The Human Luna

Chapter 12 - Mariah

*Edited*

My heart thundered a courageous beat as I sat in CALM. Bryli was gone, telling me and Yvonne to continue on to class as she went down a different hallway. But Yvonne kept glancing between me and the teacher.

The lingering scent of Ryder's cologne filled my nose as I gulped air into my body. Hands shaking, I tried to copy the notes from the board. One word after another, my pencil etched the letters onto the page. And I thought I was fine.

I lastled around fifteen minutes before bailing.

Feeling confusingly overwhelmed, I stuttered an excuse of leaving before rushing out the door. Jogging down the hall, I made my way towards the nearest bathrooms. Mind whirling.

'Why was I feeling like this? Even if I was a bit embarrased I shouldn't be feeling sick like this... right?'

My thoughts quieted as I rounded a corner and heard voices. Lightening my steps, I slowly made my way down the hallway. Ears unconsciously trying to pick up on the conversation.

I was going to walk past, was going to pay no mind to these random people, that was until I could make out the voices of the two. No words were recognizable but I could still tell who was speaking.

My breathing stopped. That was Bryli and Ryder. I was so focused that I forgot to release my breathe. Leading to a quiet gasp escaping my mouth.

"Ryder," Bryli's strong and feminine voice warned. My eyes widened at the her tone. Freezing even more, I paused and waited to see if she had been warning him that I was listening. That would be mortifying, being caught listening on these two's conversations.

Their voices quieted again, so much so that I couldn't make out any words. That was until,

"I could never be with someone like her."

That was Ryder's grounding voice. I heard them rustling around before retreating footsteps, thankfully in the opposite direction to where I was.

The air turned stale in the pregnant pause that followed. I was so convinced that Ryder and Bryli had walked away, that when the girl spoke up all the sudden I flinched and gasped.

"Hello?"

The ominous word shattered the quietness like a rock to glass. I didn't respond, praying the girl would mistake my noise as her imagination. Though, a second later I heard something else,

"Yeah, I was just out here talking to him,"

Every knot in my body released as I realized that Bryli was on the phone. I could've laughed hysterically with how relieved I was. Lord knows I would never recover if I was caught listening to their conversation.

"He's disgusted. Said that he would never want to be with a girl like her."

I let my breathing recover as I started walking away. I didn't need to listen to anymore of this.

"And I don't think Mariah would ever be with him. She despises him after all..."

I was completely frozen. My body acted on instinct and locked itself together tightly. I was as tense as a spring, ready to explode if what I just heard was true.

They were talking about me.

Ryder's line repeated in my head, "I could never be with someone like her,"

He had been referring to me. I was that repulsive to him that he would say that.

And for a split second, it had felt like my heart was contradicting so hard it would burst.

And then, it was on fire.

An unexplainable amount of anger consumed me at his words. Hurt turning into hate. The small rational part of my brain begged me to take a second and think about just why I was so angry. I had only known Ryder for around a day. And this reaction didn't make sense. But my emotions had already taken over and my sense was sealed away.

Clenching my jaw, I spun on my heel and marched away. And maybe, if my boiling rage wasn't in control of me, maybe if i was just a tiny bit braver, I would've marched around the corner and confronted Bryli. But I didn't.

If I did though, I would've seen Bryli hang up her imaginary call. I would've seen her blank face staring at the wall. The dull look in her eyes as she talked to the silence.

The faintest traces of a smile covering her pretty pink lips.

*****

"Hey, how was school...?" My dad awkwardly cleared his throat as we sat at the dinner table together. Melissa had taken Sara and Sophie to their grandparents house. Leaving me and my dad here to sit in painful silence.

"It was good, how was work?"

"Good," I cringed at his short answer. Deciding to abandon the conversation to look out the window.

The situation earlier still ran through my mind. I felt like I was on a rollercoaster, but drowning at the same time.

Shaking my head, I leaned over to eat another spoonful of soup when a piece of my hair landed right in the bowl. I groaned quietly, pulling out the black lock and using a napkin to wipe it. As the curl bounced back into place, I looked over at my father.

He was sitting, scrolling through his phone. He didn't have to worry about his hair falling into his soup. All John Werkington had to worry about while eating was if his spoon made it to and from his mouth.

My father didn't have to worry about hairy food because his was clean cropped. Brown strands shaved neatly to the sides of scalp. The same came of his beard. Never growing long enough to fully cover the extend of his tan skin.

John's eyes glanced into mine, blue irises full of questions. I looked away. Pushing my soup around with my spoon like a toddler with broccoli.

That was one thing about my dad, we didn't have anything in common. His hair was brown and straight while mine was black and curly. His eyes were a vibrant blue while mine were hazel.

His face was softer, my features were sharper. He had a bump on his nose that I lacked. He was tall, I was short. His skin was tanner, mine was pale. His last name was Werkington, mine was Gideon.

The only thing that we had in common was our DNA, and sometimes I even questioned that part also. If it wasn't for my mother, I would have thought I'd have no relation to him at all.

Well me and my father were polar opposites, my mother and I had similar features. She had darker hair only a few shades lighter than mine, hazel eyes, pale skin and clean features.

And her last name was Gideon. At least that's what my father had told me. He always said, "Your mother was a strong woman. She wanted you to carry on the Gideon name,"

I could never understand what she meant by that, and it's not like I could ever ask her about it myself.

Jumping slightly, I was bumped out of my thoughts and comparisons as the automatic lock on the door turned. Melissa, Sophia and Sara walked through the entryway. All little carbon copies of each other.

'Is that what we would look like..' My traitorous mind thought, 'If my mother had not-'

Shaking myself out of the slump, I picked up my bowl of soup and fled the table. Rinsing out the broth, I watched the liquid fly down the drain. Wishing that my unforgiving thoughts would follow with it.