Traces of Midnight Fallacies

CHAPTER FIVE

I silently stared at the peaceful field below. Some of the students are currently in their class, so I'm sure that no one will glance in my direction. The gentle breeze hits my skin. My lips crept into a smile every time I felt the wind blowing through my long, wavy hair as I stared at the field below.

Without any hesitation, I slowly let myself climb the parapet and found the perfect timing to jump from the rooftop where I was.

This life is useless. I don’t know how I got into this kind of situation. I feel like me and my life are only up to here. Now that I'm separated from my parents… I don't know where I put myself.

"What are you doing?"

Because of that voice that almost boomed throughout the rooftop where we were, I almost stepped back in my position because of shock. I didn't expect that my foot would lose its balance, the reason why I almost fell from my position. Fortunately, a hand gripped my arm and suddenly pulled me away from the parapet. I could feel my left cheek hitting his chest as we both fell to the floor.

From the moment I lay on his chest, I could hear its rapid beating. I could do nothing but feel that way until the man I was lying down with decided to push me away from him. My face almost sank into the floor when he removed me from lying over with him. He stood up quickly and irritably shook his long sleeve while I did nothing but look up at him irritably.

"The audacity of you to let me kiss the—"

"Are you trying to kill yourself?" his question made me stop.

Because of the sun's shadow above us, the man's appearance became dim to me. His face was dark as he stared at me and I knew it was just the result of the sun's shadow. I quickly got up from sitting on the floor to confront him. I could feel my heart beating faster when I saw his eyes and his innocent face that was now badly staring at me.

"L-Lawrence…" I said, heavily breathing because of panic.

He stared at me darkly before he smirked. I never stopped him when he decided to leave me shocked at that spot. I could do nothing but secretly hold onto my chest as I remembered what had happened earlier.

Lawrence Samchel Andrameda is the new transfer student in our class. He is often quiet and only answers when asked by the lecturer. He doesn't have friends in class because of his quietness and he automatically walks away when someone dares to approach him.

"He's arrogant." One of the students whispered about Lawrence when he passed by.

I could do nothing but pout and nod at the words I heard from them. I didn’t get too close to Lawrence because I knew, like them, he would also push me away from him. How could I come and flirt with him if he was able to sink me to the floor when I accidentally bumped into his chest? How could I possibly come and flirt with him if he was able to hurt me in stupid ways?

"I'm sorry," he said when he saw me quietly leaning on the railings of the corridor. "I know you were hurt when I pushed you."

"No! It's okay," I smiled sweetly at him. He wasn't even able to reciprocate. "I should thank you for being able to save me from committing suicide."

He took a deep breath because of what I said, so I couldn't help but feel embarrassed. "Don't do that again, Ms. del Real. Committing suicide will never be the way to escape your problem. Just… don't do it."

I laughed at how serious he was now. "Why? Are you afraid of losing me? Do you have feelings for me now?" I joked, which made him roll his eyes.

"You do have a boyfriend, so it's a no. And I don't even like you. You're not even my type," he said, which made my mouth drop because of amusement.

I quickly raised my head and almost lost my consciousness when my head bumped into the corner of the table where I was. I heard the giggles of my classmates who had heard me banging my head on the table above me, so I could do nothing but close my eyes to hide my embarrassment.

"What the hell are you doing?" Kevin laughed as he held the ice bag that he was patting on my head. "You know that you're under the table."

There was an earthquake that happened earlier, so my classmates and I decided to be careful in our actions and not panic, unlike the students from the other class earlier. I saw a few students come out of the building while my classmates and I became complacent and decided to just hide under our respective desks. The earthquake was not that strong, so we did not dare go along with some who panicked earlier.

"I don't remember and I don't want to recall it," I replied before I took the ice pack from him and caressed it to the right part where I felt that pain.

We stopped teasing each other when Nurse Shiera entered the clinic and smilingly presented me the pack of a pain killer that Kevin had requested earlier.

"Thank you, Nurse. But I don't need medicine for my headache," I said, but she insisted.

"Accept that, Charm. I know what happened to you earlier was more painful than yesterday."

"She lost her memory yesterday, Nurse. It looks like the one that happened yesterday was more painful than today, when she fell down the stairs," Kevin said as Nurse Shiera shook her head.

"The scar she got yesterday is not that much compared to when she bumped her head under the table today," she said before turning to me and smiling sweetly. "The head is more important, Charm. That's what you'll always remember whenever you have an accident."

The three of us ended up talking about my stupidity. Kevin, who was by my side, laughed again while Nurse Shiera smiled and listened to him. I could do nothing but keep quiet as I sat on the couch and thought about the dream I had earlier.

From the scenarios I have seen in my dream, I know that it is part of the memories of the woman inside my body. I know that the memories I have had happened in reality, so I'm sure that the memories I saw earlier were the first time she met Lawrence personally.

If that’s always the content of the flashback in my dream, what does it mean to me? Do I need to accomplish anything in this unusual world? Do I need to investigate all the people living with me here?

