Why Can't I Hate You?

CHAPTER 10

MICHELLE

I ran across the corridor with a bundle of books pressed against my chest. School lockers all around me. I ran without a clear destination on my mind.

"There she is!" Someone yell from behind me. I don't turn or stop. Just keep running. Just keep running — I repeated under my breath. A bunch of people appear out of the nowhere, in front of me. I paused and turned to find myself in the middle of hundreds of people laughing with their fingers pointed at me. I pressed the books harder against my chest. My mother, Dominic, Judy, Ash and Elijah among the crowd, laughing at me with amusement.

"You're a useless piece of s**t. You don't even deserve to breathe in this world. Such a waste of space." yelled my mother.

"That's true. I give you a chance to dance with the boy you fancy and you blow it off?" Ash grimaced, "You are really not worth paying attention to." She shakes her head in disgust.

"Well, I am glad that she ran away. At least it spared me of touching the crap." Elijah glowered.

The cacophony of noises went on, getting louder and louder. I pressed my trembling hands hard against my ears, letting the books fall on the ground, shut my eyes hard and shout as loud as my lungs can support.

I snapped out of the dream, holding the bedsheets in a tight fist. My chest moving up and down rapidly. I pinched the bridge of my nose and pressed my eyes shut. My heart drummed against my chest. The dream was the same as always, but somehow it felt like the worst dream I've ever had in my life.

Once I sobered up, I got out of the bed. Judy knocked before pushing the door open.

"How do you feel today?" She gave me a small smile.

"I'm good. Thanks." She was wearing her office clothes. "You're going early today?"

"No, it's nine-thirty." I lost my mind.

"What!" I yelled, before checking the time myself. "s**t! Why didn't you wake me up?"

"You weren't feeling well, I thought you wanted to skip the day." I sighed.

"Okay, I'll have to hurry. I'll talk to you later." She nodded, and I ran to the washroom.

It's ten and I'm still at home. I should be in my first lecture in exactly thirty minutes. It'll take too long if I go by public transport. Judy has already proposed to use her car, said the voice. I know, but I walked out on her. Now if I go back and ask, she might think I am a selfish b***h. Just go! Don't overthink this. I hummed.

"What!" asked Judy. Did I hum loudly?

"Uh, nothing." She nodded and looked back at her phone. "Right, I better go." I walked out of the living room.

"Shelly! Why don't you use the car," I turned to face her, "just for today, if you like."

I smiled at her, "Thank you, Judy."

She smiled brighter than the sun, pleased with my answer. I chuckled. I accepted her car for a day, and Judy was extremely happy. People are really very confusing. Or, maybe it's just you who confuse yourselves. My smile faded.

I parked the car and rushed towards the class as reach twenty minutes late. I entered the building and tried to recollect the way to my class. Ugh! Why are there so many turns? Anyone could easily get lost in here. I wish Ashley was with me right now. Although, she proposed to wait for me at our usual spot — when I informed her I'd be late this morning — but I couldn't ask her to wait for me as I wasn't sure at what time I'd reach here. After taking say two thousand turns, I was sure I am lost.

"Michelle?" said a familiar voice. I turned to look at the person.

"Oh, my Gosh! Arthur! Thank God you're here. I got lost looking for class." Arthur chuckled.

"Come, Let's go." He said, stretching his hand to his left, asking me to walk first.

"You're late too?" I asked while we walked.

"Yes, it's a crazy story. You don't wanna know." He scratched the back of his neck.

"We've got all time till we walk to the class. I mean, seriously, either they need to provide directions or at least a map."

Arthur laughed and nodded, "True that."

"So tell me, what's your story? My reason is oversleeping." I shrugged. The last I checked time on my phone, it was three forty-five and I got up at nine-thirty. That's so not oversleeping, but what else can I say. I forced my mind not to think about the reason for my late sleeping or my policy of "no closing eyes."

