Chapter 35: Chapter 33

First, let me clear something from the previous chapter. The things Kiara's schoolmates said about Promy, is not the right thing to say. But it's the sad reality of many Muslims who live in the West. If not those remarks then they're avoided by many of their classmates. I'm not saying this from experience, but I heard plenty of those stories from very close people of mine. Such behaviors should be discouraged. I'm not saying all the people act poorly with the Muslims, take Kiara and her friends as an example. Still, there's a large number of people who're prejudiced against them. I want all of my dear readers to avoid such acts. We're all humans, Muslims have feelings too, I hope you'll take the last chapter as a lesson and understand what I'm talking about :)

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The final bell rings and I stroll out of class. Everyone else also marches along with me. We're all in a rush. Nobody wants to be late for this afternoon's football match between our boys and Roosevelt high, our scorn enemy. The match is going to be held at their campus, and there's the Halloween party at Micheal's place afterward.

Micheal's parties are the best ones in the town and people hardly get invited to them. But he announced the beginning of this week that if our boys win the match today, his party will be free for everyone who goes to our school.

This match is also important because if our boys-Falcons- don't win the match today, it's over for them for the season.

The team has left after lunch. Everyone else is going there after school.

Some girls passed by me, talking excitedly about tonight's party. I don't bother to listen to them. Halloween is the last thing on my mind right now.

Because if we thought things were worse before, I don't know what to call it now.

For starters, flyers don't seem to be stopping anytime soon. Almost every day they provide us with at least one juicy story.

Not all of them are necessarily true. Some are just even victims of perspective. Nonetheless, rumors run.

And students take photos of the flyers and post them on social media and so they're everywhere.

There's also this group on Facebook where people are sharing those flyers, tagging the person.

This also happens to be the only topic everyone talks about all day.

And even though our committee has nothing to do with the situation anymore, Principal Samantha wants us to solve it.

The student council election is in a few weeks. So with Jason being busy with it, all his committee duties fall upon my shoulder.

I wouldn't have minded if I wasn't dealing with college applications, tests, family issues, and that boyfriend of mine already.

Speaking of my boyfriend, Derek has been in a pretty awful mood since they lost three matches in a row after the first one. I'm starting to believe Ashton was right. That win was first-timers luck.

Ashton-about whom I don't wanna think about right now.

"Look there she goes," Dustin, the basketball player who happens to have his locker across mine, snickers. Snickers follow after his comment.

I don't turn around to see who he is referring to. I already know who it is. Lucia Moore, our today's victim. This morning when we came to school, there were posters all over the school of a picture of making out with a girl at some party.

Everyone knew Lucia was always a bit different than most others, but c'mon guys, it's like the twenty-first century. Not being a heterosexual doesn't matter anymore and we all know that.

But who's gonna make them understand that.

Our school's no student privacy violation rule has become a perk to the people who're doing this. Because they can sneak in anytime they want to implant the poster posters without the fear of getting caught.

I close my locker and lean my head on it. I knew from the first day this year's going to be the worst, but who knew it was going to be this bad?

Someone walking in my direction. I don't turn around to face the person.

"Kiara," nose-picking Jack says. "Are you busy?"

I open one eye. "Do I seem so?"

"Oh, yeah, right," he clears his throat. "I just have one question."

"Not now Jack," I try to politely brush him. "I don't wanna talk about anything right now."

But of course, he doesn't get the clue. "It's just everyone's talking about it," he says. "They're saying you're cheating behind Derek's back with Ashton."

I sigh. I heard of this one before. I wonder how come they still haven't made a flyer of that one.

"You probably heard a false rumor," I tell him. "We haven't  talked in weeks."

Ever since our conversation in Mrs. Roth's class, we've been ignoring each other. Yes, we completed our project but I can hardly call it doing it together. We finished the work at my place first. Until mom and dad came home one day yelling at each other. Starting another fight, without bothering to check if anyone else is home.

Ashton drove us to the public library and we finished our work there. But after the project was submitted, Ashton started completely avoiding me.

Sometimes I see him talking with Miles and Grace, but then when he sees me, he flees away. It's like he's avoiding me, and me only.

So I also stopped talking with him. He stopped sitting with us at lunch, and Nyako and Owen forcefully had to tag along with him. But they still come to the meetings, where Ashton and I avoid each other like plagues.

We see each other in classes (we share six of them together, so it's unavoidable) and in the hallway, where he mostly keeps himself busy with hooking up with random girls (okay, I must be exaggerating the situation, but you get the picture). Still, we are doing a good job of completely avoiding the other one. And it's been weeks since we're doing this.

Jack doesn't look convinced by my words though. "I see," he mumbles.

