Crazy but Sweet, Sweet but Crazy

45: to resent and to regret

Was it because of the increasing number of students gathering in the proximity of the history lecture hall?

To impress upon everyone one more time, that we were still a couple?

My body froze, even as Elliot drew away from me.

It'd just been a slight graze of his lips against my forehead, but it was as if I could still feel them against my skin.

"Brooks!"

Flashing an amicable smile, Elliot fist-bumped Brooks. "Haven't seen you around for long. How'd your matches go?"

"Ah, well. As usual." Grinning, Brooks responded to Elliot with the familiarity of an old friend.

"Team won eventually. Man, it was tough because one of our aces was injured this season."

As stealthily and naturally as possible, I tried to slip my hand off Elliot's.

His fingers gently squeezed my hand.

I looked up at Elliot's face, a slight shadow cast across it by his cap. It was a smiling face, the face I couldn't read.

The doors of the lecture hall opened, and students from the previous class spilled out eagerly.

"Test is starting in five minutes!" Clapping her hands over her head, Mrs. Michelle Smith announced. "Hurry, get to your seats!"

As we all started to shuffle into the lecture hall, Brooks smiled at me. "Good luck for your test!"

I nodded. "You too."

"Thanks, I really need some luck." With a chuckle at himself, Brooks walked off towards his seat.

As soon as Brooks had disappeared from within the proximity, Elliot released my hand. 'Released' wouldn't be an appropriate word.

He let it go, as one would take hands off a hot stove.

Without even looking back, he went straight for his own seat.

The hour and thirty minutes of the test offered me the most tranquility I'd had in a few days.

There was nothing else to think about, except for the essay prompts.

Nothing about the Lockwoods, about my family, about Joseph, or about the paparazzi.

When the test papers were collected and class was dismissed, Elliot came up to my seat naturally.

I was receiving the most attention I'd had in all classes today.

"C'mon, let's go for lunch." He smiled. "Noah saved all of us seats."

I couldn't muster a smile. "Yeah. I'll just...drop by the washroom first. Go ahead first."

The slight queasiness that had hit me periodically during the test, I'd dismissed as butterflies in my stomach taking a long exam.

But the queasiness was now more akin to a disorientation.

It was a strange feeling of being suddenly so awake.

Like I was on caffeine high, except surrounding colors and sounds had become impossibly intrusive.

Faintly hearing Elliot's 'Sure' in the background, I made my way to the nearest washroom I could find.

It'd just started out as queasiness, but soon enough, I was throwing up- and way more than I'd expected- into a toilet bowl.

The nausea subsided almost as soon as I'd finished.

My eyes watering at the taste of acidity in my throat, I waited for the chatting girls at the sink to leave, and brushed my teeth.