Under the Gray Willow Tree

Chapter 23

The sudden ringing of the school bell jolted most of the students awake from their slumber rest awake. Well, those who were sleeping anyway, like Gray. For those who were daydreaming, like me, for example, jumped in surprise, totally not expecting the long awaited bell to ring.

And to the minority who were actually listening to the droning recorded voice that reads our literature book – or rather, the droning audio version of our literature book – Pride and Prejudice, out loud, looked crestfallen, like they wanted to hear more.

"Please read chapters five and six class," the teacher said. "We will have a quiz tomorrow."

The whole class groaned. Me included.

I didn't want to study Lit. It must be one of my worst subjects in school. Or maybe that's simply because I do not enjoy the story at all. It's just way too boring for my own good. I tend to fall asleep if I actually do study Lit.

I stuffed my Lit book into my bag and got up to leave.

"Hey! Willow! Wait for me!" someone called out to me from behind me.

I looked around for the person who had called me. My instincts told me that it was Gray. And when my eyes finally landed on the man itself, it proved my instincts right. It was Gray. And he was standing behind me.

"Let's go," he said, and I soon felt his arm snake around my waist.

For some odd reason, I feel like today... I feel like today is a bad day. I feel like today is totally not my day, at all. My instincts are telling me that something is going to happen today. And that 'something' is something bad.

Odd feeling.

Weird and impossible.

So, I just pushed all those thoughts out of my head and put my full concentration in walking.

If we can even concentrate in walking.

"I want to walk home today," I commented thoughtfully, obviously catching Gray off guard – and honestly, me too – because he shot me a bewildered look, but not before jumping a little.

"Why?"

I shrugged. "I don't know, I just feel like it."

"But –" he protested.

"I want to walk home alone," I cut him off before he could say anything else.

"Why?" he tried again.

But he is not going to get any answers out of me. Because even I do not know myself. Or maybe I do...

"I need time to think. I need time to gather my thoughts."

He opened his mouth to say something, but I cut him off once again. "And besides, the weather is quite good today."

Not a very good answer, I know, but still... And another reason as to why that was not a good answer was that I did not even know what to think about. Well, technically, I do, but at the same time, I don't. I have a lot of things to think about, but at the same time, I don't. If you get what I mean. I am pretty sure a lot of people have faced this situation before.

Gray stopped me. And that was when I noticed that we were already outside the school building. I could feel the cold air nipping at the exposed skin on my face.

"Look at me," he commanded.

I ignored him and quickly adverted my attention to my black converse.

"Willow, look at me."

I forced myself to look up, and straight into his piercing grey eyes. If looks could kill, now would be the right time. Because the way his eyes are looking at me are pretty freaky. He touched my cheek gently with one hand and his gaze softened.