Midnight Kisses| ✓

Chapter 11

What the heck exactly is happening and somehow Novahk has got himself involved too. Maybe it's one of his epic Supernova pranks again, but my gut says otherwise. Now under normal circumstance I would probably take this is as an opportunity to go slunk in a class alone. The less I stay away from these people, the better, but curiosity gets the better of me, and I slip into the crowd current, letting them take me there, as I shuffle my feet and walk behind them.

It's nothing like I have expected. At first I look around, the buzz is almost a loud chant here. Even the teachers are here. Is ee Miss Haines, she hs the same half gaping expression on her face and Mrs Raminez holds on to Pricnipal .People point their fingers at the building. It's same old three storeyed decrepit falling brick building, parts of which ahs already been invaded by moss.

And then I sot him. A haggard looki gman wearing torn clothes and a unshaven face stands precariously on the tip of the ledge, as if about to jump.

I am about to jump

And there behind him stands Novahk talking to the man. He's sparing glances between Novahk and the big, empty sandy ground below him which will snap his back when he's in the arms of gravity.

Think of how beautiful life is.

I stagger back as a feeling of déjà vu passes over me and leaves my hands and feet shaking. I have seen this before, my mind screams. But where? That is not possible.

I don't remember. No I do but there's a vast abyss between me and that, like a brick wall on which I am pounding to let me through even when I know I don't want to find out what's behind it.

And then above I see Novahk holding on to the man's arm and the man slowly looking away from death and towards life. Only a supernova can do that. Novahk hugs the man, here standing on the ledge and the homeless man hugs him back even as the people around me start applauding.

At that moment the teachers who have been frozen like the rest of us, start ushering us back to school even as Principal tells all the teachers to accompany us to the cafeteria which also doubles as the morning assembly when the occasion calls for it, now that the auditorium is under renovation.

There's no getting out of it as the current of crowd pulls me towards the cafeteria like everybody else. The tables are shifted horizontally to accommodate everybody and there's a mad scramble to find seats. Usually in the assembly nobody wants to sit in the front but today it's the other way round. While everybody is in a hurry to find a seat in the centre of the activity, where the teachers have made up placed a podium and mike for a temporary stage, I find a spot in the corner wedged between the wall and the vending machine at the very last. It's a half broken stool, the safest spot in the cafeteria where I can watch the whole thing unnoticed.

But then it's not safe anymore when the grinning face of Novahk who has been till now inconspicuously absent in the cafeteria comes and stands next to me. "Hey Kris."

What the hell is he doing? I try to ignore him looking the other way and hoping he would go away. My ears are already burning as the girls sitting in front of me, some of the freshman whip their head back, heir mouth half open to see Supernova standing behind them talking that the weird junior girl.

"If I didn't know better, I would have thought you were ignoring me."

"I am ignoring you," I point out hoping how he would go away. But I realize it's a fatal mistake when his half moon smile comes back and it gives a soft punch to my stomach and makes my heart stutter.

God now even I have a crush on Supernova, along with like the rest of hundred girls in the school. "You friends are looking for you." I can't see a damn thing in front of the room and I have no idea if it's true but I just, just can't stand the way these girls are looking between me and Novahk, probably trying to figure why the hell he's talking to me.