2.3 | Notorious ✓

05 | oblivious

0 5

o b l i v i o u s

The rest of lunch period that day passed in a blur. I came to realise that time flew whenever I was with Callum. Maybe it was the racing of my heart that sped things up a bit, or it was the comfortable conversation that ensued between the both of us.

Either way, I was sad when the bell rang and we had to part ways.

I was the first to climb down from the wall, pulling my bag and taking the empty tray with me - Callum had, of course, finished most of my cheese fries for me. I glanced up, realised that he was watching me leave. "Well," I said, rather timidly. "I'll see you around, I guess."

Turning to leave, I was startled when I felt his fingers reach out and close around my wrist.

"Let's go somewhere after school," he murmured, voice low and his eyes looking anywhere but at me. "There's this place - that, uh, sells me the best ice-cream and we - we could..."

The smile that leaped to my eyes stretched long, far, wide, spread like the vast, boundless sea on a calm summer day. "Okay."

His eyebrows rose as he looked at me in surprise, as if he wasn't expecting me to agree in the first place. "Really?"

Because sometimes, all you had to be was a little bit reckless - take that one last step off a cliff, hurl yourself off, and fall with your eyes wide open.

"Yeah, sure."

His lips curled up at the corners, both hesitant and warm. "I'll see you after school then, at my car."

Ducking my head in a quick nod, I headed off with my tray, back into the cafeteria. But my footsteps were light, skin tingling where his touch had been just mere seconds ago. And I could feel his eyes on me, watching me leave.

Each step I took widened the gap between us, a gap that was filled with our insecurities and fears. But there was just something about Callum that drew me back no matter how far I went, like a powerful magnetic force field that was both alluring and dangerous.

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The afternoon of Day Five was hot, the mid-afternoon sun scorching. I could smell the gravel in the parking lot, faint traces of diesel from the cars as I headed to Callum's car to wait for him.

The parking lot had less than the usual amount of people there generally was on a Friday. Most kids generally hung out there to talk for a bit before heading back home. Plus, it was just after lessons, and I'd pretty much rushed out after History was over - because the prospect of spending an afternoon with Callum was too good to be true. It was just a very strange, unsettling feeling that I couldn't shake off.

I waited around for a bit more, wondering if perhaps my cell had gone positively bonkers and was indicating the wrong time. It wasn't. Seven minutes after I had arrived in the parking lot, I heard quick footsteps and glanced up, only to see Greg sprinting across the road to me.

He came up, face flushed and panting heavily. "Have you seen Callum?"

My eyebrows shot up - it was unusual that Greg didn't know of Callum's whereabouts, since the two were fairly close friends. "No."