Chapter Three
1889 Words
"Go on, what is that?" She cut in, showing interest in what he was about to say.
"I'm really sorry..."
"It's okay; just spill it out." She smiled.
"Okay, so I've been wondering, you know..." He tried to think of the right words to use.
"This school does not admit students in the middle of the semester, but they break the rules once in a while by pulling some strings when the parents of the students are influential. So, I was wondering how you got admitted to the school when there are a few months left until the end of this semester, because I know... No, never mind." He said.
"You wanted to say something; what is it?" She asked.
"It's nothing. Disregard that." He didn't want to say it because she might seem offended by it, although she had told him to share what was on my mind freely with her.
"No. You have to spill it out. I already gave you permission to speak freely, and moreover, you are the first person I got to talk to here, so basically we are friends, and as friends we have to know privy things about each other; not entirely but at least little." She said.
"Well, since you insist..." He dropped his spoon on the cafeteria tray and tapped his head to remember where he left off.
"Just say it," she said.
"Okay," He smiled, and continued.
"What I wanted to say is that I know your financial status based on what you have shared online and how you present yourself on the internet, and from my perception of your financial status, you are not really capable of pulling such strings." He anticipated her reactions.
She sighed and said,"How do you know that I am not capable of such a thing?"
"There was one time you wanted to release your song, but you were out of funds to do so. So, you posted on your page, seeking assistance and donations from your fans so that you would release it." I explained.
"This shows that you are indeed a die-hard fan of my music. This is actually the first time a fan is telling me something apart from my music." She said.
"You have no idea how much your songs mean to me."
"Thank you," she said.
He thought she stylishly ignored my question.
"Now to your question, I recently got signed to Yung B's record label, so..."
"What!?" He screamed, which made everyone turn their gaze towards them.
"What?!" He said again, covering his mouth with my hands to muffle the noise.
"Calm down." She gestured to him, beaming with smiles.
"That is a huge feat, Lauren. Congratulations to you." He spoke softly in a tranquil tone of voice.
"Thank you, and please, can you keep this a secret until I am unveiled?" She held his hands.
"Sure. Your secrets are safe with me." He winked.
"But why?" He added.
"Nothing much. It's just what the label told me. I'll be unveiled next week."
"Oh, that's nice." He smiled.
"So that answers your question, right?"
"Yes."
The bell for the end of lunchtime rang.
"I guess the tour around the school will have to wait then." He continued slurping the pasta.
"Yeah." She stood up.
"Why are you still eating? Do you want to be late for class?" She asked.
"You can go ahead. I'll be in class in some minutes."
"But..."
"Don't worry about me. I can't leave this delicious meal. It's been a long time since I've had a meal this delicious." He lied.
"O-kay." She gave him a weird look, and left.
She left him in awe and fury because she couldn't wrap her head around why he wanted to miss class because of a meal that she knew he would have eaten countless times.
"I can't just get the image of him eating like a glutton out of my head, like he has not eaten such a meal before. I mean, a student that attends this prestigious school cannot tell me that he has not eaten this common meal for a long time." She muttered in frustration as she walked to the class.
He ate comfortably, ignoring whether class was ongoing or not.
The cafeteria attendants furrowed their brows in disappointment at him from the servery counter as I ate the pasta, but I ignored them.
"Thanks for the sumptuous meal, miss." He thumped his finger at the cafeteria attendants as he left, after he had finished the meal.
His phone beeped from his pocket as he walked to class.
"Who could send me a message by this time?" He wondered as he fished it out of his pocket.
The call was from Wayne, his colleague at the mall where he did work.
Wayne begged him to cover for him because his father was hospitalized.
He accepted and wished Wayne's dad a quick recovery
"Let's see what lies ahead of me." He muttered as he was a few feet away from his class because I knew Mrs Jane wouldn't take his lateness to class lightly with him.
"Here we go," He breathed gaspily as he stood in front of the back door to his class as his heart beated rapidly, making thumpy sounds for fear of her reaction to his lateness.
"Whatever. Let's do this once and for all." He finally opened the door.
"And where the hell have you been, Jonathan!?" She screamed immediately when he entered the room.
He scratched his hair as he contemplated the best reply to give her while her eyes, including virtually all of his classmates', were fixed on his.
