My name is Nikito Travis. I'm a junior in high school, and I live with a terrifying, soul-shaking curse: I am absolutely, irrationally afraid of beautiful men. Like, heart-palpitations, knees-buckling, can't-make-eye-contact kind of afraid. It's tra...
Thanks for helping me," I say to JB. The two of us are walking to school together.
JB yawns. "No problem. I mean with you screaming in the phone to come over right away, I didn't have much of a choice did I?" He grins. "Oh, that's right. You didn't actually call. You just screamed until I heard you from next door."
I grab my face. "It was terrifying, man!" I shudder.
"Everywhere...beautiful men..."
"Well, I got all the posters down, changed your screensaver, and the wallpaper of your cell phone." JB rubs his hands together very proud of his work.
"Oh yeah," I say taking out my cell phone. "What did you replace it with?" I open it and cry out in disgust.
JB laughs. "Me."
I push him off the sidewalk. "More like a part of you." I change my wallpaper. "Mooning my cell phone camera is just wrong."
"It's better than a beautiful man, isn't?" JB argues.
"I don't know..." I put my cell phone away. "They're both bad."
The two of us begin fighting, slapping each other this way and that. I guess in the end, the two of us are really like grade school students.
"HEY! STOP HURTING HIM!" a girl yells as we reach the school's gates.
"Huh?" I stop. My arms are tangled with JB's.
"You just want to get close to him, we get it," says another girl. She crosses her arms and stares at me angrily.
I laugh.
Not a smart idea.
The several girls around us now look they are about to kill me. Will this ever end? Ah well, might as well have some fun with it.
"Hurting him?" I say. "He's the one who started it!" I point to JB.
JB looks at me heatedly.
"It's just how I flirt," I say with a smile. The girls look astounded. Some are about to burst out laughing at the stupidity of my "flirting" methods.
"If I really wanted to hurt him," I say and I lean against JB causing the girls to gawk, "I'd do something like this!"
And I pull my hand back and slap JB on the arm as hard as I possibly can.
"OWWWWW!" JB yells. "YOU!" he cries out reaching for me.
"Oh JB!" the girls cry out and I duck under them and run away.
"Sorry!" I yell to him. I can't help but laugh again.
I walk into my homeroom feeling pretty good about myself. "Good stuff...good stuff..."
"Talking to yourself again?" Abna says coming up to me.
"Again?" I don't talk to myself! Unless I see my shadow. But the last time I did that was ages ago.
Like last Sunday, for example.
"So, are you back to normal today?" Abna asks, her eyes examining my face.
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(A/n: an idea of what Abna looks likes.☝🏽☝🏽)
"Yeah," I say nodding. "Yesterday was just...weird. I don't remember much."
"Well that's a shame..." I hear a voice that chills me to the bone.
I turn around. Jimin. I take one very large step backward.
"Shame?" I say.
Abna leans over my shoulder. "Shame?"
Jimin looks at Abna, then me. I swerve my gaze at a lovely dust bunny beside his polished shoe. "Yes, shame," he says. "Just like it's a shame that Abna has to leave me to talk to Nikito."
"Hey!" Abna interjects. She pouts. "You're lucky you're pretty," she says in the cutest possible way. "Bye, Kito." She leaves.
My back feels really lonely now without Abna by me.
"So, are you aware what you did to me yesterday?" Jimin says, amused.
That dust bunny I'm staring at has a lot of friends I realize. There's another one by the foot of the desk. And another one behind a student's bag. When is the last time someone passed the broom?
"Not quite..." I say hesitantly.
Jimin chuckles. "You were in love with me."
My eyeballs jut out an inch, or they feel like it at least. I look at him. GAH. Jimin is smiling with his amazingly beautiful smile. My eyes! They burn!
"Yes," Jimin says, seeing my reaction. "You made a heart with your hands so lovingly for me."
I want to look at my hands, but I can only stare at Jimin so I raise them up to my face instead. These hands...what have you been doing! Tell me!
Jimin pushes my hands down.
"Don't touch me!" I tell him. His hands are so soft even with just that one touch. Even my pinky toe is rougher.
He smiles again. "Oh, but you told me I was cute."
"Wha!" I cry out. What part of Nikito came out yesterday?
"And," Jimin continues with a shrug. "You made me a brownie cake."
"Br-brownie..,cake!" I say amazed. I'm ashamed.
My greatest passion even betrayed me.
"NO!" I say loudly, leaning in. "You're lying!" I look at him angrily. "I would never bake for you!"
I should have never leaned in.
Jimin places his forehead against mine and whispers, "But apparently you do."
I lose my voice temporarily. Too close. Great balls of fire, it's too close!
"AHH!" I yell out pushing him away.
Jimin stumbles back, but looks unsurprised. "In due time..." He smiles.
"So arrogant!" I point at him. At least this beautiful boy is so easy to hate. "I need to get out!" I announce.
I step out of the classroom and make a right.
My eyes bulge again.
Python.
And her impressively buff friends.
"Heard you made a move on our boy yesterday." She looks angry.
I take a step back into the classroom.
"Hey!" I hear Python's yell.
Jimin looks at me with a raised brow.
"Well, that was refreshing!" I tell him firmly. I head to my seat without another word.
My head is still filled with Jimin's beautiful face though. I oddly don't feel as disgusted anymore from it. Like nine-tenths disgusted now. Maybe from over-exposure?
