Hit Me, Cupid!

ღ Eight: Well, That's a Cute Penguin

I had always been a Good Samaritan. I actually called Psyche later that night, and she went straight ahead after Eros. It wasn’t like I was going to continue ranting on.

    “Oh my God.”

    Glancing to my side, I saw Lexie’s jaw drop. I quickly snapped my head back in place and saw what she was staring at. It was impossible and reckless, indeed.

    Snow covered the entire hallway of the school. Melting ice cubes were stuck on to each of the student’s lockers. Students were screaming, shouting, yelling, and laughing at their own expense. This was probably done by none other than the troublemaker of the Three A’s: Aiden.

    It was surely such a sight to see.  

    Never did I imagine that he’d do something like this. Normally, he’d just mess with one person or goof off. His known home was at the Principal’s office. No one doubted him.

    Someone threw a snowball at my head and I groaned. “Hey!”

    It wasn’t even Christmas. Why would he think snow would be any better? An early greeting for the principal, maybe.

    Lexie grinned and stuffed her hand with the snow. “I wonder how the snow managed to get in here.”

    The snow wasn’t full-blown, winter-like snow. It was more of a left-over snow. It was as if some tractor full of ice was delivered, making the whole hallway slippery. Scratch that, it was actually full of cotton – not snow at all.

    “Would you look at that? It’s just a bunch of cotton.” I narrowed my eyes on the stuffy cottons sprouting from the vents up above.

    “Looks like Aiden went creative this time, don’t you think?”

    “Hmm.” I shrugged nonchalantly. “Come on, we still have fifth period. I don’t want to be included with the questioning again.”

    Whenever someone did something, the whole school Council acted as if they were police. Every student who merely walked past the crime scene are sent to the ‘Questioning Room’, where the walls were lined with double-sided mirrors. They get to see you, but you don’t get to see them.

    The reason why Aiden used to do this almost every week was that, we’d get a free day where all the students were held up in the ‘Waiting Room’. It was essentially one long, boring hour with the Student President. After that, nobody really went back to class, so all the teachers ended up leaving the class.

    Mozelle West School was actually fun at times. We still learn, sure, but most of the time, we’re doing something crazy or getting up to no good. Not that I was involved, but everyone knew how the Legendary Three A’s worked.

    Add Eros in the equation of all the girls’ ‘wish list,’ and I was sure they’d all faint if Eros ever spared them a glance.

    We arrived late by our History class where I had Austin, the player, as my partner. Sometimes I confuse his name with Aiden.

    Mr. Hariet glared at us before Lexie gave him a long, exaggerated eye roll. Mr. Hariet knew exactly what Lexie was capable of, and it wasn’t like it’s going to be a surprise anymore. It was more of a usual daily task of Lexie to be late.

    “I don’t expect this tardiness coming from you, Ms. Hastings,” Mr. Hariet told me, his thick-framed glasses barely hanging by his nose.

    “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again, I promise,” I told him and he nodded, gesturing for us to sit.

    Expect the unexpected.

    Eros was nowhere to be found. I didn’t really care, but how could we work things out between us if he’d vanish and not return?

    My mind started to ponder his absentness: what if he really was in trouble at that time? How did I hear those whisperings? It sounded like someone was sleeping. I wonder why. I couldn’t back away now. I knew things I didn’t know before. It just seemed impossible.

    “Sit with your partners, please,” Mr. Hariet requested and just in time, Austin came inside. “Late as usual.”

    Austin blew out a breath on his blonde golden hair. “Hariet, please, don’t you ever get tired saying that I’m always late? We both know nothing will change.”

    “And I suppose you’re flunking again with your girls?” Mr. Hariet sighed, his eyes were wary and tired.

    “Do I look like someone who cares?” Austin sneered.

    “Take your seat. You’ve done enough for this class. If you fail on this project, your so-called right to privacy will be removed and I’ll be contacting your parents.”

    Austin glared at him before finally taking a sit a next to me. He dropped his chin on both his hands and stared at me.

    “So, little miss ‘I-hate-you-so-much-please-disappear,’ what are we doing?”

    I picked the paper from the box assigned to us and my eyes widened as I took in the message.

    “Research the Golden Era from the beginning of time.”

    “Well, that’s easier than I expected it to be," Austin mused, poking me on my arm. “Easy A.”

    “Shut up.” I groaned. “This is the worst project ever.”

    “I don’t think so, babe.” He smirked at me, playing with the strands of my hair. “I told you, we’ll totally aim this one.”

    Life hates me so much that it decided to grant me two living hells. One, my relatives, and two, Austin. Why was my life so complicated?

    Austin was staring at me, probably thinking about how he could get me. No one could blame him, though. Austin was blessed with the looks of a male model. Austin and his built up muscles, your usual ‘player’ of a guy, where he had this kissable lips and a pair of to-die-for hypnotizing eyes. Whereas Eros was like a s*x god or something – he was part of the equation of erotic and love after all – there was something brooding about him. He was full of mysteriousness. He screamed of ‘Torn!’ instead of 'Cute Baby-Cheeks Cupid'. I definitely didn't think of him like this. I mean, Cupids were cute. 

    “Okay, so we'll just have to divide the parts. You do your research, and I'll do mine."

    “We go on dates.”

    “Uh, excuse me?” I shot him a confused glare.

    Austin tipped my chin and winked at me. “We go on dates. Right now, all I can see is hatred in your eyes. And it hurts right-“ he pointed on his chest. “-here.”

    I pulled away and gave him an icy look. “I don’t care. You’ll follow my rules.”

    Snap.

    “Aw, won’t you look at that? Now we have some sort of couple picture.” Austin showed me his phone where I was staring at him in pure loath, while he gazed at me amusingly. “We look like a couple who’s fighting and is about to make-out.”

    I dropped my head on my table. This situation was impossible. If Eros wasn’t messing around with my life, Austin surely would be the one to take that role. Yet again, this was another typical day for someone like me.

    Austin chuckled and picked something from his bag. It was a stuffed toy penguin. It was also a cute one.

    “Here, you can have this. Just a reminder that we should be doing this project.”

    With that, he stood up and left the room.

    No surprise there. He was always like that- whenever he entered a room, he’d leave after fifteen minutes or so. I guess I should be thankful that he even managed to show up today.

    I carried the cute penguin toy all the way to Gym, thinking on as to what I was going to do it. We’d be having Volleyball today – a sport which I was terribly bad at. If only they could stop passing the ball to me, our team could have won.

    “Watch out!”

I     knew I was supposed to turn, but I was so preoccupied with the cute little penguin that I forgot to dodge, so the ball collided with my face as I looked up.  My nose bled a little as I held it up.

    “Oh, sorry!” the girl apologized, her braided hair swinging back and forth, like a pendulum.

    “That’s fine.” I smiled at her then asked Mr. Roacher if it was possible to let me take a break. I really usually skip this class.

    “You better watch out.”

    Was it just me, or was the penguin talking?

    Maybe I was really freaking out. I needed to take a break from everything. I needed some time off, or I would lose my mind.

    Life was hard. It was never easy, but hopefully it’d be worth in the end. That was like, a golden rule. I guess I wanted to do things differently. There were a lot of secrets shrouding my mind. All too familiar, and it made my head throb.

    My phone rang and I answered it on the first ring. “Hello?”

“Cee, this is Psyche. I need your help. Eros has been missing since last night,” Psyche told me in a pained voice. “I need help, and I don’t know where to turn to. I can’t find him.”

    “I’ll be right over.”