I See You (complete)

Chapter Three

I got to class first, of course, because I'm a keener like that. And of course, in true Cade Miller fashion, he strode in late, giving the same "sorry I'm late" line to Mr. Regan. He was wearing sunglasses which didn't help at all, and the same leather jacket with a black t-shirt and faded, ripped jeans. This time, Mr. Regan was not in the mood to accept his apology. As Cade was walking to his desk, Mr. Regan called him back.

"Take off the glasses," he said in a no-nonsense tone.

Cade sighed and hesitated for a moment before slowly pulling the sunglasses off. The room gasped collectively. He had a black eye and most of his right cheek was in full bruise mode.

"I see you've been at it again," Mr. Regan stated in an exasperated tone. When Cade didn't respond, Mr. Regan said, "Fine, you can leave and come back after school. We'll talk then."

Cade just stood there for a moment. I felt terrible for him. Some of the braver souls snickered under their breath, but we could all hear them. It was disgusting really. Couldn't people just be nice?

Mind you, couldn't Cade just not be in a fight for once? Seriously, he was a fighting machine. It was getting old. And not helping his rebel reputation.

Before Cade left the classroom, he looked over at me. He gave me a small smile and left the classroom, taking a little piece of me with him.

I went through the rest of my day thinking about him. What had he fought over? What did the other guy look like? Who had he fought with? I hadn't heard anything. Usually the school was abuzz with fight news.

I thought about him so much that I decided I would wait for him after school outside of French class. You know, to make sure he was okay, like friends do. Because we were friends now...weren't we?

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By the end of the day, I was a basket case. Should I really wait for him? Would he think I was nuts if he found me standing outside French class waiting for him? I'd barely been able to convince Claire and Craig to leave me to walk home on my own. I'd told them that I had a project I needed to work on after school in the classroom. They'd looked at me skeptically as they walked away.

I decided I would make it look like I was waiting to talk to Mr. Regan. I needed a cover in case this was too stalker-like. Was it stalker-like? I didn't want to be considered a stalker. But I did want to know why he had a black eye. Because I cared about him. Or something. I wasn't willing to think on that too much, only to admit that it was what it was.

I leaned against the lockers outside of the classroom and pretended to be reviewing my textbook just in case any of my friends walked by. But no one did. I hadn't really needed to worry. What kid stays at school longer than they have to? The place was deserted. Not a soul in sight.

When the door finally opened, and Cade walked out, he stopped when he was saw me. I pretended I was surprised to see him. And he smiled. I took that as a good sign. I was such a stalker.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I wanted to ask about your— "

Before I had a chance to finish my response to him, Mr. Regan saw me and called me into the classroom. Cade watched me go in as Mr. Regan closed the door on him and turned to face me.

"I'm glad you're still here. I need to talk to you about a matter."

"Okay," I said as I gave Mr. Regan my attention. What matter?

"You know Mr. Miller?" he asked, nodding his head towards the closed door.

I didn't see that coming. Why did he want to talk to me about Cade?