The FORBITTEN Promise

Chapter 3 - Lilith

“Lilith? Lilith?” I heard Ashley calling me, but I couldn’t look away from Charles. Who was sitting in front of me!

Didn’t I tell him to stop being interested into me. If this continues, Ariel is going to take notice of this and she’s going to try and make him her – I felt a pain in my arm and my pen fell out of my mouth. I grabbed my arm.

“Itai!” Japanese for Ow! I looked at Ashley, who had just hit my arm and I hit her back. “Nani?” What?

“I was calling you, you bum.” She said.

“What?” I asked.

“Do you have the definition of the vocabulary words?” she asked.

“Yeah.” I flipped through the pages of my notebook when I found the page, I gave her my notebook and looked at Charles. “Charles, these are my friends. Ashley and Carla.” Ashley waved and Carla smiled and gave him a little wave. Carla is short, about 5’2 with light color skin, long light brown hair, and dark brown eyes. She was wearing a blue shirt from what I can tell over her gray sweater with blue jeans. “Just to let you know, we’re also going to have Ashley for third and Carla for fourth period.”

“I don’t know if Leng will want to have him in the class.” Ashley said.

“Because we have too many students for that period? Come on, what’s one more person?” Ashley shrugged.

“How many people are there in the library?” Charles asked.

“About five or six?” Ashley said unsure and looked at me.

“I thought it was about seven or eight.” I said. I looked at Charles. “Let’s just say about six to eight.”

“Lilith.” I looked at Aguirre and she was giving me a look, that said ‘Are you working?’

“I was just telling Charles what we’re doing.” She eyed me and nodded her head.

“You better.” She mumbled, then went back to writing whatever she was writing.

I let out a breathe when Ashley hit my arm this time harder. I ground my teeth and grabbed my arm as I let out a silent ‘Ow!’

“What’s the matter with you?” Ashley said.

“Yeah, Lilith. You’re so mean.” Carla said.

“Carla, you know I’m not mean,” I said and without looking, I hit Ashley on the arm, hard, she grabbed her arm and put her head on the table. Oops.

“Riiight.” Carla said, lifting her eyebrows at me then rolled her eyes.

“Are they always like this?” Charles asked.

“This early in the morning? Yeah, always.” Carla said.

“Ah!” I said with a big smile. “But, I told you, Carla.” I pointed towards the window behind me with my thumb and said without turning. “I love this kind of weather, especially when it’s raining, cold and the sky is gray!”

“Oh, yeah… Lilith, you’re weird.” She said.

“Yeah, but you love me.” I told her and looked at Charles. He was looking at me with a smile on his face, which made me stop breathing for a second.

Ashley picked her head up. “Lilith, that fuckin’ hurt!” Then she slap my back with an opened palm that made a loud hollow-like sound.

Everyone in class heard it and looked towards us, some even made a face since it sounded like it really hurt. As for Aguirre, she’s ignoring us since she knows us too well that for us to be bickering about something that sooner, rather than later, are going to come to a conclusion. I shifted in my seat and turned towards Ashley. I put my arm on the back of her chair and looked at her.

“Ashley,” I said and smiled. “you know that doesn’t hurt, actually that kind of tickled,” my smile widen and I lifted my hand up, open palm. Ashley tried to move away from me, but I grabbed her arm and brought her closer to me, making it look like I’m about to give her a hug. “now if you want something to hurt, you have to do it like this.” I felt Ashley clench ready for the hit on her back so I brought my hand down on her back.

“Lilith.” My hand instantly stopped in mid-air an inch from Ashley’s back. I sat there shocked and looked at Charles.  “Can you help me with this?” Charles asked. “Since, I don’t know what to do.”

My body moved on its own. I let go of Ashley’s arm and leaned over the table towards Charles. I took the Poisonwood Bible book from his hand I flipped the pages to Orleanna Price and gave the book to him. Why did my body –? I've done this to Ashley many times and when someone calls my name, I still hit her back.

“We’re reading from here.” I said. “But today, Aguirre is checking our notebooks. So you can start reading and later today I’ll tell you what you need for your notebook.”

“Okay, thanks.” He said and started reading.

Why did – I let out a sigh and sat back down in my chair as I started looking through my notebook. Never mind. I should finish my work, I still need to finish reading and also the outline. I turned to a blank page in my notebook, got my Poisonwood Bible book, and started flipping through the pages then I remembered.

I reached into my backpacks’ small packet and took out my glasses case. I opened the case, took out my black rectangular glasses, and put them on. I felt someone was looking at me. I looked up over the bridge of my glasses to see Charles staring at me. I stared back at him. I lowered my glasses down my nose with my finger so I can still look at him over the bridges.

“Do you have a question? Or are you just going to stare at me?” I whispered to him.

“Sorry.” he said then looked back at the book. I pushed my glasses up with my finger, picked my book up and started reading.

Charles

            I saw Lilith reach down in her backpack and grab a small case. She opened the case and pulled out black rectangular glasses. Once she had put on the glasses, I couldn’t help but stare at her. With the glasses, she looked more – she picked her head up and looked at me over the bridges. She pulled the glasses down her nose with her finger and continued to look at me.

“Do you have a question or are you just going to stare at me?” she whispered.

The only thing I could think of was “Sorry.” then I looked back at the book.

I glance up at her, she pushed her glasses up with her finger, picked up her book, and started reading. After a while, she picked up her black pen and started writing notes in her notebook. I kept reading but I actually kept staring at Lilith. The look in her eyes that she’s so focused on her work just compelled me. Every so often I turned a page, so they’ll think I was reading and who knows how long I did nothing but stare at Lilith over my book.

“Okay, everyone,” Ms. Aguirre said. “I’m going to check your notebooks. If you have nothing you’re going to get a zero and a smack on the head.” Everyone in the class laughed. I put the book down and looked at Lilith.

“She’s not really going to smack us on the head, is she?” I asked. Lilith took her glasses off, rubbed her eyes, looked at me, and shrugged.

“She sometimes does.” She said. “Right, Ashley.”

“Yep. She sometimes does.” Ashley said then she looked up from the book and nodded her head behind me. “Like Erick, over there.”

I turned around in my seat and saw a boy about seventeen, wearing a black collar shirt with a gray sweater and blue jeans, showing his notebook to Aguirre.

“Sorry, miss. I didn’t get a chance to finish it.” Erick said.

“Didn’t get a chance? You had the –” she took her cell phone out of her pocket, “Whole. Damn. Period.” and started hitting his head with it, every word she said was a tap on the head. Everyone in the class laughed. I looked back at Lilith and smiled.

This really was worth coming. My face went grim and I looked down at my hands. But, I wish this could stay forever. I’m going to have to tell her the truth but... I also – The bell rang.

“Okay, if I didn’t check your notebooks’,” I heard Aguirre say as chairs were being pushed back and people stood. “you’re considered lucky but I’m checking them tomorrow. Have a good day today.”

I looked up from my hands and the first thing I saw was Lilith standing, looking at me. She kept looking at me, I couldn’t even read what she was thinking. Then she did something that I thought she would never do again. She reached her hand out and placed it on my head. Something that she always did whenever I was sad or she was worried about me. I thought I would never feel her hand again, her hand warm on my head.