"Well, you can say even I overslept. I was all ready and everything, and there were still fifteen minutes for me to start for college. So, I sat on my bed and listen to music." he paused for a bit. "I don't exactly know when I fell asleep listening to music." He looked embarrassed.

"Yeah! That happens to me as well, more than usual. I feel yuh," I said, punching his shoulder and earned a smile.

We finally got to our classroom and walked towards our desk. I took my phone from my pocket to check time. Only ten minutes of class left. Whatever Mr. Brant was lecturing about made no sense to me. I have to catch up with the class. I groaned internally and went to talk to him after this class and request him to help me out with what I've missed. Once the class was over, everybody left. I turned to Arthur while grabbing my books from the desk.

"Did that lecture make any sense to you?"

"Nope! Not a word." We both chucked. I better hurry to talk to Mr. Brant.

As I turned to get out of my desk, I faced the boy who was the last person I wanted to see today, and yet I was so relieved to see him. Elijah looked gorgeous, as usual, and wore all black today; black T-shirt, leather jacket, shoes. Only things that were not black were the blue jeans and his deep blue eyes, in which I got lost for a moment, until the glimpses of my vision returned and my body shivered with terror.

"Back off!" said Arthur, stepping in front of Elijah and I. His nostrils flaring.

Elijah didn't say a word or even move a step back, although Arthur stood right in front of his face. He kept shooting daggers at Arthur. If looks could kill, Arthur would be on the floor by now.

"I just came to talk to her," declared Elijah, not taking his eyes off of Arthur. Anger clear in his tone.

"There's no need for you to talk to her," Arthur replied with an equal amount of anger and attitude.

What is with them? This doesn't seem to be related to me. They look as if they could rip each other's limbs off. Ashley did mention that they don't speak with one another. There is definitely some story behind this hatred. There has to be. I need to know about it. Maybe that could help me with my situation. And how exactly?  my inner voice remarked. I don't know how, but I need to know more about Elijah. I need to talk to Arthur about it.

"Arthur." I placed my hand on Arthur's bicep and pushed him back slightly. Elijah's eyes immediately darted away from Arthur's and lingered on my hand on Arthur's arm. His expression was unreadable. Elijah's eyes meet mine and what seems like pain and disappointment flashes in them. He swiftly turns around to dash out of the classroom, leaving me utterly confused. After Elijah left, Arthur turned to face me while scratching the back of his neck. He appears to be deep, I thought.

"I, uh, we better leave for our next classes," he says and I nod.

My next class is theater. It's something I am good at, usually. But given the drama that's been going on since I've reached Seattle, I cannot think straight. I tried to shun everything, turn my chattering mind off and concentrate on my classes because I was late for a month, and from day one, I've been profoundly sidetracked. It's unlike me. I'm usually good at these things. Focused and have a plan. Maybe that trait only worked while my mother was near me. I fixated the thought of no side tracking on my mind. Let's see how long that lasts, I rolled my eyes at her snide comment.

My third lecture is Literature. The thought of having Ashley beside me cheered me up for a bit. She had been constantly checking up on me. Yesterday, after I ran out of her house, she kept calling and texting me. Even this morning, she called me to check if I was okay. I think I owe her an explanation. Not the actual explanation, but at least the same one which I gave to Judy. Ashley rushed towards our desk once she spotted me.

"Hey, are you okay? What happened yesterday?"

"Yeah, I am fine now. I was feeling kind of nauseous yesterday. I am sorry for barging out."

She looked at me frantically, but said, "It's okay, you are fine now, that's what matters." She pressed her lips in a straight line while caressing my shoulder.

"And, hey, um, I would sit with another friend, today, for lunch. Will that be okay?"

"Yeah, sure, why not?" we both exchanged smiles. I want to sit with Arthur today for two reasons. One, I need to stay away from Elijah, no matter how difficult it is. I wonder why is it so difficult, I mean, it's hardly been a week since I've met him, and, two, I need to get some information from Arthur about Elijah. He clearly knows more about him. Perhaps that information can help me stay away from Elijah.

