New Horizon [Morganville]

Chapter Thirty-Five

“I wanted to a-ask you about the v-vampires?” Aaron kept his voice low when he mentioned vampires. Unlike half of the students in the room, Aaron had been unfortunate and had found out about the real story behind Morganville. And now, he wouldn’t be able to ever leave.

“What do you mean?” Claire tried playing dumb and she focused her attention on the beaker of liquid on the bench.

“I-I’m sick of being scared all the t-time,” He said softly as he tried to light the matchstick. Claire considered helping him, but the way her held it away from her made it clear that he was determined to do it himself. “I-I think I want to become a v-vampire.”

Claire slammed her hand on the desk loudly, causing Aaron to jump and students around her to give her dirty looks. Aaron’s hand moved down, and the matchstick caught on fire. He yapped and dropped it, the flame landing on Claire’s left arm and searing the skin. Claire yelped as she felt the stinging bite of the flame eat at her skin, and she flicked it off her arm as she pushed her stool back and stomped out the burning matchstick.

“C-Claire!” Aaron exclaimed. “I-I’m so s-sorry! I d-didn’t mean to!”

“It’s okay, Aaron,” Claire said softly and smiled weakly at the teacher when he handed her a cold water bottle. She winced as she pressed it to her burnt skin. “It was an accident. It doesn’t even hurt that much anymore.” That was a lie. It felt like Claire’s arm was burning, and she knew that there would be a massive, red blister on her burnt skin tomorrow.

“I-I’m sorry,” Aaron looked like he was about to burst into tears as he sank into his stool.
Everyone had stopped to watch and Claire beckoned the teacher if she could move outside the classroom to talk to Aaron alone. He nodded and gave her a five minutes gesture before snapping at the rest of the class and telling them to focus.
Aaron sulked out of the classroom with his head hanging low, and Claire ushered him to move faster. “I’m s-so stupid,” Aaron said as he buried his head into his hands.

“Hey,” Claire said and bent down to put the bottle on the floor. Her arm still stung, but it wasn’t as worse as it once was. “You’re not stupid, don’t say that.”

“I shouldn’t e-even be in university,” Aaron said, and pulled his hands away. His eyes were wet, and that was the only indicator that showed that he’d been crying. He rubbed the tears away. “I s-should still be in high school.”

“Why? So you can sit in a classroom and listen to boring teacher’s talk about stuff that you already know about? You were too advanced for high school. You belong in university.”

“No,” Aaron shook his head. “I-I don’t. I don’t fit in.”

“I know how you feel. A couple years ago, I was in your shoes. But things got better because I believed in myself. Hey, at least you didn’t get pushed down a few flights of stairs by a couple bitches.”

Aaron smiled weakly and sighed. He stared at the burnt skin on Claire’s arm that had already started to blister. He bent down and picked up the cold water bottle and handed it to Claire. “I-I’m sorry.”

“Apology accepted. Aaron, it’s fine. Trust me, I’ve been in way worse situations.”

“I know,” Aaron smiled. “I’ve h-heard.”

“Come on,” Claire opened the classroom door and started back towards her desk. She tried to ignore Dylan all together, but she couldn’t help herself. She looked up and glanced at him, except, he wasn’t looking at Claire at all. Dylan’s eyes were following Aaron with a poisonous scowl and he settled back in his seat and whispered something to his friend sitting on the table next to him. Claire swallowed and sat back down, plastering on a fake smile as Aaron looked at her.
Whatever Dylan had said to his friend, well, Claire  had a feeling that it wasn’t good.