Chapter 4

When I woke up, the sunlight that was shining through between the curtains stung my eyes. I immediately closed them. It hurt. I blocked the sunlight with my left forearm and glimpsed at the clock on the wall in front of me.

It was 5:20 AM.

I didn't know how long it was needed to take for me to get ready or what time I needed to depart. It was my first time here in this neighborhood and it was counted as a new place for me so I didn't know how long it would take to reach Cateral High. I figured I should just quickly brush my teeth and take a shower before Tyler leaves.

"I don't even know if he'll fetch me there," I mumbled and sighed as my hand ran through my hair.

I flipped the blanket over to the side and got out from the bed. I found my luggage lying there on the floor beside the bed and opened it, rummaging through the clothes for something that was right for me to wear to school. After picking a simple white t-shirt and a blue jean, I got out of the room with a towel and the clothes I needed with me.

I heard the sound of water when I entered the hallway and I knew that Tyler was in the bathroom. I wondered why there wasn't any bathroom in each of the room if this was such an expensive apartment. I decided to settle myself down on the floor beside the bathroom door and waited for at least eight minutes before I heard the sound of the bathroom door opening. I looked up and to my horror, Tyler was shirtless. I quickly turned away and covered my face with my hands. I heard him sigh. I guessed he didn't expect to see me right early in the morning. Well, it wasn't like I wanted to see him too. I'd rather claw my eyes out than to look at him. When I could sense that he was walking away, I peeked through the space between my fingers and saw that he had his towel on his head. I know it sounded like I was afraid to look at Tyler's body but it was not just him that had this effect on me, any guy that was shirtless would had made me react that way. I quickly stood up and entered the bathroom.

***

I exited the bathroom after brushing my teeth, showering and putting on my clothes. I went back into my room to search for my school bag in the luggage. I was glad that I left my books in the locker at school. It would have been really troublesome and annoying to bring them all the way here. After finding it, I got out of the bedroom and walked slowly towards Tyler's. I leaned my ear against the door, trying to check if there was any sound in there. There was silence for a few seconds. I prayed that he was still in there. I didn't want to be abandoned and not get to school on time. I knew I could take a bus but I didn't even know where the bus-stop was.

I got my ear off the door and decided to knock on the door. I called out, "Tyler?"

There was no response.

"Tyler, are you in there?" I knocked once again.

When I realised he had already left, I ran towards the door of the apartment. Just as I opened the door, coincidentally, I saw Tyler just entering the elevator. I quickly slammed the door shut after me, rushing towards the elevator.

"Wait!" I shouted.

The elevator door was almost closed when I clicked the button with the arrow pointing down. Luckily I was on time as it opened again. I saw Tyler on the left, with his hands in his pocket. He was looking at me, clearly feeling annoyed. I quickly got in and stood on the right.

I crossed my arm while staring at the elevator's door in front me, scowling. If staring could burn or melt something, the door might had been damaged by now. I could feel the elevator moving at that moment. No one actually spoke for awhile.

I was really frustrated. How could he just leave without saying anything?

"You should have waited for me," I said, breaking the silence.

"Why should I?"

I looked up at him, giving him a glare. "What do you mean, why should I? I don't even know where I am. How am I supposed to get to school?" I said, showing him that I was mad.

He was facing towards the door of the elevator too before turning to look at me. "Why should I wait for someone I don't even know," he stated.

I felt something boiling inside me. Was he trying to get on my nerves on purpose? "Just so you know, I'm not familiar with this neighborhood at all. How am I supposed to know where the bus stop is? Do you expect me to walk around the whole neighborhood searching for it?" I could see he was going to respond but our so-called conversation was interrupted when the elevator stopped for people to get in.

The elevator was soon crowded by the residents and we could no longer continue our conversation. There were both guys and girls our age and just as usual, the girls were glancing at Tyler. They were whispering into each other's ears and giggling. I rolled my eyes, wanting to laugh. Pathetic girls are pathetic. If only they knew how Tyler really was, they wouldn't be as awestruck as they were now.

When we reached the ground floor, Tyler got out of the elevator first, followed by some of the people in front of me. I practically started squeezing through the teenage girls that was trying to follow after him so I couldn't lose sight of him, or else I would be left alone here. While squeezing through, I realised that I could actually ask the residents where the bus-stop was. I didn't need to run after Tyler. In the end, I discarded the thought, thinking that it was actually kind of scary getting on the bus with unfamiliar faces and I didn't even know if the bus would be going to right place.

