Chapter 1
Hannah
Only a fool would choose her birthday to confess to a crush on a boy! By the way, it's not cool to do that!
The heat-emitting sun hung high above my head, and the heat evaporating from the surface was enveloping my whole body from bottom to top. Sweat slowly oozed from my forehead and scalp, and a bead of perspiration trickled down my forehead and down my cheeks, and finally settled on the white canvas shoes I was wearing. At last I drew a long breath and looked up at the man before me.
"Hannah..."
Ian parted his lips slightly, and the yellow sunlight shone through a gap in the leaves between his fair, silky hair. His fair skin glistened in the sun.
Wow, why is he so good-looking? He is the handsomest transfer student I have seen in my three years in high school, possessing a distinctive face and a mysterious and noble temperament. The girls at our school thought he was a teenager's version of Brad Pitt, but I think Ian's face has long since outgrown Brad Pitt. Since he transferred to our class, many of the girls, including me, have been smitten with him. I hereby declare that I am not infatuated. Furthermore, I have never confessed my feelings to any other boy, and he is the first one.
When, however, I saw by his expression that he was about to say something, what he was about to say seemed to be different from what I had expected.
"I'm sorry."
His voice was gentle but like a sharp leaf running through my soft atrium, and it took me three seconds to feel a slight tingling sensation.
Rejected, I looked blankly at Ian, not knowing what to do. The remaining consciousness in my head told me that I should turn away at once, or politely say something like that to him, all right, to ease the embarrassment. However, the sweltering heat trapped me as if under a transparent glass lid, and I could not speak or move a step.
"You're a good girl, but I can't accept you." Ian explained, "Because I'm not ready to start a new relationship. I've only been here for less than 3 months and I need a little time to get used to my new environment."
I wanted to ask him if he would consider being in a relationship with me once he's more settled in his new environment?
I never opened my mouth, however, to ask him the question; his eyes were as blue as the sky, he glanced about him, and he seemed to be in a hurry to get somewhere. I knew I should have ended the conversation, and I could feel the perspiration already gathering on my brow. Moisture welled up in my eyes. When I realized that it was my tears, I immediately thought to myself, “Oh, I can't let him see how embarrassed I am”.
"Hannah, are you okay?" A look of concern appeared on Ian's face, "I'm sorry about it if I accidentally hurt you."
"It's okay!" I quickly turned back to him, "I'm okay!" "
I quickened my pace to leave, and, in order not to let the tears fall at once, I looked up to the sky desperately. The golden sunlight stung my eyes, and there was a gap in my heart through which the blood was slowly oozing.
The first confession failed, and for the first time I felt the pangs of falling out of love.
I cursed Ginny as I went along. It was all her fault. It was all her bad idea! She knew I had a crush on Ian and encouraged me to confess to him on my birthday, which she said had a 99% success rate. OK, I admit it, I am one of the unfortunate 1 percent.
The heat of the sun made my brain dizzy, and as I walked slowly in the direction of the school gate, the figures of every passing passer-by grew dim in my vision, and a continual humming sounded in my ears. Just as I was about to cross the pedestriancrossing, a shrill horn pierced my heavy thoughts like a needle.
I immediately snapped out of it, only to realize that a white car was speeding towards me. I had no time to react; the next second, the car was right in front of me.
I was so frightened that I closed my eyes and accepted fate as it was!
For a few brief seconds, I thought I was about to be run over by the car, and I even feared for my life.
However, there were hands holding me in the darkness, and I felt my body being pulled to the right. When I opened my eyes, I saw Ian crouching by the side of the road with me in his arms. The white car that had been about to run me over smashed through the guardrail and collided with a large tree on the side of the road. Terrified passersby began yelling at the car's driver, and some of them called the police. A man in a black T-shirt rushed forward, opened the car door and violently pulled the driver out of the accident.
I saw that the driver's face was flushed, and his step faltered. He exchanged words with the man in black before being forcefully pushed to the ground. The man in black slammed his fist into the face of the driver, who would have been killed had not timely police arrived to stop him.
"Are you okay?" Ian's concerned voice rang in my ears, and I realized that he had just saved me..
"I..." I said, "I'm okay..."
"Are you really all right?" Ian stared into my face, "If you don't feel well, I can take you to the hospital."
"No, thank you." I wrestled my body out of his arms, "Thank you."
"Where are you going? Do you need me to drop you off?" Ian asked.
It was then that I remembered I had a part-time shift at a fast-food restaurant in the afternoon. I quickly stood up from the ground, but I politely declined his offer. If I continued to look into his face, the pain of my loss of love would only increase.
A uniformed policeman approached me and asked me to take a simple note of what had just happened. But after I had finished taking notes with the police officer, I saw that there was no Ian among the few pedestrians in the street.
He's gone!
Feeling frustrated, I hopped onto a bus headed to the fast-food restaurant, the wind blowing against my face through the open window. Everything that had just happened came back to me. I remember distinctly that the white car had passed in front of me, and I am pretty sure that Ian was not with me at the time, But how did he manage to push me away so quickly?
Just then, my cell phone rang, and it was a text message from Ginny.
Hi! Did you succeed?
I stared at the screen, sighed heavily, and answered a text message with my thumb on the phone's keypad.
It sucks! Don't even ask me why. And no more bad ideas to me in the future!
Ginny gave me a sympathetic look just as the bus pulled up. I put my phone in my backpack and got off the bus.
Tom's Fast Food was where I usually work part-time, and the owner, Tom, was a generous man. But since he transferred the fast-food restaurant to his nephew, business has soured. Not only was his nephew unbusinesslike, but he was a womaniser. Several waitresses could not stand his harassment and left. Fortunately his clutches had not yet reached me, and I could endure his squinting eyes now and then for the sake of wages.
Changing into my work clothes, I headed to the ordering counter to greet the next customer. When the door opened, however, I looked up to see three girls with name tags entering the store. One of them was a tall girl, with dyed red hair, a haughty air, and haughty eyes.
I knew that the red-haired girl's name was Gina, that her father was the mayor, and that she was the most prominent flower of the school. Two of the green-eyed girls behind her, one of whom was named Sophie, the other Lydia. They were all Gina's henchmen. Classmates at the school secretly nicknamed them the Princess Gang, because the three were not only privileged but also arrogant. Like many of my classmates, I also had my reservations about them, and although we were classmates, I rarely interacted with them.
After entering the store, they sat down at a table by the window, and Gina, after glancing at me, said something to the other two girls, and A few seconds later, both of them simultaneously made mocking remarks, which immediately made me uneasy.