Chapter fourteen - Masked Man

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Parading through the corridors comes - surprise, surprise - Latoya Hernandez. I'm standing a couple of meters away, talking to Cody, when all the heads (including my own) turn to watch the Ice Queen. Horrifying is to find out that she's coming-

"Hi Loren," she says, her voice loaded with disguise. "What an awful color combination are you wearing today."

Stay calm, stay calm.

"Why thank you." I give her a polite smile. The girl is getting on my nerves already. Cody must've noticed since he squeezes my hand and holds it.

"Aw you are so cute. So Loren if you are so close to this guy, why don't you leave my Geoffrey alone?"

I gag, he isn't hers!

At the same moment she mentions him, we see him turn around the corner, after he was introduced by a sea of giggles and the smell of nerve sweat.

When he sees us he stops walking, his gaze shoving over all of us, making his expression change.

"See, now he's even disgusted with the fact I'm talking to you," she remarks, but she couldn't be more wrong.

Cause when I take a proper look at him, his eyes aren't on Latoya. They are fixated on me.

More specifically on the hand Cody is holding.

The expression his eyes held made me think about the night of his confession. After he confessed all those things about his mom, he let me hold him properly, something that meant the world to me.

When he pulled out of the hug, his face stayed close to mine as his eyes shone, the stars couldn't even compare to them.

He stared at me for a couple of seconds, before leaning in.

His lips were approximately two cm from mine when realization hit me.

He was going to kiss me.

Dear lord, he was going to kiss me!

And when I realized that, I took a step back, leaving him with the same look he was giving me right now.

I shook my head. "I don't think that's a good idea," I said calmly, in contradiction to the beating of my heart. "You're in an emotional state right now." He simply nodded, avoiding eye contact.

"Come on let's go home." I took the lead as I walked over to my bicycle.

The ride home was quiet and pretty awkward, same for the arrival. Our ways separated 'till late that night when I first went downstairs to grab a sandwich.

He was in the living room but followed when he saw me pass.

"Listen, Loren, I uhm," he started. I shut the fridge to be able to look at him. He was rubbing the back of his neck and looked extremely hot with his hair ruffled to all sides. "About tonight-"

"I totally understand," I cut him off, not wanting to hear the harmful words roll out of his mouth. "It didn't mean anything, I know." He nodded and I walked out of there, without my sandwich.

When I reached the stairs, I started to sprint. I slammed my door shut and silently cried into my pillow.

Just like I want to do now.

For some reason, I don't want him to see me with Cody.

I especially don't want him to see me holding hands with him.

And apparently he doesn't want that either, because he turns on his heels and disappears as fast as he came.

Latoya sighs. "Well he obviously wants me to follow him, I guess he wants to fool around behind the bleachers again." She flips her hair over her shoulder and follows him.

I throw Cody's hand away, making up some excuse that I have to go to the bathroom and text Lana to meet me there.

"Wazzzuppp." I hear as soon as I see her. I take a deep breath, preventing myself to explode.

Who does that Latoya bitch think she is? She can't make fun of me like that! She is the one that should stay away from him, she's the bad influence, not me!

"Latoya?" she guesses, I nod, letting my head rest against the wall.

Soon enough, a hand smacks my cheek in a pretty unfriendly way.

"Don't do that missy!" I curse for a while, rubbing my cheek. "Don't show her you're jealous, that's exactly what she wants."

"I'm not jealous!" I scream in annoyance and pure defense.

She intertwines our arms and starts walking towards the exit over to the grass.

"So is he going to go to the try outs?" She slightly changes the subject.

"I sure hope so."

The try outs are in a week and people have been talking about it non-stop. Flyers have been made, big campaigns have been set up and the guys from the team last year are being praised like heroes again.

One day, Geoffrey had been cooking in the kitchen when I entered. I stood in the doorway for a few moments, enjoying the spectacle in front of me.

Concentration looked good on him.

The small significant smile played on his lips, as he stirred into a small pot on the stove.

He hadn't noticed my presence until I threw the flyer on the counter. He looked up meeting my eyes for the first time. "What's that?"

"Look at it," I directed. He turned the paper around so the words weren't upside down anymore and read the first words before looking up at me again.

"Try outs?"

I nodded. "You should go."

Shaking his head he said, "It's been ages since I last played, I suck like hell and there is no way I'd be able to keep up with those guys."

"So what if you won't be the best of the team? You run every day so your physical condition must be okay. You're muscular and strong and you could work on your technics. I don't see a single reason why you wouldn't try."

"Well." He turned around to his soup - I think. "For starters, I made the captain of last year's sister cry and-"

"What did you do?" I gasped.

"I rejected her."

"Before or after you slept with her?" I asked, filled with distrust.

"I thought I already told you that I've only had sex with one girl since I moved here," he said.

"Well, apparently you lied." I was disappointed to figure that out. I thought he finally trusted me, and I that could trust him.

"Did not."

"Oh really? Than who was that tattooed guy talking about?"

"Who?" he asked while putting all his concentration in his cooking.

"The one time you yelled at me because I let him inside the house."

"You know I only yelled because the guy could've really hurt you, right?" Trying to prevent those words from sinking in and causing me to lose my breath, I quickly spoke again.

"Who was he talking about?"

"That's Latoya's brother."

"Oh, then what about the girl at the engangement party."

"We only kissed, nothing else. Here's one thing you should know about me Loren; I don't lie, not to people who matter." He turned around eying me again, arching his eyebrow. "Understood?" I nodded.

"Give me another reason then."

"Euhm, Brian." He didn't have to explain that one... "And I once got into a fight with the quarterback."

