The Tech Wiz | #2✓

Chapter 14

I was walking through the school hallway the next day with hurried steps. Granted, I was a bit late for class seeing as I spent too much time in the bathroom and Ji-Hun had abandoned me and headed to class alone.

Walking through the now empty hallway I tried to come up with excuses I could tell my teacher to avoid detention. There was no late slip to save me now, and Ji-Hun wouldn't cooperate if I came up with a lie involving him. As I thought about it I passed by the turn to another hallway. I stopped in the middle of my tracks when I heard familiar voices engaging in a hushed exchange.

"You're being unreasonable."

"Leave me alone Amanda—"

"What? So, you can lead the poor boy on? Don't be a dick, Felix."

I took a handful of steps back, pressing my chest against the cream-painted wall before peeping into the hallway I'd walked past a few seconds ago. Felix and Amanda were bickering in hushed tones, but from time to time they'd raise their voice loud enough so that I could hear bits and pieces of their conversation. As I watched them, Amanda suddenly groaned, throwing her hands in the air as she shook her head, letting her red curly hair bounce with the movement.

"He's not a fucking experiment! Don't play with people's emotions. You've been doing that to me for the past year and a half!"

I frowned, feeling my breathing hitch up when I got an idea of what she was talking about.

"I'm not experimenting," Felix said in a tone almost too low for me to pick up. Amanda seemed to start yelling in disbelief until she quieted down to continue bickering with him.

"Look, Amanda," he said in an audible voice as he held on to her shoulders, "I'm not playing with him—"

"Then are you going to date him? Or tell him?" Amanda asked, cutting him mid-sentence. Felix let out a sigh, taking one of his hands away from her shoulder to run through his hair.

"I don't know—"

"You never know Felix—"

"Okay, then what do you want me to say?!" Felix suddenly yelled, taking his hand away from her, and cursing under his breath when he noticed how loud he'd been.

"I like him — well, I think I do? If he's interested then there'll be no harm in dating him—"

"You shouldn't be dating him while 'thinking'. Stop leading people on," Amanda said, emphasizing on the word 'thinking' with quotation marks she made in the air with the manicured red painted fingernails of her index fingers.

"I'm not playing around—"

"That's what you think, but you've been doing exactly that to me for the past year. Okay, maybe you genuinely think it's not playing with people's feelings, but it hurt me, and it's going to hurt him — just stop."

I've heard enough. I concluded, turning away and making for the stairway that led to the labs upstairs in a fast walk. I could feel my heart pounding against my ribcage, and the feeling of my clogged throat whenever I tried to breathe through my mouth, but I somehow ignored the urge to break down and continued heading for my IT class. 

How late am I?

Fuck that, it's probably halfway through the period already. 

I eventually got to class, pushing the door open without saying a word to the teacher as I made for my seat. 

"Ben!" My IT teacher called, making me turn a bit so that I could look at him. He stared at me, his mouth was open a bit. He looked like he was about to say something, but he sighed instead, looking away before he shook his head.