't here and enjoy the solace of being alone.

I closed my eyes and sighed.

The knowledge of Lucas's presence still hovered around, peeping into my mind every now and then.

It was too big of an issue to ignore it. It was Lucas for Christ's sake! We were alone in this classroom- and maybe even the whole school!

My heart raced loudly. If I could shush it, I would, for I feared he would hear it.

Hadn't he seen me? Was he not even going to find out what I was doing in school at such an hour? I mean he was still in school at such an hour too, so he couldn't query me. No, that would be the pot calling the kettle black.

It was getting too long and bothersome. I wanted to get up.

But how?

I stared at my blue jean trousers.

I needed courage. I needed to get up and leave. I should probably go somewhere else- maybe the abandoned rooftop or something- anywhere at all, as far as it felt peaceful there.

Without thinking any more than once, I drew my head up.

"Hand over my pen please!" I turned to him.

Lucas slowly shifted his gaze from his notebook to me. His face showed bewilderment.

"You've been here all this while?" His voice growered out.

I held my breath, "Yeah."

His voice sounded so nice!

"Fuck," he muttered under his breath.

What the hell was that? Am I a bad omen or something?

"Hand me my pen and let me leave since my presence here cannot be respected."

"What are you saying? And what the hell do you mean 'your pen'?" He said, scanning my face.

"My pen fell on the ground during Economics class and you took it. It's what you're holding and it's really important, so please give it."

His eyes finally found its way back to mine. They looked so beautiful. It was a sad story they belonged to such person.

He cringed his face, "Is that why you cried? Because I took your pen?"

I widened my eyes and placed my fingertips on my face. The coarse feeling of dried tears and eyeliner connected my eyes to my chin.

Shoot!

I turned round in a futile search for a handkerchief. Soon enough, I paused. A handkerchief wouldn't do so much anyway.

"I-it's none of your business if I cried about the pen. Just hand it over and let me be on my way," I stretched out my hand.

"I'm making use of it."

I laughed hysterically, "What the fuck? Over my pen?"

"It's finder's keeper's."

"Fine then," I snatched his bag the second I got up, "I guess this is mine now."

He stood up also, "Hey-"

I hushed him, drawing out the white wireless headphones from his bag, "Ooh! I always wanted a headset."

I kept walking backwards, tracing the walls of the classroom. He approached, trying to get his bag.

I dipped my hand into his bag and pulled out the next item.

A fairly large box rested in my palm and I pulled off its lid. Comfortably laid in was a gold bracelet, shining like it had hugged the sun.

"Is this real gold?" I stepped further backwards, walking past the whiteboard for the second time.

"Do I look like someone who holds possession of inauthentic items?" He kept walking towards me, although I knew he could have gotten his bag long ago if he wanted to.

"Ooh! It's giving wealthy," I smirked at him before going in for another dip.

"So, the next item on our list is-"

I felt a little cardboard box and drew it out.

"-A pack of cigarettes?"

At once, he advanced and had me pinned against the wall.

"Hand it over now," he stared into my eyes, giving me no alternative to look away.

"My pen first," I raised my head high, even as I struggled to breathe.

He tucked my baby hairs behind my ear and placed the pen alongside it.

"Your turn."

"Force it out of me," I smugged at him.

He pressed his hand deeper into my chin, forcing my face to focus on his.

"Do you think I'm playing with you?Give me the fucking bag!" he thundered.

The sound reverbed round the classroom and became still.

I swallowed spittle as my eyes clashed with his for the upteenth time. His irides were blue, no doubt, but the colour they radiated was that of fire.

He was someone I definitely wouldn't want to toy with.

I slowly placed his bag and the pack of cigarettes into his free hand as I tried to respire properly.

He finally let go and walked back to his seat. How we had ended up at the back of the class, I could not remember. But all I knew was that this Lucas dude was really something.

He picked up his notebook and shoved it in his bag before walking out of the classroom. As usual, he didn't look my way.

I stared at the pen in my hand.

So, we have one thing confirmed; he does smoke.

I walked over to my seat and placed my pen in a little pen case that never held more than two pens.

Does that mean the other things they said are true too?

Damn!

I backed my bag and walked out of the classroom, shutting the door behind me.

I could still fish out his minimised figure as he turned over to the stairs.

I'm sure he thinks he has this 'good boy mask' thing covered.

I walked down the hallway, looking into each class.

Getting to the ground floor, I walked past the little mirror that was situated a few metres away from the hallway entrance.

What I saw was something cropped out from a horror movie.

My black eyeliner ran down my cheeks and my hair was a mess. I looked exactly how depression should have been portrayed.

Was this how I looked throughout my stay with him?

I face-palmed myself and sighed, "So much for seductive first impression."

Turning on the sink tap below the mirror, I washed my face and applied my emergency serum.

I stepped out of the school building feeling refreshed. But I was heading home, so I knew the refreshment was for a while.

.

I paused at the doorstep.

For a couple of seconds, I stared at the door, making no attempt to open it. It almost seemed like my arms had paralysed.

I wasn't ready. I felt like going back to school to restart my journey home.

I was sure Lady wasn't even aware that her child was lurking around the premises, loathing to go in.

Such a shame. Look what you did, stupid Lady.

Finally breaking off the block that held me down, I twisted the door handle and walked into the house.

The interior remained dark, regardless of how many bulbs we fixed in.

A little ray of sunlight flashed from in between the drawn window curtains.

"Thank heavens you aren't late today," lady drowsily commented from the couch.

Even as she backed me on the couch, I could still figure out how raggedy she looked. The smell of booze reeked at every corner of the living room, of which the living room was nothing to write home about in the first place.

She sat on the couch, watching a movie on the flat-screen television.

Ignoring her every remark, I walked upstairs to my room. I locked the door as I entered in, falling on the bed thereafter.

I looked outside the window and at the sunny sky. It contradicted this house so perfectly.

How I wished I never got to be here.

How I wished everything would just black out and I would cease to exist in a world like this.

That, I would appreciate.