MAYA
The same Tuesday morning, the late winter breeze danced inside from the crack of the window behind Mr. Standall and kissed my skin, leaving sudden coldness over my bones.
Mr. Standall had finished reading my diary and shoved it towards me across the desk with an unreadable expression.
"So...what you think?" I swallowed hard, tucking my hands under my thighs. I suddenly regretted giving him the diary in the first place. Knowing he had read every page in my diary, made me feel exposed as he could see right through me. As if I had given him access to every dark corner in my mind. As if every dirty secret within those pages were inked to my skin and on full display.
However, this diary explained why I did what I did better than my voiced thoughts ever could.
"I have one thing to confess and one question," he paused and I nodded, giving him the approval to continue. And then he looked me right in the eye and said, "Maya Greene, you hold a strength within you that only a few people in this world have."
Astonished, my jaw slightly dropped and I felt my eyeballs widen. I stayed like this for at least ten seconds, causing him to chuckle by the sight of how ridiculously shocked I looked.
"Wait. No scolding, disgust, anger, disappointment, or...or at least a scowl?" I questioned in disbelief.
Disbelief consumed me so badly that I blinked several times to make sure I wasn't dreaming. However, even after blinking countless times, Mr. Standall still had the same soft smile on his face that reached perfectly to his honey brown eyes.
"Okay, wait so let me get this straight. You've basically read my diary filled with my horrible secrets and actions. Aren't you at least a bit angry?"
He nods. "Yes, I am angry about one thing, which leads to my question. Why did you lie when I asked you if you were okay during our first meeting in this office?"
I was about to immediately reply, but instead shut my mouth and closed my eyes. I leaned back in my seat and sighed. When I opened my eyes again, that soft smile was still there with a hint of curiosity dancing across his eyes.
"Lying to you was so much easier than telling you all the things I had on my mind. Faking a smile is so much easier than explaining why you're so sad. It's just...easier."
"But is it right?"
Shoot. He got me there.
I shook my head. "No. It's not."
Satisfied, Mr. Standall also leaned back in his seat, twirling a pen between his fingers.
A moment of silence fell between us and I felt perfectly content in it. No talking, no actions, no thinking. Just existing.
A few seconds later, the bell rang and it was time for History. I stood up and picked up my bag. reached for the doorknob. "Thanks for the session. See you next time?"
"No problem, but just real quick," he said, stopping me from pushing the door open.
My fingers still wrapped around the doorknob, I glanced behind my shoulder and met his gaze.
"I've decided that I'm going to start doing group sessions. The groups will consist of Bree, Heaven, Owen, Nathan, Cayden and you."
My hand dropped from the metal between my fingers.
Eyes frozen on him, I tilted my head slightly to the side. "Group sessions? Um...Why?"
He folded his hands on the desk and offered a polite smile. "You all share a history together and I believe you need to speak out your true feelings to one another."
Just like that, I literally felt my heart stop for a flicker of a moment. Palms suddenly sweaty and breath shallow, I swallowed hard before my voice came as a raspy whisper. "I'm not sure if I-"
I didn't like his next words. "Just show up for the groups sessions, be honest with the others and with yourself, listen carefully when everyone speaks and it will all work out fine."
~
During the whole history lesson, I couldn't stop thinking about the group sessions Mr. Standall informed me about. I was going to sit in a room with Bree, Nathan, Heaven, Owen, and Cayden and open up to them?
Oh, god. How am I supposed to do that?
Suddenly, I was completely snapped out of my mind when I felt a finger poking my arm. I tore my gaze off the window and glanced at the four girls surrounding my desk.
The bell had rung. Class was over. I didn't catch a single thing about the "whatever" revolution the teacher was talking about. The history paper was the next freaking week.
Great. Just great.
"You were lost during the whole lesson? Are you okay?" One of the the girls who sat next to me, asked with a small frown on her face.
On the bright side of everything, people had stopped staring at me longly and stopped whispering about me when I was in school or in any public places. I had stopped being the talk of the town. Not completely, but mostly. And I was happy with that. Progress was good. Progress was my middle name these days.
I pressed out a genuine smile. "I'm okay." But got a lot on my mind too.
Wow. The voices in my head were quite active today.
"So...what's it like being buddies with Cayden?"
So that's what this was about. My friendship with Cayden. Otherwise, these girls never talked to me before. However, they might've actually appreciated the new me. That could be a possibility. After all, the students that never dared to speak to me four months ago nowadays waved or smiled to me when passing by. They had gradually started treating me like the new Maya Greene, and I loved it.
"What's it like? What you mean by that?" I asked, looking at their curious faces one by one.
"Are you kidding? He's so scary. Have you forgotten the way he looks at everyone with such cold eyes that it seems like he wants to beat them up right there and then?" One of the girls with blonde hair pulled into a ponytail asked, her blue eyes pooled with fear as she wrapped her arms around her torso, protectively.
Before I could answer that, another question popped up. This time from a brunette's mouth. "Is the boxing and underground racing rumor true?"
I nodded.
