Tamed By You

Chapter 5

I kinda regret pushing Mina Ferey. Knowing her popularity status and how she glared at me earlier, her eyes were screaming 'I'm gonna make your life a living hell.' Yeah, I know. The way I describe it maybe a bit dramatic but that was the closest expression I can think of when I saw how angry she was. 

As much as I want to have a peaceful high school life, I bet it won't be that easy. I don't know what gotten into me. This not like me. From my past school years, I rarely meddle with someone's business, especially those that include popular students in our school. 

We aren't close. However, I cannot bear looking at other girls desperately trying to offer the all-of-them just for a boy. 

"You're so cool!" Angel says as she put both of her arms on my shoulder, forcing me to bend down. I groaned, not because of pain, but because of annoyance. Angelica is sometimes quite energetic.

We are walking towards the campus' swimming pool to interview the team captain of the swimming team (obviously, cause we weren't going to the SWIMMING POOL if it isn't). I badly want to finish this ASAP. I got homework from World History wherein we need to write a reflection essay about what we have watched. I should be in eleventh grade already. If my mom just didn't send me to school a year late. 

"Have you seen her face?" She burst out in laughter before she can even continue, "she was totally speechless," she added.

Shaming and dragging other girls down was beyond me. I didn't do it to humiliate Mina. I did it for her own sake. Unfortunately, that is not what the results looked like. From her eyes, I am a b***h who was trying to fight and go against her.

After what happened, she aggressively walks towards me and tried to grab my hair but Aivon was quick enough to hold her wrist, stopping her from pulling out every single strand of my hair in my body. Erick calmed her down and even before she would go hysterically mad, me and Angel left the gymnasium.

"Let's start now, I need to go home early," I said, diverting the topic.

I saw a guy standing on the left side of the pool, waving at Angelica. He has curly hair that is in an undercut style. From our distance, I can see that he has a good physique, maybe because he's a swimmer. 

"Hey, Xyrus!"Angelica ran towards him and gave him a hug.

She mentioned earlier that Xyrus is her cousin from the father's side. When he looked at me, I gave him a half-wave and a small smile. I uttered "Hi". He nodded at me and lend a hand for a handshake as an act of acknowledging my presence. 

Angelica suggested that we will use the swimming pool as the background. Since Xyrus was already standing at the side of the pool, I went to him. 

"Yow there, can I check the questions?" He said, looking at me. He slightly tilts his head with his right hand on a give-me-the-questionnaires position.

I handed it to him, "sure, are you nervous?" I asked and chuckled. Don't tell me that this guy with this kind of physique was nervous on a simple interview. The thought made me laugh louder.

He gave me a broken laugh that sounds like he's coughing, "No, I just want to answer the questions smoothly," he flips the paper two times until he stopped on the last piece where the questions for him was written, "But I'm not good in an impromptu kind of setting," he slightly shrugged.

I smirked, "Don't worry, those questions are pretty basic. Actually, you don't need to contemplate to answer the questions," I said, reassuring him.

"Oh crap!" I looked at Angelica who was starring for a second on her phone. The music of 'I knew You Were In Trouble' by Taylor Swift suddenly heard from her phone but it was stopped after a second. 

Who would use Taylor's song for a ringtone?! Ah, yes, only Angelica Perry, the certified and die-hard swiftie. Angelica never brags about how blessed her family when it comes to the financial aspect, but she does brag about how she completed Taylor Swift's concert tour last 2019. 

Don't get me wrong. I also like Taylor Swift. But I think her songs are not fit for a ringtone? Example: Using Exile from the Folklore album for an alarm at five in the morning. And I bet I have no need to explain who would do that.

"Sheina, can you do the documentation for this? I have an emergency at home," she said and hurriedly pick up her bag that was lying down on a bench. "I'll let you use my camera, just have a few snaps of my cousin!" Her voice is fading while she runs through the exit. 

I was now left with his cousin who is still busy scrutinizing the paper. He didn't even notice that her cousin already left. 

