Chapter 11: Rinette & Carlen

(Author's note: the chapter might be a bit long... have fun reading everyone! Hope you enjoy)

Should I be more surprised by Carlen being there or his indifferent eyes? The eyes are glowing right now. I have never seen anything like that, not even with people wearing lenses. His eyes are blue now, and it is glowing…

"Leave my-"

He leaves my hand before I finish my sentence. He has an uncanny expression on his face. I cannot read his face, nor can I describe it. If a gun were pointed at my head to describe it, I would describe it as a confused black cat. 

He seems worried about something or someone. I observe the uncertainty in his eyes. I am free now. However, he is standing in front of me like a brick wall. 

This sicko.

Why did I even go looking for him? 

Yes, to answer my questions. 

"I have some questions for you," I ask directly. 

He chuckles, and I feel something burn inside me. 

"Let us get back to the class now," he says. 

Oh! So now all of a sudden class is important to him. How amusing.

I grab him by his hands. 

"Tell me about the lost princess, tell me what conversation you had with Chelsea, tell me why she is acting so indifferent, tell me why she does not want me to be friends with you and your group-" I almost scream. I have NEVER been so impatient before. It is not anger, but a huge drive to know things. 

"My little princess, meet me at the terrace during recess," he says with a deep voice. That voice is something… I am pretty sure girls will be head over heels for this guy.

"We are not allowed to use the terrace during recess, also stop calling me your princess cause' I am not, and it makes me feel sick to my stomach," I say.

"I will take care of it…"

I am waiting for the way is going to address me now. 

He walks away leaving my grasp, he does not even address me. I guess it is better since I am uncomfortable with hearing the word "my little princess," with more emphasis on the "little" part.

He can be the most delusion man in this school, but he cannot call me "little," it makes me feel submissive to him. 

To think that I came all the way to search for him for him to leave me like this.

I can bear it for the moment, I only need the answers. It is a desperate curiosity now.

"Are you waiting for another low-standard boy gang to arrive so you can show them their place?" He says.

I look in front, he is unexpectedly waiting for me.

"You bastard," I say. I despise him, he has this air of pride that I can feel. 

I start to walk, he is a bit in front of me. 

"Mr. Orion will be suspicious if we both enter at the same," I say.

He does not reply. I give up on him, if he does not care why should I? We are near to the Physics class. To be honest, I just do not want to be in any sort of gossip. However, I know that I will be the top gossip if he and I enter together. High-schoolers love gossiping, not all but many.

Also, anything related to potential love interest spreads like fire anyway. Carlen stops and looks at me. He is waiting for me to enter. I nod, I do not know why I did that. 

"Oh Ms. Rinette is finally back, it took you long enough," Mr. Orion says. He has a bald head and is wearing male formals. He has like round metallic classes, and I never saw him without his watch.

"Yes sir," I say. 

I take my seat. I am pretty sure if any guy would have taken that long, he would have questioned him. However, sometimes teachers tend to go lighter on girls when it comes to washrooms because they think that we are on our periods. 

That is a valid reason, but it is not always true. I am a living example of it. However, I do understand that it can very much be the reason for being late. It is just how things are now. 

I take my seat, and I wait for Caelen to come. To my surprise, he does not.

10 minutes pass by, and he is still not there. 

The class is almost over. If he just wanted to skip today's class, he could have told me that time. 

Then a thought approaches my mind, he can trace me when he is not present physically.

How can I be certain that he is not here in the class?

He does have some pretty interesting skills to stalk people. I will make sure to ask about this as well. 

Now is the final 5 minutes of the class. After this, I have to go to the terrace to meet him during recess. I should be more cautious. The way he grabbed my hands back then out of thin air, made me feel a little vulnerable to him. 

I do not want to be vulnerable, especially to him. 

Just when I was having all the thoughts in the world, he appeared. 

He is… sitting right beside me… did the school just turn into some magic show without my knowledge? The more I spent time with him, I wondered how he could always manage to use that trick on me. 

He looks at me. I do not talk to him. He starts talking. 

"What kind of powers do you have?" He asks. 

Well. My friend. THAT IS MY QUESTION. 

"What do you mean?" I say back.

"All of the people in the class could see my illusion here while you went as far as going out to search for me because you were not fooled by my illusion," he says in a low voice. 

Now it makes sense why Mr. Orion did not pay a heat back then. As per him, everyone could see his illusion of attending the class. I am not just going to believe that because he says so. 

"Let me be honest with you, I have more questions than you think, but I cannot just buy whatever you say to me. Not being able to see your illusion? How can you vividly prove it to me that people saw you attending the entire lecture?" I ask.

