Duality: Vol 1, Melancholia (A New Adult Paranormal Romance) (11 page)

“Dammit, I have to go,” said the teacher.  “I can’t be caught in here with you.”

“Go ahead.  I’ll stay.  I have to take a piss anyway.”

The main door opened and the squawking of students got louder for a few seconds before the door swung shut again.

Splashes inside a urinal came next.  And then the main door opened again and a group of guys came in, bringing a bunch of noise with them.

“Yo, what up, man?” asked someone from the group.

“Nothing much.  Takin’ a piss.  Going anywhere after school?”  This came from the student who’d been planning with the teacher.

“Mickey D’s,” answered someone.  “You in?”

“Nah.  I have detention.  Two weeks.”

“Two weeks?  Holy shit, that fuckin’ sucks.”

“Yeah, tell me about it.”

“Who’s the bitch?”

“Not a bitch.  Try dick.  Holder gave it to me.”

“Holder
is
a dick.  I don’t trust that guy.  Creepy.”

“Yeah, you said it.”

Someone banged the door shut next to me.  My face burned with the fear of being discovered.  I slowly lowered my feet to the floor and sat on the seat.  I was afraid to take off while the guy was still in there, sure he’d see me and know I’d heard everything.

“You see that new chick?  Rae?” said a different voice.

“Yeah, I saw her,” said the guy who’d been talking to Holder.  It was killing me that no one was saying his name, and he was still over by the urinals nowhere near my door.  There was no way I could see who he is unless I stood on the toilet.

The voices were moving towards the exit.  The person in the stall next to me started grunting.

Someone shouted out some encouragement.  “Just relax, man.  Let it flow.”

“Fuck you,” said the guy in the stall.  He was very unhappy.

The main door opened and the sounds of the hallway came into the bathroom again.  I waited until they went silent and the room emptied of all sounds except the ones of pain coming from the stall next to me, before moving from my hiding spot.

“Jesus, God, remind me never to eat the burritos from the cafeteria again,” said the guy next to me.

I pushed out of the stall and walked quickly to the door.

“Hey!  Who’s in here?”

I ignored the guy and went out into the hallway, looking left and right, trying to figure out who’d been talking about getting a girl alone and also who’d been talking about Rae.

There was no way for me to know, though; it could have been anyone.  There were groups of guys all over the place, and none of them looked guilty of anything more serious than checking out girls’ asses as they walked by wearing short skirts.

I gave up on my hunt and turned right, following the hall that would lead me to the detention room, totally lost in thought. 
Who are they trying to get alone?  And what are they going to do when they get her there?  Whoever it is, she has detention and I’m going to see her in a matter of minutes.  I wonder if I should bother saying anything to anyone.

I laughed bitterly at the idea of telling someone in the Main Office what I knew.  I hadn’t exactly set myself up as a credible source of anything at this school, the way I was always disappearing into the bathrooms and running out of class.  They’d probably send me to another psychologist or something if I announced there was a grand conspiracy to attack a girl being put together by a teacher and student in the bathrooms during class.  That the teacher was Mr. Holder, one of the chemistry teachers, was pretty clear - at least from what the student had said about his detention.  But who was the student?

I decided my best plan was to just keep my eyes and ears open.  If I saw anything bad happening, I’d tell someone.  Otherwise, I was just going to mind my own business and hope it was my overactive imagination turning a totally innocent thing into something sinister.

Chapter Twelve: Rae

I WAS PUTTING AWAY THE paint set and water can when the bell rang.  Quickly rinsing out the container and brushes, I stacked them up next to the sink with all the others and went back to my desk to retrieve my picture.  We were supposed to hang them up to dry on lines the teacher had set up along the sides of the classroom.  Each of us had assigned spaces on the line, and they went in order of our table layouts around the room.

Malcolm’s picture was still sitting on the desk.  I grabbed it along with mine and hung it next to our table in a hurry.  I had to get outside soon or Jasmine would probably leave without me.  Most of the class was already gone.

I clipped his painting up first and then mine.  As I was stepping back to pick up my backpack, I sensed someone behind me.

I turned around and found the teacher there.  He wasn’t preoccupied or grouchy anymore; he was smiling brightly.  I caught a glimpse of the last student leaving the room.