"Hey," I say, trying to grab his attention. "Angelica left, she says she needs to get home."

"That's fine. You just need a picture of me after the interview right?"

"Yeah."

I turn on the camera and we started the interview. I must say that he's good. His answers are well-organized, probably because he already rehearsed them earlier. It's a good thing tho. It made my work easier and saved some of my time. 

We wrapped up the interview and we are now ready to leave the place when Mina Ferey, including her minions, entered the swimming pool area and walk towards us. 

Mina is grinning while the two girls behind her throw daggers at me with their deadly eyes. I saw Xyrus giving Mina side-glances while putting his towel inside his duffel bag. "You have girl business here, huh," he stated while looking at me. He then waved me goodbye and turn his back on me. 

I saw Mina looked at him from head to toe. And I saw how some muscles on her face move towards the position of I-want-you look. 

When Xyrus passed by Mina's group, she slowed down her pace, slightly turned her head to him, and gave him a smile. Xyrus returned the favor by smirking back.

What a lowkey flirtationship I just witnessed, I commented inside my head.

My intrapersonal sort of communication was stopped when a girl with a chinky eyes and a short-haired one, appeared in front of me.  "Hi! My name's Sofia... Sofia Valdez." She's one of Mina's minions. Forgive me for calling them that back then, but that is the only thing I can describe them. 

I remember her! She's the one who complains about her cup of coffee that should have a teaspoon of sugar and creamer but, 'allegedly' wasn't followed by our staff, (which by the way, I doubt). 

Behind her were Mina and the other girl that was also familiar to me. I just stared at them, curious about what they were about to do. 

I can see that Xyrus was already out of the room. I guess he sensed that this is a 'clash' between girls, and boys like him shouldn't meddle.

Sofia lends a hand to me. I was hesitant to accept it at first especially that I can sense her underlying motive covered on the surface by her innocent facade. However, since I wanted to end this early and just so this 'confrontation' would be done, I accepted her hand. 

As soon as she had a grasp on me, she tried to push me but failed to do so. I was ready for that. I can sense it right after she offered me her hand while her stance was on an I-can-easily-push-her position.

I hold onto her hand tightly so she can't forcefully push me into the pool. I want to put on the devil's smile of mine to mock them but instead, I put on an innocent mask and looked at them acting confused on why this girl, named Sofia, whose eyes were already chinky, made it smaller with her defined eyebrows furrowed. 

She quickly shoved my hand with disgust. As soon as I let go of her hand, she was out of balance and nearly fall on her back. She looked at me, ready to grab a knife and stab it directly in my chest. 

Before I can continue imagining horrible things that I think these girls don't have the guts to do, I felt someone pushed me from behind. Suddenly, my eyes were stinging whenever I try to open them. I wasn't able to catch some air because I am now surrounded by purely H20 and Cl2. 

I don't know how to swim but as a human being who has an innate instinct for survival, I tried kicking in a frog-like motioned and swayed my hands sideways and up and down. But then, I realized I wasn't advancing at all. The pool is 7ft deep and a 5'5 girl like me cannot jump it out of the water.

I am running out of air since my fall was sudden, and I am now struggling to swim just so I can reach the gutter. I thought I wouldn't make it, but I felt a splash like someone jumped into the water. A hand held my waist and pulled me up. Due to the water's chlorine and numerous tiny bubbles that formed from my nose, I can barely open my eyes to see who's this angel and maybe he's a heaven-sent to save me from death.

Just at this moment, I forgot that I am an atheist. That I don't believe in angels and heaven and stuff. 

As soon as I reached the surface and I can now have a taste of oxygen, I coughed for heaven and the earth knows how many times. I reached for the gutter and tried to spit some of the water that gagged me. After a minute of coughing and trying to calm myself, the thought suddenly hit me. 

I drowned. I nearly faced death.

I looked upon who's this heaven-sent that saved me from drowning. I was welcomed by a pair of cold eyes. Aivon was already standing at the side of the pool, waters dripping from his face down to the hem of his shirt. The traces of his defined muscles are visible thru his wet white shirt that sticks onto his body.

