Touch | o.c.d

mysophobia

Zen's POV

I caught this guy who's in my home room staring at me. Why was he staring? Could he see germs on me?? Crap, if he can see germs like I can then he'll think I'm disgusting. Mum took away my hand sanitiser and I have a stress ball my psychologist gave to me when I feel like I need to wash my hands, but I don't find it relieving at all. This can't be good. Maybe I'll just stop by one of the toilets close by when the bell goes and-

Oh.

Shit.

There is no way in HELL I am walking into those filthy bathrooms. They always smell bad and the door handle you touch to enter it is always cold and wet. I would never be comfortable touching it, even if it had been disinfected and all. I bet the cleaners do a half-assed job as well. Am I that stupid to consider using those toilets? I looked down an my hands, which to me looked like they had been dipped in swamp mud and dried into the wounds of my chapped palms. They would surely get infected and then nobody would be able to touch me ever again; not even through my clothes. That was usually the only thing I could tolerate but today? I didn't think so. Hopefully everyone keeps their distance.

Cameron's POV

She always examines her hands. Why is that?

Her elbow-long, dead-straight black hair was parted down the middle perfectly, also having it tucked behind her ears. She had big, curious dark eyes and a small mouth, making her look extra-cute to me. Everyone else typically thought she was strange, both appearance-wise and attitude-wise. But, I remain intrigued. I always think that she has some kind of super-human power, like super speed or x-ray vision,  maybe even mind reading powers! Just something badass that nobody would ever expect from her, except me. She may have noticed me drooling over her, but hey. She's so stunning - I just can't help myself! Damn. High school sucks. Maybe I should try to get her attention when the bell goes...

Ten minutes passed of me staring at the girl. Why did I never pay attention to the roll?! That was the only way I could catch her name. Would I still be able to talk to her if I didn't know her name? After what seemed like forever, the bell went. I shot out of my chair and made a beeline for the girl. She didn't seem to be in a hurry - she was packing up her things in the slowest possible way. I waited until she stood up to talk to her. Standing around probably looking super creepy probably wasn't the best first impression...ah, what the Hell. After the room was mostly cleared out, I coughed to get her attention. She spun around to look at me in horror. Had I already put her off?

"Uh, hi! I'm Cameron." I awkwardly introduced myself, holding out my hand for her to shake. Was that normal? To shake hands with fellow students at school??

"Umm, hey. Yeah I know, I heard your name in the roll. I'm Zen." She said without taking her eyes off my hand. I slowly pulled it away and put it beside me.

"Oh! Haha. Of course you did, Zen." I laughed nervously.

"Look, I kinda of have to get to first period..." She trailed off, heading towards the door past me.

"Oh, you're going that way to? Let me walk you there!" I piped up, scratching the back of my neck.

"You really don't have to do that..."

"I insist! Please, let me?" I begged, doing my 'puppy face' impression.

She chuckled.

"Well, only if you insist,"

"YAY! Thank you!!" I cheered, a huge smile plastered on my face.

"Not a problem?" She laughed again. I could make her laugh!!

We reached her class and I waved her goodbye, heading in the opposite direction of where my class actually was.

Zen's POV

Did he think I was an idiot? I knew that was just an excuse to talk to me a little longer and walk me to first period like a 'gentleman' or some cheesy crap like that. I traced my fingers through my jet-black hair, wondering when the last time I washed it was. Two nights ago? Last night? I sighed and sat back in my chair. I wouldn't stop thinking about the way Cameron begged to walk me to my class nearly two hours ago. Now it was second period, so we got a half-hour break afterwards. The bell was due to go any second now. When it did, I did my usual routine. Pick up bag from floor, put on desk. Be sure NOT to let the bottom of the bag touch any exposed skin. Unzip, put away gear - again making sure to not let anything that was touching the desk touch me. I held my breath as I zipped my bag back up and got out of my seat. A bonus to this routine was that by the time I was finished, most of my classmates had cleared out of the room.

I trudged through the school grounds, taking the outer route to the library, so I wouldn't have to go past as many people. The downer to this route was the angry drug-addicts that hid their joints as if I was oblivious to the fact that they were totally getting high before I came past. Then there were the bullies who'd shout random slurs at me; ones that don't actually apply to me, I might add. Expect for maybe "freak", which I understood. As I finally approached the entrance to the library, I looked through the window to see if anyone was inside - to which there wasn't, meaning the library was locked. A part of me cursed and a part of me sighed with relief as this revealed that I wouldn't have to touch anything to get in. Now I just had to find somewhere else to be a loner who pulls out a book to read, from home of course. Disinfected. No way I'd be reading a book from a library, a book that had probably some sort of disease lingering on it, just waiting for it's chance to contaminate someone. And that someone was sure as Hell not going to be me.

"Hey! Zen!"

Oh, fuck my life. I cringed and turned around to see who wanted my attention to see it was Cameron.

Huh. Not so bad, I suppose.

"Uh, hi." I greeted shyly, looking at the ground and kicking a stone towards him.

"Where you headed? Would you like to hang out?" He offered kindly.

"Umm, I was going to go to the library, but it appears to be locked."

"Did you pull the handle to see if it was?"

"No. I just didn't see anyone inside is all."

"Oh! Well you may be glad to know that I saw a staff member unlock it before, wanna go there? Together?" He looked hopeful. Well, I couldn't really turn him down, could I?

"Sure thing." We both headed towards the library, back-tracking my previous route. We got to the door, and to my surprise, he held it open for me.

"After you, m'lady." He bowed. I cringed so hard he probably felt my inner pain, and I think he did, because he laughed under his breath.

"Yeah, I know I'm a bit of a charmer." Who the Hell was this guy? What a show-off. I rolled my eyes while he continued to grin stupidly. "Well, after that cheesy gesture, do you wanna get this one yourself or nah?" My eyes widened and I looked up at him. He was at least a head taller than me, which was odd, because I was taller than a lot of guys at this school. I was 5'10. What was I going to say?? My hands were dirty enough as it was and I haven't been able to wash them...

"It wasn't that cheesy. Go ahead." I said as casually as possible, my heart thumping against my chest.

"Ohh, so I'm not as bad as you think, huh?" He teased as he opened the door, allowing me through.

"Asshole." I mumbled.

"I know. Sorry, I didn't mean to come across that way." He said sadly. I sighed and turned to face him. "Kidding! No hard feelings. Wanna grab a table and converse?"

"Sounds good." I responded.