Sapphire
I get up from my seat and walk to the front of the class, turning in my worksheet to the teacher. "Thank you, Ms. Adams."
I nod my head at him and go back to my desk. Taking out my notebook, I begin to doodle random shapes and squiggles, in a phase of boredom.
A few moments later, I sense Ian getting up from his desk and I turn to see him turn in his completed worksheet. I raise an eyebrow at him when he walks back to his desk and he smirks at me, sending me a wink before he takes his seat again.
With a shrug, I look back down at my notebook and continue to draw whatever-it-is-I'm-drawing.
The sound of the bell ringing startles me and I snap my head up, watching half of the class already at the door. I quickly pack up my things and follow them out of the classroom.
I make my way to my locker and put in my combination, shoving my books in it and taking out the ones for my next class. Shutting my locker again, I turn around and let out a squeak of surprise when I bump into someone. "I'm sorry, excuse me."
I step around him and begin to walk away, before I freeze. Wait a minute...
Why did I apologize? He was in my way.
I turn around and narrow my eyes at Ian as he still stands in front of my locker.
"Next time, turn your head in the direction you're planning to go, before you actually take a step forward — Life lesson of the day."
I give him a blank stare, before I turn back around and take another step forward ... bumping into someone else, a girl this time.
"Watch where you're going!" She complains as her book goes crashing down to the ground. I bend down to grab it for her and give her a quick apology as I hand it back to her, before walking at a fast pace to my next class.
I hear Ian's laughter over the many voices speaking in the hallway.
"Life lesson, babe. Remember the life lesson of the day!"
* * * *
"Ash Wednesday!" Gloria cheers as she rubs her dirty thumb across my forehead and I groan.
"Glo, come on," I whine. "I just finished wiping off the red you smeared on me!"
She laughs, picking up the black chalk again and continues to glide it across her paper. I watch as her night sky is starting to come along and smile, before I look down at mine and frown.
"How are you so good at this? Mine just looks like a sick dragon sneezed on my paper."
She laughs beside me. "Aw, it's not that bad." She offers, giving me a smirk. "It looks more like, 'a five year old can do better than that'."
I smack my hand down hard on her thigh, forcing out a sharp cry from her lips.
"Ow! What was that for?"
"Is everything okay, girls?" Our art teacher questions from the front of the class and we both turn our heads in her direction.
"Yes, miss." We both quickly reply, giving her reassuring smiles.
She narrows her eyes slightly at us, before nodding her head and looking back down at her laptop.
I snicker as I rub the chalk into my paper with my finger, grabbing a blue color and mixing it into the areas where I want it to look a bit brighter. Looking down at it after I'm done, I smile in satisfaction.
That is, until I turn to look at Gloria's.
"Aw, come on, no fair." I whine in a low voice.
She turns to look at me and my finished artwork. "Nice try, kid." She teases, patting my back as if I were a child. I give her a glare, causing her to put her hands up. "I'm sorry, please don't kill me."
"How are you so good at this?" I ask again, watching her blend the colors a tiny bit more.
"Practice, I guess." She shrugs. "I want a future with art, unlike you."
"Touché."
* * * *
"Fuck, fuck, fuck." I keep repeating as I make my way towards my locker to get a pad. When I finally reach it, I quickly put in my combination and swing the locker door open. Reaching my hand to the back of the locker, I curse.
Shit, I used my last one.
Slamming my head against the door, I let out a groan and wish today just stopped existing. Or for the ground to swallow me whole. Whichever works.
As I'm quietly moping about my luck, I feel a pair of arms wrap themselves around me, and I look down to see masculine hands tie a sweater around my waist. Then, I feel someone's breath on my neck, before I hear them whisper, "Not trying to embarrass you or anything, but you're stained."
Ian.
I instantly feel my cheeks warm up, turning around and pushing my back against the lockers. "What?" I squeak, completely mortified. "Oh, my god. What if everyone saw me?"
I see a small smile tugging at his lips. "Don't worry, I noticed since you got up from your desk and I was behind you the entire time. So no one saw you, except me of course."
I let out a sigh of relief, before I narrow my eyes up at him.
"Yes, I check you out. Sue me." He chuckles, putting his hands up in mock defeat. "I am a guy, after all. Besides, I'm allowed to check out my girlfriend, aren't I?"
"You're an idiot." I laugh as I smack his arm playfully. "Thank you, by the way." I add, pointing to his sweater around my waist.
He nods his head, casually looking around. "Do you, um ..." — he clears his throat and rubs the back of his neck awkwardly — "... have a pad?"
I shake my head as I blush in pure embarrassment.
"I have a couple in my locker, do you want one?" Suddenly, his voice sounds confident. As for me, yeah I'm as bright as a tomato.
