Games of the Heart

A Strange Darkness

"Where have you been, Anthony?”

Anthony lazily slid his gaze to the girl standing above the stairs. Her hands were on her hips, a stern expression on her face.

“What’s it to you, loopy?” he asked as he stopped in front of her.

Eliza growled up at him. “You’re late. Why did you come after lunch?”

Damn, she was running true to form. Of course, she’d nag him over being late. It was so Eliza.

Anthony would be lying if he said he didn’t expect this. He had half the mind to turn around and piss her by leaving school. But he had promised his mother at the start of the school year not to miss a day of school. So here he was, after spending the morning in an internet cafe, keeping his promise. She didn’t exactly say he had to be in school the whole day.

“And you’re not minding your business,” he told Eliza with a glower.

Her eyelid twitched. “As class president—“

“I thought you didn’t want to be the class president?” he cut-in with a smirk.

But Eliza was persistent. “So where have you been?”

“You should really start minding your own business, Rosa,” he bit out.

“Will it kill you to be cordial?”

The addition of a new voice made Anthony turn his head. Then he swallowed back a groan. Alex was standing behind him, a grin plastered on his stupid face.

“Yes,” Anthony answered the taller boy’s question.

Alex’s grin grew wider. Of course he’d expect that answer. “Want to hang out at my place later?” he went on to ask.

“No.” Anthony tried to push past him but Alex easily blocked his way.

“Eliza’s going to cook for us.”

“I’d rather eat rat poison.”

Looking like she was about to explode, Eliza pointed to the direction of their classroom and said, “Go inside. Now.”

He burst out laughing. This nutty girl seemed to forget she was as intimidating as a newborn baby. Why else would the kids in this stupid school walk all over her?

“Will you hurry? The bell is about to ring.”

Alex was smirking at him. He was finding Eliza nagging at him amusing. He threw him a glare to make sure he knew that he was not thrilled with him and his best friend. Then he trudged over to his classroom.

Even though the warning bell was about to ring, there were still students loitering around the hallway. His female classmates were blocking the door, he noticed with a scowl. In their midst was the new kid, Marco Dy.

Like Anthony told dumb and dumber, he didn’t give a f**k about him or whether he was crowned new king of the school or not. 

“Move,” he snapped at them. 

Marco turned his gaze to him. “Sorry,” Marco muttered, stepping aside to let him pass.

“Arrogant bastard,” Anthony heard one of the girls say and he rolled his eyes.

He didn’t give a f**k about them either.

Eliza followed him to his desk. She sat on his desk just as he planted his butt on his chair. “So where were you?” she asked. She had a notebook in her hands and was playing with the pages.

He resisted the urge to groan in frustration again. She wasn’t letting up. And heck, Alex was probably going to badger him with more questions after school.

Anthony didn’t know why the two of them were so invested in him. It was not like he was nice to them. It was not like he had anything to offer to them other than his sardonic remarks. They shouldn’t even be talking to him. Just like the kids around here keep saying, he was a smug, moody freak and a bastard through and through. Shouldn’t they worry about their stupid reputations and all that?

He was guessing no.

They weren’t dumb and dumber for nothing after all.

“Where were you?” Eliza asked again.

“Somewhere far away from you and your nagging ass,” he mumbled with a sigh.

“The teachers asked for you. I told them you weren’t feeling well.”

It took a minute for her words to sink in.

Now that wasn’t the Eliza he knew.

Surprised, he looked at her and asked, “You actually lied?”

Eliza had the sense to look uncomfortable, “I was trying to cover for you. But I don’t think they believed me.”

Figures.

The teachers also think it was a hilarious joke that Eliza Rosa kept being the class president.

“Hey, Rosa.” One of their classmates whose name Anthony didn’t care to remember approached them. “Where did the science teacher say our laboratory would be?”

Eliza scrunched her face in thought. “2?”

“You don’t sound sure.”

“Wait, maybe it was Lab 3.”

The classmate sighed, “Never mind. I’ll ask the vice instead.”

