Live in Color

six - purple

The next day in school is horrendously awkward.

Considering my locker is only ten or so away from his, we manage to see each other much more throughout the day than I'm ready to endure. I don't if it's fate hating on me for something in my past life, but he seems to always be at his locker at the same time I am. Take this morning for instance- after an exhausting evening yesterday, I had gone to sleep forgetting to turn my alarm off. In result, leaving me late for school. When I'm grabbing my books for first period in the already empty halls of the school, of course, Jericho has to come in at the same time, muttering curses about being late and not being allowed to get kicked out again. We had made small eye contact, a very awkward and tense one at that, before our heads had snapped back to our lockers, the distance between us filled with a blaring silence.

When I finally finished at my locker, I wanted to sprint out of there, but forced myself to gain my composure and walk out of there like his presence couldn't have mattered less to me. I felt his eyes burning holes into my back as soon as I had turned away from him, but didn't allow myself to be affected by it.

Although he's not in any of my classes besides fourth period, he does happen to be in the class next to me in second period. So of course, I had to be asked to go and get extra textbooks from the class beside me, the one Jericho happened to be in. When I had walked in I had felt his amber eyes on me right away, before they dropped to the floor again. Even though we were on opposite ends of the room, I could feel the tension.

He's driving me insane, I swear.

So when I finally get to lunch and don't see him in the cafeteria, I'm finally able to relax. I talk to Jamie, Mitchell and Cole as we eat the cafeteria's sandwiches, which for once don't taste half bad to me. Everything was going great until, of course, Cole has to open his mouth.

"Have you guys heard about the new kid?" he asks. "He's in my second period class."

Jamie stiffens, along with me, but Mitchell is clueless. "Oh? What's his name?"

"Jericho," I practically growl, resulting in Mitchell and Cole looking at me with surprised eyes. I swallow, forcing myself not to let my feelings show through my tone. "He came during fourth period yesterday, he's in my class."

Mitchell nods, "Is he nice?"

"Yeah," Cole says at the same time I snap, "No."

Cole raises an eyebrow, looking at me. Mitchell does the same, his eyes darting between Cole and I. When he notices the tensions seeming to grow between us, he whistles lowly. "Okay... Well, I'm going to get a fruit cup. Anyone want one?"

"I do! I'll go with you, you might need help carrying them," Jamie says, quickly scurrying out of her chair.

I roll my eyes, knowing Mitchell isn't going to need help carrying two fruit cups, but let her go anyways. Cole stays quiet as he moves the salad he never eats around with his fork. Chewing on the inside of his cheek, he mutters, "Sorry, didn't mean to say something wrong."

I shake my head and sigh. "No Mitchell, it's not you. I just don't like him."

Cole smiles at me crookedly. "I get it, sometimes we just don't like people. I've hated Blake Munson since fifth grade for no reason. Just the sound of his voice makes me want to burn a city down."

"I have my reasons, though."

"Bad first impression?"

I chuckle darkly, "Something like that."

x

Fourth period was something I wasn't looking forward too. Luckily, though, it goes by relatively smoothly. We still, as usual, have that painfully tense eye contact but only once, and then we manage to avoid each other for the rest of class. By the end of it, I've even been able to smile and laugh with my classmates. I think Sophia, the girl who sits beside me, was a little startled when I actually smiled at her joke, but she took it in stride and continued to talk with me for the rest of class.