Things That Are Red

Chapter Five, Red

“No, but what the hell.” He gets into his running stance, and so do I. I hope we get through this alive. “You ready?” he asks. I nod. “Ready, set, go!”

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Once I notice I lost sight of Carmine, I stop running next to the pond near the school. I begin playing with the ducks until I see Eva walk by. I call out to her, and she turns to me, but she seems unfocused and restless. Her expression suddenly changes, and she comes at me as if she is sparring with me. She begins talking about how I’m not cold, with only a thin sweater on. I tell her that I really wanted to dress a little bit like Keanu Reeves in The Matrix, and besides, I don’t get cold easily.

And then she says what Carmine said to me earlier about me not being human. But compared to from Carmine, which seems more like an insult, from Eva, it feels like she admires me for it. But I’m a pretty biased person, because I don’t like Carmine very much. Eva is a different story.

Unfortunately, though, Carmine seems to have found his way to me, and comes really close to punching me when he reaches me. “You . . . cheater . . .!” He is clearly out of breath.

“No, you’ve always had a terrible sense of direction. I just played with that a bit.” But suddenly, I’m afraid. My realization that Eva is a girl and Carmine is a ladies’ man puts me in complete peril for the three seconds until I predict they’ll meet.

And here it comes. He kneels down and claims, “Oh! A woman. One with long hair like the waves of my—”

I, furious, punch him on the very top of his head. The funny thing here isn’t even the ridiculousness of his pick-up lines. It’s the fact that I’m getting so agitated.

I look at Eva, and she’s stunned, of course, but for some reason I think it’s because a stranger began talking to her. She turns to me. “Do you know him?”

I nod shamefully. “He’s a guy I’ve never liked. Don’t pay him any mind. He’ll get over it.”

Carmine stands up, rubbing his head. He leans in closer to Eva. “I can’t believe Red has a girl. My name is Carmine. I am a childhood friend of Red, or P—”

“Ha! No you’re not. That’s a really big lie. Don’t believe a word he says, Eva.” Even if he were my friend, why would he try to steal the girl who he assumes to be my girlfriend, right in front of my eyes? Not wanting an answer for his idiocy, I push Carmine off the school campus, and hurry back to Eva. I think I’ve made her even more confused about me, if I hadn’t confused her already.

“Have you been scarred by his presence?” I ask her.

“No, it’s not that. Just . . . ‘P’.” P? Does she mean that? “So Red isn’t your real name?”

I shake my head. “No, it’s not. It’s a nickname I gave myself.” Why would it be? It’s the name of a color.

“What is it?”

The way she asks this question is unexpectedly gentle. I assume she knows it has something to do with my past, but won’t ask, because she knows I won’t answer. So I thought she’d be brash about it, or force me to tell her, but it seems like she doesn’t want to know at the same time. This side of her is a little too attractive, and so my pointer finger lands on her lips. “Let’s save that for another time.”

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“It’s going to be some time before you can join the student council, but who cares? It’s fine to be in here.”

I’m hardly listening to President Ana’s words, as the entirety of this situation is extremely annoying. I get why the kid and his girlfriend are here, but I wish they’d either stop everything or get a room. And out of nowhere, I bet through some ridiculous means, Carmine is in here, too. I can tell Eva is just as bothered as I am.

“President Ana. How can this atmosphere not bother you? There’s two lovebirds trying not to be lovebirds, and an annoying prick who is fond of women. And then there’s us,” I tell Ana, hoping for her to come to her senses and kick the annoying people out. But the amber-haired girl just smiles.

As if to make my mood worse, the principal enters the room, and looks exactly how I feel on a daily basis. A mess. No offense to him or anything, but that’s just how it is to me.

“Someone’s here,” he says to me, “a man is at the front gate who calls himself Derek. He says he’s looking for you.”

Upon hearing these words, I wonder if I’m in Hell or reality. Or is it both? Anyway, I don’t like it. I immediately grab my things and run out of the classroom. I get to the front gate, and standing there with a pleased look on his face is Derek. According to biology and the law, he’s my father. But in my opinion, he’s a self-indulged wealthy man who apparently thinks that all wealthy people should beat their kids if they don’t “come out correctly.”

He smiles dryly. “Yo, Red.” No. He’s the one person I cannot allow to call me that. That’s what my mother called me, not him. Not him.

“Why are you here? I don’t want you to ruin my life here, like you have everywhere else.”

“You didn’t run from me this time. I’m glad.”

I walk up closer to him. “No you’re not. You want me gone. So what exactly do you want from me now?”