Aching Heart

Chapter Eight

The bell rang, signaling the end of lunch period. The students all started walking to their classes and Andrea reached the cafeteria when there were barely any students left. Lunch period was evidently, not as long as Damon had calculated.

After the incident that just took place during lunch she really did not know what to expect from the students. She remembered Jamie had said if she befriends one of The Elite’s she will be safe, but she did not think people like Austin and Kirsten would be too happy about that. They were Damon’s friends and she did not want to cause trouble for him. She was not about to use him just so she can be safe from slushies and food and who knows what else, from hitting her face. Andrea did not notice Austin still sitting at his table as she walked to her next class. It was English. She had a love for English but she had it yesterday and unfortunately both Kirsten and Karla were in the class. She did not know if anyone else out of their friendship group had English as well, they were the only two she saw.

Austin, eyed Andrea who had entered the cafeteria. Damon and Andrea’s relationship piqued Austin curiosity. Why did it seem like they knew each other? In actual fact, Andrea herself already piqued his interest that night she bumped into him at his Dad’s club. The several words they had exchanged over the phone, he picked up on her fiery personality and attitude. It stayed with him. There was something alluring about Andrea and he purposefully gave her a R3100 debt. He was hoping she would beg for him to lower it and then he would have his fun with her. All he planned was to go to the club where she worked, find out her working hours and go there when she was there but then he was completely surprised when he saw her attending this school. She had made things a whole lot easier for him. Austin looked at Andrea now slowly walking to class and he got up and rushed to her. The minute she spotted him her face turned blank.

“So, what’s with you and King?” He asked her as he fell into step with her. Andrea ignored him and walked faster. She was going to try her best not to have any interactions with him unless it’s about the debt she owes him.

“Are you ignoring me, Andrea?” He asked her and walked her pace. Still she did not answer him. Luckily she knew where her class was so she could just walk without having to ask for help. Austin seemed to find her behavior amusing as he let out a laugh.

“You seem to forget that you owe me something, Sweetheart.” Andrea, stopping in her tracks, finally paying attention to him. “You don’t have to worry about my debt, you’ll get your money. Now if you’ll excuse me I have to get to English class.”

“No need to rush. I have English as well. We can walk together.”

“I’d rather not.” Andrea walked faster as Austin laughed behind her. She could hear his footsteps behind her but he did not interact with her any longer and they reached the class together. The teacher was not there yet so Andrea took the seat at the window, in the second last row of the class. Much to her dismay, Austin placed himself in the seat right next to her. Andrea glared at him and he gave her a smirk in return.

“So are you going to tell me what’s with you and King?” Austin asked her again. Andrea did not even bother looking at him as she turned her head towards the window, studying the birds that was flying outside. Luckily Austin got the message, not bothering her any longer.

The class was almost filled up when the teacher walked in. She was a woman in her late thirties. Everyone quieted down when she entered. Andrea stared out the window, this was so far the only class she had with Kirsten and her friends. She did not know if Damon was in this class, as he was not here. Her thoughts were barely cold when the door opened and Damon walked in.

“Ah Mr. King. Welcome. Glad to see you’re back.” Mrs. Collins, the teacher, said with a friendly smiled. Andrea liked this teacher, she was so much better than her previous English teacher.

“Glad to be back.” Damon said and then he scanned his eyes across the room looking for an empty seat. His eyes stopped for a few seconds on Austin and Andrea’s table and his jaw clenched. Austin, being the very observant person that he was, noticed and a hint of smirk appeared on his lips. He did not know what was going on with Damon and Andrea but he enjoyed getting this reaction out of Damon. Austin noticed there were three seats open. Two were a few desks away from theirs and then there were one open just in front of Austin. He wondered which seat Damon was going to take.

Damon casually strolled to the desk right in front of Austin and plopped down on his seat. He wanted to stay as closely as possible to Andrea especially with Austin sitting right next to her.

“Now that almost everyone is here, please remember this seat you are sitting in because this will be your permanent seat. Please make sure to relay that message to Ms. Montgomery and Ms. Jones if they decided to join my class today.” Andrea almost hissed under her breath. She was going to be stuck with both Damon and Austin very close to her. The two she wanted to stay far away from.

“Everyone please take out Hamlet. I will be handing out a worksheet today. I am not even going to ask if everyone completed the drama, I will just assume everyone did. This worksheet will be about Hamlet’s view on the ghost of his father. You will have to write a short essay discussing it.” The entire class groaned. Mrs. Collins laughed.

“Okay I’ll make it a bit easier. Work in pairs with the person next to, one of you had to have at least read the drama. Then hand it in after the period is done. Is that better?” A series of yesses were heard and Mrs. Collins smiled and grabbed the worksheets on her desk to hand it out.