Their eyes widened in horror while the brunette gasped. "Holy crap! He could kill someone with a single punch."
"How are you not scared of him? Aren't you afraid you'll say something wrong and he'll lose it and end up punching you? I mean, you got a pretty nice nose. You don't want it to-"
She was cut off by me as I burst out laughing so hard that tears briefly formed in my eyes. The girls looked at me with big eyes as if I had completely lost my mind.
It was amusing. Simply amusing and hilarious that they were so scared of a guy who was actually kind, friendly and soft as a kitten. One thing was for sure though. Cayden Bloom was judged. However, he did it on purpose. He let people be afraid of him. He caused fear towards him within everyone at this school on purpose.
But why? I had no idea.
"Cayden isn't scary at all. He's actually very friendly and cute," I informed, chuckling.
One of the girls' brown eyes widened. "Friendly? Cute? Are you sure we're talking about the same Cayden Bloom here?"
I nodded and stood up, grabbing my bag and books before smiling cheerfully. "Yep. Pretty sure he's the only guy at EverGreen High who goes by that name."
"But if he really is nice, why does he wear a dangerous bad boyish face?" The blonde asked, puzzled.
I gave them an apologized, sloppy smile before I left the classroom, leaving my answer hanging in the air. "That one I'm still trying to figure out."
~
After an interesting lesson of English Literature, the bell rang and lunch break began. While the huge sea of hungry students rushed to the cafeteria, I squeezed through the crowd to head towards Cayden and my locker.
However, I couldn't quite reach my destination because, without warning, someone's hand wrapped itself around my arm and pulled me into an empty classroom, causing my heart to suffer from a small heart attack.
Only a heartbeat later, my back was pressed up against the wall and I was face to face with Cayden, his grumpy eyes shooting daggers at me.
This morning, after Cayden finally caught me and avenged himself by spilling water over my head, we both ate breakfast with Bree before he went home to change. We only had one class together, which wasn't today so I hadn't seen him since he left Bree's house.
His sweatpants and t-shirt borrowed from Bree's dad were exchanged with dark jeans, a gray hoodie paired and his same old jean jacket he had been wearing almost every day since we first met in the hospital that night. Gray eyes gleaming of fury, his square jawline was ticking and his cheeks were slightly tainted red.
And boy, he looked angrier than he did when I spilled the water on his face this morning.
"What did you do?" He hissed, sharply. His warm breath tickling my face awakened the memory of our brief kiss under the water in Bree's pool.
I still couldn't wrap my head around it. It seriously did happen, didn't it? I kissed Cayden Bloom. More like we kissed and that, by accident. Or at least unintentionally.
For now, I pushed the memory of his soft lips briefly brushing against mine and put my attention on the anger radiating off of the face that was so close to mine that it made my heart feel too big for my chest.
I furrowed my brows. "What do you mean?"
"People are smiling to me. A girl just waved at me. What the fuck did you do?" He snapped, cheeks red of fuming rage.
And just like that, I almost laughed but rapidly clamped a palm over my mouth when I noticed that Cayden didn't find this funny. At all.
Oh, shit.
"How do you know I did-"
"-Oh, for fuck's sake, don't pull that card on me," he cut me off, words laced with fury. "So tell me. What. Did. You. Do?"
Honestly, I found myself biting my lip to suppress a big, amused smile. I used to be afraid of Cayden when I was the old Maya Greene because I, like the rest of this school, judged him and he let us. He didn't give a single care. However, today I wasn't afraid of him at all. His grumpiness was hilarious.
Giving him an innocent smile, I held my hands up in defense, palms facing him. "Nothing. A few girls just asked how I could be your friend, because you seem so cold and dangerous. I just told her that you're not. You're actually very-"
"-Don't say it," he groaned, head dropping of exasperation.
"Cute and friendly," I blurted out the words, almost purposely. Definitely purposely.
Cayden dropped his head even more before muttering, "Ugh. Perfect."
I winced as his grip around my shoulders was dreadfully hard and strong. "You know? Maybe you should reread your rulebook of friendship. I'm pretty sure it says something about that one shouldn't use their friend's body to clean the walls."
Faster than my own heartbeat, Cayden's head instantly shot up and his eyes landed on his both hands gripping my shoulders tightly as my back was still pressed up against the wall, hard. Eyes widening, he quickly let go of me. I made a satisfying sound as my both shoulders immediately felt better after the firm grip on them was released.
Cayden took a step back and frowned before running his hand tremblingly through his raven locks. "Shit. You okay?"
Smiling, I nodded reassuringly. "I'm fine. Peachy, actually."
Cayden didn't seem to completely buy my response as he took a step closer towards me and slowly and gently rubbed his thumbs over my shoulder blades. "That was a shitty move. I'm sorry."
I stared at the worry in his eyes, before calmly saying, "Apology accepted."
A faint smile slowly broke across Cayden's face as he gazed at me with his head tilted slightly to the side.
"You should smile bigger than that. Less people are scared of you. This is great news," I said, clasping my hands together of excitement.
For a moment, Cayden stared at me before leaning back against a desk and sighed. I caught a fine smile passing his face. "Good news, huh?"
