Into The Shadows

Chapter 3

My science teacher was rambling on about tectonic plates and how earthquakes could cause volcanoes to erupt, but I could tell no one was listening. All eyes were on the clock as we waited for the day to be over. "Finally Friday," I sighed. I was keen for the holidays. School had dragged on, and I was both mentally and physically drained from it. I had been fretting over the handful of assignments I had due last week, and my report grades, and test results. Talk about exhausting. I had also spent all of my spare time thinking about my mysterious man. My mysterious man. It had a nice ring to it. My lips twitched into a smirk.

I was jerked out of my thoughts by the piercing ‘bring’ of the bell, signalling the end of school. The effect was almost immediate. Kids flowed out into the hallways, the freedom of holidays on their minds. I wasn’t in a rush to go anywhere, so I let my body get carried with the crowd. I ended up outside, standing at the big gum tree that was out the front of our school. The leaves were a fresh green and smelt strongly of eucalypt.

A pair of hands slid over my eyes. “Guess who?”

“Hmm, I wonder…” I pried the hands away from my face and spun around to face Mel. I faked a surprised expression and she stuck her tongue out at me.

“You want to come to mine tonight?” asked Trish as she approached. “What about you, Mel?”

“Sure!” Mel replied. Huge grins broke out on their faces. They looked like Cheshire cats. I shook my head and laughed at them.

"Sorry Trish I can't. I have to finish off my english assignment and study for the maths test coming up."

Her face fell a little bit. "oh, ok then. But if you change your mind, you know where to go!"

I nodded and I turned around to walk home. I hummed a tune under my breath as I plunged my hands into my pockets and readied myself for the walk home.

"Making another song?" Someone behind me enquired. I spun around in surprise and my face fell a little as I saw who was speaking.

“Oh, hey Ethan.” I turned and kept on walking, making my eyes stay on the ground. Don’t get me wrong, he was a nice guy, but he was a massive flirt. He was also incredibly cute. He had brown hair that peeked out from under his flat-cap. He had obviously been excited about the holidays too, because he had already shed his school top, replacing it with a white singlet which made his muscular arms stand out. Unlike Brice, Ethan had a slim build and was really skinny, but it was clear that he had muscles. His blue school shorts made his tan look amazing. It was unbelievable that someone could make the drab school uniform look that good. He was a few inches taller than me and always wore skate shoes. Basically, he was the hottest person in our school, was a player and everyone wanted to be with him. Everyone knew his reputation of being a bad-boy, and yet everyone wanted to be around him. Personally, I didn’t understand it, but I was under the influence too. I just got this feeling every time I was with him. I could hear his light footsteps hurry to meet mine.

“Hey! You ditched me!” I looked up to meet his sky blue eyes, of which I had always been envious. My eyes were a grey-blue colour and I hated them. He wore an expression of horror, but broke out in a wide grin after a few seconds. He was also a joker. His dimples were enough to make my insides go all mushy. I averted my gaze and looked at anything other than him.

He grabbed my chin and angled my face so that I was looking at him. “Aww Lil, do I make you blush?” Right on cue, I felt my cheeks warm up and I knew they had turned a light shade of pink. I silently scolded myself for blushing too easily. He let go of my chin and laughed triumphantly.

“Don’t call me Lil.” I scowled at him and walked away again. Yeah, he was attractive and everything else that was great about him, but he could also be extremely irritating.

He waited for a few seconds before running up and grabbing my waist from behind. “I’m sorry Lil, I was just joking.” He squeezed me harder until I finally wheezed out forgiveness.

“Yay!” He spun me around and grabbed both of my hands, forcing me to skip around in circles with him. I giggled as I complied, feeling like a little kid playing ring-a-ring-of-roses. I looked up into his eyes and they were glinting in the sunlight. They were so enchanting and I got lost in them…

I blinked. We had slowed our spinning down to a stop and were standing dangerously close to each other. I could feel his breath on my cheek, making shivers run down my spine. I froze.

Oh, crap. He leaned closer and my breathing quickened. Just as I thought he was going to kiss me, he moved his head to the side so that his lips were next to my ear.

“Have a good holiday, Lil,” he breathed. I was too stunned to reply. He pulled away from me and smirked before he jogged away, to find his other friends, or another girl to flirt with I suppose. I opened and closed my mouth a few times, but nothing came out. My cheeks went even redder as I realised that I was still at school. I looked around to see if anyone was watching me, but apparently no one had seen us.

Took a few shaky breaths and tried to calm my racing heart. I ran a hand through my hair as I considered what just happened. Yep, he was amazing. Did I ever stand a chance with him? Nope, probably not.

I walked away from the school gates and shouted a few goodbyes as I went. They all waved back at me, signalling that they had heard me, but didn’t want to have a conversation. I was kind of glad, because I didn’t want to have a re-run of Ethan. I just wanted to get home, ditch my assignments,  and spend the night with my girls.

I let my thoughts wander because felt like I got home quicker that way. My mind settled on thinking about him. I really needed to give him a name. I couldn’t continue calling him ‘mystery man’ or ‘my saviour’. Now I that I thought about it, those names were lame. I resisted the urge to laugh out loud.

I ran a bunch of names through my head as I imagined his gorgeous green eyes.

It took me about ten minutes, but I came up with Ryan. I smiled to myself. A billion questions came to the front of my brain. Where had he come from? Why did he just leave me? Couldn’t he at least tell me his name? I felt like each new question I came up with was pushing me further and further away from the answer. I sighed. Thinking about it day and night wasn’t going to help me find him, but I couldn’t help it. I closed my eyes for a few seconds and imagined his sparkling eyes and hair that swept to the side.

‘Just like Ethan’s,’ a little voice in my head chimed. I grimaced as I remembered our little… episode. I shoved that thought to the very back of my mind and pursed my lips, determined not to think about Ethan.

I rounded the corner and had to raise my hand to shield my eyes from the sun. In my moment of blindness, I hadn’t realised someone had stepped in front of me. I practically ran into them and almost lost my footing. The person I ran into was big, muscly and bald. I stumbled back and gasped as I tried to run the other way, but it was too late. A big beefy hand grabbed the collar of my shirt.