Austin turned to Andrea. “So partner, have you read Hamlet? Because I have not.”

“Why am I not surprised?” Andrea muttered under her breath. Not only was she stuck with Austin but now she also had to speak to him.

Damon turned to his left. His partner was a guy whose name he did not know, but he was sleeping soundly. Damon raised his hand. “Is there a problem, Mr. King?”

“My partner seemed to be somewhere else, mentally.” Mrs. Collins sighed. “Leave Wesley, even if we wake him up now it would be no use. Work with Mr. Williams and his partner, behind you then.” Andrea looked up at the ceiling, hoping someone would save come and save her. Damon turned around.

“I hope you read the drama there in Europe and did not just watch girls, Damon.” Damon’s face turned blank at the sound of Austin’s voice. “I honestly don’t have the energy to deal with your comments today.” Andrea looked between Damon and Austin and could not help but pick up on the bad vibes between them. Weren’t they friends?

“How could I? When I missed you so much.” Damon ignored him and turned to Andrea. “So what do you think of the ghost of Hamlet’s father?”

“Look, I’ll write the essay and you two argue or do whatever it is you two always do and I’ll just add your names? Sounds good? Okay.” Andrea did not wait for them as she teared out a few pages out of her workbook and started working on the essay.

**********

After English, Andrea thought she was free from Damon or Austin but then her last period which was, Biology she found Damon there as well. She noticed him the minute she entered. He was seated at the back in the corner. He was not looking at her but she would spot his curly hair from a mile away. The period passed by quickly with the teacher discussing meiosis and mitosis, not really a subject Andrea was interested in.

When the class ended, Andrea was the last to leave the classroom. Or so she thought. While she was packing her books away she heard a voice behind her: “So were you serious about staying away from me?” Her head snapped around as she looked straight into his golden brown eyes. His head were the same height as hers because he was leaning on her desk, bent over a little with his face a few inches away from hers. Andrea’s mouth dried up with being so close to him. He really was handsome. She cleared her throat and then pulled her head to the back, creating much needed space between their faces.

“I was serious, yes.” Andrea closed her bag and threw it over her right shoulder. Damon was taking up the space between the desk she sat and the one behind it so she had to move a little too the left to leave the classroom but Damon was not having any of it and he moved to the left as well. Andrea sighed and looked up to him.

“Damon, I really was serious.” Andrea spoke in a soft tone. “Oh, and thank you, by the way.” Damon frowned. “Thank you? For what?”

“I realized I never did thank you for helping earlier today in the caf.”

“It’s the least I could do. By the way, how is your elbow?” It took Andrea a minute to remember what Damon was referring too. “Ah, no it’s good. It was nothing really, just a little scratch.” She lifted her elbow to show him. “See. All gone, no one would think I even got hurt. So now you really can stop feeling guilty. If that’s the reason you want hang out with me or want to protect me from the bullying that no doubt awaits me, you don’t have to. When I said I don’t hold anything against you, I meant it.”

“I really don’t know how to answer you sometimes, Andrea. Seriously.” Andrea noticed how serious Damon’s expression suddenly looked. There was no sign of a teasing smile that he always seemed to wear around her.

“Good. Because you don’t have to. I’m leaving.” She said and moved again but then he stopped her by grabbing her arm. Damon sighed. Her stubbornness was astronomical.

“Damon, there are students walking past the classroom—you know, students that can see us.” Damon let go of her arm and then quickly walked to the door to close it. “There, it’s closed.” He walked back to where she was standing.

“Andrea I don’t get why you seem to think I want to hang out with you just out of guilt. I wanna be with you—be around you and that’s solely because I enjoy your company. I enjoyed it from the very first moment we met.” Andrea stayed silent so Damon continued. “You really have no idea how happy I felt when I realized that I was gonna see you again. After meeting you Sunday, I could not stop thinking about you.” He said the last words softly and Andrea almost stopped breathing. His eyes were now staring intently at hers, like he was staring into her soul. He was threading dangerous waters here. Andrea could feel her heart beating faster. She needed to get out of here.

“I really have to go. Please don’t stop me.” Andrea said softly. He did not do anything so she walked out of the classroom. The feeling she experienced just now was exactly the reason why she did not want to be around Damon. He had no idea what he was doing to her and saying things like he could not stop thinking about her, was not helping at all.

He really was persistent.

Andrea walked through the sea of students that were all getting ready to leave the school. Anytime a student noticed her, Damon’s name were mentioned. People could not believe she was saved by one of them. Andrea never had this much attention on her like she had these past few days and she did not like it one bit.

It was only the second day and Andrea was already over this school and the drama that came with it.