Why Me?

Chapter Five

A few weeks into school we had to get into partners for an assignment, and the teacher who's so lazy you can barely describe her just pair you with whoever sits to the right of you. Lucky me, I'm stuck with the biggest troublemaker in school and probably the dumbest too.

"Ya know, when you're talking about people in your head your face turns red, Jessabelle."

I looked up at the unkown voice and found the boy I was stuck partnered with there with a cocky grin on his face.

"I only talk about people I think will cause me problems, now would you sit down so we can get to work on this assignment." I said glaring at him.

He just laughed and sat down in the chair that he had pulled to the front of my desk. As we worked I'd keep catching him glancing at me as we worked. What the hell is his problem! At first, I ignored it but as the class went on I noticed he kept staring at me. Finally, I just broke.

"Ok. Why are you freaking staring at me!" I whispered across the table.

He looked up at me from writing down something that probably had nothing to do with the assignment in his workbook.

"I'm just trying to figure out why you try so hard to hide that you're still upset about losing your family in that wreck." He said matter of factly as he went back to work writing in his notebook.

"What are you talking about." I asked.

"You leave at lunch almost everyday, where do you go? To see your dad in the cemetery and read him a book? Jessabelle, there are things that you can hide and things that you can't. I've gotten pretty damn good at knowing what people hide." He said not even glancing up at me.

I sighed. Who the hell was this guy? I don't even know his name and yet he knows my name and that I've read my dad a book at the cemetery.

"How do you know so much about me?" I asked slightly afraid of the answer I might get.

"Jessa, I've been at the school for three years now, I watch, learn, and listen."He said shaking his head as he continued to write.

"I don't even know your name...." I mumbled.

"Thaniel, my names Thaniel, Jessa." He said looking up and smiling.

Maybe, just maybe, he wasn't as bad as everyone thought. Yeah, so what if he pulled a couple of pranks, it's not like half the kids at this school hadn't pulled a few themselves. He had playful, warm chocolate brown eyes and his hair fell casually across his left eye, hiding it almost completely from veiw.

His loose fitting black t shirt barely showed a small tattoo on his shoulder near his neck. His teeth were straight and pearly white, and he had full very kissable lips.

Before I could say another word the teacher told us to meet up with our partners outside of school and finish our project before the end of the week.

"Meet me at the cemetery at four 'o clock then we can go where you want to finish the project, Jessabelle." Thaniel said as he put the chair back in its place and gathered his books and left the class.

I was dazed the rest of the day, mechanically working through all my classes until the bell rang for dismissal. Grabbing my books and shoving them into my backpack and raced out to my car. Driving home so I could tell mom that I was going to meet with a friend to finish a project.

Pulling up to the cemetery, I saw Thaniel leaning against the hard brick wall looking at the sky and well I couldn't help it. I took out my camera and snapped a picture of him so I could edit it later.

"What the fuck was that flash!?" He asked as I climbed out of the car.

" I just took a picture of you, I liked the way you were standing and thought it would make a nice cover picture for a story I'm writing." I replied walking up to him.

" Whatever, come on, ya weirdo." He said walking through the cemetery gates.

" Why are we going in the cemetery.?" I called

"I'm going to show you why I know you so well......." He replied still walking.