Love is Deaf

Chapter 2: Detention

I'm late and Janet isn't there when I walk into my English class the next morning. I was skeptical because she hadn't answered any of my "sorry I'm late" texts. I sit in my seat and sigh, mentally preparing myself for a day without my best friend by my side. Days without Janet are truly testing times.

And as if I'd conjured up my own fears, Mr. Bush says that we are to pair up in groups, which sucks doubletime. Nevertheless, I am a resilient spirit, and I choose to see the opportunity as a good one to meet someone new.

As I turn to find a student to work with, I immediately notice that everyone has already chosen a partner and just like that, I'm alone. Just until I notice that Marcus is too, and I am definitely not mentally prepared; however, I did clean up quite nicely this morning. I traded in my sweatsuit for cute fitting jeans (because why not, it's a wednesday) and a baby pink tee that complimented my fair, olive skin tone. I even wore my hair down today (confidence boosted by 90%). So, even though he embarrassed me yesterday by ignoring me, he'll regret it because I also doused myself in my mom's expensive perfume. Still, I don't want to work with him.

I quickly pull out my phone to text Janet: group project! where are you?! U SUCK xx

I jump up to find Mr. Bush giving me a tight-lipped smile as he held his hands behind his back.

"Phone," he muttered with annoyance. I slide it into my backpack on the floor.

"You don't mind, do you? Working with Marcus?" He begins, nervous, his thick mustache ticking as he talks. "He's just... he's kind of... shy. He just... doesn't talk much, but it shouldn't be much of a problem for you?"

"Hell no, get me out of here," is what I wanted to say. Instead, I slowly shrug and nod.

I turned to Marcus and he shot me a look of annoyance; he probably doesn't want to work with me just as much as I don't want to work with him – possibly even more.

"You can sit beside him, pull up an extra chair near his desk and I'll give you your assignment," Mr. Bush manages a smile. "Thank you."

So I get up, grab my book bag and my notebook before trudging over towards Marcus. I push the open desk next to his and I take my seat.

As if on cue, Marcus lets out a cough and waves his hand over his nose; just enough for only me to see. I felt my body heat up as I realized that I may have gone a little crazy on the dousing.

The task at hand was to ask your partner as many questions as you could come up with from The Crucible, to prepare them for a short pop quiz we were going to have. At my dismay, Marcus completely ignored all of my questions, and decided to study on his own.

"Marcus," I prod at him, getting irritated.

"What?" he snaps his head to me as I nudge him.

"You have to participate; that's what," I hiss back at him. "That's not fair to me."

"And what do I owe you," he waves his hand in the air and rolls his eyes. "I don't want to talk to anyone, and I don't want to talk to you, so you can stop trying so hard. Thank you."

He gives me an ice cold stare before turning away from me and continuing his work.

I quickly open my mouth to defend myself but this time, it just closes. I feel my bottom lip quiver and my eyebrows begin to furrow on their own. There's a sharp stinging in my eyes and my throat hitches. Holy shit am I crying?

"What the hell is your problem?" I squeak out, biting my lip.

I blocked my face from the rest of the class, turning down towards my paper now splashed with tears, I pretended to do my work by scribbling random lines down the margin.

I got up and excused myself from the classroom. I hated crying in front of people – and I hated letting people know when they've hurt my feelings.Walking down the hallway, I swept the tears away from my eyes. I really wish Janet was here, I really did. If she was with me, at least I know I wouldn't be alone.

Just before I reach the girl's bathroom, I feel a hand grip my shoulder.

"Mr. Bush, I really don't--"

"I'm sorry," Marcus says, his blue eyes full of guilt. "I didn't mean to make you cry."

I blink twice before I try to pull away, but the grip he has on my shoulder tightens.

"You didn't make me cry!" I pushed him away as tears fell down my eyes.

"Hey," he pushes my hair out of the way, holding my face in his hands. "I'm sorry. I have some issues I have to deal with. I never meant to hurt your feelings, it's just better if you leave me be. It's nothing personal, I swear to you. I'm really sorry that I made you cry."

Before I could answer, Mr. Bush stormed towards the both of us.

"You can't just dilly out of my class unannounced or without permission," he snaps, a vein bulging from the middle of his bald head. "Arielle, I expect you to lead by example.

"...After school, both of you," he looks Marcus in the eye before pointing at him, and telling him he had 'no excuse'.

For the rest of the entire day, I hadn't seen Janet and she wasn't even answering her cell phone when I called. I'd gotten really worried about her until lunch time, when I didn't see Joshua with the rest of the team. I went over to them and asked if they knew where he was and if Janet was with them. One of the guys smirked and said, "They skipped over at his crib," before they all laughed and made humping motions in the air.

My heart raced with anger and the situation was totally out of my control. If he's playing her – which I'm totally sure he's doing – then she has to learn her lesson not to be so easy. I'm not her mom or her hall monitor; but I am her best friend, and I just don't get how she could let that dick use her that way.

After school, I almost forget I had detention until I walked past Mr. Bush on my way out of the double doors, and he obnoxiously cleared his throat. I rolled my eyes at him before I turned around and made my way back to English class, he followed not too far behind.

As we reach the classroom, Marcus is nowhere to be found.

"..So you decide to up and leave in the middle of an assignment?" Mr. Bush crosses his arms after switching on the classroom lights. "What's going on?"

At the moment, I really don't know how to explain it – or I just don't want to, so I shrug my arms at him.

He sucks in a big breath before exhaling.

"Look, Arielle, there's a lot of things that Marcus has to go through," he says, serious. "In his personal life, he has issues that I can not disclose to you because he would like them to remain private, but if you two are having a problem, you need to find some way to work it out. He may act a little strange because of this, but you are to cope with him. He's a new guy in a new school with--"

"Why can't you just tell me what his problem is so I know what to do?" I cut him off. "There's nothing even wrong with him– he's just some arrogant jerk," I say rolling my eyes.

"It's more than that, he's just very good at hiding it," he sighs in frustration. "I cannot tell you because he simply doesn't want me to. Ask him about it if you want to, but leave me out of it; I'm risking my job for telling you this much now. I'm going to leave the class, so I want you two to work out whatever needs to be worked out, like mature students."

And as if on cue, Marcus walks in with his head down. I look at him, wanting to know what could possibly be wrong with a guy like that. He looks back, but his expression is blank.