Touch Me While I Taste You

40 Arabella Rivera A surprising heat slid up my neck. “Okay Mr. certified genius who wants to stay mysterious, enough of the wooing.” | cleared my throat while fixing a book in my locker.

Christian's bushy brow quirk up. “You call that wooing? Darling, you've heard nothing yet.” He joked.

| laughed. Christian was very different from Haiden. Whilst he was light and flirty, Haiden was dark and gloomy.

They weren't counterparts of each other, so different, yet somehow the universe jammed them together for the sake of its amusement.

“So what class do we have first? You've been hogging my schedule, so | didn’t get to have a peek.” Christian chuckle with amusement drowning in the depths of his eyes.

| scowled playfully. “I'm your tour guides o | have to have your schedule.” | drop m y eyes to the said paper and grin. “Oh you ves to the said paper and grin. “Oh you are going to love this class. We have Literature.” He narrows his eyes. “Why do | have a feeling that those words are colored?” | crinkled my brows. “Colored?” | asked. Was this a slang word from whatever part of the world he cfrom? From what he has told me, he had been to many, so he must've picked up a few slangs here and there.

He grins. “Yeah, like you've colored them to sound truthful but you're lying.” Christian then snorts. “And here Mr. Gibbern’s been boasting you.” “Hey that’s unfair! We don’t say that around here.” | protested and slammed m y locker shut.

Christian does too but chooses to close his softer than I did.

“Don’t get mad Ella, it's just a joke.” He winked and turned to me.

The bell rings, signaling the start of first period. “Shall we?” Christian asked with a smile carved onto his face.

asmule carved omis race.

| nodded and we made our way to the Literature class. We were supposedly early, being welcomed by only a few students. Mr. Boyd's face was tight as usual, lines angry even though today was Friday. But upon seeing the sight of a new student, his features switched so suddenly that everyone in the room got whiplash “Oh, a new student.” He states as he moves off the desk he’d been leaning on. He scanned his eyes over the room. “Not sure if we have space for an extra but we’ll have to work quickly on that.” He murmurs to himself.

“Have a seat........?" He gestures to the class and looks at Christian with a questioning gaze.

“Christian Hayes Sir.” Christian mutters, fixing the strap of the bag on his shoulder. Mr. Boyd ‘ahhs’ and nods.

“We don’t usually get transfers at the beginning of senior year but we're happy t o have you, Classes are tough but I'm sure you could keep up?” Mr. Boyd spoke as he scrutinize Christian intently.

scrutimize Christian intently Christian nods, a beaming grin stretching on his face brightly. “I'm sure I could!” “Great.” With a single nod, Mr. Boyd leans back on the desk and crosses his arms across his chest as he waited for the rest of the class to fill up.

Christian followsas | maneuver around the desks and chairs. Finally plopping down on a vacant chair, Christian follows suit and sits beside me. “The teacher seems nice.” He mumbles.

| snorted lowly. “Yeah, he is.” Mr. Boyd could be nice in his good days but that was rare as rain in a drought. On his bad days, which was mostly every day, the man spotted a scowl, one could identify miles away.

The classroom fills up quickly a few seconds later. Two chairs were missing. One wasn’t surprising the other hadconfused. | took my phone out of my bag and typed a quick text to Gwen.

Where are you? The message showed delivered but there was no reply was no reply “Okay, before we begin the class | would like to introduce our new student who has joined us today. Stand up Christian.” Mr. Boyd spoke loudly. | swiftly push my phone in my bag, not wanting to get scowled at so early.

Christian stands up, looking uncomfortable by the many eyes ogling a thim. “Tell us sfew things about you Christian,” Mr. Boyd suggested.

Christian clears his throat, tearing his eyes away from the teacher to scan them over the class. | wasn’t surprised that he had gained the attention of many girls. The way their eyes fogged up, | knew he could have them in his clutches if he tried.

“Uhm. I'm Christian Hayes. Transferred here because | needed to settle down. But don’t let my good looks fool you, | surprisingly have sbrain cells up in that big head.” He points at his head. The entire class laughs at his joke already telepathically accepting him.

He seems to fit in so well and he hadn’t even spent an entire day here.

He sits back down, sighing out a breath of sits back down, sighing out a breath of relief when Mr. Boyd starts the class.” That was weird and terrifying.” He admits, leaning towardsto whisper.

Which part? The many girls sending you goo-goo eyes or the fact that you're now a comedian?” | turn to him and narrowed my eyes playfully.”Because if | had srotten tomatoes, I'd feed you them on that big head of yours.” | joked.

It was strange how comfortable | had been with Christian when he hadn't been here for hours. It was like my soul was drawn to him somehow. Not romantically but platonically.

He sticks out his tongue, leaning away fromto lean his back on the chair.” You're very funny Ella.” He snorts.

Many minutes later, Christian's words about Mr. Boyd being nice had forced him to swallow it back after being thrown question after question. Not only that, M r. Boyd seem to want to work us until our fingers bruised seeing as he made us write a thousand words in only ten minutes. And | still hadn't gotten a text ‘from Gwen and class was soon coming to an end.

curente.

“Is something wrong?” Christian asked, lifting his head from the paper he had been writing on.

Iturn to him looking confused and cracked my fingers. “You've been looking at your phone every second like it would magically float any tnow.” He pointed out.

Being smart, | had left my bag unzipped and kept it on the desk. By doing so | was able to peek at my phone at any time. | guess | wasn’t so smart seeing that Christian saw me.

I forced a smile, yet the worry in my voice made it heavy. “Nothing. I'm just waiting for a friend to text back. Kind of worried about her.” | shrugged.

His eyes flick in understanding. “Oh | see. I'm sure she’s okay. Give her time.” “I've graded the assignment | gave last time. Spoems were good, while others were not. All | can say is, I'm very disappointed in this class. “Mr. Boyd started and takes out a stake of papers from his drawer.

TOMIS urawer.

His eyes fall on Christian. “Since you're new, I'll give you a day to bring it in.” He told him while starting to distribute the supposedly marked papers.

When he neared me, my heart skipped a beat. | hated the wait.

My stomach drops when the paper slides on my desk. It was crumbled slightly and dirty from how | gave it to him. But what madeupset and shocked was the bright red B written on the left corner of the paper.

| had never gotten a B in my life.

Christian leans towardswhen Mr. Boyd continues on his way. “I'm guessing you've never seen a B in your life seeing how shocked you are now?”H e jokes.

This must be a mistake. | made a mental note to speak to Mr. Boyd when | have a chance before the day ends.