I+K (Part-5)

(A/N: Calling myself a writer feels so preposterous, but here is more of those cringey one-shots I keep dousing my blog with. I'm not going to pretend that this is the last one. But maybe it is. Don't get your hopes up. It's still as cringey as ever. Enjoy!!!) 

The week leading up to Halloween is never a happy or an easy one. For a coward with a boyfriend who loves pranks, it's a Herculean task. Especially for a coward who has Kai-the prankster himself, for a boyfriend.

Don't even get me started

“Aaaahhhhhhhhh!” my screams echoed, bouncing off the walls of the empty classroom I was in.

“Hey...hey. I'm sorry. Look, please. Please stop screaming. Hey, Isabella. Can you please stop….please.” he kept begging, his face blanched and brows creased with worry.

“Aaaaaaahhhhhhh!” I replied, yelling my guts out. I was still covered in the fake blood that he had thrown at me as a prank.

“Please, I'm begging you. I'll be slaughtered. Please let me go. Just give me a second chance” he implored.

I was having none of it. I wasn't going to forgive him. He deserved punishment. And I kept screaming.

For a girl my size, I was doing pretty well with the screams because a minute later I had the principal, a couple of teachers, the janitor and half the senior year student body at my doorsteps. Somebody threw open the door completely, to let the population get through. And as soon as the principal entered, I stopped screeching and promptly burst into tears, that I had been holding back.

The principal took one look at me and turned purple with rage. “Mr. Thomas Riva, please explain yourself, right now.” he growled, effectively shutting down the whispering that had started behind him.

Tom looked scared, and I saw him swallow. “Errr, sir---you see. It was just a harmless prank. Halloween’s coming up soon, I was just trying to lighten the mood around here---you know.”

He looked around the crowd that had gathered searching for Kai. If only he knew where Kai was right now, he would have thanked his lucky stars and begged the principal to suspend him for a week straight until the holidays started. Kai was too busy writing an AP chemistry test in the other building where my screams wouldn't have been heard.

Tom was lucky, I'd say, if he got sent home right now as a punishment. Because if he were to wait till the end of the day, he might not even make it home without a walking stick. And if he was very unlucky, which he seemed to be, since he was getting pulled by the ear as the principal led him and me to the office, all that would be left of him would be a large red splatter.

I took off my glasses and tried to wipe away the sticky, red liquid dripping down from it, wondering what it was.

“Tom?”

“Huh?”

“What was that red thing you threw at me?” I asked, worried what my mother would say about the now ruined salmon pink shirt I'd borrowed from her today.

“Some poster paints, water colors, acrylic paint, animal blood and water.” he shrugged, wincing as the principal let go of his ear to hold open his office door for me.

“Uh huh.” I nodded nonchalantly until I realized what he'd just said.

“Oh my god! Oh. