𝙏𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 𝙏𝙬𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙈𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙨

A Silent World- G.R.

My eyes squint open as the sun warms my face. I take a deep, satisfying breath and look around the room, momentarily forgetting where I am. Realization sets in and I fumble with my phone to turn off my music. Did I seriously just sleep through this entire lesson? Oh, well. Mrs. Paige hasn't said anything yet, so it's obviously okay. I slowly drift back to sleep while I bask in the sunlight.

Tap tap tap tap...

My eyes snap open from the sound of someone's incessant foot-tapping. God, will you shut up? I scan the tile floor for the tapper, and my gaze meets a pair of Chuck Taylors. The person's pencil writing on the paper is matching the rhythm of her stupid tapping. I kick her chair, hoping she'll get the hint. She flinches and her dark brunette hair moves fluidly along her back. Oops, I guess I kicked too hard.

The girl whips her head around to face me, her face contorted in a way as if she's prepared to tell me off. We make eye contact and my breath catches in my throat.

It's as if the whole world went completely silent, waiting patiently for what's to come of us.

Her eyes... eyes like morning fog on a winding road. Like winter storm clouds. Something I could get lost in and be fine with not finding an escape.

I look away and blink quickly, trying to push down those weird thoughts. My body releases a deep breath I didn't know I was holding.

"Why did you turn around?" I croak pathetically.

She shakes her head and gives me a funny look. "Why did I turn around? Why do you think?"

I shrug my shoulders.

She scoots to the right. I look past her to the desk, which is flooded, with water dripping down the sides. "You kicked my chair so hard that I flinched and my water spilled all over my work, you asshole," she whisper shouts.

My eyes widen slightly.

She purses her lips. "So, I suppose I should ask, why did you kick me?"

"I.. um..." I glance around the room before meeting her face. Notice I didn't say eyes. If I make eye contact with this girl again, I'll make more of a fool out of myself. "You were tapping... a lot. So I thought I'd give your chair a light kick to give you a hint, ya know?"

"Light kick," she repeats and lets out a sharp laugh. Safe to assume it is a fake one. "If that's a light kick to you, then I wonder how your mother survived the pregnancy."

I furrow my brows. What is she talking about? Pregnancy? Huh?

"Of course, you don't get it. First, you steal my seat, then you fall asleep with that God awful music blasting-"

"Awful?"

"-Then you kick my chair because of-" She makes air quotes with her fingers. "-tapping, then you act like you had good reason, and now I find out you're actually dumb. How infuriating can one person be?" Her words spill out quickly, and I have trouble comprehending everything she's saying.

"Uh, well... you're the one who has been tapping this entire time. So you should really sort your shit out. I'm just saying."

She scoffs and says something incoherent just as the bell cuts her off. Finally. I smirk, which causes her to roll her eyes.

I stroll out of the classroom and call out behind me, "Lovely meeting you!"

As I skip through my playlist, I hear her rip out the soaked papers from her notebook. Awful music. Yeah, right. Awful music my ass. Not my fault you have awful taste. I land on The Good Life and my fingers run through my hair, replaying the strange interaction.

Don't get me wrong, sure I feel bad about the whole water spilling on the paper thing. But, I mean, it's not like it was on purpse. And she obviously wasn't too mad or else her thoughts would be spilling into mine. Nothing like that happened– meaning she knew she was overreacting. Besides, she probably barely wrote anything down.