First Heartbreak

Chapter Nineteen - The Things I Hate About You

Sam's POV

Vanessa left me in room after the conversation, she headed to the girls powder room. I needed a breath of fresh air so I went out of the garden, my usual spot.

The rest of the students were already in their classrooms, Mrs. Bernardine wasn't there yet. She probably went home and ate lunch there. She just lives nearby, I think it's practical. Plus the cafeteria is always full of students, Mrs. Bernardine is too old, she's around fifty-ish I think. That's not too old but she looks old, I don't know if it's because of stress here at school or at home. She has about half a dozen children, she told us her story about her family over and over again. I can probably tell it to you now, but I don't wanna. It's going to take forever!

I was stretching outside when I heard a loud bang from the Economics room. I felt something was off. Since nobody was outside anymore, I decided to check it out.

"Hey Ness, if Mrs. Bernardine ever looks for me, would you cover for me please?"

"Give me one good reason why?" she raised an eyebrow.

"Because you're my best friend... And best friends help each other and watch each other's backs!" I smiled and pushed her inside.

"Now cover for me while I check out what's going on the Econ room".

"Fine!" Such a brat.

I hurriedly made my way to the Econ room. Judging by the loud bang, it's either somebody fell or there might be two boys again fighting each other.

Once I got to the scene, I didn't expect to see Zen.

"What happened?" The Econ room door now had a huge hole right in the middle. "Holy Cow! Did you did that?" pointing at the door. My mouth dropped open.

She didn't said a word. I took another step closer to examine the damage when I noticed her flinch when my hand accidentally brushed her hand.

"Oh my God!" I gasped. " You punched the door?" I was angry. I furrowed my brows.

I took her hand but she quickly take it back. "Give it!" she didn't replied. "If you don't give me your hand I swear I am going to report you to the Principal's Office and you'll be expelled from this school!" I growled.

She looked at me furiously.

"Don't test me Zen", that was a threat.

She finally gave up and handed me her bleeding knuckles.

"Oh my God!" I repeated. "What the hell did you do that for? Were you just too happy to punch some door out of nowhere or were you just plain stupid??!!" I almost shouted. "What did the door ever do to you?"

She did not respond but I could feel her eyes staring at me with rage.

I examined her knuckles, it was bleeding alright! I also started to look purple-ish green-ish from the force. It's a good thing I had my first-aid training so I knew what to do when things like these should ever occur.

I sigh. I pulled-out my handkerchief from my front pocket and wrapped her hand with it. You're still my favorite, hankie. Her hand was still shaking, probably from the impact. And it felt ice cold too!

She flinched when I touched the part where it had so much blood gushing out. "We have to go to the clinic so the nurse could fix you up with some bandage and ice pack." I suggested

"I'm fine! I'm going to class" she was about to leave when I stepped in front of her. My face was again inches away from her. She's looked at me furiously.

"Don't make it hard for me Zen, please?" I begged. "Let me take you to the clinic. If you don't want me there, fine! I'll leave. But as soon as the nurse tends to you first! You can't come to class looking like that!" I looked at her hand.

She didn't replied.

"Oh come on! You're still pulling the cold-war on me Zen!? Really?" I couldn't believe it!

She just stood there holding her damaged hand. Her soft, delicate and now damaged hand. Sigh.

I calmed down. "Let me just take you to the clinic. Once I see that you're all fine, I'll leave." I looked at her. "Please?" I begged some more.

"Fine" she then looked away and started to walk past me.

I followed her to the clinic, it was just near the Auditorium. We passed by the room and saw Vanessa who looked shocked to see me and Zen together. I mouthed her I'll explain later. She nodded and went to talk to Mrs. Bernardine. Thank God for Vanessa!

As we got to the clinic, the nurse was there. Zen didn't knocked and immediately went inside.

"We're sorry for just barging in, but we have an emergency." I explained to the nurse.

I unwrapped Zen's hand and showed her the damage.

The nurse gasped. "Heavens! What happened!" she asked. "She tripped and fell and hit her hand with a rock on the way to our classroom."

Zen looked at me as if to say you're a horrible liar. I brushed her off and rolled my eyes. The nurse immediately took all the things that she needs to fix Zen's hand. She examined it carefully.

"Well thankfully there aren't any signs of broken bones or whatnot. Just a couple of broken skin tissues. It should heal up in a couple of days. The doctor won't be in 'till later at two o'clock but the bandage and ice pack should help stop the bleeding."

We both looked at the nurse while she held her breath when the nurse splashed alcohol on her hand.

"OOOOOWWWW! AAAAAHHH! OUCH! OUCH! OUCH! THAT FREAKIN' HURTS!" she screamed.

"Oh please, stop being a baby!" I rolled my eyes. She stared at me. I raise an eyebrow at her as if to ask if she wanted to argue. But she turned her attention back to the nurse.

It took about a good five minutes before she calmed down from fidgeting and screaming 'ow' and 'ah' here and there.

"Did you already told your adviser what happened, dear?" the nurse asked me.

"Yes, I dropped by real quick at our classroom and informed her." I replied. "She told me that I could stay her as long as this hard-headed and stubborn of a patient needed me". I lied. I didn't talked to the teacher, she wasn't there yet.

"Okay dear. You stay here with your friend while I log the incident in the report book." Then the nurse left us alone at another room where the hospital beds were for sick students. Today was quite empty, nobody was around. No rowdy boys today, I thought.

