Working Under the Wolf

Chapter 4: The Crash

Rafael's words Rafael's words rang through my head, almost blocking out Ms. Smith's words, as if I was wearing those headphones that block out anything else( which I want). From what I could tell she was taking roll call.

"Good, You shouldn't care." was what Rafael had told me. This really haunted me. Did he not want me to care, really? So was this all fake? Did he not see me as an acquaintance, because I saw him as one.

You see, I wasn't sure if I could see him as a friend, maybe in the future. The relationship we had now, I thought, was of acquaintances,

You know what I'm talking about, Rafael was the kid you had in a class where that was the only place you would talk to them and if you ever saw them outside you wouldn't even say hi and they were cool with that. Remember?

And I was cool with this relationship! But what he said really...annoyed me. I mean...how could he not want me to care!!!

Hey, wait a minute!!! I sat upright as this thought crossed my head, my mouth opened slightly in angry realization.

What the fuck was I saying!! I was acting as if we were in an actual relationship. Pssh!!!

I was immediately alert with anger and managed to answer Ms. Smith.

"Here." I said in a prepared and hard voice, gaining a few stares. Ms Smith's eyes connected with mine and nodded slowly.

I twitched slightly as I fought a creeping blush. Damn it!!! I guess habits die hard.

Ms. Smith was taking roll call by seating chart, not alphabetically and when she got to Rafael, she stopped

She took the air of a stern teacher, and I couldn't blame her. With Rafael's intimidating physique and shady looks, people guessed he must be a bad guy.

"Rafael, why aren't you in your seat." She asked him, starring at him through hard eyes. Today she was wearing a dark blue V-neck sweater and black slacks. Her red hair look vibrant and alive against the dark blue of her shirt.

"Sorry, Ms Smith," Rafael began, his voice was light. "It's just that I had been wanting to get closer to the board and this was the only empty seat available." I snorted lowly before I could stop myself. I quickly covered my mouth with both my hands and ducked my head.

My eyes were staring at the tips of Charlotte's black hair. "Oh, I'm sorry Rafael, I wish there was an empty seat closer to the board." I heard Ms. Smith say, sounding concerned like a good teacher.

Rafael's voice went from a light tone to one with amusement and the air of pulling a joke.

"It's ok, Ms. Smith." I heard him say, his gruff voice raising up a bit. "I can see better now, looks like it was just someone's big and frizzy hair was just in my way."

I turned quickly to look at him, hearing snickers around the class. My eyebrows were scrunched up and my mouth was open and stiff.

"My hair is not big or frizzy, ok?" I spat back at him, my face just burning up with anger. Rafael had just turned his head to look at me, his lips were in a plump little smile. Once my eyes and his met, I turned forward, facing the front of the class. I didn't want to look at him.

He always seemed to know where to hit me. I love my hair, it might sound weird but I do. And it hurts when someone, especially a guy, says it looks bad.

Ms. Smith kept on saying names, not telling Rafael to move back to his original seat, making him my next chair neighbor, unfortunately.

Today was a very cold, very wet day. The inside of this room was warmer since Ms. Smith had turned on the A.C to heat things up so the room felt sort of weird. I was wearing a warm long sleeve plaid shirt and jeans, I had put my hooded gray sweater in my locker. I had put my sweater in my locker during nutrition since I didn't think it would keep raining, but it did. Fuck. And so, I ended up getting wet while running to the lunch room.