The Genetic Code

Chapter 15

For the first thirty minutes he doesn't talk, listening to his music quietly.

The seats are wide and spacious, each with more than enough leg space and its own in-built table, so there's no chance of any accidental contact, which I'm praising the gods for. (If this were a Regular bus, I would have bumped into him at least four times by now.)

Despite the significant amount of space between us, I still press myself uncomfortably to the side, so that my shoulder is touching the window, and sit on the edge of the seat, avoiding leaning back on the black leather chair. My back is starting to hurt in this weird position, but I don't bother about that, because I'm nervous enough just sitting beside him that I can't think about anything else.

I check my phone for the umpteenth time in the last ten minutes, even though there's nothing to see because I'd cleared all my messages and social media a while ago, then shut it off again. I want to remain preoccupied — or at least look preoccupied — so he doesn't sense how flustered I am right now. I'm really contemplating shattering the window and jumping out of the coach to get myself out of this deathly awkward situation next to this handsome yet deadly boy.

"Do you have constipation?" The sudden voice beside me causes me to start.

"Huh?" I ask, bewildered at his sudden question. Sterling's removed one earphone and stares at me blankly.

"You've been squirming to the side since we got on the coach. Do you have weird bowel movements or something? I won't judge."

I blink a few times, dumbstruck. "E-Excuse me?" I stammer. "No."

"Then why don't you sit straight like a normal person? You're gonna get a back ache or something."

I open and close my mouth a few times like a fish out of water, but find myself tongue-tied, looking back front and cocking my head to the side.

I quickly turn my head again, about to give him a piece of my mind, but I realize that he's already put his earphone back in and gone back to being still.

I shift slowly in my seat, sitting up straight and leaning all the way back. The chair is actually really comfortable, although the headrest is too high up for me, as usual. I sink down into the black leather and stare out the window pensively, twiddling with my eyebrows like I do whenever I feel disconcerted.

"Did you bring it?" he asks out of the blue.

I turn and face him again. "The mosquito repellant?"

He nods.

"Yeah, it's in my bag."

"Good," he responds flatly.

"You can... hear me over your music?" I inquire gingerly.

"Yes," he answers instantly, looking at me deadpan for a second.

Then he pulls one earphone from his ear, reaches over and fits it in mine. It happens too quickly for me to react, so I just stare at him in shock. His hand lingers next to my ear, much closer than I'm comfortable with, my quickened heartbeat proof of that. He simply stares at me intently, leaned in towards me, watching my expression.

It takes me a while to snap out of my state of frozen reverie. I swallow and shift my gaze from those grey eyes of his to his nose instead, to ease some of the tension.

I focus my attention on listening to the song coming from the earphone in my ear, but when I do, I just frown.

It's... nothing. There's no sound coming out out from the speakers. At all. I look back up at Sterling's face, my own frowning deeply in confusion. Has he been listening to silence this whole time?