Zen was sitting on the bed still holding her hand. She would flinch every now and then. I sat at the edge of the bed. I stayed far away from her, just as she requested.

It was all silent when the nurse left, there was no point in conversing with her anyways. She doesn't even know how to talk, she doesn't responds.

"Is that pretty boy your suitor now?" she asked out of nowhere.

I was surprised. "Excuse me?"

"You know who I mean. That French-speaking joli garçon!" Since when did she spoke French? I raised an eyebrow.

"That's none of your business!" I snapped back.

She took a deep breath. "Stop acting like I don't know! I heard you and Vanessa talking about him earlier!"

"You were in the room?? You're eavesdropping!" I was now more than surprised.

"I was there about to take a nap when that friend of yours shrieked so high I couldn't even hear myself clearly anymore! Stop playing with me and answer my question!" she was now frantic.

"What do you want to know!!" With the tone of our voices I was pretty sure the nurse could hear us now.

"Is he your suitor now!??" she asked again.

"What's it to you anyway!? It's not like I'm your girlfriend or anything!" There, I said it! I was now angry too!

"Huh! You couldn't even accept a single rose that I gave you and there you were accepting a bunch of fancy flowers from somebody you barely even know!"

"Hey! He gave me those roses through the kindergartners! I did not have a choice because I thought it was from you!!" There, finally said that too! Here goes all the bomb!

"Oh please!" she sniffed. "The only reason you accepted those flowers because it's fancy looking and it's expensive! You'd prefer expensive things to be given to you!"

I was starting to feel my rage forming tears on my lids. "HOW DARE YOU!! DO NOT JUDGE ME BECAUSE YOU DON'T KNOW ME THAT WELL ENOUGH, ZEN!" I was so furious that I had to get out of there. Just when I stood up from the edge of the bed and leave, she held my arm with her free hand.

"Let go..before I damage your OTHER hand" she didn't let go. Instead she tightened her grip and looked at me hard.

"What do you want Zen!? For Pete's sake! Tell me what do you want!?" I screamed the words.

She didn't answered but there was still a look of anger in her eyes.

I finally couldn't take it, my tears started to fall. I tried to reach out for my hankie but I remembered what happened to it earlier. Stupid, i***t! Had to break her hand! Stupid! I mumbled under my breath. I just looked down and let my hair fall on my face to cover myself from her. I felt my tears streaming fast and down to the floor.

I think she noticed that too because she released me from her tight grip so I could move. But what she did next, I did not expect.

She grabbed me by my waist and drew me closer to her. I did not tried to fight it because I was now crying and couldn't control it anymore. Her forehead touched mine.

"I'm sorry." she said.

I was still sobbing. She held me there for what seems like a long time. She handed me a blue bandanna. "That's clean". I hesitated. "That's mine so it's clean" then forced me the bandanna. I refused it again and shook my head.

She put it down for a second, she fixed my hair so it won't be covering my face anymore. She then wiped my tears with her bandanna. She looked into my eyes and held my gaze for so long. And boy was it getting hot in here? I was sure there was air conditioning in this part of the room.

I stopped crying and felt very conscious from her gaze. She's never looked at me like that before.

"He isn't courting me", I told her.

She took a deep breath and smiled. What a jerk!

"What are you smiling for" I frowned.

"Nothing. I just felt relieved, that's all!"

I frowned. "I hate you!"

She laughed. "What are you laughing at this time?"

She stopped laughing and smiled. "I still hate you!"

"Naw, you don't hate me!" Over-confident i***t!

"And what makes you think that?" I challenged.

"Because if you did, you would've just left me out there letting my hand bleed!" She smiled again.

"Wow! I offered my help because I'm Class President! It was my responsibility to look after each and every student in our class! So that would explain why I took you here." I defended.

"Oh really now" she raised an eyebrow.

I raised mine.

"Well I still think you don't hate me"

"And why's that?" I asked again.

"Because if you did, I couldn't do this..." she the quickly pulled me closer to her until our lips touched. My eyes were left opened and I was shocked.

I tried getting out of her hug but she was too strong! I resisted but my mind screamed yes, yes, YES, YES, YAAAAAAS!!!!

I knew there was no use fighting. Especially when I could taste her soft lips. God! I've often wondered how her lips felt like. I slowly closed my eyes and felt her smirk at my defeat. I was so lost in our kiss, my mind would've literally exploded and my heart would've literally went out of my chest and jumped up and down the bed!

I barely noticed her breaking away from the kiss. She tasted like cinnamon. Hmm.

"I couldn't have done just that" she said. "If you hated me..." and smirked again.

Oh boy, we kissed! She kissed me! I kissed her back! What? When? How did this happen? How could I just let her do this? I was so overwhelmed with a rush of emotions.

"Aww... You're blushing!" she noticed. I touched my cheek and felt them very warm. "You're cute when you blush." she added.

Then the nurse came in to tell us that the doctor was now in. I excused myself and ran out of the clinic and head straight to the auditorium. I didn't turned around to look at her. I was filled with so much adrenaline that I don't know what has gotten into me. I didn't want to go back to class yet, Vanessa will for sure interrogate me!

Oh. My. God! What just happened? I touched my lips and remembered quite vividly the flashback at what happened earlier. It happened all too fast. I couldn't get it off my mind! I can't get her off my mind. This can't be right, Sam. I tried to push the worry behind as I was still enjoying the feeling of the butterflies that made out of their way from my stomach. I was smiling like an i***t myself.