Falling - Paige Cunningham (read book .TXT) 📗

I was, he had another girl in his arms. Not just any girl, Saffron Maxwell. They deserved each other and I wasn’t about to stand in their way. So after a moment of awkwardness spent standing there watching Saffron pretend to be helpless and Matt stare into her eyes, I took a step towards the class room.
“Oh, I’m so sorry. I must have tripped. I’m lucky that a strong man like you was here to catch me” Saffron spoke like a little girl, she was really taking advantage of this situation. Matt helped her to stand up straight but she still insisted in holding onto his arms. I wondered if she realized how pathetic she looked right then. I didn’t know about anyone else but watching her stroke his biceps make me want to be sick.
“That’s OK,” Matt said in a happy-to-be-helpful tone. There was nothing flirtatious about it. I didn’t think he actually realized what was going on. He must be pretty slow not to see such an obvious cry for attention.
“You should be more careful next time. Saffron isn’t it? Nice to meet you,” He gave her a smile but it wasn’t like the one he gave me. It didn’t quite reach his eyes, it didn’t make me want to give him a grin in return and it didn’t fill me with warmth. Saffron wasn’t impressed with his faux smile or his lack of interest.
“Yeah, Nice to meet you,” Her defeated tone gave me the impression that she had given up but before turning towards to class room she shot me a sinister look, making sure it was discrete so only I could see. Great, now thanks to Matt, Saffron was going to make my life a living hell. Why couldn’t he just like her or at least pretend to like her or even better, not look like he likes me? It was irritating, he didn’t like me. Hot boys like him just don’t like average girls like me, it just doesn’t happen. So there was only one other reason he was acting that way, he just wanted to annoy me and, to his credit, he was doing a good job.
“Some people need to get over themselves. She seriously thought that if she threw herself at me, gave me a compliment then bat her spidery, long false eye lashes at me, I would come running.” Matt laughed then shook his head in, what seemed like, repulsion.
“What?” I said it a bit louder than I meant but I was so very confused. He knew what she was doing and he didn’t do anything back.
“What, you didn’t think that I didn’t know what she was doing did you?” He asked in a mocking tone. I didn’t understand. If he knew that she was flirting why didn’t he flirt back? It didn’t make sense. ”Please Ang, I’m not that stupid. A blind man could have seen what she was doing.”
“Then why didn’t you play along then? Saffron would have loved that. I can see it now, you two together. I’m sure you’d make a good couple. Don’t worry though, you haven’t blown it, I’m sure she’ll give you another chance.” I said it seriously; I actually did think that they would make a good couple.
“I don’t think that I’d like kissing plastic” whilst he said it his face contorted into a look of disgust and I burst out laughing. Saffron was a walking, talking Barbie doll but I thought that only I saw her that way. I thought everyone else just saw her as beautiful despite that fact that everything about her was fake. Her skin was smothered in fake tan, her face coated in layers of make up, she had suck on fake nails and even her hair had extensions in.
“You on the other hand,” Matt took a step closer and I stopped laughing. Why did he have to say that? Why couldn’t we just be friends? Before he got any closer the bell rang.
“Saved by the bell,” I said trying to make a joke out of everything “We’d better get in there,” I rushed through the door before anything else could be said.

The rest of the day went by so quickly, it was like a blur. I was more than a little freaked out when I found out that Matt was in every single one of my classes. I kept telling myself that it was just a coincidence but it just seemed too planned to be a coincidence. Every lesson I was completely shocked to see him, even fifth period when I should have seen it coming, I was surprised to find him enter the class room. I made no effort to hide my astonished expression but when I looked over to him, he was fine. Like he knew that we would run into each other again, like he was expecting it. Thinking back to earlier, I realized that this is why he went to so much trouble to tell me that he’ll see me soon. I realised that my naiveté had given him pleasure. He was satisfied with the fact that I was totally unaware about what he had done. I didn’t know how he did it and I didn’t know why but he had gone out of his way to make sure we had the same classes.
Shaking my head, I realized how paranoid I was. It was a coincidence and I had just taken the whole matter way too far. I didn’t even need Rose’s voice in my head to talk sense into me because this thought was much too foolish to need her to talk sense into me. The last bell rang and I was incredibly glad to get way from this class room, get way form this school and most of all get far away from Matt.


