THE JOURNEY OF SHEIRA HART

28 | I Must Say I Was Adventurous

Have you been seasick? I’ve always had that before that’s why I despise traveling. I hated the feeling of nausea that’s slowly building up. Then your head would hurt like hell and all you want to do is close your eyes and just pray that it will disappear if you just stay still. But it did not. It never did. It became worse. And eventually, I would grasp at the plastic bags hanging inside the car just for me and I would hurl my guts out of there. I would hear my siblings’ groans as they cover their noses and complain about why the hell am I so weak at traveling. I didn’t mind them. I didn’t have the energy to banter or to even give them a menacing glare.

I never realized ghosts would get seasick too. Because right after that warping incident, I suddenly had the urge to throw up. The worst thing about feeling nauseous is when you don’t get to throw up to at least make yourself feel better. So I remained nauseous even as the surrounding started to clear. I looked beside me and saw Mikhael holding his stomach. It seems like I wasn’t the only one feeling worse. He was covering his mouth as if stopping himself from throwing up.

He looked at me I just sighed.

“I want to throw up,” he said and I could have sworn I saw his face turn purple.

I hate warping.

I looked around and realized we were back in the school. I groaned inwardly. I don’t know if I will remember what’s going to happen this time but I guess we’ll have to find out. I tapped Mikhael’s shoulder to get his attention and he looked at me. His face looks like he isn’t feeling better.

“Are you alright?” I asked.

He held up a hand before he stood straight and slowly removed his hand from his mouth. I started feeling a little bit better now and I think so was he.

“I hate warping.”

“That, we can both agree.”

He roamed his eyes around the area. And when he realized where we were, I heard him groan. “Are we going to witness another humiliation this time?” he said and I just gave him a glare. He just shrugged.

We were back in the hallway. It was filled with students as usual. Chatting about their lives. Talking about guys, or girls, or the new video game they played or what have they done over the weekend or what amazing lipstick they bought somewhere amounting to an absurd amount of money. They talk almost anything but one thing that caught my sense of hearing was the mention of my name.

I looked behind me to see a bunch of girls gathering around as if what they’re about to hear is very spicy news. I walked closer and Mikhael followed.

“Did you hear what happened at the gig last night?”

My insides went cold the moment I heard what one of them said. But I inched closer, hoping to hear more. I have to gather as much information as I can. That’s the reason why I am here, anyway. Judging from what the girl said, we’re currently viewing what happened after Jacob announced to the people in the gig last night that I am his girlfriend. I wonder what’s going to happen next.

Mikhael was standing next to me, not minding the students passing through him. He looked better compared earlier.

“Miro thought Sheira was head over heels for him when in fact Sheira and Jacob are dating,” said one girl. I don’t remember her name but she certainly looked familiar. Then I heard one of them chuckling.

“Why was Sheira there, anyway?”

“She was invited by Amelia. I saw them in the hallway the day before yesterday. I think it was that time when Amelia invited Sheira.”

One of the girls scoffed. “Don’t be ridiculous. Everyone in this school knows Sheira likes Miro.”

“That was a groundless rumor. You like Miro, too! I bet Sheira meant she admired how good Miro sings.”

Mikhael was nodding and looking at me, looking impressed. “This girl is defending you. Why aren’t you friends with her?” he asked. I looked at the girl. She looked familiar but I just can’t remember who she is.

“What I know is that, because of that rumor, Amelia started to feel threatened. She must have felt it would be easy for Sheira to get Miro since they’re in the same class. She invited Sheira to the gig and purposely had Miro humiliate her. But too bad for them since Jacob and Sheira are dating. That debunks all those rumors,” the girl said and I couldn’t be happier to hear how she defended me from the other girls who were probably her friends.

I was about to step close when I saw them looking in the same direction. And when I looked at what they were looking, I almost wanted to sink into the ground.

I heard Mikhael whistling beside me as he was looking at what I was looking too. He then looked at me and gave me a mocking grin. “Look at that. You two definitely looked like you were in love.”

It was me and Jacob walking down the hallway. Holding hands. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I couldn’t remember this happened. I never thought I could dare to hold somebody’s hand while on the school and I never thought I could get myself a boyfriend (though it was all pretend just to save my ass from humiliation). I never thought it happened and I didn’t feel weird about it. Or maybe I did. I must have been so good at acting that I look like I was in love while I look at Jacob and flash my sweet smile.

“How come you never smile at me like that? You almost look at me as if you’re moments away from snapping my neck.”

I just gave him a blank glare and he shrugged before looking back to the hallway. The closer I look, the more I could see that I wasn’t comfortable with the people’s stares. That has always been the case. And what Miro tried to do last night and what Jacob did to prevent it from drawing too much attention will be enough to have all the attention on me. On us. It was dreadful.

 The thing with high school gossip is that they make a big deal out of anything. Even the tiniest details. That rumor of me liking Miro was because I told my friends I like his singing voice. But then I really did like Miro Nile after that. Somehow, when the rumor started going around, I remember he started talking to me more often. But for someone like me who doesn’t like attention, I stay away from him as much as possible. I don’t want to be the main topping on their gossip dessert.

But as people say, the more you avoid something, the more you encounter it and would eventually lead you to do the things you most avoided. And that’s what happened to me, apparently, the next day of the gig. As I and Jacob were the only ones the students in the hallway were staring at. As if they’ve never seen us before. As if the news of me, Sheira Hart, having a boyfriend was too shocking they just couldn’t believe it. 

I mean, I wouldn’t blame them if that’s what they were thinking. Jacob is someone popular in the school. He’s an athlete after all. A basketball player to be specific. And I am someone average. There is totally nothing interesting about me. I am not saying this to fulfill your popular guy, not-so-famous-girl love story. I was really someone who just exists. I am not someone noticeable. I get good grades but not as good to be someone to be known because of it. I was just existing. I was satisfied with that. Not until that incident.

