Masked By Madness

4. Roses

Jane was in the school's dank old library waiting for Lance as she read her favorite book; a historically based fiction novel. She steered away from sappy romances and cheesy books about teenagers, and more towards science fiction and fantasy.

Andrew appeared in front of her, but she was so immersed in the world of her book that she didn't even notice. Oblivious, he waited for her to respond, but she had long since tuned out the rest of the world.

"Ahem!" he coughed and rapped his knuckles on a nearby table.

Jane glanced to the side and tried to calm her startled heart. She ignored Andrew's presence as much as she could. She wanted to read, not deal with the second most annoying person on the planet. She kept turning the pages and tried not to look at his ugly face.

"Jane!" he tried to control his temper and sat down next to her.

She slammed her book shut. "What? Are you here to tell me that you got nominated for being the most annoying person in the universe? Or perhaps you're here to tell me the great theme you have prepared for the upcoming talent show. But I don't care. Now get lost!" She snapped, keeping her fists clenched around the book instead of around his throat.

"Whoa! Easy girl! I know I was being rude and all...but..."

Before he could say more she stood up and screamed in his face, "I don't care! Now go and enjoy bossing people around!"

Her following smile was so full of venom Andrew thought for sure he'd die. She winced at the shooting pain in her wounded hand as she gathered her things and marched out of the library. Damn Grayson. She wanted to kill him even more than Andrew.

***

Jane changed positions and now awaited Lance in the cafeteria. All her classmates were having lunch together and they were throwing crumbs and milk cartons at each other. She wanted to go and mingle with them but something kept her in her seat at the empty table she'd chosen nearly an hour ago. Common sense told her that she was an idiot among the clever and she would just be ignored anyways though.

Lance shuffled over from the lunch line, bringing fries and two colas with him. Over the years he had developed a phobia of looking at people, hence why he stared at his feet. He was so shy and always confused that he never looked at people. But when it came to Jane he let himself, his true self, show.

"Over here!" Jane waved her hands in the air, smiling at him even though he wouldn't look up to see. Her gleaming, beautiful eyes stared at him as he approached. When he got closer he smiled back. They high-fived as always and he sat next to her.

"Sup."

Jane dug her fingers around in her mouth, pulling free some particle of gunk from her mouth. She always did stuff to embarrass Lance.

"What the hell? Can't you use a tooth prick?" he hissed, his voice a low, urgent whisper.

"Why would I do that? My fingers are used to it," she said with a careless shrug. Everyone in the cafeteria could stare at her with the same incredulous look that Lance was giving her but all she would do is smile and shrug again.

"I am so pissed right now!" Jane complained.

"What happened?" Lance asked, opening his cola.

"That asshole Grayson! You have no idea what kind of animal he is. I asked him to give me his number and instead he took my hand and wrote it on my hand!" she snorted, staring at Lance who was unable to open his cola.

"Okay. So he wrote his number down on your hand. What's the big deal?" He surrendered the cola to her.

Jane rolled her eyes and showed her marked palms. Lance took her hands into his and didn't bother to suppress his rage.