Dark Room

Love struck never felt so good

"Is he always like this?" I ask while looking into her eyes, giving her my full attention. My nose is still stinging from having my face slammed against the table. Claire responds with a shaky voice

"yes." she looks down at the ground.

" I heard you two have been together for a while." she looks back at me with nervous eyes.

"Yes we have been together for a long time. At first he was a nice guy but then he just kind of locked everybody out." I look at the exit door of the cafeteria and then back to Claire.

"What happened to him?" She looks down at the ground.

"He lost his Brother. He blames himself for it." Well that could do it I think to myself. I feel my nose start to drip blood again. I hold the napkin up to it and feel the stinging pain again.

"Why are you still with him then?" I look at her. She touches my neck with another napkin, probably wiping more blood off the sides of it.

"Well, I keep thinking I can help him, you know. Somehow fix his state of mind. But all he does is h#rt people now." I pause for a moment.

"I know how he feels" I get lost in her eyes for a moment. It was the only distraction from reality I have had in weeks. I then continue.

"I lost my mother last year, to suicide." she responds after a long pause.

"That's awful. I'm not sure how you take that so well." I want to tell her that I have been far from taking it well. I still feel the emptiness of it all. I still feel everything as if it's the same day again. I just can't tell her all that though. Not just yet.

"It's still been hard." I say

"Every day it feels like something is missing." There is a long pause between us speaking.

"Calvin, I'm really sorry to hear that. You should go before Jeremy finds out we are still talking." I get up and start to walk away. I then turn around and ask.

"Hey, could I have your number?"

"Cal, I don't... sure."

She tells me her phone number and then I walk away. Jeremy walks back in the cafeteria through the exit door. He flips me off and smiles as he walks in. He looks at my nose and then makes a movement with his hands around his nose to say

"You got a little blood there buddy." He walks over to Claire who turns away as soon as he sits down.

"God damn he fucked up your nose." Dash says looking at me still sniffling from the stinging in my nose.

"Yeah, but I at least think I became friends with Claire. One step closer to helping her out of that relationship." Dash looks at me with a puzzled look.

"You're not thinking what I think you're thinking right? You are gonna try and get with Claire?" I never thought of it like that.

"Uhhh, I guess?" I say not confidently. Dash looks over at me again.

"Jeremy is gonna Fuck you up! That's not what you want!" he buries his head in his hands.

"Listen, I don't care if Jeremy beats me up, all I care about right now is helping Claire. I don't care if you help me or not but you can obviously see she doesn't like him anymore." Dash looks at me again from his hands.

"This is not your place to do anything Cal. Do you know how much you're risking right now?" I didn't know then but later I would know I was risking my life for Claire.

"Whatever I'm risking is worth it Dash." He looks back at Claire and Jeremy. I look back with him. I see them k#ssing. Maybe they are happy together I think.