"Do you think Mr. Orion would not have raised a question?" He asks me.

Wait so he does not mind if I am skeptical about everything and want some solid proof? That is again my FIRST time someone leveling up with my 'argumentative,' and 'curious' self. I find it a bit fascinating. 

"Well, he can just think that someone thought of skipping class that does not prove anything to me," I say.

Yes, you need to provide me solid proves where my rational mind finally surrenders. To this day, it never has. 

"That's true, well I can just ask a classmate then. That would be more validating to you, I will make sure it is someone we both do not have a connection with," he says.

It sounds validating but-

"How can I trust that the person YOU are choosing is not someone with an internal connection with you?" I ask.

"Well then… you can choose the person?" He says calmly.

That works. 

The class got over, I picked the person at desk 20, I do not know her name. However, I picked a girl only because a lot of girls got a crush on him, and as far as I know, people like to stare at their crushes during class. I am not saying that this girl has a crush on Carlen, but there can be a mere possibility of that occurring. I hold on to that possibility. 

She is a bit taken aback, I will not blame her. I never talk with other people other than Chelsea. I had tried to avoid it as much as possible unless some dire situation came up and people needed my help with their studies. 

I go to her with Carlen. I try to be as soft as possible.

"Hi! I am sorry to bother you, but what is your name?" I ask. It is kind of my curtesy to know someone's name if I do not know their name. I did that with everyone I decided to have a conversation with. 

Except Carlen I guess. Since I already knew his name from Elara, I did not find it important enough to call him by his first name. However, I do sometimes call people by their names… huh? I stop my overthinking brain. I am already exhausted. 

"Marie… Marie May, Rinette," she says. She knows me.

"Oh, nice to meet you! Can you help me with something?" I ask.

"Sure!" She says.

"Did you see Carlen attending the entire lecture?" I say pointing my eyes to Carlen's face so that she knows whom I am talking about. I cannot just assume that she knows him or has a crush on him, it is just a possibility I am holding onto. 

"Yeah! Why do you ask? He is seated next to you?" She says as if stating the obvious. 

"Oh, it's nothing! I hope I did not come up weird," I say.

"Well you did a bit, but it is okay. I think it is the first time you have ever socialized with people. You should do it more! You have always confined yourself to Chelsea, the friendship between you both may be pure but socialising is not a curse right? Also, it will help you in the real world," she says smilingly. 

Those warm words lower the anxiety I have been feeling for a long time. I do not know Carlen's objective but maybe this socializing is all I needed. Things are not smooth, there is a bundle of questions I have. However, I do understand a bit that confining yourself to one person is not the best thing to do.

I love Chelsea except for the fact that she did not talk to me after we entered the class, but whatever Marie just said makes sense to my rational mind.

"I will make sure that I do that from now on, can we be friends?" I ask… if I want to start my socializing journey, I want to start it with my classmates. 

The quiet kid inside me is still there, but I think this is for the better. I have accepted the fact that this academic year is going to make me push outside my comfort zone. 

"Sure! See you soon, Rinette," she says.

"Yeah, you too!… You can call me Rin if you like, it is kind of a nickname," I say smilingly. Hah… smiles… I am smiling for the first time today after a while. 

"Sure! Bye Rin," she says, and leaves for recess. I do not expect her to spend recess with me since we just started being friends from now on… Plus, it is better as I have to talk with Carlen.

Carlen was unexpectedly quiet, I did not come to make friends. The main intention was to ratify what Carlen said back then, and Marie did ratify it. I should feel defeated right? But then why I am smiling so much all of a sudden?

I turn around, and Carlen is there. He is staring at me… those bold empty black eyes… seem to have softened. His eyes are not blue either. I add up yet another question in my mind… a question about his change of eyes. 

"Well, I did not expect you to make some friends. You could have just said you wanted to make friends," he says. It is as if he is trying to mock me. 

"I did not come with the intent okay? I just happened to enjoy it, also I got what I needed," I say. He chuckles, this man is weird!… 

"I liked it," He says.

"What?" I ask.

"I like that you are breaking your shell to socialize and enjoy yourself," he says. 

Something inside of me is burning, I do not know what it is…

"Let us go to the terrace then-" I say.

I think he is inviting me to the terrace in private since his friend group left the class, and did not take the path to the terrace.

"Hmm… just know there are no recorders, speak your mind at the terrace, I promise to keep it a secret between us," he says and walks off. 

He speaks very coldly… and sometimes does not even speak.

That guy is a puzzle…

He moves his way to the terrace, and I follow him. 

-Thanks for reading-