"Ughh, why am I that stupid? I should probably just stop taking this way home altogether." Toru said to himself. He had dark circles under his eyes and tired face showing how tired he was and yet he forced to go to school as he needed to fulfill an attendance.
To be completely honest, he hated going to school. He would go in there and be known as stray without him telling them. Why? As they said, there's a huge difference between normal people and stray. An attendance report was their main core of thought to decide which one was which.
If that wasn't a complete idiotic thinking, he would've laugh at them altogether. But, part of it is true and he was the proof. Rather than blindly thrusting them with a fist, he would just let it flow as he made his way around the hallway, avoiding their gaze and possible confrontation with careful steps along the way.
He noticed someone was following him. A girl he saw out of his peripheral vision was not one of the girls from his class, as far as he remembered but he probably forgot.
Sighing, he pretended to not notice and sit down at his desk. He could see her yellow eyes curiously scanning him, she stopped and slowly approached him. "You sure got sharp eyes since you noticed me about few minutes ago."
"So, you admit to have been following me?" Toru asked, folding his arms in front of his chest and glowered at the girl in front of him.
The girl shifted her eyes casually before setting them back on Toru.
"Well, no doubt about it since you already know. But, in case you were wondering, I've been following you ever since I got to know you."
Toru rolled his eyes, "So? What is it that you want?"
The girl looked a bit surprised at his sudden attention. "R-Really?" She stumbled at answering and she walked closer to the boy.
"I thought it would be hard to approach you but I guess it doesn't."
Toru shifted to the side, nervously rubbing the back of his neck, clearly thought his decision was wrong as she seemed weird in his azure eyes.
"Sure." He said quietly.
The atmosphere seemed weird without whispers and the sound of footsteps. They finally found the answer. A teacher walked inside and telling to sit on their seat without caring what they did.
The girl quickly turned back around and moved towards her seat.
Toru took a deep breath, "Finally, it was over."
But he thought wrong.
"How annoying." Toru muttered, his eyes narrowing as he watched the girl from the corner of his eye. She was called Riley Byrd or Riley for short and transferred here during a midterm. She was quickly known as Princess in short amount of time by the class and captivated their eyes with her beauty, ignoring the fact of her ability or her status as a Stray.
Although, it's ridiculous but what annoyed him the most was how the irritating girl sitting not far away from Toru kept sending glances at him, sometimes turned away with a teasing smile whenever their eyes met as the rest of the class listened to Professor Austin lectured on about some Newton Law Theory they were supposed to be learning.
Azure eyes watched intently as Riley stuck out her tongue before she went back focusing on the lesson. He didn't realize that he was being watched as he's being called out.
"Anything you wanted to share with the class, Mister Toru?"
Toru flinched slightly as he met the Professor Austin's glare.
"No, Professor."
"Pay attention to my lecture unless you wanted to be kick out of class."
"Y-Yes. Sorry, Professor." He replied weakly as he sank low in his chair.
"This is the problem with Stray. They think they can do anything."
Professor Austin resumed his lecture, Toru looked away in embarassment and focused his attention on the man in front of him walking away.
The bell rang and class finally ended. Toru quickly walked to exit the class unaware of the girl marched up to him with a glint in her eyes. She grabbed his hand easily. Her grip isn't too tight nor too light. There's a gentle warmth coming from our intertwined hands.
He could see her hair basking in the sunlight so brightly and it mesmerized him so much it redden his cheeks slightly.
"Toru Niles," she called out to him. Toru shook his head and turned as he pulled her roughly down the corridor. He threw Riley's arm aside to back her up against the wall.
"What do you want from me? I don't know you nor do I want to. What is it then?"
"I wanted to be your friend, Toru Niles."
"What?" Toru's mind going blank. He didn't understand what the princess wanted with him, the scent of strawberry making his confused state felt into disarray.
"Friend. You do know that word, right?" She chuckled at Toru's reaction at the words.
"I-I'm sorry, I can't." Toru said, he turned and headed for the gate, leaving her without an ounce of explanation.
•
•
Meanwhile, Toru couldn't stop thinking of her. In just a day, she managed to get him distracted from his lesson. Sometimes, Riley's eyes held a mischievious feeling, though on occasion he caught her blatantly staring at him intently that made his heart almost stopped.
"What is it with her? Did I do something to her?" He thought he was going crazy but then shrugged it off as a mere interest of a girl on another Stray similar to her situation.
"I'm sure she will forget about it."
Soon, Toru will realized that interest will bloomed into a friendship. One that bind him tighter akin to a family.
Comments (0)
See all