“Excellent work, Rae.”  His teeth were those of an older man - slightly stained from the coffee he drank and worn on the edges.  His mostly bald head was shiny, little wisps of white hair hovering over the top of it.

“Thank you,” I said, measuring the space between him and the table behind me, wondering if I’d be able to slip by without touching him.  It was doubtful.  I waited to see if maybe he’d leave soon.

“Whose is that next to yours?”  He pointed at the dark landscape with the Xs in it.

“That’s Malcolm’s.”

The teacher stared at our paintings for a few long seconds.  I could hear the ticking of the clock on the wall at the front of the class.  I wondered if I was about to have a Rainbow event with him.  My heartbeat picked up its pace.  It really sucked when it was an adult who was the Rainbow.  They could be much more intimidating.

“Interesting, isn’t it?  How you sit at the same table and yet your work is the polar opposite of one another’s.”

I shrugged.  “I guess.  It’s just what we see about our lives, and our lives are different probably.”

“Yes, but look around you.  Sitting next to someone influences students and what they draw.  I see it all the time.”

I looked up on the drying line, and as my eyes roamed down the line of drying watercolors, I could definitely see what he meant.  I could almost tell who was at a table with someone else.  It helped that everyone had hung his painting next to his tablemate’s, though.  Maybe I was just imagining things.

But then I looked at mine and Malcolm’s, and it was almost shocking how different they were.  Malcolm’s wasn’t the only dark one in the room; in fact, it was weird how the paintings started out dark at our end of the room and got lighter and lighter as they went down the line.  By the time they were the work of students sitting near the door, they were more like mine - full of color and life.

My heart sank a little.  If I hadn’t figured it out before by Malcolm’s behavior, it was really being made clear to me now.  I didn’t belong here.  I didn’t fit in.  Not with Malcolm anyway.  I should be sitting across the room from him.

So why did that make me want to be with him more?  I shook my head at my ridiculousness.  Rejection was apparently a very powerful aphrodisiac in my screwed-up life.  Maybe I should have used darker colors on my painting myself, but the thought of it was too depressing.  I had enough of that in my life that I didn’t want to focus on it.

“Good work, today, Rae.  Just wanted to let you know I’m happy to have you in class.”  He had his hands behind his back and was rocking up on his heels.

“It’s nice to be here.  I have to go, now, though.  I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“No, actually, you won’t.  We don’t hold Saturday sessions in this district.”

I face palmed myself.  “Oh, yeah.  Friday.  Forgot.”  I gave him a weak smile, not wanting to encourage him too much.

“Hey!” came a voice from the doorway.  “Are you coming or what?  We’re going to be late.”

Mr. Blankenship turned around, and I used the space he created to squeeze by and run around the back of the room.  “See you next week, Mr. B!” I said, skipping up the aisle on the far side of the room.

I reached the doorway and pushed Jasmine out.

“Hey, watch the grabby hands,” Jasmine protested, slapping me away half-heartedly.

“Thanks for the rescue,” I said, breathless with the excitement of gaining my freedom.  Mr. Blankenship hadn’t done anything threatening, but being too close to people like that made me nervous.  They reminded me of Jerry.

“What was that all about?” Jasmine asked, staring at me with a funny look on her face.

“He was just welcoming me to the school and being nice.”

“Man, what is
up
with people today?  Is it April Fools and someone forgot to tell me?”

Fear seized my chest as I wondered if I was going to lose my friend on the first day.  I tried to blow it off.  “I don’t know, maybe.  It’s Friday, so that always makes people crazy, right?”

“I guess.”  Jasmine didn’t sound all that convinced.

“So… detention!” I said with all the cheer I could muster.

“Yeah.  Wow.  Detention.  Hold me back.”

I nudged her with my elbow.  “It won’t be bad.  We can sit together and pass notes.”

“Be still my heart.  I’d rather text.”

“I’m cool with texting.  I need your number, though.”  I pulled my phone out of my purse and unlocked it.

Jasmine snatched it out of my hand before I could say anything.  She punched in her number while she talked.  “Phones are confiscated at the start.  Some smart asses bring old phones and hand those over so they can use their real phones to text.  But that’s just asking for more jail time as far as I’m concerned.  They don’t pay much attention to paper notes, so we can do that.”  She handed my phone back to me.

