“I actually came in here looking for an empty classroom to skip History, but now that it’s been infested with the two of you, I guess I need to find another place to hang out now,” he called over his shoulder, sounding slightly annoyed, before stepping out the door and disappearing from their sights for the rest of that day.
Silence. The silence was deafening, and it crawled up Asa’s spine like an unwanted insect, making the hair on the back of his neck stand up.
The air was filled with so many unsaid words and jumbled thoughts, but none of them uttered a word, and to Asa’s horror, he could feel a barrier come up between him and Carmen. As if she was pulling away and placing rocks with jagged edges in the place where she used to be, right by his side.
Jagged edges that was cutting into him when he kept trying to step closer to her while she continued to stagger away.
“Carmen, listen—”
“You need to leave.”
The words were a punch to his gut, and it took everything in Asa not to double over in pain and heave for air.
“What?” he asked after a few breaths, uncertain if he’d heard what she said.
Carmen cleared her throat and stepped further away from him and closer to the canvas she’d been working on. “You were heading somewhere else for your spare, right?” she asked, picking up a brush and fidgeting around with a paint palette nearby. “Before I caught up with you in the hallway? So you better get going before you have no time left to be wherever you’d wanted to be in the first place.”
“This is where I want to be, Carmen,” he told her, clenching his fists by his sides.
“No, it isn’t,” she said calmly, slipping into her unfazed state. As if there was nothing that could shake her.
“How would you know?” he shot back, glaring at the back of her head.
He heard her let out a deep sigh as she carried on painting. Asa had a strong urge to tear the canvas in half and force her to look at him. “Fine then. But you know what I do know, Asa?” she asked. Asa noticed her knuckles whiten as her fingers gripped the brush tighter. He noticed the strokes in her painting become angrier, more forceful. “I know that art is my thing. It’s my state of peace, and I don’t like sharing it with anyone. If you would please be so kind as to let me have my alone time, I’d really appreciate it.”
Asa swallowed, keeping his feet planted to the ground and not letting her push him away. “You’re the one who dragged me into the art room with you, Carmen. You wanted me here, in your state of peace.” He took a few steps closer, holding his breath. “So, what happened within the space of a few minutes?”
“I changed my mind,” she said matter-of-factly.
“Don’t do this,” he said quietly, his voice almost getting lost in the space between them. “Don’t push me away.”
“You should probably let Willa know that I won’t be able to make it today after school,” she continued, ignoring his plea.
Asa scowled, the hurt now being replaced with annoyance. “Are you really going to be like that?”
Carmen didn’t respond, but her hand grew more frantic as she painted, her shoulder shaking violently with each stroke, as if she was pouring everything she was feeling into a painting that Asa’s eyes and mind could never decipher.
His eyes followed her hand, landing on an ocean the darkest shade of blue that it was almost black, which met with the sand that was a shade of gold he’d never seen before. He hadn’t the faintest clue what Carmen was intending to paint but a part of him could swear the ocean reminded him of Carmen’s midnight hair, and the golden sand, his skin.
Shaking his head and hoping it’d also somehow rid his mind of the thoughts that revolved around her, he grabbed his bag and walked out the door.
•••
Lunch was painfully awkward.
Asa was seated at his usual table with all the other swimmers and athletes surrounding him as they engaged in their own conversations. Some of the guys were laughing boisterously and slapping high fives, while the girls were huddled around a mobile screen, grinning about something they saw there.
Isla was at the other end of the table, playing around with her food as if there was no more energy left in her, as she just nodded along to whatever the vice-captain of the cheer team was saying.
Hunter was nowhere to be seen, so maybe that was one thing Asa could be grateful for.
But the air was still tensed, because everyone at the table knew Isla and Asa weren’t on the best terms right now, and it appeared as if everyone was forcing themselves to cover up the awkwardness by having unnecessarily loud conversations.
It also certainly didn’t help that a few of them kept sneaking glances at Asa and Isla every now and then.
“So, when’s the meet going to start?” Hayden, one of the basketball players, asked.
“What meet?” Isla frowned, looking at Hayden with confused eyes.
“The swimming meet,” Carson Williams replied. He was one of the lead swimmers, always on a tight competition with Asa.
Asa had enjoyed it at first, having found someone who was as good as he was, someone who he knew was a worthy competitor and made the sport all that more thrilling for Asa. Until he realised that the good-natured rivalry was only one-sided and that Carson hated
