HeartStrings (ENG)

Chapter 4: Math Class (Part 2)

"I'm not at your service, you know," he says as he catches up with me. He stares at me, perhaps waiting for an answer. So I give it to him.

"I don't think you'd make a good servant, really," he wrinkles his nose. "You look more like the kind of guy who would have service and ask to have his toenails filed".

"What if I left you here and didn't want to open the door for you?" I look at him wearily as I feel the tenth drop of blood splash in the small puddle that has formed on my hand.

"The only thing that would happen is that I would fill the whole school with blood, but that's one of my dreams since I was a kid, so you'd be helping me," I say having to stop talking because I was running out of air. Steve smiles.

"You're crazy, Munson," he says before opening the bathroom door for me. I run to the sink and turn on the faucet. I let the water wash the blood off my hand, then wipe the blood off my nose. The more water I use, the more the blood runs. I hate this.

"Stop pouring water on yourself," says Harrington, who has magically appeared next to me. He turns off the faucet and reaches over to grab some paper. He turns to me and says, "Here, let me see".

By inertia I get up from the sink, and I stand looking at him while I feel the stream of hot liquid about to reach my lip. Steve stands very close to me, and with his hand he grabs my chin, and begins to wipe the traces of blood from my nose. I stare at him, gawking, while my mind melts with thoughts I can't quite comprehend. He seems so focused on cleaning my blood, he's not even noticing that I can't take my eyes off his beautiful hair. He looks great with long hair. It almost makes me envious, and almost makes me want to cut my hair, but I know it wouldn't look as good on me.

"Stop staring at me, Munson, or you'll find out what all those girls liked," he says and I look away in complete embarrassment. "That's it, you hold the paper for a bit. I don't think it's going to come out for much longer, it seems to be stopping now," his voice is stern but pleasant. I wish he would keep talking, but he doesn't.

I turn to look in the mirror, and ruffle my hair with my free hand, while in the reflection I see Harrington with his cell phone. I pull out mine and like the stupid idiot I am I go back to make sure Henry hasn't left me any messages. I put my cell phone back in my pocket and turn around, Steve gives me a nod before opening the door, I go in before him, but I stop as soon as I step outside, to tell him:

"Are we going back to class right away? We could take the opportunity to smoke one out".

"Do you feel like smoking already?" he asks, to which I can't find a good answer. "Do you really smoke?"

"Yes," I say somewhat dryly, but not because it bothers me, but because I don't feel like talking about it much more.

"Cigarettes or joints?"

"Yes," I answer him again, to which he gives me a funny look. "What?"

"Nothing, nothing, relax. I'm not judging you, Munson. Except for the fact that you want to smoke a cigarette at 9 AM. Now, that's disturbing".

"Well, everyone gets high as and when they can. I'm sure you prefer to party on the weekends with the most posh kids you can find". I look at him and he takes the opportunity to make his way and start walking to class. "I'm not judging you either," after hearing that, he gives me the finger; with a smile on my lips, I do more than my part to catch up with him. "Are you angry at me?"

"No," he says as he stops dead in his tracks, almost tripping me. "Because it's not true. I'm not that kind of guy," I squint at him, not too sure that's true. I'm not even sure he thinks that's true. We stare at each other for a few more seconds before he says, "Are you still mad at me?".

I shake my head, realizing that I have broken the promise I had made to myself. I don't feel sorry, because his eyes looked at me with such sincerity, that it almost looked like a puppy looking for its mother; and I couldn't lie to him. I hate it when he takes advantage of how cute he is to make me stop bothering him.

"Anyway, I'm really sorry," he says as he starts up again. "You're a good guy, Eddie, you didn't deserve what they did to you".

I swallow saliva as I realize that I have stopped moving forward. I sigh.

"Tell Joyce that I've stayed in the bathroom for a while until the blood stopped coming out, I'm going to smoke a cigarette".

"Okay," he sighs as he turns away. "See you later," he finishes as he waves me goodbye.

I sigh again as I muster all my energy not to run out into the yard. I don't know what's happening to me, but I just felt Steve touch my soul with his fingers, and I'm not sure what I'm feeling, but I know it's not hate, or a desire to mess with him or annoy him. It's something different, something I could only get a glimpse of if I were willing to accept the feeling for what it is, and I know I'm not going to do that, because I'm pulling out my cell phone to text Henry. I need to kiss someone.