The Silent Photographer

Chapter Three

It was finally Friday, the end of the school week and I was hiding. Behind a tree specifically. I could see that Ashton was already here and I was going to do my absolute best to avoid him in every possible way. That meant completely skipping three classes but it was the price I had to pay to stay alive.

I mean I literally called him a fucking idiot. The second he saw my face I was done for. I let out a sigh thinking about everything he could do to me, when I noticed Maya walking over to him. My eyes widened but I was too far away to do anything to get her attention. I was going to have to skip the rest of senior year at this point. Just drop out. There was no hope left for me now.

Anyway, I watched as she literally stomped over to him and jabbed her finger into his face. Maya why?!, I thought cowering behind the tree. Like I was happy that my best friend was fearless, but after Ashton was done with her, I was next. I wasn't ready for my life to be over at seventeen at the hands of a hot guy.

As I was mentally preparing my funeral, Maya was erratically waving her hands all over the place, I'm assuming to emphasize her point to him. She talked with her hands a lot, and when she really got into it she was known to accidentally smack you in the face. Whatever you do, do not smack him in the face Maya, I thought becoming increasingly worried. 

After a bit, I saw Ashton sigh and pull his hoodie sleeves over his hands. He then grabbed her by the wrists to stop her hands from hitting him. They were getting precariously close to his face. Then, lowering her hands to her sides, he crouched a bit to be closer to her face and said something before letting her go and walking inside.

Maya watched him walk inside and then happily skipped over to me. "I am so proud of you!" she yelled beaming and wrapping me up in a bear hug. After she let me go, I shot her a questioning look. I had no idea what I had done to make her proud of me, because I was pretty sure it wasn't because I hid behind a tree. "You told him off all by yourself. You're finally gaining that confidence we've been working on." she replied to my look.

It wasn't confidence that made me snap at Ashton. It was fueled by annoyance and tumultuous emotions. Either way, as she was gushing about my new boldness, I gave her a pat on the shoulder and tried to leave the school grounds. Unfortunately, Maya caught me by the arm and dragged me into the school.

She gave me a lecture as we stopped by my locker to grab what I needed for history class, and then continued walking to my first period classroom. As we stood outside the door, I sent her a pleading look which she returned with an annoyed expression before pushing me inside the classroom. She pushed me with so much force that I stumbled which caused basically the whole class to look at me including Ashton. He sent me an awkward wave and I looked back out the door at Maya who pointed for me to go sit at my desk.

I pouted and trudged to my desk at the pace of a snail. I sat down and whipped out my whiteboard and quickly scribbled 'Sorry.' on it. However, I absolutely refused to lift my head and look in his direction. So, I shoved my whiteboard in his general direction and hit him in the face with it. I did it with such force he scrunched up a little bit and mumbled out an "Ow."

My eyes widened so far that I thought they might bug out of my skull and I whispered out an involuntary "I'm so sorry.". He cocked an eyebrow and looked over at me before asking, "Did you just say something?". I furiously shook my head no and tapped the whiteboard that was now sitting atop his desk. He nodded and asked, "Sorry about what exactly?"

I let out a sigh and took my whiteboard back. I wrote that I was sorry about calling him an idiot and then accidentally hitting him in the face. He let out a weird half chuckle and then smirked before saying it was fine. He then turned his attention back to the front of the room listening to our teacher.