“Then you should have done that in the first place,” Eliza mumbled under her breath when he turned away.

Anthony smirked. “You really are the most amazing class president ever,” he praised her sarcastically.

Eliza sighed, “You know I forget these things. They’re idiots for keeping this joke up for years.”

No, they weren’t idiots.

They were assholes.

They only voted for Eliza so they could make fun of her bad leadership since she was a tad shy and dim-witted. And because some of the girls hated her for hogging the all popular and talented Alex Fernandez.

Anthony knew all that because being an outcast, everyone tend to talk around him without caution and concern. Who would he tell their dirty secrets to? No one. Partly because he didn’t want complications. But mostly because he didn’t care for their petty drama.

Eliza was swaying her legs back and forth from her seat on his desk. Anthony then noticed the gazes of their male classmates up and down her legs. He rolled his eyes. They might find her stupid but they certainly didn’t find her ugly. Eliza might not be the most beautiful girl in school but no one could deny she was pretty.

And this girl had no sense whatsoever. He frowned as he stared at her. Why did she think he called her nutty or loop in the first place?

He pushed her off his desk. “Go back to your seat, Rosa.”

"I was going anyway,” she said with a huff.

Giving him a mock salute, she made her way back to her seat, making sure to give Marco and his admirers, who had relocated inside the classroom, a wide berth.

She left her notebook on her desk. Anthony stared at the pink cover for a moment before he picked it up. He flipped through the pages with a frown.

Then he sighed and slammed the notebook close.

Because even her notes didn’t make any sense whatsoever.

**********

The school's lone vending machine was getting ancient as each year went by.

Eliza frowned at it and banged the glass with her fist again. Her can of coke was stuck between the glass and the shelf inside and it still didn't fall. Her frown turned to a glare and she banged on the glass again, shaking the coin slot for good measure. The can seemed to be mocking her, shaking a little but still not dropping.

She sighed.

She was really craving some coke because she had just finished PE class and the teacher practically ran them ragged.

Then she glanced around.

Anthony had taught her a trick once. He only needed to press the selection button of whatever he wanted, knock and kick the side of the machine, and a drink would fall down into the vent for free. She didn't condone it. It was akin to stealing. But this was a special circumstance. She had paid for the coke after all. That was her coke she was getting.

She did what she remembered Anthony do. She thumped the side of the vending machine and kicked. The coke fell.

As well as a bag of chips.

And a candy bar.

Panicking, she searched her pockets to pay for them. But she had only brought enough change for the coke. She glanced around. What was she supposed to do now? Should she call a teacher or the maintenance guy?

Parched from too much panicking and thinking, she gingerly fished the coke from the vent and opened the tab. She took a long sip, hoping the sweet, fizzy beverage would give her an idea what to do.

“Eliza.”

The sudden voice made her whirl around in surprise and spew the coke out.

And into Marco's white button-down uniform.

She felt the blood drain from her face. Horrified, she dropped the can. But then she picked it up again because she wasn't supposed to litter.

“I'm so, so sorry,” she whispered in horror.

Marco looked at his shirt. Then he looked back at her.

“I was just going to ask you to move so I can use the vending machine,” he said.

The blood rushed back into her face painfully as embarrassment set in. She was too stunned to say anything else. The coke was now turning into a big stain on Marco’s shirt. It was like it was mocking at her, taunting her, telling her that she was most stupid girl in the entire world because how dare she spew out coke mixed with saliva into Marco’s white button-down uniform?

Dear God, her female classmates were going to crucify her!

“Sorry,” she croaked, finally finding her voice. “I’m so sorry.” The stain was making her eyes hurt and she closed her eyes for a moment. Then she opened them to say, “You… you can't go back to class like this.”

Marco gave her a look that said no, s**t Sherlock.

“C-come here.” She threw the can into the garbage bin beside the vending machine then grabbed his elbow. “Come with me. Please.”

There was confusion in his eyes. But he nodded anyway.

**********

Eliza didn't know how this exactly happened.

She slowly raised her eyes.

Marco was half-naked in front of her. And his button-down uniform was in her hands.

