What I Once Was | √ | Editing

Four

"There are two sets of people in this world, the realist and the dreamer. You'd think the realist would end up with a dreamer and vice versa, Nay. The dreamer needs the realist to stop her from flying close to the sun and the realist needs the dreamer or he'd never leave the ground."

Dedicated to quicklydolan

Four| Fatima

Today was a lucky day for her, her creator had answered her prayers and had sent a distraction. He had sent a new student, so she had stayed under the radar for the first half of school.

She grabbed the diet coke she had purchased on her way to school, she had intended to stay in the class for lunch, but had been curious about the new student. What was so special about him that had made Nafeesa Malik ignore her when she mistakenly stepped on her shoe.

Rerouting, she headed to the cafeteria. The cafeteria was an open space at the back of the school, the table was rectangular shaped and had six chairs. It was filled when she got there. With her head down, she gingerly made her way through the crowd. She had almost reached an empty table when she felt eyes on her, she ignored it at first, but the person was still staring and it made her self concious, so she turned her head and caught a pair of mahogany eyes before long eyelashes fluttered down and concealed them. It happened so fast that she thought she imagined it, so she turned her head back. Before she could even take a step, she felt eyes boring into her and she turned, but she was too slow, he had already averted his eyes. She would have thought she was imagining things, if not for his mouth.

He had one of those slanted smiles on his face. The kind so lazy, only half of it bothered to go to work. And yet, something about the ease of it suggested a near permanence on his face, while its stunted progress implied- well she supposed that was part of the lure. It could really imply anything.

That smile was the kind girls got lost in while trying to unravel its mystery.

Only, Fatima was through trying to read signs and figure guys out.

Apparently, she had been staring for he raised his upper eyelid to look at her, and she saw panic in those dark eyes before he averted his gaze, the tips of his ears red.

She let out an involuntary chuckle at his flustered self and pried her eyes loose from him, she tried to focus at the mission at hand.

Then Splat! She had walked into Farid Rasak alias her bully, he had been holding a tray of  yam pottage- which was now plastered on his white shirt, The tray making a shattering sound as it hit the ground.

It was as if time stopped, and the world slowed down, she could see rage in his eyes.

"I'm so sorry," She said at once, "I wasn't..looking, I-m..s-s..Sorry."

She was stuttering, she hated that. It made her sound pathetic, her eyes stung as tears started to form, and she bit her bottom lip for they started to tremble.

"How dare you?!" Farid asked menancingly, his face turned into an ugly scowl.

A lump formed in her throat, dots were clouding her vision, and suddenly it was becoming hard to breathe.

No, not now! She dropped her diet coke, ignored everyone as her right hand drew the rubber band on her left hand to its elastic limit, then let go. And she winced, a tear slipped down her face and she wished it was due to the pain she was inflicting on her self.