I looked at myself and Jacob walking down the hall as if no one’s watching them. They were talking about something and I could tell from the look in my eyes that I wasn’t even concerned about the students' observing eyes. I wonder how I prepped myself for it. Knowing Jacob, he must have suggested we continued the act because we already started it and convinced me to play along and to just act natural. But then I couldn’t help but think what kind of convincing did he do to make me comfortable while holding his hand. But I looked calm. I don’t look uncomfortable at all. And Jacob was smiling down at me for whatever I was saying and the rest of the students were gaping as they looked at us until we got into our classroom.

“Now that’s what I call interesting,” Mikhael said and walked towards the classroom and did not bother to wait for me.

I walked towards where the classroom is. All the students inside were clearly shocked by what they have just seen. But when I looked at myself and Jacob, they weren’t even minding them.

“You got guts,” Mikhael commented and didn’t mind him and just stared at them. I could have sworn Mikhael was about to say something else when suddenly, the surrounding started to get blurry and unrecognizable.

“Oh no, not again,” I heard Mikhael say before the surrounding went completely different and we were at the gymnasium. I staggered on my feet and looked beside me where Mikhael was almost kneeling on the floor. I felt nauseous once again. Mikhael looked at me and said, “I hate your flashbacks.”

“I could say the same but I have something to find out in this stop. Since we’re brought here, I am expecting to see something interesting that would help me have another idea as to how exactly I died.”

“I think I will die the second time if we go warping again. Please let this be the last one,” he mumbled as he stood straight. I could feel the nausea subsiding and I would agree with Mikhael. I don’t want to feel it anymore. Though it doesn’t last long, it certainly feels ten times worse than normal nausea. And I also hope this would be the last time we’re going to warp.

I took a deep breath before I roamed my eyes in my surrounding. It looked familiar and when I saw the tall trees and a couple of benches, that’s when I knew we were just at the back of the gymnasium. And Mikhael must have realized it too because of the obvious gymnasium building behind us. Then I heard him chuckled.

“What are you laughing at?” I asked and he just gave me a look as if saying ‘I know your secret’. I stared at him with furrowed brows and then the next thing I saw was him wriggling his eyebrows up and down.

“What the hell are you doing?”

He closed his eyes firmly. “I would suggest you stop muttering ‘hell’ because you might summon Mr. Grim number two and take us to hell.”

“But why were you grinning at me earlier?” I asked again. He then nudged me with his shoulder before he continued to grin so wide it almost reached his ears.

“I didn’t know you had it in you,” he just said and was still giving me his wide grin.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

He just gave me a smile before he roamed around the area. “We were brought here, at the back of the school’s gymnasium specifically.”

“And…?”

He stuffed his hands inside his pockets before he gave me a sideward glance. “That means something’s going to happen here.”

I looked around the place. It was quiet. It has always been a quiet place. I don’t remember going here often but I certainly do remember the certain marks on the benches as if I have seen them before.

“I still don’t get why you were grinning earlier,” I said and Mikhael just rolled his eyes.

“There are only two reasons or maybe one why people go to the back of the gymnasium, Sheira darling.”

I raised my brow. “And those are?”

“If they are hiding, or if they’re planning to do something interesting, or both.”

I stared at him, still unable to get the connection between his suspicious grin and the things he just said. Before I could even open my mouth to ask for more questions, we heard frantic footsteps coming towards us.

We both whirled only to see me and Jacob running towards the back of the gym. They passed through us and I looked at the two of them, confused. I couldn’t remember going here before but seeing myself catching for breath while Jacob was looking behind, I must have been here quite often in this part of the school.

“See?” I heard Mikhael whispered in my ear as I watched Jacob and me talking about something. I don’t know what they’re talking about and I couldn’t hear. I took one step closer but was instantly frozen on my feet.

I heard Mikhael give a low laugh as he, too, saw what was happening in front of us.

Jacob kissed me.

I couldn’t believe I was seeing it at the moment.

And as if it wasn’t enough, Jacob pushed me to the wall and kissed me harder. I felt the heat creeping on my cheeks and I heard Mikhael let out a low whistle.

“See what I meant earlier?” he said and I just gave him a glare.

“Why are you watching?” I hissed.

“Why would I deprive myself of such interesting sight? Oh, look at his hand,” he pointed towards where Jacob and me was kissing but I did not dare to look again.

“Stop looking, oh my god!” I said and pushed him away from there. I didn’t know. I don’t remember anything of that at all. But thinking about it makes me flustered. I never imagined kissing a guy but then I just saw myself in the past kissing my fake boyfriend! How messed up is that?

We both stood beside the gym, waiting for them to come out when Jacob said, “You look embarrassed. It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. And if it’s any consolation, at least you didn’t die having no make-out experience.”

I was about to tell him something when I heard my voice. I gulped as I realized they were done kissing and thought it might be safe to walk closer now and so we did. We walked close enough to hear what they were talking about.

“It’s been months since we started to make people in this school believe we were dating,” I heard Jacob said. And I was just looking at him, waiting for him to say what he’s about to say next. “We were so good at pretending, Sheira,” he said. “But I can’t pretend anymore.”

Mikhael crossed his arms and I could tell he’s enjoying whatever he’s seeing. I raised my brow. I don’t know what he would say but we just kissed and I have no idea how I consented to that in the first place.

But what Jacob said next shook my whole system that I literally froze on my feet as I saw him took my hand and squeezed it.

“Sheira, will you be my girlfriend for real?” 

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