Shivers went down my spine when my hand touched his. I don't know if it is because my body was then covered by water, and now, it is exposed and freely surrounded by air or it is his stares that made me feel this way.

He pulled me up using his right arm. I saw how his muscles contract while using his force to pull me out of the pool. I used my free hand to support my weight and sat at the gutter. Aivon released his arm, turned his back on me, and walk towards the exit... without giving me a chance to say 'thank you' to him.

"Don't do anything dumb. I'll be right back," he says to the girls while passing through them without stopping on his walk.

I stand up, combed my hair with my hands, and put them all on one side. I squeezed them to extract excess water, hoping it would make my hair dry faster. I noticed that the girls are staring—no, scratch that—glaring at me.

I ignored them and walk directly to the bathroom area. I pushed aside the fact that they nearly killed me. I didn't confront them about what they did. I have no time taking revenge and stooping down on their level. Just like what I said, fighting with girls is not my thing. I would rather choose to have a fistfight with boys than doing catfights. I don’t like harming my co-girls.

“Let’s just leave her alone…”

“Get off of me, Ara. For the sake of heaven and hell, I’ll just talk to her!”

I heard Mina arguing with this girl named Ara. Mina, Sofia, and the last one is Ara. That’s it! Mina’s minions have names already. I wouldn’t need to call them cute names anymore. Minions are cute! No one should argue on that. It’s not debatable.

Luckily, the bathroom is still open. Class hours end at 6:30 and it’s already 7:05. Maybe the swimming pool area closes a little late because the swimming team is practicing.

I put down my backpack which I grabbed earlier before I left. It’s good that I haven’t slammed my backpack owing to the fact, which I almost forgot, that I put Angel’s camera inside. I can’t afford to destroy it because I haven’t taken care of Erick’s jacket… yet.

Staring at the mirror, I’m wondering if I can hold the cold breeze of the wind embracing my body which is covered with wet clothes. I tried using the hand dryer to dry my hair. I felt the warm-hot air from the dryer brushing my head and a little to my face. It gave me comfort since I am not used to colds.

I remember wearing a jacket under a hot blazing sun, or not folding my long sleeve uniform when walking in the area of the school without a roof at two in the afternoon, or using a blanket every night with or without the fan on. 

Weird fact about me: I can't sleep without a blanket covering my whole body. Aside from I get cold easily, I'm a great overthinker. No matter how stoic I looked on the outside, the inside of my head won't stop imagining and replaying horror clips that I've seen since I was like, ten (?). I'm afraid that someone will grab my foot and drag me out of our house and kill me brutally if I won't cover myself at night.

The door slammed open and my heart felt like it fell from a 70 ft. tower building.

I looked at the door and saw Mina. She walked towards me and crossed her arms just below her chest. She stared intently at me. I wonder where her friends at? So the girl Ara hasn't successfully stopped her from storming here huh?

"Don't get your hopes up." I was confused by her first statement that made my eyebrow wants to meet each other. "Not because he saved you, it means your special to him." Oh, so this is about Aivon. The boy of her dreams.

Funny that a girl like her—who wins life—was frightened that I might steal her dream boyfriend.

"You tried to kill me," I blatantly stated, diverting the topic to the more relevant issue. 

"I have no idea that you didn't know how to swim!" She shouted defensively. "Swimming class was taught in 9th grade. How did you pass then?" She asked with an accusing look. "Don't tell me..." she says while looking at me from head to toe, judging every part of my body. "Nevermind, as if your teacher would be interested in you." 

I don't want to talk about how I asked Mr. Wesley to give me a passing grade in his class. I have a failing grade at swimming for the reason that I tend to absent from every practical activity. I make a bunch of excuses such as "I have a cold", "I am sick", "I got diarrhea today and I don't want to 'poop' in the school's swimming pool, so if you may excuse me bla bla bla". I only passed by making a PowerPoint presentation that contains all the discussions made in his class. I printed it out and went directly to his house to pass it. He has no choice but to accept it since my 'effort for doing the presentation' and 'traveling just to personally deliver it' would be wasted if he will reject it. And yes, I guilt-tripped Mr. Wesley just to pass his class.

