when heaven and hell meet

unpublished chapter (#1)

Saint

A hand snapped quickly in my face to get my attention. I regained my focus and stared at Diya, who impatiently glared at me.

"Are you listening to a word I'm saying?" she asked.

I shamelessly shook my head, no, and she sighed before taking out her notebook and pen from her bag and scribbling.

While she wrote, I focused my attention on Luci. She was feet away at her locker, talking to a guy I had never seen before.

He was tall. Too tall.

There was no reason a human should be over 6'5, but he was towering over her. He ran his hand through his dull brown hair and leaned against the locker beside her.

Being a whole foot taller than Luci, he bent down his neck to catch her words as she spoke. Every time she said something, he lowered his head to hear her, which only caused them to get closer and closer together.

"Saint!" Diya shouted.

I quickly glanced at her and the slip of paper in her hand. She shoved it on my chest and rolled her eyes.

"You're so distracted," she said. "I can't believe Ms. Groves partnered us together. I can't believe we-"

She muttered and didn't finish the last part, but I knew exactly what she would say. Diya was probably one of the only girls to regret sleeping with me, but being each other first made it different.

I opened the paper and skimmed it. It was a brief schedule of where and when she wanted to meet for our chemistry project. I pocketed it and returned to stare at Luci and the random guy.

"Are you gonna make the times I wrote on there?" she asked.

When I said nothing, she scoffed and walked away, muttering under her breath.

But I couldn't care less about what she said when the random guy typed something on Luci's phone. He handed it back to her and smiled before waving goodbye.

When he left, my feet moved on their own to her locker.

She finished placing the last book before closing it shut and being met with my face. I liked to think I was good at hiding my emotions, but Luci seemed to see past my demeanor.

"Hi," she said.

She looked around to see if anyone was looking at us, which bothered me for some reason. I wasn't sure what Luci and I were, but I knew she didn't want anyone at school to know about it. If it were up to me I'd hold her hand and walk her to class without a care in the world but she would never allow that.

We couldn't even eat lunch together or sit by each other in class anymore because she was scared of people suspecting that something was going on. It got to the point where she instructed me to drive two blocks down the street from school so that she could "safely" get into my car.

"Who was that guy?" I asked casually. "He looked like he was bothering you."

"You mean Aaron?" she asked.

"Yeah, him."

"Aaron," she repeated. "Aaron Covelli? All-star goalie, Aaron?"

"I am supposed to know who that is?"

She stared at me in disbelief and cocked her head to the side. "Saint," she began. "We've had math with him since first year. You two did a group project together. He lives in Golden Estates... you're neighbors."

"Since when do you know so much about Evan?"

"Aaron," she repeated. "His name is Aaron. He's my partner for Ms. Mill's chemistry class."