The Quiet Ones

*Chapter Four: Closet*

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Within the darkness, a squeak of fright escapes my lips. A hand covers my mouth quickly and pulls me away from the door. I squirm around and search in the darkness to find myself face-to-face with Hayden.

"Shh..." He hushes me before gesturing towards the door. I furrow my eyebrows, confused as to why he pulled me into the closet. I try my best to make another noise, but a pain in my throat causes me to stop.

A loud crowd passes by the door, and my question about being in this closet was answered quickly. I hear among the crowd my worst nightmares laughing and joking loudly. The obnoxious group echoes down the hall, making their presence known.

I suck in a quick breath and hold it in until I hear the crowd go away. A tickle in my throat causes me to choke. I quickly pull away Hayden's hand from my mouth before covering it with my own hand. I grasp at my throat with my other hand as I cough. The dry, irritated sound screeched in my mouth like I had the black plague.

Hayden's eyes grow big with worry as he tries to offer me useless assistance. I reach around in my backpack until I found my water bottle. I quickly open it up and chug the day-old water down to relieve the pain that radiates from my vocal cords.

"Are you okay?" Hayden finally whispers after I regain control. I glare at him and nod my head. Anger starts to fill my chest and I bring my hands up to his chest, pushing Hayden back. I could tell it caught him off guard based on his stumbling back, kicking a few chemical bottles on the floor. He regains his balance and stays away from me.

"Do you know how much pain I was in?!" I signed angrily. I open my mouth before closing it again. "My throat hurts because of you. You scared me! You have some nerve-"

Hayden's face fills with shock then quickly changes as he rubs the back of his neck with his hand. His confused expression already tells me enough of what I need to know. I stop signing and sigh slowly. I reach into my pocket for my phone and open up the text-to-speech app.

"Why am I in this closet with you?" I type into my phone.

Hayden's eyes widen at my question as the robotic voice fills the janitor's closet. He stuffs his hands into his pocket and relaxes his shoulders.

"I saw you in the hallway, but my friends were heading in your direction. I didn't want them causing a scene again like yesterday." Hayden explains softly. I nod my head as I chew on the inside of my cheek.

"So you decided to help me?"

"Well, I was just trying to be nice."

I look at him and raise my eyebrow suspiciously. This is the second time he has helped me. It feels weird. Normally he would just hide among the crowd as I got tormented. This new Hayden was a different person.

"That's it?" I ask with my phone and Hayden is taken aback.

"What?"

"You just wanted to save me from your friends? That's all you wanted to do." I began, "there's no alternate motive as to why I'm in a smelly janitor's closet with you. You don't want to hurt me or anything?"

I take a deep breath and fix my backpack strap on my shoulder before turning to leave. I felt a hand reach out and place on my arm, stopping me in my tracks. I look down at the hand and then follow it up to Hayden's face. I jerk away making his hand fall from my arm.

"I just wanted to help. That's it." Hayden says quietly keeping his light blue eyes on mine. His face holds an expression that I didn't understand as we stood there. I bite down on my bottom lip and shake my head in response.

"I have to get to class," I type quickly into my phone before swiftly exiting the closet.

Hayden doesn't make another move and lets me leave. He doesn't reach for me again or say anything. He just lets me go.

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As the last bell rings for the day, I rush out of the classroom and make my way to my locker. On my way, I was cautious around every corner and hid among the crowd of students. As I walk, I think about the situation that happened earlier today. Hayden was so quick to pull me away from the eyes of danger. He saved my morning from being a little less terrible than if Brandon and his goonish friends would have been able to get their hands on me.

I arrive at my locker and place the passcode in before opening the door. I look around before placing my textbooks in, releasing my body from that unnecessary weight on my back. Happy that it's the end of the day, I grab my jacket and pull it on.

I quickly shut my locker door and was surprised by a blue-haired girl staring at me. I jump a little from surprise before quickly smacking her arm. Bea reacts to my smack by acting like she just got shot in the arm.

"The fuck?! What was that for?" Bea's tired eyes widen as she speaks rubbing her arm where I hit her. I sigh in relief knowing it was Bea and I shake my head.

"Sorry. You scared me!" I sign in response to Bea.

"All I did was stand behind the locker door. You could literally see my feet peeking at the bottom."

"Well, I'm not that observant."

"Yeah, I can tell."

I roll my eyes and shake my head as I walk beside my best friend to the school exit. Bea starts to tell me a story of one time I ran straight into a pole, but I wasn't listening. My body felt like someone was watching me. It was a normal feeling I got walking around this school though.

It was different.

I look around the front lawn of the school, from the buses to the student parking lot, until I found the source of that feeling.

Out in the sunlight, I finally get a good look at his face as his hoodie was off his head. Hayden's light tan skin glistens in the sunlight as if he was a vampire. His soft jawline rested neutral as a slight smile pulls on his plump pink lips. His hazel brown hair is ruffled by his hand as he ran it through it. His baby blue eyes memorized my gaze as we made eye contact.

He was standing with his friend group by their cars in the parking lot. He didn't seem too interested in whatever topic they were discussing. His attention on me, and that caught the attention of his friends around him.

I was quick to look away as my cheeks glowed red. I look at Bea as she glares at the group that was staring me down.

She quickly threw them the middle finger as we walk to her car, a black 2007 mustang. I quickly open the car door and slide into the seat.

Bea starts her car and whips out of the parking spot. I hear the muffled voice of Stephanie screeching insults at us as we get out of the parking lot. I take a deep breath as we get further and further away from the chaos of school.

"So what was that?" Bea asks after the school is no longer in sight. I take my phone out of my backpack and use the text-to-speech app.

"What was what?" I type

"You know..." She pauses as she waves her hand in the air slightly, "Hayden Maxwell staring at you as soon as you walk out of the school!"

"Nothing is going on between me and him." I shrug my shoulders. It was true, nothing was going on between us, except for the few interactions that we had together.

"Joy Jin Ae Gibbins, you better not lie to your best friend! The way he was looking at you was like he wanted to talk to you." I glare at Bea as she uses my full name.

"Something sort of did happen with him earlier today,"

"Tell me!"

"Not until we go get snow cones,"

"You're really going to hold back gossip from me to just get free snow cones?"

"You know me best Bea,"

"But that's all the way across town!"

"We have time." I cross my arms smugly as Bea huffs in the driver's seat.

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