Unchained

Chapter Thirteen

"Are you okay?"

I  blinked, my numbing gaze at the wall turning to Shayline, who was staring at me with curious eyes. Behind her, Tamara stared along with her, like I had signs all over me that read, "HEY, LOOK AT ME!"

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine." I stared back at the wall.

"She's been staring at that for the past twenty minutes," someone whispered behind me.

"Maybe she's praying or something," someone added.

Of all the strange things happening to me - the seeing through things, strength to destroy poles - I wish going deaf for short periods of time was one of them.

My math class dragged on. Luckily Sean had helped me with my homework so the assignment we were doing today was easy for me. Since I pretty much knew everything about the problems, I had finished in lickety split and had plenty of free time to myself, at least until class ended. I was staring at the wall, trying to see if I could see through it and see what the next door class was up to. Unfortunately, I was having no luck.

Someone poked my shoulder. I expected it to my Tamara or Shayline but instead it was David Pearson, who moved up a few seats to sit right behind me.

"Hey," he whispered, smiling.

"Um, hi." I said, wondering what he was doing. 

He finally said, "Oh, I was just confused on number eighteen. I was wondering if you could help me."

I nodded. "Yeah, sure."

I ignored the whispers about me and my religious groups and me and my new nun outfits and me and my rosaries I wore 24/7 as I opened my textbook up to the assignment and looked at the problems.

"Okay, for this one, you just need to solve like you did in problems three through eight, only the difference is..." I trailed off when I realized David was staring at me rather than the problems I was poking my pencil at.

"Are you okay?" I asked, feeling my face warm. Maybe I had a booger or something. Or the exploding trail of zits on my forehead had gotten to my nose and now I looked like a rutilant freak.

He nodded quickly, looking at his work. "Oh yeah. Fine. Okay, so solve like problems three through eight, yes? But, I was just curious..."

Someone suddenly poked my back. It was Tamara. "What?" I asked.

"Help with number twelve," she asked politely.

I sighed. "Can't you see I'm helping someone?" I asked, jutting my eyes towards David's perfectly structured back and body.

She rolled her eyes. "Fine, you can help me after the wedding."

"Huh?" David happened to ask and I hissed, "Tam!" but she giggled and went back to her work. David stared at me and I stared at him until he said, "Right, number eighteen."

I helped him for a bit and then he finally got it, but he still sat next to me and worked quietly while I continued to stare at the wall. Finally, he leaned back, closing his book and said to me, "So, why are you all of the sudden interested in walls now?"

"Huh?" I said. "Walls? Me? No, I'm not interested." 

"Well, that wall right there has seemed to catch your attention," he said, pointing at the wall I was staring at. 

"Haha," I said, trying to laugh it off. "I'm just... Tired." A lame excuse, but it was one that I might be able to get away with.

"Tired, huh..." David said, chuckling. "Very interesting." Then he winked at me, like things couldn't get any weirder, and my heart thumped so loud I figured he might be able to hear it. Or see my hands shaking. 

The bell rang and I happily scrambled into the all, watching David leave and head to his next class. Tamara and Shayline walked past me and I followed to catch up with them.

"Hey, guys!" I said as they walked swiftly in front of me. "Where's the fire?" I laughed at my own joke but they didn't even turn around to look at me. "Guys?" I asked but they just walked ahead, not even making a notice that I was here.

I quickly caught up, walking around them so I was right next to Shayline. "Do you guys hate me or something?" I got a look at Tamara's eyes and I realized that she was crying. "Hey, are you all right?" I reached over to pat her but Shayline slapped my hand away. "What the heck?" I cried loudly. "What's wrong with you guys?"

"Listen," Shayline said, giving me a dark glare and speaking meanly. "We were all sad when you were found with a knife in your chest, and we were all happy when you pronounced alive. But ever since you've 'come back from the dead', you've been so bratty lately!"

"What?" I asked weakly.

"I mean, you don't even want to spend time with us!" Shayline said loudly. "And when we do come over, and bring you presents, you scream your lungs out like it's...it's... poison!"

"No, that - " I begun but she cut me off.

"And when we try to talk to you about what's going on at school, get you caught up, you know, how come all you talk about is David Pearson this and David Pearson that?" Shayline continued. "You are better off with someone like Sean. At least he's smart and nice. Don't you know David's a player? Yeah, I know, he asked me out in the third grade! So don't think you're all special, Avaley!" Shayline snapped.

"I'm sorry, I - " I begun again but Tamara stepped in.

"We love you, Avaley," she said softly, sniffling quietly. "But you've changed so much. Lately you've been ambling over David and you won't even respond to our texts. We try to hang out but you're too busy with Sean or getting ready for your dates with David. And when I try to get some simple help with math, you'd choose David over me?" a tear rolled down her cheek and Tamara didn't even push it away. "I was ecstatic when you came back to life. Because... I wanted to tell you..." she looked me straight in the eyes and I was waiting for her words, but nothing came. She looked away. "It doesn't matter now. You've changed. I was wrong after all." and she began to walk down the hall, away from me. Shayline glared at me before hurrying after Tamara.

"Guys! Wait!" I croaked, feeling tears in my eyes. Oh, who needed them? They were just selfish. I needed time to cope, to adjust with coming back from the dead. And so what if I wanted to hang out with David now? He was a pretty cool guy, and he expressed some interest in me! And gave me flowers! They just needed a break from everything.

I started to walk towards my next class. I was passing the boy's bathroom and I peeked in just out of curiosity and there was David Pearson, washing his hands in front of the mirror. I wondered if I should wait for him and walk to class with him. After all, we had gym together. 

But then I watched as he was still washing his hands, he lifted up his right hand, and pointed and angled it towards the paper towel dispenser, whic hwas a few feet away from him.

He angled his hand towards it.

And then...

I watched as a paper towel flew into his hand.

I stared there, numbly, realizing I just witnessed David Pearson pick up an object without using any part of his body. 

I took a step back, too shocked to think of running of moving. I just stood there, staring at him, until he tossed that paper towel into the trash and started to walk towards the door and saw me there, staring at him.

"Avaley?" he asked, looking back at the trash and then back at me and then realized... I had just seen what he did.

I snapped back to reality, turned, and ran. I ran and ran and ran and frankly, I didn't care where I was going, everything was just...

I stopped as I reached the front doors. I had planned on running out them, but something was written on the windows of the doors that made me freeze.

82921014