It's like a missing piece of the puzzle that I have to find and so that I can solve the reason why I'm here. Honestly, I have no other conclusion other than that the people here are completely different, unlike in reality that I still have to look intrigued just to be approached by others. I’m happy with it and that’s how I feel right now.

"You're so stupid, Charmaine," Celeste teased as Kevin told her what had happened earlier about my head. "You're probably the one who initiated to stay under the table because you're too lazy to come out!"

"I'm not the one who initiated it," I complained to her before I rolled my eyes.

My grip tightened on the towel wrapped around my shoulders. Celeste's gaze went down there, so I wasn't surprised when I saw her frowning while looking at that towel.

"What's with that curtain and you always put it both behind your shoulders?" she asked before taking a sip of the soda she had been holding.

Kevin sighed next to me. "It's not a curtain. It's a blanket, stupid!"

"I'm sorry, but it looks like a curtain to me," Celeste teased before getting serious again. "And cartoon character, seriously? What do you think of yourself, Kevin? A child? "

"I gave him that, Celeste," I replied, causing them to look at me.

I could see the shock in Celeste's eyes while Kevin was already smiling widely at me, which was probably the reason for his smile.

"I thought Kevin chose that design because he's weird," she said before laughing and shaking her head. "You're both weird, huh?"

We are currently taking our lunch inside the cafeteria. We expect a crowd of students to join us here for the lunch break. Some greeted us and that included the mean girls I met yesterday on the pathway. They were all smiling, the reason why I felt uncomfortable. Their smiles are rare because, based on their looks, I'm sure they are also bullying the students inside the campus.

"Cassie's group is completely different," Celeste said about the mean girls who passed by and greeted us. "It's creeping me out!"

I thought I was the only one who felt that horror every time they walked in our direction. I wasn't the only one because even Celeste felt that strange fear.

"Are they bad?" I asked curiously. Kevin and Celeste both laughed, which made me pucker my lips. "What's wrong with my question?"

"She's your f*****g cousin, Charmaine. Seriously? You don't know if she's a bad person?" Celeste asked laughingly.

That woman is my cousin?

I quickly turned in the direction of those mean girls and I almost bit my lip when I saw them laughing from a distance while teasing a nerd. Instead of focusing on them, I didn't expect to look at a man sitting at an empty table not far from Cassie's place. His attention was focused on me, so I could do nothing but avoid looking at him, especially when our eyes met earlier.

"I've noticed a lot of weird things about you, Charmaine," Celeste said as we walked back to class. "You don't pay as much attention to Lawrence as you used to. Have you been enlightened?"

"Yeah," Kevin added while still wrapping that towel around his back. "It seems like last week you were still crying because of him because he didn't accept the cupcakes you offered him," he added with a laugh.

"Do you think he's flattered now and you're no longer hanging around him?" Celeste asked as I shrugged before she turned to Kevin. "Or maybe he's still upset with Charmaine because of his plate examples? What you did is not a joke. He spent a lot of time just finishing one of those."

"What's with those plate examples?" I asked, confused, which made them surprised. "It's probably not a big deal if he does something new, is it?"

"Stupid-a*s!" Celeste shrieked, which made me pout. "In his case, the plate examples that you filled with juice, it took almost three months. You even witnessed how he poured his time into making his design, so don't be too naive about it," she said before she chuckled with laughter.

When we returned to our class, what Celeste said was already on my mind. I secretly glanced at Lawrence's chair where there were his plate examples that he hadn't finished until now.

Instead of going straight to my own chair, I went to his chair to look at and caress those papers.

"Celeste was right. It's not a joke that you poured your time into drawing it," I whispered to myself as I stared at his paper. "If I could just help you… I might have done it."

"What kind of help?"

I almost jumped because of shock and was startled to turn to see the man who was speaking behind me. To my surprise, I did not expect that my hand would hit the bottle of ink on his desk. My eyes widened as I watched the ink flow on his plate example for the second time. I could see the disappearance of its drawing because of the ink that flowed into his work.

"I-I…"

"Oh my God! Charmaine did it again!" my classmate on my side said.

Everyone shouted with laughter and Kevin was the one who led everyone. I don't know if he's really my friend or maybe he's just friends with me because he wants revenge for breaking up with him.

"You did it again," Lawrence said, causing me to turn to him.

His gaze was sharp when he threw it at me. I could do nothing but swallow out of fear before stepping back into my position when he decided to move forward to confront me. I was almost stunned when he stopped in front of me and handed me his plate examples that I had filled with ink.

"Is this the help you're referring to, Charmaine?" Lawrence asked as he stared darkly at the paper on our side. "To t*****e me for the second time?"

I shook quickly. "I did not mean it!" I said before I pushed him away and quickly ran out of our class.

I heard Kevin calling me from behind, but I didn’t look back at him because I had already started to run upstairs.

I can’t stand in a world like this. I know that everything here is just an illusion that I have to solve and to end my own life is the only choice for me to get out of this.