 I ignored her derision. "Your guy helped me because that's what a decent human being would do." Her face lifts up a bit when I acknowledged that Aivon was hers and easily dropping down the fact that I lowkey labeled her as one of the horrible kind of all the human species.

She raised an eyebrow and sneered, "Aivon is mine. No one in this school was fit to be her partner other than me."

All yours, I answered in my head.

"Why are you still here?" 

Our small talk was cut off when we heard a voice not so far from us.

We both looked on who talked and saw Aivon with a paper bag, leaning sideways at the door of the girl's comfort room. He coldly stared at Mina, and then at me. Our eyes met. I am not sure if it is because of the coldness that my wet clothes brought but, I shivered.

"Oh, we're just talking," she snapped back at me and whispered, "Remember what I said." She turned her back on me and went through the door where Aivon is standing. She glanced at the paper bag, and then looked back at me with her glaring eyes. 

Aivon tossed the paper bag on the sink. "Use that. I got some spare clothes in my locker." I stared at him for about a minute, suddenly confused about his actions. I'm trying to fathom what he is thinking but his eyes remain blank. He is still on his white shirt and khaki black shorts that he was wearing earlier. The dampness of his clothes is visible and you can tell that it is wet.

He's still looking at me... intently. "Why would you offer me your clothes?" I asked trying to make a conversation, trying to lessen the awkwardness between us.

But instead, the awkwardness grew wider, eating the room, corner to corner.

What's shameful about this is, I think I'm the only one who feels the awkwardness. He's literally just standing there, leaning at the doorway with his hands on his pocket, not minding the cold.

"You're wet." He simply answered. 

But you're wet too. I wanted to point out, but I didn't. "Thanks then," I answered, instead.

He turned his back and left me. He didn't bother to answer. 

*******************

I went out of the cubicle wearing his clothes. I looked at my reflection on a full-length mirror glued on the wall of the comfort room. I looked like a homeless teenage girl. I am wearing my school shoes an inch high but I removed my wet socks. His navy blue sweater and jersey shorts are both oversized for me. But I like it this way since it is convenient because I am not wearing underwear. I changed my clothes so I won't be cold on the way home. If I would wear the same underwear, which is still wet, then changing dry clothes would be useless. 

My hair is still wet, but the wetness is manageable. I hooked both the straps of my backpack and walked out of the comfort room. 

Just when I stepped outside, I gasped in horror and my body shrank. My hands are both in front of my chest and I jumped a bit. "What the H are you doing there?!" I composed myself. Trying to act tough. Trying to act as if I wasn't startled at all.

"Waiting for you," he answered cooly.

"And why would you?" Okay, that was a bit rude, given that he saved me from drowning and he gave me clothes to change. 

Fine, let's make this conversation more... well, "conversationable," I guess.

"I'll give you a ride home."

I raised an eyebrow and crossed my arms over my chest. "Thanks, but no thanks. I can manage." Okay, I failed, let's try again. 

But hey, saying 'no' isn't rude. It means you're respecting yourself because you have the courage to say no to the things that make you uncomfortable.

'But... I am not uncomfortable. I'm just confused,' argued by my brain.

But isn't it being confused leads to being uncomfortable? Argh! I feel like parts of my brain argue with each other and at any time, they will explode.

'Alright, this time, try sounding more... grateful,' my brain commands.

My thoughts stopped clashing when I heard him talk.

"I don't care if you can manage. I'm thinking about my clothes. It's raining outside, I don't want them to get wet." My jaw drops at his statement. 

You know what? I'm taking it back. Let's stop trying to please him and adjust in any way that would make him comfortable. F him!

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Tamed by You

by: Joanne Cristel

©2021