"Yeah, now if you excuse-"

"But they were also saying that you and Ashton are making those flyers and blackmailing-"

"I told you before I don't want to talk about it!" I yell. A little too late I realize the damage I have done.

Jack's eyes start watering. I nearly forgot how sensitive he is.

"Jack, I'm-" I don't get the opportunity to finish as he begins to sob and darts out of the hallway.

Damn.

I look around and find everyone's eye on me. Some even look at me with disapproving eyes. Even Dustin sends a nasty glare in my way. Everybody knows Jack is a sensitive case.

I let out a deep breath and lean against my locker.

'What have I done?' I mumble under my breath. I've never snapped at anyone before.

When I open my eyes again, I find a certain pair of blue eyes on me. Ashton is standing not too far away. His current item is attached to his hips. Seriously, those girls should've learned their lessons by now.

None of us makes a move. Like every other day in the past few weeks. We just stare at each other, waiting for the other one to come and apologize first.

Then, after eternity passing away, we would look away and go back to what we were doing previously.

But today's different. When our eyes meet, much to my surprise, Ashton removes the girl's arms from around him.

The girl gasps and I watch her stomping her feet before scowls at me. Then she walks away, holding her head high.

Neither one of us bothers ourselves with her. My eyes move to the certain boy who's making his way towards me through the busy hallway.

He's going to apologize, my mind says.

But I'm not ready for it, I tell myself. I know I'm a coward. So before Ashton can catch up with me, I turn around and bolt in the other direction.

I hear Ashton calling my name. But I don't stop and keep running. The crowd seems to get less dense as I turn to the hallway that leads us right to the parking lot.

I'm already late for Derek's game.

However, as usual, luck's on Ashton's side. Before I can reach the door, a hand snakes around my waist and I find myself pressed between a huge body and the locker.

He's more than a head taller than me and has me perfectly squeezed between him and the locker. I try to lose his grip on me but it's no use.

"I was calling you," his voice sounds rough. I didn't realize how much I missed hearing his voice from this close until now.

"I noticed."

"Then why didn't you stop?"

And there is a pause. Why didn't I?

I look over his shoulder. The final bell went off fifteen minutes ago and this hallway is vacant already. Everyone must have left early to watch the match, or went home to get ready for the party tonight.

I sigh and try to avoid looking into his eyes. It's hard to tell lies to those eyes.

"Why were you avoiding me?" He asks again.

"I wasn't avoiding anyone." Lie.

"Really?" His fingers slide under my chin, raising me to eye level with him. "So what do you wanna call the last couple of weeks? The last time you really spoke to me was when we submitted our English project. Not to mention you were distancing before that too."

"You were avoiding me too," my mouth slips out before I can stop myself.

He lifts a brow. "I was?"

"You were," I nod. "And don't try to make me the guilty one here. You are the one who started it."

"How?"

"You stopped visiting my house after school," I whin almost like a five-year-old.

The comment makes him lose his grip on me. I don't move. Or try to make a run for the door. If he wants his answers, I want mine too.

"Why did you stop visiting me? Or sitting with me in the classes or at lunch?" I finally let out the rage I've been holding back for weeks. "Not to mention you barely looked at me in the past few weeks. You would talk to Miles and Grace, but you kept avoiding me."

It's Ashton's turn to become speechless.

"I liked having a friend around," I continue. "Days are becoming harder. College deadlines are getting closer, there're so many tests and then school works. And you already know that the things in the committee aren't going well either. Derek is not himself, Kat is always out and my parents-" I pause. "They're becoming horrible. All I needed was a friend who would help me through all of this. Was it too much to ask?"

I finally look at him in the eyes. They have turned to a different shade now.

He looks lost in words. I notice the bags under his eyes. He looks paler. My eyes move down to his ink-stained hands. Maybe I'm not the only one who's going through the worst. Still, the thought doesn't make my one feel better.

After minutes passing away, Ashton opens his mouth, "You had Miles and Grace."

"But they're not you!" I say whining. "They don't understand things like the way you do. They don't even sense the tension between my parents and it's been like this over a year. No one but you sensed it, Ashton. You witnessed it and you didn't judge us for that."

I try to blink the tears away. But they become worse. I let out a sob as silence fell upon the hallway.

"You know it's not like that," he says. "They really care for you. They care for you more than you can imagine."

I cross my arms. "Well, it certainly doesn't look like that." I sigh.

His mouth twitches as he shakes his head. "You're more ignorant than everyone thinks."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Rather than replying, Ashton wipes the remaining tears from my cheeks. I dumbly stare at him.

"We'll talk about that later," he says. "I promise." Then he does something that takes me off guard. He engulfs his arms around me and pulls me in a hug.

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So...the ship is sailing? 😏