"I had a runny stomach, so I had to go to the toilet after I ate. I'm sorry, ma'am." He lied.
He heard Lauren scoff.
"A runny stomach made you late to class by... twenty minutes?" She checked her wristwatch.
Yes, ma'am." He rubbed his stomach like he was having a runny stomach again.
"Okay," she said, looking at him in disbelief.
As he sat down on his seat, Lauren looked at him, and he smiled back, but she shook her head instead and looked forward towards the teacher position.
"Why did she shake her head? Did I do anything wrong?" He wondered as he sat down before picking up a book from his bag to scribble down what he could from the Mrs Jane's teaching.
"Are you ready for the tour?" He asked her immediately after the bell for the end of class for the day rang.
"No, there's no need for that anymore." She replied bluntly as she stood up.
"Wait," He held her hand unconsciously.
"What's wrong? Have I done anything wrong?" He asked in confusion.
As his fingers wrapped around hers, she felt a tingling sensation that spread through their body. She felt a sudden urge to make him not to pull the hand away, because something about it made her sensational.
She stood there, frozen, before she finally came back to her senses— She didn't want to have anything with him anymore!
As much as she loved it whenever some parts of their bodies made contact with each other, the touch irked her, and as a result, she furrowed her eyebrows in disgust.
"I'm sorry." He pulled his hand away from her as he saw how she reacted negatively to the contact.
"I have to be somewhere. As you can see, I have been called repeatedly by this particular person. The tour can't be possible today." She showed him his phone, which displayed on the screen that she had an incoming call from an unknown contact, who was her driver.
She rarely saved contacts, but she was glad that her driver called at the right time.
"Okay. We can do that tomorrow, then." He said, before she left the class.
"I don't know. Maybe, maybe not." She furrowed her eyebrow and left.
He wanted to ask what he did wrong or how he upsetted her because he noticed that she acted differently towards him since he returned from break, in order to make things right with her and to restore their friendship to its previous state.
"God knows what changed her mood. Or is she one of the types whose mood gets triggered easily?" He wondered.
"Whatever. It's not like I'm moved by her nonchalance anyway." He shrugged off his worries and strapped his backpack on his back to leave the school.
He called his mom to inform her of the change of plan; to cover for Wayne at work.
"Come home early." She added.
"I thought I told you that tonight was my shift at the nightclub." He pointed it out.
"You did? I have forgotten, obviously. I tend to forget things easily nowadays." She replied.
"I think that comes with old age." He teased, beaming with smiles as he anticipated her response.
"You are silly," she chuckled.
"Who told you that I'm getting old or that I'm old? You'll be shocked if I decide to dress like a teenager someday." She added.
"Mom! You've been saying this for months. When will that day come exactly? Just accept the fact that you are getting old already."
"I reserve my comment until that day." She sternly said.
"Okay mom. Sleep early, and don't wait for me before going to bed."
"Okay son. But are you going to be good with the jobs?" She inquired in a serious and concerned tone.
"Don't worry, mom. This is not the first time I'll be doing the two jobs and going to school in the same day. I've done it several times, so there's nothing to be worried about." He explained to soothe her worries.
She sighed, said "okay," and hung up.
He was already in front of the school's gate after their call ended.
Unlike most students, his mom did not ask how he was coping or his well-being in school, not because she did not care but because she had a lot more on her plate than that.
She had advised him to drop out of school several times after his father's death, but he assured her not to worry about his schooling because he was going to sponsor himself and ensure that he finish his education, at least at the college level.
As he stood there, a Venza car drove by his front. Its shiny red color gleamed in the sunlight, and the chrome accents sparkled. It was obvious that it was a step above the rest, and he was drawn to it like a magnet. He imagined himself behind the wheel, cruising down the highway.
"Focus on your current situation first before fantasizing about it." He snapped himself out of the thought.
As the car drove by his front, his eyes met Lauren's. He waved at her, beaming with smiles, immediately after their eyes met, but she looked the other way, to his surprise.
"Why is this girl acting this way?" He wondered, still fixated on the position.
"This is the reason why I don't like being too nice and throwing myself at others, especially girls." He was furious at her snobbish attitude.
"Now, she has given me reason to stay away from here." He concluded not to throw himself at her again as he walked to the store to cover for Wayne.
- Writer
