BEAUTIFUL FLOWER | MATTHEO RIDDLE

CHAPTER NINE

"yes," I stopped walking at the sound of her familiar voice, leaning against the wall to listen in on whatever-- whoever --she was talking about. "I'm not sure, I have things to do later today, I'm not going to be able to just leave the school."

Was she skipping class? Or was she avoiding me?

"Oh, come on," another voice, an unfamiliar boy's voice spoke shortly after hers. I peered around the corner and saw that she was leaning against the wall, her hands at her sides and she nervously played with the zipper on her bag, looking to the ground. He placed an arm on the wall next to her head and leaned in closer to her, making her tilt her head down farther.

"Why don't we just go now, then?" he whispered, placing his other hand on her waist, making me turn back around and press my back against the wall, clenching my fists at my sides. She didn't want that. I thought to myself, thought of all the things I was going to do to--

"No, really, I should get back to class," I heard her almost whimper, followed by a few shuffles; a bag hit the ground and when I turned to see what had happened, I found the familiar Seventh year blonde boy with her wrist in his hands, a nasty smirk was on his dry lips; I felt my heart jump in my chest and I stormed up to him, not caring that my bag fell on the ground, and used all of my force to push him onto the ground with my hands.

"What the fuck man!" he yelled, getting up and rubbing his sleeves. "We were just having some fun, what the hell is wrong with you!"

"She said no," I shoved my finger in his face and pressed him against the wall with my chest, seething through my gritted teeth. I felt her hands on my back, but I paid no attention, all of my focus was on what I was going to do to the boy. "Mattheo, stop it." she wrapped her arm under mine and pulled me away from the wall. I watched as the boy bent down and grabbed his bag, running down the hallway, almost tripping over his red robes before disappearing around the stone corner.

I kept my back to Calantha and I pushed her off from behind me, running a hand through my hair, leaving the other to be clenched at my side. My eyes were glued to the spot on the stone wall where he had her almost pinned and I grew even more angry, upset with how he thought he could do whatever he wanted, mad at myself for not being there once again, and mad at Calantha for not putting up a bigger fight. And with all of the frustration and anger, my fist collided with the hard stone wall.

It didn't hurt, or not at first. Calantha hurried to me, grabbing my hand in both of hers as
she looked worriedly at me, her eyes were wide in fear and disbelief, and her cheeks were blushed. I looked immediately away from her, and pulled my hand out of hers, turning back around to face the wall. My breathing was heavy and my heart was pounding inside of my chest; my mind was racing and I was unable to control anything, it was horrific, the feeling of not being able to control or understand anything that was going on around me, I hated it.

"Mattheo, you need to calm down, you're going to hurt yourself again. Let me see your hand." she walked behind me again, placing a hand on my shoulder and grabbing my bloodied knuckles with another.

I shook her away and shook my head, placing my forehead against the wall and clenching my jaw. "Mattheo, it's fine, I'm fine, please just let me see your hand."

"It's not fine!" I turned around and yelled, making her flinch and instantly back away from me. "None of what happened is okay! What, are you just going to let people treat you like that? You're just going to let him grab you and not do anything?"