"You're such a great person, Cayden," I confessed. And I meant it. I had only known Cayden for almost one and a half month, but I genuinely knew he was nothing but a kind human being. He just chose to be closed off.
"You don't know half of it," he murmured so quietly that the words barely reached my ears.
I furrowed my brows. "What do you mean?"
His eyes darted up from the floor and met mine. He opened his mouth, but instead of saying anything, he closed it. Lips pressing into a thin line, he shook his head before muttering, "Nothing."
Before I could comment on that, a group of students rushed inside the classroom, filling the silence with constant chattering. By the time Cayden and I glanced at them, it was too late. The whispering and the stares had already begun. Now, all kind of rumors were going to spread like wildfire.
EverGreen High was known for spreading and believing in rumors.
However, I didn't really care anymore. Cayden didn't seem to either as we casually left the classroom together, making our way towards our locker.
"So are we hanging out after school today?" I asked, putting in the combination and opening our locker.
He nodded. "Yeah. Meet me at the base 5 PM?"
"Okay. Can Bree join us?"
Cayden groaned. "That sassy ray of sunshine?"
"Who's our friend," I reminded him before smacking his arm with my book, playfully.
Cayden held up his hands in surrender. "Fine. Fine. I'm sure she and Alec will hit it off well."
"Great. I can't wait," I said, smiling excitedly.
"I gotta go. I have a session with Mr. Standall. I'll see you later," he said after shoving his books inside the locker and tossing me a small pack of licorice from his backpack.
I stared at him in awe before smiling widely. "When did you become such a grumpy, but soft care bear?"
"Since I met you," he snapped.
I held a dramatic hand to my chest. "Um, excuse me? You came to me. You wanted to be my friend-" he cut me off by snatching the packet from my hands and shoving a handful of licorice strips into my mouth, shutting me up.
Before I could utter a single word, he pointed in the direction behind me that led to the cafeteria before commanding, "Go. Now."
I frowned like a puppy but Cayden didn't buy it as he closed our locker, grabbed me by my shoulders (gentler this time), and turned me around in the direction that led to the cafeteria. And then he gave me a small push.
I groaned and finally gave in as I started dragging myself to the cafeteria while chewing the licorice in my mouth.
As I walked away, I glanced behind me once last time only to catch a brief glimpse of a fine smile stretching across Cayden's face before he also turned around and left. Rather pleased with myself, I smiled and turned my head back, but instead of entering the cafeteria, I ended up colliding with a large figure, causing me to lose my balance. However, the guy rapidly grabbed my wrists to prevent me from landing on my butt.
The sensation of his fingers closed around my wrists, immediately sent electricity bolting through my whole body. As I recognized his touch that once used to explore my bare skin, I swallowed hard
and looked up. My gaze traced across a tall, muscular guy with a pair of blue eyes, sharp jaw and wet blond hair that I'd recognize anywhere.
"Nathan," I breathed, gently pulling my wrists back to me as I took a small step back.
Dressed in blue jeans and his green and white varsity jacket, he folded his arms across his chest and leaned his shoulder against the wall next to us to stand in a calm posture. He smirked. "You think you have him completely figured out, don't you?"
I blinked. "What?"
He darted his gaze down to the packet of licorice that I dropped on the floor and picked it up before averting his gaze back to me. "Cayden Bloom."
"What do you mean?"
He scoffed. "You think everything is just rainbows and unicorns when you're with Cayden, but trust me, it's not that easy with Cayden. It never has been."
"What do you know about Cayden?" I asked, narrowing my eyes before folding my arms across my chest.
"A lot more than you ever will. He's not everything he seems to be. They don't call him the bad boy for no reason. People aren't scared of him for no reason. They're scared because he has a secret and a dark side. You don't know his dark side. You only know the side of him he chooses to show you. Just like you and I."
Dark side? What dark side? What was he saying? I was completely lost over here.
"Wait. You know Cayden?" I questioned, surprised.
He smiled, but it wasn't a genuine smile. It was a mysterious smile that hid more than it intended to.
"All I know is that he only shares his darkest secrets with a few people. He has a habit of ruining everything he goes near. It's going to take a lot more than whatever fling you have going on with him for him to open up to you. To trust you."
"Wait," I paused, briefly shaking my head to clear my mind. "How do you know all of this?"
How did Nathan know so much about Cayden? The amount of time I had known Nathan, he never spoke to Cayden. They never even interacted with each other. It was almost like they were invisible to one another.
Instead of answering my question, he put the packet of licorice in my palm, turned around and disappeared downstairs, leaving his words hanging in the air for me to frown upon of immense confusion.
"Next time you see him, look for a tattoo on his left bicep. Black wings."
As much as I was confused, I was also equally astonished. No doubt about that, but what bothered me the most was that Nathan just described his own tattoo.
****
Hi, everyone!
I hope you liked this chapter. This was more of a teaser to the drama that's coming up in the next chapters. So stay tuned for more upcoming chapters. Sadly, updating will be slow as I'm very busy with school.
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