There they went again with the ominous comments.
I swear every single person in this town was far from normal. I'm starting to think it's a town requirement: be strange, or don't move in.
Lunchtime blurred, probably because I spent it power-walking away from the nurse's office while actively avoiding Arlo's line of sight after our small talk.
I mean, yes, I was painfully aware that my left wrist looked like a wolf had gone to town on it. No, I did not want to answer any more hmm, that looks weird or what actually happened? questions. So by the time fourth period rolled around, I slid into my seat, pulled out my notebook, and kept my eyes down like the floor had personally offended me even though Izzy was right beside me.
"…told you we're not a thing!" someone suddenly snapped loudly, forcing me to look up. Arlo was busy yanking his arm free from a girl who clung to him way too tightly to just be a friend. Her dirty blond hair bounced in perfect curls as they walked in together.
Although maybe not together-together, judging by the way Arlo's jaw clenched and Sable's voice kept going higher.
"You must be confused, babe." Sable laughed. "Not a thing? Funny. That's not what you were saying last night."
"So we hooked up again. Big deal!" He sighed. "Why are you getting your panties all up in a twist about it?"
Damn.
Everyone was watching the outburst unfold except our teacher who suddenly became deeply invested in his lesson note. Something told me he was not only sick and tired of such drama but he already knew who the culprits were without checking.
"Sit down," Mr. Josh said dully. "We have only 20 minutes left. I'd like to get through them without your domestic dispute."
Arlo pulled her hands off him and scanned the room for a seat. "You're intense, Sable. Too intense. I can't."
"You can't what?" she cut in. "Handle me?"
He chuckled. "Handle you? I don't even want to date you. We're not dating. We were never dating. We were…" He hesitated. "...just screwing around," he finished flatly. "That's it."
"You're going to regret this." Sable hissed. "Then you're going to come crawling back to me like you always do. Why? Because I'm the only one for you and you know it! No one will ever take you from me. In fact I'll rip a bitch's head off before she'd ever get the chance. Got it?"
~~~
Arlo
That did it.
Something in me snapped clean in half. As always, hearing the "together forever" tirade from Sable ticked me right off. It wasn't the threat, no, I've heard worse from her. It was the certainty in her voice. The way she said forever like it was already carved into stone. Like I was a thing she owned.
We weren't dating but she liked to go deaf whenever I told her. So perhaps she needed a demonstration.
By the time Sable was done, I'd reached Ida. One second I was standing there grinding my teeth, the next my hands were finding her wrist, the unbandaged one. Then my hand closed around her waist and I felt her flinch before she looked up at me with those gorgeous eyes that were not only brown and warm, but startled as hell.
Her fingers twisted into my shirt without permission, like her body made the choice before her head did, and the sound she made in her throat sounded like a protest, yet it only made me pull her closer to me.
One look at those doe-shaped chocolate brown eyes was all it took to have me leaning in. And then my lips were on hers.
~~~
Ida
The fiasco landed us in detention. All of us.
Mr. Josh might have been sorely uninterested in the whole hullabaloo, but that didn't make him any less irritated. He just handed us all detention slips and threw us out. Now Izzy and I sat in that funky-smelling detention classroom at the end of Qwuava High's third floor, along with the drama couple and three other students that we met there. So 7 of my classmates in total.
And yes, my face was still piping hot because I haven't processed that kiss yet. And of course, I'm looking anywhere but at Arlo. What the hell was that? How could he just grab me like that and kiss me? Especially with the wicked witch of the west standing there? Day 3 wasn't supposed to be like this!
When does the crazy end, for God's sake?
Now as I perched on the edge of my chair, notebook open, pen in hand, I pretended to write something vaguely literature-related even though the words made no sense. My head was still spinning and at the center of the shitshow? Him.
I struggled to focus on the book lying open on my desk, The Odyssey, but every time I glanced at the blank page, it screamed with the memory of his hands on me, his chest warm and taut behind me the moment he'd pulled me up from my seat. The way his fingers had found my wrist, wrapping around it so naturally it was like he'd done it a thousand times before. And the kiss.
God, the kiss.
It wasn't just lips meeting lips. Not to mention the sound I'd made when our mouths met; I can't believe I'd actually moaned. My body lit ablaze just thinking about it.
"Hey, princess."
I stayed frozen to the same position. I didn't even look up when someone let out a deafening cough from across the room. If I looked at him now, I might just melt like a tub of butter in the sun. I refused to give him the satisfaction.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
I swallowed hard, looking down at my notebook again. At words that weren't there let alone made any sense. Hopefully he would lose interest and go back to whatever tortured teenagers do in detention.
"About that kiss back there…"
"You waste no time, do you?" You-know-who quipped now, yanking my thoughts back to reality. "The knight in shining football pads. What's the plan, Slora? Gonna kiss her again to prove a point? God forbid you actually used your words like a normal person!"
And boom! Operation Act Deaf and Dumb poofed into smoke. Sable's pitch made it impossible now. Everyone else in the room turned to look at them strangle each other with words yet again while Izzy and I shared a knowing look.
"Back off, Sable. Don't start your shit again."
Operation Stay Mute was in full swing though.
"I would, except you're my fucking problem!"
Izzy rolled her eyes. "Oh please! More like your insatiable need to make everything and everyone yours like they're a piece of property. You're physically incapable of letting anything go."
"It beats being a lying community fuckboy though," Sable replied pointedly, still glaring directly at Arlo.
I wanted to scream. "Could you guys yell a little louder? I don't think the teacher who, thankfully is right outside, heard you!"
"Hear that, Sable? Zip it," Arlo told her.
"Or what? So you can stick your tongue down her throat again? Do you know how ridiculous you two look? You're pathetic!"
Arlo's jaw flexed. "And you drive me so crazy, I kissed her to get you off my back. How about that?"
I jerked back like I'd been struck. Suddenly, you could hear a pin drop in here. Even Sable swallowed her words and went still. The words didn't just echo, they pierced right between my ribs.
Yet Arlo had the audacity to look in my direction. Not past me or around me. Right at me. For what? To confirm if he needed to repeat the insult in case I didn't hear it the first time?
His eyes were dark in a way that swallowed light, and looking into them, it felt as if fingers were closing around my throat. I forgot how to breathe.
My lungs locked and my feet? They might as well have been bolted to the floor. I pressed a hand to my chest, nails digging into fabric, skin, bones, anywhere that might loosen the vice clamping down inside me ever-so-slightly. That tightness was back, coiled and merciless, cinching harder with every second I didn't inhale.
Then it surged into a pressure rising from my gut, no permission. It scraped its way upward, splitting me open from the inside, demanding out. My hands started shaking.
"Babe? Breathe." That was Izzy. "Ignore them, okay? They're not worth it."
How could I? The desk was groaning under my palms as I leaned into it, wood protesting, fibers screaming. My vision snapped into brutal clarity: colors too loud, edges serrated. Everything everywhere blared all at once: a chair leg shrieking against tile, a pen hitting the floor like a gunshot, my own pulse pounding so violently it blurred everything else. Even the air roared as it rushed past my ears.
I sucked in a breath yet it only tore through my lungs.
So all I was left with was to stare down in horror as my nails bit deep into the desk, carving channels where smooth wood had been. I couldn't feel my fingers anymore; only the heat, the force, the strangeness of it all.
Arlo was halfway out of his chair. "Ida?"