The Rift

Chapter 14

I could feel the eyes in the back of my head. I could feel someone watching me and I squirmed in the plastic chair, hoping the teacher wouldn’t notice if I turned around. I slowly began to turn my head, looking over my shoulder until I could see the students behind me. All of their eyes were fixed out into space, staring at the window or at the clock. Only one student kept their eyes strictly on the teacher, dutifully paying attention to the lecture. But nobody showed any signs of having noticed me.

Hmmm….

I turned back around, glancing at the clock. Good. Only five minutes left. As I faced the teacher again, I could feel someone glancing at me from behind. Or was I just going crazy? Probably the latter. I sighed and began to pack up my books. The bell rang, bringing an early end to our extremely interesting lecture. (Can you hear the sarcasm?) The students rushed out of the classroom, screaming to their friends and running to the cafeteria. It was too cold to go outside today.

I hung back, watching the kids in the back row file out. Jessica and Claire, the best friends, would never have bothered to pay attention to me. And they sure didn’t notice me as they raced out the door, meeting their friends with squeals and giggles.  Jake, The quiet boy who always seemed to hide in the library, raced out, his head down. He wouldn’t have been watching me. He seems slightly scared of me. Then again, he’s scared of everything. I swear he’s scared of his own shadow. The final student in the back row gave himself away. On his way out of class, as I pretended to be absorbed by my Social textbook saw his eyes flicker down to my hands, and then back up again, as if nothing had happened. He left quietly, without a word.

I looked down at my hands, confused. What had he been staring at? My hands were perfectly normal. No deformities. And even no scars! After talking with Faith, I hadn’t cut in almost two weeks. I shivered, and pulled my sweater out from my bag. I was starting to regret wearing short sleeves today.

Wait. Maybe that was it. I hadn’t worn short sleeves in ages, even when it was hot. Maybe that was why he had noticed me. But, who would have payed enough attention to me, to see that I wasn’t wearing tee-shirts anymore? I stood up sharply, and with careful feet, followed the boy out of the classroom, and down the hall. 

The first thing I noticed was that he was like me. He didn’t talk to anybody down the hall, and no one seemed to see him. He was just as invisible as I was. Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t even payed attention to this boy before. I hadn’t even noticed his was in that class before today. I didn’t even know his name. I wondered if he knew mine. I wondered why I cared. I followed him down the hall and to the cafeteria, almost losing him several times in the crowd of students. This was the most exciting thing that had happened so far this school year.

When we reached the cafeteria, he walked straight to the back, and sat alone at a small table in the corner. He didn’t go join the hustle and bustle of the big table, where a group of kids from our grade were sitting together, like am flock of birds. He didn’t join the group of boy’s playing cards, or the ones of their laptop playing games. He didn’t join the group of quiet girls, peacefully eating their lunches. He sat alone. Like I normally did. How had I never noticed him before?

He had dark brown hair, which fell in slight waves, covering his eyes. His eyes that from what I

Remembered seeing during that moment in the classroom, were silver. He had a wide mouth, and a small nose. He was short, shorter than me (but not by much). I still couldn’t remember his name, even though I’d probably heard it a thousand times. I wondered how long he’d been going to this school. I wondered why he cared enough about me to notice things that others hadn’t. Did he care? Had he looked at me at all? Or was I just making this up in my head, or blowing things out of proportion? I wasn’t used to anybody noticing me.