During lunch, I spotted Arthur after I have collected my food. He seems to be preoccupied with his burger. A scowl takes over his face when his burger breaks while he was chucking it in his mouth. I chuckled before walking towards his table.

"Mind if I sit with you?" he looked up at me, holding the burger with both hands.

"Sure!" I grabbed a chair beside him.

"Why do you sit alone?"

"Well, I read somewhere that people can die choking on food. Therefore, I prefer sitting alone, so I don't talk to anybody." I looked at him for a while, totally blank.

"You can't be serious." I lowered my eyebrows.

He laughed loudly, pointing at me. "Jeez! Look at your face." I rolled my eyes and my eyes fell upon the table right across from us I hadn't noticed before. Elijah wasn't sitting with Ashley and her friends, he was sitting with the group he sat with yesterday. Elijah's eyes fixated on us, especially on me. He was rubbing his temples with one hand. Maybe he has a headache. His eyebrows knitting together, and hair messy as ever. He constantly tapped his foot against the ground, not taking his eyes off of us, even for a second.

My eyes laid upon the short-haired blond beside Elijah. She kept touching Elijah's arms and shoulders, probably to calm him down. But it would be a lie if I said she wasn't bugging me. Blood rushed in my veins at an enormous pace and I made a tight fist with one hand while I bit my nails off the other to control my anger. Arthur was observing me and my actions carefully, but did not say a word. I almost forgot my reason to sit with Arthur and for now, I don't give a f**k about it.

I averted my eyes off of that girl and Elijah, who was still glaring at us, to look at the rest of the people at that table. Each of them looked profoundly familiar to me. Especially that blond girl I saw her before, with Elijah. I instantly recalled the dream I had on the first day of my college. My first dream of Elijah. Those people were in it. They all were discussing something and the blond one was with Elijah even then, clung upon him. How can I possibly dream about people I hadn't even met with? I had not even noticed them on my first day here. How can I dream about them? Was that even a dream? My subconscious questioned. It might have been a vision like the one you had yesterday. She might be right. I might have had a vision of them. There's no other reasonable explanation than that. All of this makes little sense. Right!

"Are you going to eat?"

"No, I am not in a mood." I said, looking at Elijah.

For the first time in a while, Elijah averted his gaze off me to look at the empty plate in front of him. The girl rubbed Elijah's forearm before interlocking her fingers with Elijah's. My blood boiled. A raucous sound resonated throughout the cafeteria when all the glasses on Elijah's table exploded at once, spilling whatever was in them all over the place. I did not know how that happened, but I was glad it happened as that blond jerked her hand away from Elijah's in surprise. There was pin drop silence all over the cafeteria. Every head turned to look at the source of the strident noise.

Though I was delighted with this incident, I couldn't ignore that stare I received from Elijah and Arthur. Arther looked at me, perplexed and mad, and Elijah just appeared to be acutely astounded. Why are they looking at me like that? Did I make this happen? Well, it's easy to believe.

Nobody seems to have noticed the strange incident other than Elijah and his group, and Arthur, as the rest of the crowd resumed their respective businesses and the discordance had returned. Arthur caught hold of my wrist and before I had time to say anything, he pulled me out of the table and stormed out of the cafeteria, dragging me along.

"Arthur!" I protested while he flounced into the lobby, "Let me go!"

"Just shut up!" he roared.

I tried to loosen his grip on my wrist with the other hand. What's gotten into him.

"What - What happened? Arthur, leave my hand."

He took a deep breath before increasing his pace. I tried to get out of his grip and he kept ignoring my constant protests all the way till we entered the parking lot.

"Where are you taking me?" he kept quiet. "Answer me for God's sake!"

"LET HER GO!" bellowed a voice from behind of us. One of my favorite sounds minus the anger. Arthur stalled in his tracks at once. We turned to find Elijah standing at about fifteen feet apart with his hands buried in his pockets.