"W-what?"
He smirks at my stutter. "I asked if you want a pad from my locker. She used to always forget to bring one, her period was weird as shit. Sometimes it was late, and other times it was early. It wasn't only hell for her, but for me as well."
I gape at him talking about her period so casually, before nodding my head as a silent response to his question.
"Alright, follow me."
He turns to walk the other way and I tighten the sweater around my waist, following him down the hallway. I stop in my tracks as I remember that I forgot to shut my locker.
Turning on my heel, I jog back towards my locker to close it. Looking towards where Ian is, I feel warmth travel up to my cheeks when I see him staring at me in amusement.
Why am I so embarrassed?
As I speed walk to catch up to him, he continues to lead me to the end of the hall, stopping at — what I assume to be — his locker.
He puts in his combination and picks out a pad, handing it to me out in the open. I quickly snatch it from him and hug it to my chest.
"Way to make it obvious." I mutter, creating a curtain of hair to cover my face as a group of guys pass by us.
"It's just cotton in plastic wrapping." He chuckles, and I hear his locker getting slammed shut again. "Are you frozen or do you need me to walk you to the girl's restroom, too?" He teases.
I look up to glare at him. Flipping him my middle finger, I spin on my heel and begin to make my way towards the restroom.
"Very intimidating, babe."
* * * *
"You okay there, Phee?" Gloria asks me from across the table.
I stop digging through my backpack to look up at her. "I'm sorry, what?"
She laughs at me for a few seconds as I continue to rummage through my backpack, smiling in satisfaction when I finally get my hands on my pink pill dispenser. Grinning in success, I dump two out onto my palm.
I really need to clean out my backpack, I think to myself as I look at all the papers scattered inside.
Cupping my hand over my mouth, I tilt my head back and pop the pills into my mouth. I then unscrew the cap from my water bottle and chug half of it, feeling the pills travel down and into my stomach.
"Ohh," Gloria speaks up again and I zip up my backpack as I fix my attention on her. "Is your flower releasing its nectar again?"
I give her a disgusted look. "Gloria, you need to stop saying that."
"I can't help it, I think it's funny." She laughs.
"Hey guys," Amber greets as she sets down her tray on the table and I turn to look at her.
"Hey, Am— woah, what happened to your hair?" My eyes immediately widen as I take a look at her purple curls.
"I dyed it purple!" She replies enthusiastically, and I turn to meet gazes with Gloria for a second.
"No judge, but why?" Gloria asks her, leaning forward and resting her elbows on the table.
"Why not? It's nice to have a little change once in a while." She shrugs. "Besides, purple is the best color out there."
"That's an opinion, not a fact." I argue, popping a grape into my mouth. "Just like my own opinion, I think blue is the best color."
"Just because that's the color of the stone for your name." She rolls her eyes.
"You, my friend, are smart."
* * * *
"Ian, can I know where– oh, wow." I stop mid-sentence as I enter Ian's room and the first thing I see is a naked ass — Ian's naked, toned ass. "Nice buns there, hun." I tease.
He spins around and my smug smile disappears as my eyes travel downward.
"Ian, what the hell?!" I shriek, slapping my hands over my eyes as he laughs loudly.
"Life lesson of the day — don't enter a room without knocking." He tells me and I keep my hands over my eyes as I scoff.
"I didn't think you would be butt ass naked!"
"I'm unpredictable."
I grimace. "Yeah, I think I got that."
He laughs a little more and I hear shuffling in front of me before he speaks up again, "Alright, you can look at me now."
"I don't want to."
"Just trust me, I put shorts on."
I hesitantly do so, slowly sliding my hands down my face. Once I see that he is right, I drop my hands by my side again and look around his room awkwardly.
"So," he muses. "What brings you into my room?"
I meet his gaze again, a bit uncomfortable. "I wanted to ask if I can know where the washing machine is? I hand washed my jeans yesterday and now they're dry, but now I need a washing machine to finish the job." I tell him. My eyes widen as I quickly realize that, that's too much information. "I mean, um, I need to wash ... some clothes." I make a lame attempt at covering up my mistake.
He chuckles, leading me to the end of the hall and opening a door to our right. "In there, just turn on the light."
"Alright, thanks."
"Yeah, no problem."
I switch on the light as he begins to walk away, but then he stops.
"Oh, and don't think about my naked body too much."
I wave him off, "Don't flatter yourself. I'm traumatized, if anything."
The laugh that escapes his lips sounds like it came all the way from the pit of his stomach, deep and unforgiving. "Sorry my dick is gonna be the culprit for your nightmares, then. Remember the life lesson next time. For your sake."
"Oh, trust me, I will."