My Vengeful Girlfriend (girlxgirl)

16. Atlas, titan of hearts

"Here, look"

His head turns around and Amaya follows his gaze, their feet slowing down. She sees a beautiful wooden door in front of her, with glass windows, and the text 'the nurses office' taped up in fancy lettering on the glass. He walks closer and pushes the double doors open, still holding onto her wrist. Amaya inevitably follows him, looking around herself with the thought that she should definitely have been here already, considering her intense medical record.

A gentle white light greets her inside the large room, coming from the window furthest down against the wall, that is covered by the most see-through white curtains Amaya has ever seen. Against the left wall there are five beds lined up, all covered with gentle baby pink and blue curtains to give the students privacy. Sick students can come here and rest before they are picked up, or simply sleep away whatever headache they have. In front of the door there is a desk, and behind the desk a large shelf, where the nurse herself is standing on her toes to reach the bottle highest up on the shelf.

"Mrs. Lane, I'll just grab a towel"

Atlas immediately speaks freely with the nurse, as if he had been here a million times before. The woman hums to him absentmindedly, and continues struggling to find what she is looking for. Atlas let's go of Amaya's wrist, and walks towards whatever shelf he knows keeps towels. Amaya herself looks after him, before she eventually turns around to curiously glance around the room. Her juice stained uniform jacket is momentarily forgotten. Three out of the five beds are empty, the two others occupied by two sleeping students.

Amaya looks back at Atlas. He finds the towels, and grabs the first one from the pile, a white and yellow striped one. Why is he helping her? Amaya looks at him, half with suspicion and half with naive curiosity, as he turns around and walks back towards her. She can't figure this guy out. He has never talked to her before, as far as she knows, and he doesn't seem to be the type of person who would even acknowledge someone like her. He's the most popular guy at school, and as far as everyone knows, she's just some no-name nobody who's getting bullied.

"Sorry-"

Atlas smiles carefully, his voice soft and deep at the same time. He takes a ghost-like, gentle hold of her arm and leads her to one of the empty beds.

"You must be really confused right now. I don't mean to scare you or anything, I just..."

Atlas sighs, and gestures with his hands to her. Amaya sits down on the bed, since that seems to be what he wants her to do, and then she grabs the towel from his outreached hand. She has to snap out of her daze to actually do something with the towel, while her ears are busy listening to his kind, warm voice. Amaya dries off her hair that is slightly wet from the juice, and then moves on to attempt to remove the stain from her jacket.

"I'm Atlas, from your class. I'm sorry for not helping earlier, I just didn't know if you wanted me to get involved"

Her jacket stain won't budge a single bit. It has already dried up, and the sugar has left a nasty mark. She won't get rid of it unless it's put in the wash. Great. Now she's going to have to get through the rest of the school-day with a juice stain on her fancy uniform jacket, just another reminder to everyone else of what just happened in the cafeteria.

Amaya gives up with a sigh, and looks up at Atlas, now determined not to let his charms make her feel like she's somehow worth less than him. If he has an ulterior motive, she needs to know now, before she falls blindly into whatever trap this is.

"Do we know each other?"

She doesn't bother explaining why she wouldn't know if they know each other or not. Everyone is already hyperaware of her amnesia. Atlas hesitates, for a moment, dragging a nervous hand through his hair. He watches her put the towel to the side.