Sleep didn't come easy, or at all for that matter. Skye tossed and turned throughout the night. She could not let go of the events that took place earlier that day and the sense of dread at the pit of her stomach continued to grow, like a black hole, threatening to swallow her whole. The morning rays cast light on her fears of starting a new day. Of dealing with the realities of her choices. She continued to ruminate over this as she got ready for class. While the ending of their day was not as pleasant as she would've hoped, being a, somewhat willing, participant of the overall experience of sex...
Of sex with Nickolas, was thrilling.
Her body was stiff as she moved about her room a side effect, she decided, of her and Nickolas' previous activities. And as each movement she made brought back memories , she was hard pressed to find something that wasn't wrinkled to high heaven for class. Her mother would never let her hear the end of it if she caught her trying to leave the house in some of the clean clothes she could actually find.
"Girl why are you walking like that?" Skye struggled to keep her cool. Her mother had the stealth of a ninja. Of course her mother would notice, her daughter walking funny, nothing ever gets past her.
"I'm just a little sore mom that's all." Skye hoped the vague answer would be enough to drop the subject.
"And why are you a little sore?" And in Janine fashion, she couldn't leave well enough alone. A sigh escaped her lips as she contemplated the inevitable. Skye was going to have to lie to her mother. She hated lying to her, mainly because she seemed to be a human lie detector. Either that or Skye was just that bad of a liar.
Her eyes flashed towards the door longingly. Escape was just within her reach, not that she would be able to leave without answering Janine's question. And judging by her current stance, she had better answer it soon. Her patience was wearing thin.
"I was working out." So it wasn't technically a lie, Skye was sure she had burned her fair share of calories screwing around with Nickolas yesterday, it just wasn't the full truth either.
"And what brought on this need to work out all of a sudden."
"I wouldn't say it was a sudden move. You've pointed out my cellulite before on more than one occasion and I've decided to do something about it."
"Well it's about time you started taking my advice, now if you can just-"
"I love you mom, gotta go don't wanna be late for class." It was a bold move to cut her off in the middle of a sentence, but Skye felt victorious as she looked at her mother's face, giving her a quick peck before exiting the shop.
She bought it. Well more like her mother dropped the subject which was more than enough.
*********************************************
"Okay class, please turn to page eighty-one in your textbooks." Skye was doing everything in her power to stay focused on the English lesson at hand, but every effort had failed. The lack of sleep from the night before finally caught up with her and it wasn't long before she was studying the inside of her eyelids instead of the dry erase board in front of her. Fortunately, she didn't sit in the front of the class so her inattentive state was able to go unnoticed by the man upfront and no one else in the classroom cared enough about her to do anything or so she thought.
There was a persistent breeze that kept causing stray curls to tickle at her neck. She tried to ignore it, opting to focus on the sleep she had not gotten the night before, but it wouldn't quit. Once again abandoning her goal to find out what dreams may come, she turned to locate the source of the air and was surprised to see her cause for lack of sleep in the flesh.
His smile was self assured as always and she had to bite her tongue to prevent from making a scene. She couldn't fathom what Nickolas was doing in her class, she knew the seat behind her was empty before she closed her eyes to reality and let her subconscious take over.
"What are you doing here?" Her voice was desperate. The whisper harsh to prevent drawing attention to herself.
"What does it look like?" He leaned over his desk, closer to her.
"I don't have time for your mind games." Her back was to him now, pointedly ignoring him and his attempts to get her attention.
She suffered in silence through all of the "psst's" he'd send her way. When that didn't work, he began throwing paper balls at her, which graduated to him leaning over his desk and tapping her shoulder persistently. The level of agitation Skye experienced sky rocketed and when she felt his lips brush against the shell of her ear, she snapped in her frustration.
"No!" Her outcry got the attention of the entire class.
Skye was startled awake from her dream only to come face to face with the man that was haunting them. His words still echoing from her dream, "You can't escape me."
This is was a nightmare.
"Is there a reason you vocally object to Mr. Asante joining this class Ms. Johnson." Mr. Carlson's voice was stern and harsh. He was not having any of it.
"What? No Mr. Carlson."
"Then maybe you would care to share with the rest of us what your little outburst was about." It wasn't a question, but either way Skye wasn't going to answer. Judging by the pregnant pause in the room, he knew that as well. "Perhaps after class in detention then. Go ahead and take your seat, Mr. Asante, there is an empty desk behind Ms. Johnson, I'm sure she won't mind. Isn't that right."
"Yes sir." Her voice was barely audible.
"Good, I will see you after school, Ms. Johnson." If she could crawl in a hole and die right now she would.
Nickolas enjoyed the stupefied look on her face as she realized he really was here. They originally only had two out of eight classes together this year and he decided now was as good of time as any to make some changes. It was easy for him to have Ms. Singleton, the school secretary, make the switch for him. What's in a name? Everything and his was like royalty in this here. His father owned half the town, by buying a lot of the businesses, for which a lot of the owners were grateful for. His father was single handedly responsible for bringing this place out of ruin and a lot of the town's gratitude was shown in favors. The switch being one of many.
He was already guaranteed a spot on the collegiate team with a full ride scholarship and his grades had him in the top five percent of his class. In fact, he and Skye were pretty close in the G.P.A averages, not that he was surprised. It made the switch a lot easier on both Ms. Singleton and himself since he knew he would easily be able to keep up.
"Rough day?" She chose to ignore Nickolas' question as he walked past to take his seat directly behind her.
He enjoyed getting a rise out of her.
Chalk it up to immaturity, Nickolas had tamed a lot of his less than stellar personality traits, but this part of himself, when it came to Skye, he reveled in.
When the bell finally rang, Skye was quick to gather her things and get as far away from Nickolas as possible.
"Off so soon, why the rush?" Skye jumped at the sound of his voice.
"Jesus Christ! It's like I can never get away from you." She had barely made down the hall before he caught up to her.
"And why would you want to?"
His arm draped over her shoulders and he pulled her close to him as they walked down the hallway. He appeared totally relaxed and completely unbothered by her outburst. As she studied him, from the corner of her eye, she noticed she was receiving the same treatment from other members of their student body. Some were openly staring at the two of them as they walked past, and she knew they were judging her, trying to figure out why Nickolas Asante would want to be caught walking the halls with the likes of her, a nobody.
She barely registered that Nickolas was actually having a conversation with her. She had missed several key points as he spoke, but he wouldn't stop talking. It was as though he was actively trying to get a rise out of her.
"I'm sorry, what did you say?"
"He wants to fuck you, you know." Stopping dead in her tracks, she stared at him incredulously completely shocked.
"What?!"
"He. Wants. To. Fuck. You." He punctuated each word as if he were speaking to a child, but his tone was still pleasant.
"I'm not a simpleton. Who are you talking about?"
"The English teacher."
"Mr. Carlson?"
"Bingo."
"And what makes you think that?!" She was horrified by his assumption and dumbfounded by his audacity to say it out loud.
"I don't think it, I know it."
"And how do you know this?" He paused for a moment, as if he were actually considering her question. This was exasperating. Nickolas was exasperating and he seemed to be enjoying himself immensely at her expense.