After leaving the apartment building, I spotted Tyler getting into a silver BMW M3 Sedan. I quickly ran after him. As soon as I got there, I reached out my hand to grab the handle of the car door. My heart sank. The door was already locked. I unconsciously tried to open it a few times again.

"Hey! Let me in!" I shouted while banging on the window at the same time. He had started the car engine before rolling the window down a little.

"Don't you remember the rules?" he asked, not looking at me.

I stopped and tried to remember what the rules were but I couldn't get why he asked me that.

"Yeah, and?"

"People will start gossiping if they see us together."

I gave him an incredulous look. Crossing my arms, I questioned him. "Why do you care so much if people start gossiping?"

He let out a sigh and turned to me. "I hate troublesome things and getting involve with you is already one."

What? Excuze-mua. I should had been the one saying that to his face. I didn't even want to see his face, let alone getting involved with him.

"Well, you can drop me off at that petrol station not far away from Cateral High. No one would see us," I suggested. Whoo, I realised how smart I actually was.

"None of my business. You're still someone I don't know." With that, he started rolling back up the window before saying that the bus-stop was just next to the playground, not far away from the apartment building. Once he drove away, I started growling and then screamed. I could sense the residents around turned their head towards me, looking bewildered. I shyly walked away and searched for the bus-stop.

***

I finally reached school, getting off the bus and feeling enraged. I wanted to vent my frustrations. How could he just abandon me there and leave without looking back? Oh, that guy. I felt like punching him on the face.

I walked into Cateral High, surrounded by both seniors, juniors and freshmen with my fists clenched. After two minutes of walking through the school's hallway, just like usual, I found my locker. I wasn't surprised when I saw who was there next to it. It was Dianna who was grinning before rushing to me once she spotted me.

"Who is it? Who is it?" she started, following me towards my locker. She was clearly excited. I knew that she'd get disappointed if I told her that Tyler was the one. Not answering her first, I unlocked the code on the lock and opened the locker, taking out books that I needed for the rest of the school hours and putting them into my blue Adidas shoulder bag. "Do you want me to guess?" she asked, not getting the idea that I didn't feel like talking about it at the moment. I sighed. Closing my locker, I walked towards the class I was having in a few minutes. Dianna started naming the names of the guys in our school on her fingers as she came along beside me. "Steven Hemston, Ryan Winter, Peter Stinson, Harry Willis --"

"No, Dianna." I answered.

When we reached the classroom, she was still naming all the guys in our school. I couldn't stand it any longer so when we finally settled down on our chair, I told her who it was and what happened. She had this surprised yet amused look on her face during the whole conversation. I made sure to lower down my voice so no one could know this. Just as stated in the rules Tyler written down, he didn't want anyone to know about us living together. I didn't know if Dianna was an exception but I tell her everything so I guessed just as long as Tyler didn't know about it, I wouldn't care.

***

Dianna and I headed towards the cafeteria when the school bell rang, indicating that it was break. One of the reasons why the both of us were so close was because we had the same classes. It's impossible not to become friends. We were already friends in middle school but we got closer once we entered high school.

While I was venting my frustrations to her, I saw a familiar face among the students and I let out a sound indicating that I felt disgusted and showed a disgusted look on my face. Dianna turned towards where I was looking at and chuckled.

"You know, you look really ugly now," she said. I smacked her on her arm.

"I don't care how I look. He's coming towards us." I nodded towards Tyler's direction.

"Remember, you're not supposed to know about this, okay? Act like how you normally act."

She laughed. "Alright, Claire. You don't have to be so afraid."

I stopped on my tracks and stared at her, surprised. "What? You're wrong, Dianna. I'm not afraid at all. This is not what you call being afraid. This is what you call not wanting to find trouble," I replied, emphasising every word.

She was still laughing but stopped when I saw her nodding her head towards someone and I knew it was Tyler. I turned to look and he was just right in front of us, talking to his friend, Ethan Ericsson. He was also one of the good-looking guys in this school. He was totally the opposite of Tyler though. He was known as the school's playboy and also, like Tyler, a heart breaker. The only thing that's different between Tyler and Ethan was that Tyler breaks girls' hearts by being rude and turning down their confessions while Ethan accepts every girl confession and breaks their hearts by breaking up with them after he got tired of them. I guessed arrogant guys do fit with one another.

He walked past us, not even glancing at me and I was glad. Glad that I wasn't involved with him in school. You don't know how scary his fan gir -- I meant, admirers are if they found out we're living together.