I picked up my history book, placing my glasses further up the bridge of my nose. The lesson came to an end as everyone split into their friendship groups, whilst I stood up behind my chair waiting for everyone else to leave.
I was surrounded by a bubble of noise as I desperately wanted everyone to leave. I could hear everyone's whispers about me, the quiet girl with no friends. I stared down at my textbooks when I saw four of the sports guys turning round and looking at me. The ring leader, Roman, stepped forwards, smirking at me. "Where are all your friends Kiara?" I sighed, keeping quiet. I'd learnt over time to keep completely silent, not that I'd be able to talk anyway. "What's that? I can't here you." I bit my tongue, my heart racing as he stood closer towards me. "Did anyone ever tell you it is rude to ignore?"
Luckily just at that moment my fellow students started filing out. "Come on bro, she ain't worth it." Roman's basketball team member Corey placed his hand on his shoulder, pulling him away. The group walked towards the door, but not before Roman turned around and glared at me.
I sighed and walked out of the lesson room, going over to where there was a spare table in the canteen, throwing my bag down and getting my paper and pen out. I opened my history book up to the Tudors page, which we had been studying in class, ready to make my revision notes. I always spent my breaks doing extra work and making sure I knew everything about the topic. I hated having to sit with other people, and if anyone ever came and sat on my table I'd instantly move on.
I grabbed my food out of my bag, burrowing down to the bottom, when I heard something scribbling. I looked up and saw Roman with a pen in hand, drawing right across the paper. I sat and watched him do it, not being able to stop him. He laughed right in my face, and then through the pen down on the table. "You're a good laugh Kiara, I wish my friends were as funny as you." My heart broke as I took all the dirty looks, accepting that no one wanted to be my friend.
Roman stared at me, pushed the table forwards into me, and then walked away. I could feel everyone's eyes burning over at me, waiting in the hope that maybe I'd start crying, but I wasn't going to give them the satisfaction. I put everything away, including my now ruined book and walked over to the library.
My favourite place in the entire world, a secluded section of the college that forced everyone to be silent, just how I liked it. I opened up the new Shakespeare book I had brought from the bookshop in the shopping centre at the weekend. I smiled to myself, allowing myself to fall into the imaginary world of Othello.
I read for the whole of the break as students started to disperse to their lessons. I managed to remain firmly in my seat as I had a free period next before my English Literature lesson. Once all the commotion had disappeared I went back to my book.
I had an hour and a half free to myself to carry on scanning the ancient pages. I zoned out completely to everything going on around me, when I heard someone coughing in front of me. I looked up, pushing my glasses up again to see Roman looking down at me. "May I?" He asked pointing down to the space beside me. I nodded, placing my thumb in between the pages to mark my place. "How are you?"
"Good," I whispered, as I folded my arms and closed back into my quiet shell.
"You're probably wondering what I want." I shrugged my shoulders, not really caring at all, the college belonged to everyone so I didn't mind who sat next to me. "I wanted to talk to you, I've wanted for a while now. I mainly wanted to say I'm sorry." He took me by surprise catching me off guard completely. I turned to look at him, furrowing my eyebrows in confusion.
"People like you don't say sorry," I muttered, audible enough so he'd just hear what I was saying. I could tell I'd surprised him by finally talking as he stared over at me with his mouth agape.
"I do, because I've been upsetting you, and I didn't realise. I allowed peer pressure to get the better of me, not to mention my cockiness and arrogance towards you, it wasn't acceptable, you don't deserve what I've done to you." I weakly smiled at him, knowing full well what peer pressure can do to you. "You're such an innocent soul and my friends and I targeted you and played up on that."
"I get it, the quiet girl who sits in the corner." His shoulders dropped, mainly in relief, as he took my hand in his. I didn't quite know what was going on, but as Roman slowly leaned in and kissed me, I couldn't help but kiss him back, overwhelmed by my sudden confidence.
I quickly pulled away once remembering we were in the library, as both our smiles remained. "Please accept my apology Kiara, I'm going to make all this up to you, we all will, starting with a new history book." He fluttered through the pages finding my scribbled one that he created. "Yeah, I did a good job of this one."
I hadn't noticed before but where he put pressure on the page, there was now a massive rip through the main summary paragraph.
"Come on, if we hurry we'll get to the book shop in time." Roman took my book in his hand, taking mine with the other. He pushed the door open with his shoulder, leading me out of the college and down the busy streets to where the book shop was. "Get ready, a fresh new book is coming your way." I giggled lightly looking up at his genuine eyes, excited by the good things I could feel coming.