Unwritten Pages

Chapter Three: Facing The Truth

 Desiree and I are in the school library. No one gives us looks here. They're all focused on their work.

Thank God. I hate being noticed and looked at as if I've committed a huge crime.

Desiree is sitting on a chair, in front of a computer. She's doing research for the Math project. I'm already finished that. Desiree and I share all the same classes, thankfully.

It's second period. This is our spare. Then we have third period together. And then fourth period.

With Arianna.

I don't know what to say when I see her.

Luckily, Arianna doesn't like spares. She takes all the classes so that she doesn't have a single spare. I'm not worried about bumping into her during any spare periods.

We may bump into each other during class change. Though I doubt it. We haven't crossed paths once during this whole semester. Arianna shares all the classes with Winter, and we take separate hallways.

I freeze. Arianna shares all classes with Winter. I wonder if a classmate will tell her. I wonder if she will ask someone where Winter is.

I don't know if she will. Though I've known her for four years, Arianna is unpredictable. To top that off, her star sign is Gemini. You can say she acts like she has split personalities. She also has mood swings. Major mood swings.

Desiree gives a sign as she copies down links and saves them in her email for a reference list later.

“You okay?” Then I pause and scold myself for being stupid. Of course she isn't okay. Other than the annoyance of a project, she also has the burden of Winter's death hanging in the air.

Desiree gives me a weak smile. “Fine. I just hate this stupid project.”

But I know that's not all that's on her mind.

“Winter wouldn't want you to have a hard time just because of her,” I say. “She'll want you to be happy.”

Desiree looks like she wants to argue, but knows better. She sighs again and I wrap my arms around her. Our eyes meet and then we're kissing. But only a few seconds in and we're interrupted.

I hear someone clear their throat. I break apart, feeling self-conscious and embarrassed to be caught like that. I hope it's not a teacher. But luckily it's not.

Fortunately, it's not another acting prying ear. It's a ninth grade boy, and he's trying to get pass us.

“Oh, sorry,” I say and move out of his way.

“Thank you,” he says quietly as he walks pass us and heads for his destination, wherever that is. I watch him as he disappears behind some shelves. I wish that I could back track to that point in my life—ninth grade. Near the school end. By that time, my date with drugs were already almost over. I wasn't that addicted by this time in ninth grade.

And Winter was still alive.

I shake the thought out of my head. I can regret and wallow in sorrow later.

“That was kind of embarrassing,” Desiree says. I smirk and she blushes.

“Oh, can you help me with this bar graph?” Desiree points to the screen full of complicated math questions. With graphs and equation symbols everywhere.

“Here,” I say, as I move over towards the screen. I starts typing and showing her of ways to do the graphs. That's how we spend our study period, working on a dumb math assignment.

When the period is over, Desiree and I find a quiet spot outside of the library and eat our lunch. No one bothers us, luckily. I don't see Liane Chau anywhere. Arianna doesn't stay in school for lunch, she goes out and buys her lunch and doesn't come back until lunch is over. So I don't worry about seeing her now.