Falling Daisies

Chapter 3

My eyelids were like heavy stone pebbles by lunchtime as I trudged down to the art block with Hazel. I'd had first two periods free, which had meant I could have a cheeky nap in the common room but I was still struggling to stay awake for an hour, whilst Miss Peckham enlightened us, in her usual drone, on Freudian theories in Psychology.

It's not that I don't like psychology, the number of basket cases I knew made me an avid psychologist, just her voice was like a warped sheet of tin and I really couldn't handle that today.

I had been talking last night to Ben till nearly four in the morning, three-forty-seven to be exact; not that I was keeping check.

The moment I had sat down when I'd got in from the park, to start on my tonne of last minute homework, my concentration  had waned, as I willed him to text me. Nearly two hours later, right in the middle of my indepth analysis of conjugated verbs, my phone pinged into life, giving me a mini heart attack as I jumped in my chair.  

"Hey, I think there's something on the backseat of my car that belongs to you..." 

My heart was doing somersaults every time his name popped up and I didn't understand why was he having this much of an effect on me. I'd barely known him a week and this wasn't my style.

I don't get attached to guys - why was Ben any different..?

***

The school hallways were narrow and at breaks and lunches it was like a military mission to move about. First day back meant everyone was clambering over one another to swap stories about their "summer of a lifetime".

Everything about the building felt drab and uncared for but it was familiar and unchanging and for that I liked it. I felt the usual uneasy hum of murmurs follow me as I passed the 'popular' group edging their way out of the cafeteria turning to the direction of the sixth form block.

I caught the eye of Cassie Tredwill, who in turn tossed a lock of her perfect blonde hair over her shoulder and shot me a false smile. Visions of me and her at sleepovers, drunken parties and sharing the amazing stretched limo at prom together, blurred through my memory, as I recalled the days when I used to call her my friend. Now, I just heard a faint mutter and a burst of shrill laughter as she turned to Sandra, the equally perky blonde next to her and mouth the word "whore". God how I wanted to slap that pretty little face of hers!

Instead I merely pulled awkwardly at my oversized sweater and was about to continue my retreat down the corridor when someone pushed passed me nearly knocking me over.

"Hey, watch it!" My heart sunk down into my chest. That voice.

The boy came into vision, turning to face me, those deep chocolate eyes twinkling as he gave a wink and smirked in that all too familiar way. I was momentarily paralysed to the spot but quickly snapped back to reality.

"Go to hell Jason."

"Love you too beautiful!" He called, waving distractedly at me over his shoulder. I watched him, a mix of irritation and something else, bubbling under my skin.

My thoughts trailed off as I felt Hazel's hand on my arm. "You alright?" she quizzed and we both stared down the corridor and watched him.

He had caught up with the others and had put an arm each around Cassie and Sandra's shoulders, inflating his chest and whispering something into Cassie's ear which caused her to burst into another shrill laugh, the sound, piercing, as it echoed down the corridor.

"You shouldn't let him get to you so much!"

"What I -" I started and Hazel folded her arms across her chest.