Moonlight

Chapter 6 (The Cold Shoulder)

I focused my attention away from his eyes and decided to look down instead. "Malum...what did you mean by--"

"Grace and Malum is there something that you would like to share with the class?"

Mr. Ketcher did not seem amused. I looked up and saw everyone staring at us. Crap. I forgot we were in school.

Malum smiled and raised his hand.

Mr. Ketcher look surprised by this. "Yes Malum?"

"Forgive us Mr. Ketcher. Grace was only asking me about the last few things you had written on the board. Her and I can discuss it after class. We apologize for interrupting."

Mr. Ketcher had his mouth slightly hanging open. Such a polite response from a student who had just been caught in an act was rare. But Mr. Ketcher composed himself and cleared his throat. "Yes, yes. Please keep the discussion on hold until after we are finished with class." He glanced over at me and gave me a suspicious glare and then walked back over to the whiteboard.

I sighed. "Thanks." I whispered to Malum.

He nodded his head and turned his attention back to the lecture.

If only mind reading were a real superpower. I want to know what Malum meant by his response to my earlier statement. This is so frustrating. I groaned to myself and turned my attention back to Mr. Ketcher's lesson. This is going to be a long day.

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    I didn't bring up the topic of the party, or any of our conversation from history class earlier this morning. The rest of the day thought I felt as if Malum was avoiding me. Not physically at least, but mentally. I would try and talk about other trivial things such as school gossip, or about new music that was being released soon. None of that seemed to interest him or change his mood. He only nodded or gave me short answers to anything we were discussing. He was giving me the cold shoulder. Great. Naturally towards the end of the day my mood was pretty low as well. We were walking outside to the where the school buses were parked. This was my last chance to have a face to face interaction with him today.

    "Well, have a good rest of your night Malum. Call me later?" I asked in a questioning tone.

    He briefly glanced over at me. "Yeah. Sure. Bye Grace." His walking sped up and he made his way to his bus.

    I stood there. Left in the dust. If he didn't want to talk to me then fine, but there was no reason for him to be rude about it. I rolled my eyes and hopped onto my bus.

    Autumn was waiting for me in our usual spot.

    "Hey Grace." She said with a smile.

    "Hey Autumn." I could tell my tone wasn't very cheerful and I knew this would make Autumn concerned.

    "Is everything okay? You seem a little down."

    Even when I have barely been speaking to her she was still such a great friend. I needed to make it up to her somehow.

    "Yeah, I guess. Malum just isn't acting himself today and it's been bugging me. I'm sure everything will be fine though."

    Autumn looked down and pursed her lips. Whenever she does that I knew she was trying to choose her next words carefully. This isn't what I needed. I didn't need her to make me feel worse than I already felt.

    She looked up at me. "Well, you two do spend a lot of time together. You were bound to get sick of one another eventually...but you're right. I'm sure it will all be fine soon. Maybe he just needs a short break from you or something." She forced a smile.

    Maybe she was right. A short break between us wouldn't hurt. Or would it?

    "Thanks Autumn. You're probably right." Now it was my turn to force a smile.

The rest of the ride home we mostly talked about Autumn's life. Which was a relief. I wasn't in the mood to discuss more about Malum.

I could tell by the way she was talking so quickly that she had missed me. She was probably happy to be able to confide in someone else besides Katy.

The bus pulled up to my driveway and I said goodbye to Autumn.

"Bye Grace, don't stress too much alright?"

"Thanks Autumn, see ya tomorrow."

Mom or dad aren't home when I walk into the house and I'm happy about this. Their absence gives me time to to think to myself, but being left alone with my thoughts can be dangerous.

*****

(Hey everyone, so I decided to change up the age of my characters. Instead of being set in middle school, the story will now be set in high school. So if there are some inconsistencies here and there I apologize.)