A Kiss's Spark

Chapter 2

The next day arrived rather quickly, quicker than I wanted to be. I didn't drive Claudia to school like I usually did. I was still scarred by the kissing incident yesterday.

I entered Mossley High School ten minutes earlier than I usually did. I figured that Claudia wouldn't arrive in about fifteen minutes or so. I needed to do everything to avoid her.Yeah, I know, I was acting childish and immature, but I didn't care. I was doing Claudia and I a good favor.

On the way to my locker, I passed by Claudia, who was talking and hanging out with her girl friends.

Oh, shit!

I tried to remain unnoticed, but, of course, I failed at that.

"Oh, hi, Aiden!" Claudia cried.

She said her goodbyes to her friends and ran up to me, her hair flying past her, her glasses slipping down, her head bobbing, and smiling.

Instead of running away, I just stood there and gazed at her.

Damn it, why did I have to be so lovestruck by her? Especially since she didn't love me back?I was still puzzled as I was yesterday, if not more. I was glad that she didn't overreact to the kiss, but I hated that she underreacted.

Then I came up with a conclusion. Claudia had a boyfriend she was hiding me from. Or she didn't have a crush on me. One of those two choices, or both.

I wanted so badly to ask her about the kiss, but I didn't have the courage to do it. I may be technically a man, but I sure didn't act like one.

"Aiden, Aiden, Aiden!" She called. "Yo, Aiden!"

I snapped to attention, blinked my eyes in confusion, and said, shaken, "Oh, hi, Claudia."

She tossed back her hair and smiled and she remarked, "I swear you seem to be permanently stuck in some sort of trance."

I didn't say anything. I just smiled back warily.

"Is something wrong?" She asked me, sounding geniunely concerned.

She put her hand on my back and rubbed it, a method she always used to comfort me.I shivered. It really felt like electricity whenever she touched me. It was like she had a magical touch or something.

Though I was absolutely awed by her, anger and frustration and even more confusion simmered in me like a pot of boiling water because of you know what.

"Is something wrong?" Claudia repeated.

I shook my head and said, a bit rudely, "I have to go now."

I gently pushed her away and stomped off to my locker. I wanted to burst into tears.

But I ordered myself, Quit being such a crybaby, Aiden. You're a man, so act like it.

The bell rang, signalling for first period.

I felt more at ease because it meant that I could avoid Claudia for a while. Only for a little bit because we had third period class together, which was drama.

I entered the stage room where drama class took place. Drama was the only class I liked to take. I only had one passion - besides Claudia - which was acting.

Claudia loved acting too. She aspired to be a professional actor as an adult. I knew that she would be excellent at it.

I sat at a chair. Claudia, unfortunately, noticed me immediately and sat down right next to me.

I sighed in annoyance.

"What's the hell wrong with you?" She said, this time in an exasperated tone."

Nothing," I snapped.

She started to open her mouth to protest, but she was cut off by our drama teacher Mr. Boyce.

"All right, class, settle down," He said in this thunderous voice he always used.

Everybody stopped talking and looked at him expectantly.

"Okay ," He said, taking a deep breath. "Today we're going to do a short play as usual. I'll be pairing you all up, and each group will be assigned a scene. You have until the end of class to work on the scenes. Got it?"

For the next five minutes or so, he paired everybody up and assigned them a scene.

I hoped that I didn't have to work with Claudia, but, no, Mr. Boyce decided to pair us up. Ugh.

"You two," He explained, "will be a married couple. Aiden, you'll be playing the husband, Shawn, and Claudia, you'll be playing the wife, Elena.

"He passed us the copies of the scripts and left us alone to rehearse.

"Hi, Shawn, sweetheart," Claudia said, reading off the script. She smiled sweetly.

"You said you were going to be home from work at dinner," I said, also reading off the script, pretending to be angry. "But it's nearly midnight! Where the hell were you?!"

"I...I had to work a few extra hours and forgot to call you."

I shook my head and said, "This pattern had been occurring for a month now. I called the hospital to ask why you were working so late, and you know what was the response? She had been working on a normal schedule from six am to six pm. Why did you lie to me, huh? Where the hell had you been during those times 'working'? Are...are you seeing another guy?"

She gasped. "Honey, why would I do something horrible like that? You're the only guy in my life. I swear!" She begged.

I dropped the script on the floor. I stared at her coldly. "Who the hell are you going out with?" I demanded.

I gathered all of my strength not to yell. I didn't want to distract everybody else working peacefully in the class, and I didn't want to frighten Claudia as she was very sensitive.

"Aiden ..." She whispered. "I'm not going out with anybody." Her eyes filled up with tears.

I started feeling guilty. I want to make her cry on purpose. But, still, I had to know why she didn't react to the kiss yesterday.

"Why didn't you react to the kiss yesterday?" I asked softly.

"I ..." There was a long pause.

"You what?" I asked, getting impatient.

"I thought it was just a friendly kiss, not anything meaningful. After all, we're just friends ."

Her response hurt me horribly. It was like she pulled out a gun and shot a thousand bullets into my heart.

A lump formed in my throat. It felt like a huge boulder.

I felt the tears pricking my eyes. I tried to force them in.

Don't cry, Aiden! A stern voice in my head said.

"I'm sorry, Aiden," Claudia said softly as a single tear dropped down her face.Then she ran out of the stage room, leaving me alone.

And without any hesitation, I ran after her.