I pressed the green button and called her.  “Now you’ll have my number in your caller ID.”

Jasmine ignored the ringing in her bag.  “Good.”

We reached a door that a few kids were going into ahead of us.  I recognized one of them.

“Oh, hey, Rae.”  He smiled big and held the door open for us.

“Hi.  Brody?”

“Yeah, Brody.   Good, you remembered me.”  Another smile came beaming out at me.

“Hello, Brody,” said Jasmine with a saccharine sweet voice.  “How’s the weight room treating you?”

“You tell me, Butts.”  He lost some of his smile.

“Looks like you need to lay off the juice,” she said, walking past him and into the room.

“Says you.”  He scowled at her but then smiled at me again as I walked by.

“What’d you do to get in here?” he asked.

“I’m not exactly sure,” I said.  I wasn’t all that excited about telling people I got into a wrestling match on the floor of the basketball courts.  That was just a little too embarrassing.

“Doing anything after?”  He walked with me to the back of the room where a group of tables were set up in rows.  This was the largest classroom I’d been in so far here, and there was nothing on the walls.  It was very institutional and cold.

“Going home, doing homework.”  I walked faster, trying to keep up with Jasmine and leave him behind.

“Maybe I’ll catch you after,” he said, no longer walking.

“Maybe,” I responded, getting to Jasmine’s side.

“Brody Carstairs?  Ugh,” said Jasmine.

“What?  He’s nice.  I think.”

“Yeah, he’s nice as long as he wants to get in your pants.  Then, not so much.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, so I didn’t respond.  Besides, Kootch was sitting at a table next to Malcolm and was waving his hand at us like a goofball.  He had a backpack and a book in front of the two empty seats across from him and Malcolm.

“Are we sitting with them?” asked Jasmine, slowing down as she stared at the table.

“I don’t know.  What do you think?”  Part of me wanted to go there and sit by Malcolm.  The other just wanted to never see him again, so I wouldn’t have to deal with him being rude.  I was playing tug-of-war with myself and both sides were equally matched.

“Might as well.  Kootch is a pain in the ass, but at least he’s entertaining.  Plus, maybe I can grab a ride from him when we’re done.”

“You don’t have a car?”

“Let’s just say I’m transportationally challenged at the moment.”

“Me too.  Meaning I don’t have a car at all.”

“Good.  Let’s go suck up to the guy with the wheels, then.”  She picked up the pace and made a beeline for Kootch’s table.

I followed along behind, ignoring the stares that bore into me as I went.  I was really looking forward to losing the new girl label that was taped across my forehead.  It was pretty tough to be invisible and avoid Rainbows when my presence was this obvious.

“Here you go, Rae,” said Kootch, moving the book that was in front of him.  “Sit here.”

Jasmine took the seat he’d been apparently holding for me.  “Hey, Kootch.  How’s your ass?” she asked.

He frowned at her.  “Hey, that seat was for Rae.”

“Oh really?” She looked behind her and ran her hand along the wood of the chair.  “I don’t see her name on it.”  She turned back around and smiled sweetly at him.

I took the other seat across from Malcolm, secretly pleased that she’d taken the one in front of Kootch.  I hadn’t realized it before, but now I was starting to think Kootch might be crushing on me, and that could be dangerous for both of us.  He has muscles.  Maybe not as big as Brody’s, but big enough.

“You guys got fake phones?” asked Kootch.

“No.  We have paper,” I said.

“I have homework to do,” said Malcolm, pulling a notebook out of his backpack.

Kootch punched Malcolm lightly on the arm.  “Dude, don’t be lame, okay?  You’re at my table, and my table’s for passing notes.  Homework is for pussies.”

“Spoken like a true honors student,” said Jasmine.

Kootch didn’t even glance at her.  “Blow it out your tits, Butts.”    He was looking at me.  “Tell him, Rae.  Tell him not to be a lame-ass pussy.”

My mouth dropped open, and I looked from Kootch to Malcolm.  I wasn’t sure how to react.

Malcolm was staring back at me, a very slight grin turning up one corner of his mouth.  “Well?” he asked.