I smacked my forehead, why does this guy keep on getting into fights?

"Here." He turned back around to grab a spoon and put some soup into it, he faced me again, holding it above the counter. His hand was underneath the spoon so he wouldn't spill anything, "Taste this."

I bend forward so I could put the spoon into my mouth. "Careful, it's hot."

I let the hot soup slide down my throat, only to feel all kinds of delicious flavors into my stomach and unwillingly let out a moan.

My eyes snapped open at the embarrassing sound. He was staring at me with a smile. "Is it good?"

"Delicious." I nodded resting my head on my elbows on the counter. He was still holding the spoon and copied my posture.

The smile on his face grew. "What?" I chuckled.

"You- uh wait, just-" he reached out until his finger touched the corner of my lip, wiping away some of the dirt that got there.

He traced his finger over my lips to do the exact thing at the other side of my mouth.

His thumb then caressed my cheek, while his hand cupped it carefully.

His lip was moving as if he wanted to say something and my ears were opened widely, as if I wanted him to say something.

The connection between our eyes was like electricity colliding, creating lightening with all of its power.

It reminded me of the storm, when our lips almost met.

I blushed at the memory and decided to look away before I'd do something stupid.

"You want some soup?" He cleared the back of his throat.

He poured me some soup and without a word, I took my cup and made my way to the living room. The soup was incredible, the guy was talented, that's for sure.

I hoped that he'd cook for me more often, but that night we had a fight so I quickly threw that thought away.

When he came home that night, he had gotten into a fight yet again. His face was bruised as were his fists.

I was the one to open the door when Dwayne brought him home, since he couldn't even walk straight and had a lot of symptoms of a concussion.

"What happened?" I gasped as I saw his lifeless body hanging against Dwayne's.

"Some guys tried to steal our drugs," Dwayne explained as if that was a decent reason to start a fight.

"Hey could I drink some water?" he asked as if he was just coming around in the afternoon to get some tea.

I supported Geoffrey's weight on my shoulder and aswered with a loud and clear, "no." I then threw the door in his face.

"Fucking asshole," I muttered under my breath, not knowing myself to which of them I was talking to.

Laying him down on the couch, I heard him groan in pain and brought him some water and painkillers.

"Drink this," I ordered. He sat up and held his head in his hands. "Drink it." I became pushy.

"Jeeze Loren give me a break."

"No, Geoffrey, no, I won't give you a break!" I yelled, suddenly losing all of my patience. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

He ignored me, slowly sipping from the drink.

"You're ruining your life! One time someone is going to hit you so hard you're going to break something or even worse!"

"And then what?" he yelled back, jumping onto his feet. "Tell me what would happen if someone beat me into a coma for example?"

"Don't say such thing!"

"No, come on, tell me! Who would care? Who?" he yelled, his face was turning blood red.

"I-I would!" I screamed truthfully.

"Don't you fucking lie to me!" He threw his fists in the air. "You wouldn't care! No one would! I don't mean anything in this hateful world!"

"Stop talking shit!"

"I'm not talking shit and you know it! People don't give a damn about me! Not even my own mother!"

"That's crap! She cared about you! She sure as hell did!"

"Then why'd she leave? Why'd she kill herself if I meant a single thing to her?"

I gulped, she killed herself?

"So don't you dare tell me I matter because I know I don't!" With that he smashed his glass onto the ground, breaking it into a million pieces and sprinted upstairs.

I haven't talked to him since and it sucked like hell.

"Loren?" I got smacked out of my dreaming.

"Huh?"

"Are you hungry?"

"Don't you know me?" I grab her arm and lead her to the vending machine.

"So what are you feeling like today?" If a normal girl asks her normal friend that, it meant she was caring. But Lana asked it in a total different context.

"Obviously Skittels!" She puts her money in the machine.

"Too bad I want M&M's."

"But we ate that only yesterday?" I dramatize.

"So? I am paying, I am choosing." With that she ends the discussion and types the well-known number 35 into the machine.

"Hi Lana," a rough yet friendly voice says from behind us.

"Wes?" She gets caught by surprise which is odd, since we see them at school every single day.

"Ready for tonight?"

"What's happening tonight?" I ask, slightly offended that I didn't know what was happening tonight.

"Oh nothing, we're just going to watch a movie at my place," Wes explains.

"And no you're not invited," Lana adds.

They're having a date.

A date.

My best friend and a total bad boy player.

Dear Lord stand me by!

"So," I try to take away the heat from Lana's reddened cheeks, "try outs are in a week."

I try to make it sound like a regular statement, hoping a certain Geoffrey would say he's going to participate.

"So?" Dwayne's the one to answer.

"I don't know, maybe some of you are going to try it?" Subtle Loren, very subtle.

My attempts at making eye contact are being professionally avoided.

They all start to laugh, only Geoffrey's laugh is bitter. "And why'd we do that?"

"To attract attention from the cheerleaders?" I make it come out more like a question, since the coward obviously didn't mention considering going to the try outs to his so-called friends.

"The only one's attention I need is from you, sweetheart." Chester sends me a cheeky wink.

Now I've had enough.

I turn around, walking away, hoping Lana will do the same and won't stay for Wesley.

"M&M?" I take ten, eat them all at once and enter the building.

"Did you see that?" I yell when I was sure we are out of sight. "The guy is unbelievable, he didn't even mention it to his friends." Highly irritated, I take another handful and shove it into my mouth as well. "He's such a bastard."

"Never denied that," she mutters.

Then the bell rings, introducing us to yet another hour in hell.