3.
Walking out of the main building of the school a gust of wind brushed my cheek. After spending the whole day trapped inside a stuffy class room, nothing felt better than the cool touch of the autumn air. Taking in a deep breath, I savoured the refreshing feeling that it gave me. With that one breath, all of the worries, anxiety and paranoia I felt just melted away as if I never felt them at all. I was in no rush to get home, however I definitely wanted to get away from school. I was suddenly confused. I never felt this way about school. I mean, I didn’t like getting up early and some days it could by mind-numbingly boring but I never really minded it. This urge to get away wasn’t normal, especially for me. It was the first day of school and I already wished that it was the last.
I couldn’t figure out why I felt this way but I didn’t care, I gave into the urge and headed for my car. It took me less time to reach my car than I thought it would, considering how far away it was. I suppose I was in such a hurry to leave, I must have subconsciously increased my normal pace. I walked over to my car, just about to open the door when I saw Matt strolling towards me. Well, I thought he was strolling towards me but it turned out that his car was parked next to mine.
“Hey, nice to see you again,” He emphasized the word ‘again’ like he knew it would irritate me. All day everywhere I turned he was there, I couldn’t get away. How funny it was that just as I was about to make my way home, here he was again.
“Yeah, it feels like I’ve spent every second of the day with you” I said it in a cold tone so that it would come in loud and clear that I wasn’t thrilled about spending time with him.
“I must be lucky” After saying it he flashed me his Hollywood smile and nothing in his voice told me that he was being sarcastic. Oh, why couldn’t he just take the hint? I ignored the warmth that his smile gave me and just glared at him.
Another gust of wind sent my hair flying all over the place. When the wind had passed and the air was again calm, I pressed down on my fly-away hair hopping that I could flatten it out so it wouldn’t look that terrible. I imagined that the strong gust had made my hair frizzy and knotty, in my picture it looked like I had a bad perm, although I’m sure that I was just overreacting (like always). It was times like this that I wished that I was vein enough to carry around a mirror.
Matt stepped closer towards me. I wondered what he was doing or what he was about to do. I was too tired to protest, I just wanted this nightmare of a day to end and if that meant that I would have to let Matt stand a little too close for my liking so that he would let me leave, I would do it.
He stretched out his hand and I automatically assumed that, for some unapparent reason, he wanted to shake my hand. However, before I could reach out to return his friendly gesture, he raised his hand to my forehead. His fingertips grazed my skin, his electrical touch sending sparks through my body. He tucked a strand of stray hair behind my ear. His hand lingered by my cheek and he stared at me again. I hated it when he did that, he just stared. His eyes looked fascinated like there was something interesting about my eyes. He looked right through me as if I were transparent. At that moment the world around me disappeared. There was nothing, nothing but his eyes gazing intently into mine.
The resounding beeping sliced through the silence of the little world that his captivating eyes had created. It’s deafening sound breaking the barrier separating us from the rest of the world and awakening me from his spell. Turning away from Matt to see what had made the noise, I realized how long I had been stood there. The whole car park was empty – with the exception of the teachers’ cars and the few cars whose owners stayed late at school. I looked down at my watch and at first I couldn’t believe it. According to my watch I had been standing there for ten minutes. This couldn’t be right, the most I could have been stood there was ten seconds. I refused to believe it; I told my self that my watch was just wrong.
I continued on to see what had made the beeping. I laid my eyes on a blue ford coupe-cabriolet. Rose was sitting in the driver’s seat looking incredibly pleased and it didn’t take a genius to realise that her beaming smile was due to what she had just witnessed. My cheeks burned, hotter than I have ever felt and I can imagine that my pale face flushed to a bright crimson to match the burn. This