“Umm...” she slowly said.

Marco lifted his eyebrows and her words died.

Dear God, what has she done?

“Aren't you going to put that in the washing machine?”

“Huh?” Eliza blinked.

Marco jerked his chin to the washing machine behind her. “Isn’t that why you asked for my uniform?”

“Oh.” Eliza blinked again. “Oh.” She swiftly turned around, her face turning red. “I'm sorry... I was just...”

Blinded by your body that I forgot why we came here in the first place, she finished in her head.

Good God, the guy had abs.

Eliza put his shirt inside the washing machine and added in some detergent powder. Then she resolutely stared down at it as she started it. She needed her wits with her and she didn't want Marco to think she was another chick enamored with him. And she definitely didn't want to prove Alex right.

“I didn't know St. Anne's has a laundry room inside the gym,” Marco said behind her.

She nibbled on her bottom lip. Then she released it to say, “T-This is where the sports clubs wash their jerseys and uniforms. If you remember, the locker rooms are beside this room. But everyone can use this freely.” She was rambling, she realized. Swallowing hard, she finished, “Sorry. I didn't show you this room because I didn't think you'd ever be using it.”

There was amusement in his voice when he said, “It was just an accident, Eliza.”

“I'm usually not that clumsy,” she giggled nervously. Actually she was. But he didn’t have to know that.

“Yeah. You seem to be in a panic.”

She almost smacked herself. She forgot about the vending machine and forgot to pay for the chips and candy bar.

She finished washing his uniform in silence. Marco was walking around behind her, picking things and setting them down. She didn't look to see what exactly he was doing though. She was real careful not to look at him. But she was hyper aware of him and of the fact that they were alone inside the room.

“Done,” she declared with a sigh after she ironed the shirt. She handed Marco his button-down without looking at him. “I'm really sorry about this.”

“No blood, no foul,” he replied. “And you can look at me now. I'm decent.”

She was laughing when she turned around. “I’m really sorry.”

“Are you always this awkward around half-naked people?” He tilted his head to the side.

She wondered about that too. She wasn't like this whenever she sees Alex and his friends without their shirts on while playing street basketball sometimes.

“Umm, I just don't think it's... polite?” she ended lamely.

Marco stared at her. “I see.”

She bit her lip again and looked at the door. “Let's go back to class.”

She must have imagined it but something flashed in Marco's eyes. But before she could know what it was, he turned, opened the door for her and gestured for her to go out first. She nodded her thanks. He was being such a gentleman that it almost made her blush. She went out the door.

Then she stopped dead and felt Marco bump into her back. Her face was a mask of sheer horror again.

Anthony was looking at them, munching on a very familiar looking candy bar.

Then he smirked.

“Did you have a party in the laundry room?” he asked.

Wishing the ground would open up and swallow her whole, Eliza glanced at Marco. He looked like he was trying to hold back a grin and she felt her humiliation was complete.

“I-I'll be heading to the classroom first with Anthony, Marco,” she stammered, pushing Anthony. “I’ll see you in class.”

“I'm not going anywhere with you— hey! Don't pull on my cuff!”

Ignoring Anthony’s protest, she led him away from Marco and that dratted laundry room. Class was about to start any minute now.

And she still had to pay for the candy bar and chips.

**********

Damn it.

He watched a squabbling Eliza and Anthony leave the gym, the former so red-faced he wouldn’t be surprised if her head would burst.

He couldn't laugh. He couldn't give himself away.

She was so aware of him that she might even like him already.

The thought filled him with disgust.

Eliza wasn't just a manipulative, cruel b***h, she was also a thief. He couldn't even believe it at first. But when he saw her get a coke from the flap after just kicking the vending machine, he realized how superficial she seemed to be. Acting so innocent, so pure when she was nothing but a vile b***h.

“You better not tell Alex,” he heard her say to Anthony.

“You can't tell me what to do, nutty.”

When they were gone, he turned and walked away, his head churning with ideas.

He had so much to do.

Finally, he allowed himself to grin.

This was going to be so much fun.