The Introvert

Chapter 5: Partner

Chapter 5: Partner

Okay. So far so good. Nothing happened to me the whole day. But I'm real anxious about my parents. They should be home real soon. I heard the car. They're here. 

I prepared myself and mentally practice my prepared speech in case they knew I'm the reason they got fired. I faked cough once they entered but they didn't mind me at all.

"Uhmm. Dad? Mom?" I called them. They both turned to me.

"What is it?" My mom asked me. "Oh no. You got somebody pregnant?" 

"What? No!" I shook my head. Even though I wanted to say something about what my mother asked, that's not the important thing I need to inquire. "How's work?" I was playing with my sweaty hand.

"Fine. Why?" 

"Nothing. Bye!" I ran upstairs to my room and locked myself in. They're not fired. What's in it for me? I mean the Reid family is one of the families that are rumored to be secretly controlling the world. They can do almost everything to hurt me. God, I'm becoming paranoid. I examined the card once more. There was a big X on the middle that is colored red. Red means death and X symbolizes that my life is over. The white background may symbolize heaven since that's where good people go once they die. Ugh. Whatever.

-

Wednesday.

That means I have to see the monster again. Or not as long as he's absent. I was a minute early and I took my seat last meeting. Archer saw me and he stood up. Uh oh. I think he's approaching me. I looked behind me but no one was there. No one was sitting next to me.

"How's it going?" he asks me and sat on the vacant chair beside me.

"Uhhh. Fine I guess?" I replied. He's making me uncomfortable. I just talked to him last Monday. I avoided his gaze and decided to look in front. I just hope he'll no longer talk to me.

"Hey why are you ignoring me?" he seems friendly but he's still a stranger to me.

"I'm  not ignoring you." I muttered between my teeth. Just go away or something. His attention was caught when our professor entered the room.

"Hey!" he nudged me but I chose to ignore him. There is no way I'm gonna talk to him. "Theodore!" he whispered. Nope. I'm still ignoring you.

He was bothering me for like three minutes and I can't focus about what our professor is saying. It's something about requirements and how we would start the term with Descriptive Statistics then Inferential Statistics for most of the course. But of course I didn't understand everything about that since there's a budger beside me.

"Theo!" Archer might've said that loudly since the whole room went silent like somebody died in the room or something. Oh no! I froze when Mr. Cussler was glaring at us.

"If you're not interested in my class the door is wide open for you to get out!" O my gosh. This is embarassing. It is my first time to be scolded by my teacher and everyone is staring at me. Archer casually collected his things and paraded out of the room like it was  just a normal day. I didn't follow him. There is no way I would skip any of class.

"You too!" Mr. Cussler pointed at me. Shit is so scary.

"But sir I'm interested to learn." I replied.

"Get out!" now he's pointing at the door. I guess I have no choice then. I stood up and walked out of the room probably as red as a tomato. That damn rich boy. I'm gonna kill him! I went out of the room and I saw him browsing on his phone while he leans on the wall like a total bad boy.

"You!" I gave him my death glare. I can actually feel my body tremble in anger. "If you are not interested in learning then YOU. SHOULD. LEAVE. ME . ALONE!" I repeatedly punched his shoulder but that doesn't seem to have an effect on him.

"Are you kidding me? I just saved you from that boring old Mr. Cussler. He's like blah blah blah and everyone's like zzzzzz." he tried imitating snoring sounds but I am not totally amused right now.

I rummaged into my bad to find his lovely card to show it to his face.

"Is this yours?" I asked but he didn't respond.

"I'm asking if this is yours because I want to return it to you. Mission accomplished. You destroyed my education. I may not graduate anymore and will probably become some homeless man on the street."

"Now you're just exaggerating things."

"I am not! Just because you people have the resources to waste time and money doesn't mean you should inciminate those that are not capable in wasting any more money!" I took his hand and placed the card on his hand. "Please don't bother me anymore. I thought you were fine during our encounter on the veranda but I guess I'm wrong."

I walked away from him but I have one more thought in mind.

"And what about those cards? It's very childish. We're not in High School anymore you know." and I rest my case.

=========================

Thursday night, I decided to open my Facebook and maybe look at some memes when somebody sent me a friend request.

Archer Everette Reid wants to be your friend

ACCEPT | DECLINE

No thanks. I don't want to be your friend. I just ignored that and started scrolling down when a message request appeared on my messenger. Now what?

Archer Everette Reid wants to connect with you.

I click Ignore. Probably some nonsense. After a few minutes of browsing my body feels like sleeping so I put down my phone and turned off my lights to preapare myself to sleep when all of a sudden my phone begins to vibrate. I grabbed my phone and squinted my eyes from the painful light of the phone.

+6396781236670 is calling.

Who is this? Reid. My mind recalled but I decided to answer the phone anyway just for the sake of it. Maybe it's not him anyway.

"Hello?" I said.

"Hey! You didn't accept my request." I instantly recognized that voice.

"Where did you get my number?"

"I've got connections..." then he chuckled. That annoyed me. I'm feel like I'm not safe anymore.

"Okay..." I was about to turn down the call and maybe shut down my phone when he screamed wait.

"What?" I replied lazily. "What's the purpose of this call? I'm really eager to go to sleep."

"Save this number and accept my friend request in Facebook." I rolled my eyes  in annoyance.

"Wow. You woke me up for that."

"That's not it. We're gonna be partners in Stat if you really want to pass that subject."

"Oh really? I don't think I need your help."

"What I mean is that we're gonna be partners since Mr. Cussler is requiring everyone is his class to find a partner and do a little research about one productions and operations management of a company. It's one his requirements and we need to submit our research proposal next meeting."

"Well thank you for that but I would rather do it alone." I reckon he'll just be a freeloader and I don't want that.

"According to our classmates Mr. Cussler required it to be by two's to teach something about teamwork and shit. Besides, We're the only one without a partner since you know..."

"I think I'm gonna take a risk of finding someone who was absent this day. I'm sure everybody in the room listed you as their partner."

"Thank you for that compliment. That's actually true but I said I wanted to be your partner."

"So I must be flattered then?" I sarcastically replied. There was no response like I offended him or something. "Fine. Fine. Whatever. I'm gonna go back to sleep." before he could even reply I turned off my phone and closed my eyes thinking how I'm gonna do the requirement without his help.