Our Chaotic Love

”Told you shes mental. ”

”It was only a matter of time. ”

”I always knew there was something wrong with her. God, shes a complete psycho. ”

”Who the hell burns down their answer sheet in the middle of class? ”

”A crazy weirdo. LOL. ”

I could hear everyone around me talking in hushed whispers, their invisible fingers pointed in my direction. They were all under the notion that I had purposely set fire to my own paper.

”I don know how it happened! I didn do it! ” I cried out in desperation, hoping to drown the voices around me.

Ms. Vichy stamped the burning paper with her shoe, putting out the fire, but not before it had burned to a crisp, charring every sentence on it. She looked at me, dumbstruck for a few moments, before turning her attention toward the class.

”Silence! Im not giving you one extra minute. Stop yammering and finish your tests. ” Fixing her eyes on the boy sitting beside Stacey she cried out her instructions in an uncharacteristically high-pitched tone. ”Shaun, I want you to make sure they all submit their papers on time. Collect the papers and leave them at my desk. ”

”Ms. Vichy, I swear— ”

She cut me off mid-sentence and gestured for me to get up from my seat. My heart began pounding rapidly as I slowly stood up from my seat. They were all still looking at me, even though the whispering had stopped. I couldn decide whether I preferred their hurtful insults or this awkward silence.

”Lets take you to the infirmary. We need to get you checked. ”

”Im not crazy! ”

”I never said you were, ” Ms. Vichy calmly replied, taking my hand in hers and pulling me out of my seat. ”You have burns on your fingers. The school nurse will give you some first aid. ”

Almost immediately, I looked at my hand. My right thumb and index finger had indeed been burned, but I was in such a state of shock that I hadn noticed till now.

As I was leaving the classroom, escorted by Ms. Vichy, Stacey came after me. I felt a pair of eyes on me and instinctively knew they were Denvers.

”Becca? What the hell happened? ” Stacy asked, shaking me out of my thoughts.

”I…I uh don know. It just caught fire on its own. I swear I had nothing to do with it, Stace! ”

”Relax, it was just an accident. No need to get all worked up. ” Coming around to my right, Stacy quickly checked my hand and noticed the burn marks. ”Theres nothing to worry about. These are just minor burns. ”

Ms. Vichy stopped outside the infirmary and gestured for me to go inside. Stacey was about to follow behind when Ms. Vichy stopped her. ”Like you said, its just a minor burn. She can take care of herself, Stacy. You don need to constantly be around her. ”

I didn hear Stacy make any reply and quietly went inside to get my fingers treated. Our school nurse, Mrs. Saunders, was a middle-aged woman, with a chubby face and pale white skin. She had been here for as long as I can remember.

As soon as she saw me enter the infirmary, she raised her eyebrows, fluffing up her puffy white cheeks. ”Its you again. Why am I not surprised? ” she said with a look of feigned annoyance. ”What happened now? ”

Despite the way she sounded, I knew she was more concerned than annoyed. Ever since I joined this school 11 years ago, I hadn spent a single month without visiting the infirmary at least once. It wasn like I purposely got into fights or tried reckless stunts at the gym. In fact, I was far from being a reckless adventurer. The reason for my several cuts and bruises was in fact my extreme clumsiness. I was the kind of girl to bump straight into a wall while reading my favorite book.

Smiling ever so slightly, I looked up at Mrs. Saunders and replied, ”My fingers got burnt. ”

”What? Ohh, dear. ” Mrs. Saunders wasted no time getting me seated in a comfortable position on her own chair and quickly got to work with her first aid kit. She applied some strange-smelling yellow ointment on my fingers, which immediately had a cooling effect.

”Rebecca is there something wrong? ” she asked in a deeply concerned voice. She must have noticed the nervousness on my face.

”Im fine. It was just an accident, ” I replied, pulling back my hand.

I was still thinking about the accident and Denver. Wasn he reading some creepy old book? Earlier in the day, he had threatened to make my life miserable. I had a feeling that he was the one responsible for this freak accident. This guy wasn normal in any way, and I couldn even begin to venture a guess about who he really was. Perhaps he was an evil cultist or some creepy old wizard disguised as a muscular young boy. But why the hell was he after me? For the first time ever, I just wanted my life to go back to being as it was—plain and boring.

Mrs. Saunders would have continued with her questions if her phone didn ring. It was a relief to finally be left alone again. I didn want to share any more details with her. But it didn matter anyway. I knew sooner or later the whole school would come to know about it and label me as a psycho!

As soon as I got the chance, I got out of the chair and hurried towards the door.

”Ms. Vichy, I didn burn my— ”

I looked up, expecting Ms. Vichy to be standing outside, but it was only Stacey waiting near the door.

”You seem like youve seen a ghost. What happened back in the classroom? ”

I took a deep breath and chose to confide in Stacey. ”I didn do it. It was Denver. He is really some sort of crazy cultist or something. I even saw him reading some kind of grimoire, ” I blurted out.

”Whoa. Hold on now. Whats this about a cultist and a grimoire? You
e really overthinking it. ”

”Im not overthinking! How can my paper catch fire all of a sudden? ”

”I don know. Maybe it was the sun or there was some flammable chemical on it. You never know with our school, ” Stacey replied, rolling her eyes.

”You know what Denver said to me back at the canteen? ”

”What? ”

”He said he was gonna make my life miserable. ”

Suddenly, Staceys expression changed from mildly annoyed to dead serious. ”Just who the ** does he think he is? Ill teach him a lesson. ”

”Just stop! ” I had to step in front of her to prevent her from marching toward the classroom. ”Our whole class already thinks that Im crazy. I don want you to give them more reasons. ”

”So, Im just supposed to sit here and watch that homeless-looking douchebag mess with you? Thats not gonna happen. I don know who he is, but I don give a damn. He is not screwing with my bestie. ”

”Ill just have to avoid him for now. ”

”Becca… ” Stacey looked at me with anxious eyes and pressed her warm palm on my pale, icy cheek. ”Ill always be here for you. Theres nothing for you to be afraid of. Denvers nothing more than a bully and hes chosen to pick on you because you
e really too sweet and innocent. ”

I really loved Staceys caring nature. She always acted like my older sister and tried to shield me from all my problems. I wanted to believe what she was saying, but it wasn so simple this time. I had been bullied plenty of times in middle school, but there was something different about Denver.

Though he behaved just like a bully, but there was something about the way he looked at me which didn feel right. The fact that he knew about my parents as well, made this a lot more unsettling. I knew I was better off avoiding him completely, but a part of me just wanted to get to the bottom of this and find out who he really was, and what he wanted from me.