A wonderful kind of misery

Chapter 13

Her last period was a biology class but all she could do was count the minutes untill the bell rang, watching the time refuse to pass. Alex finally managed to take her eyes off the clock with a sigh.

The moment she brought her gaze back to the board, she met Mr. Dennis' eyes looking at her judgementally. Her biology teacher, who must have noticed her distraction spoke "Ms. Clarke if you are so eager to leave, do you mind talking to us about this DNA strand?" He pointed at the board, adjusting his shirt's sleeves, looking at her like a predator.

Alex scrambled for answers in her book and forced her brain to operate in fabricating a sufficient enough answer with a trembling voice that cracked and made everyone laugh.

"Maybe you can use the rest of the time that you seem to be quite eager to see pass to pay attention huh?" He scoffed and turned around to write something else, giving the students the chance to share giggles and chats amongst them swiftly.

In the desk in front of Alex sat the guy who she had stumbled upon in the hallway the other day. Her glance caught his, to which he responded with a wink. Alex looked around confused. He kept looking at her while she did that with an arrogant smirk on his face. Alex frowned.

What was his problem? He was still staring at her when the professor stopped writing.

"Is there anything you want to share with the class Mr. Romero?" he scolded the guy who still had his eyes on Alex.

"I just happen to think Ms. Clarke's answer was more than satisfactory and your attitude seems quite judgemental Mr. Dennis." The guy spoke leaning back on his chair as if it were a couch.

The middle-aged man's eyes widened. "Maybe you can keep your opinions about my attitude to yourself unless you want to pay another visit to the headmaster Johnson's office, I'm quite sure he will not be surprised."

The guy smirked and licked his lips, sitting back up normally, raising his arms as if to resign. Alex stole a glance at him which he once again repeated. It almost felt like his glance had pinned her to a wall as if she was a criminal under interrogation but with a mix of intrigue and potential adventure, his eyes flirting with her gaze in a split second. Alex was as confused as she was intrigued by the shadowed presence of the guy. Why had he defended her? 

She spent the rest of the time overthinking about the guy's motives but when the bell finally rang, Alex rushed out of the class like she was being hunted. She immediately felt better, for the thought of meeting Ophelia, actually meeting her, offered the girl comfort.

She sat on one of the steps in the front door and waited for Ophelia to come out. She anticipated seeing her, wondered where they would go or what she would find out about the girl. The courtyard had almost emptied and Alex still waited. And waited. She was patient but soon her excitement turned to worry. Had Ophelia fooled her? Had she forgotten about it? Or worse, had something happened to her?

Alex soon started thinking that she must have been a fool to believe that Ophelia would actually want to meet her and started contemplating on what to do next. She could wait a little longer, maybe the girl had found some difficulties walking through the hallway or had been stalled. In their short conversation in the toilets she should have remembered to ask for her number, which she had neglected, leaving her in that position, unable to reach her, uncertain if she would ever show up.

She watched the bus leave and clouds gather in the sky. She checked the bus that Ophelia didn't seem to be in. Alex should have caught it when she had the chance. Now it was drizzling and Alex started to worry even more.

"Hey, do you need any help?" someone asked behind her.

Alex turned around to see the guy from biology class in front of her.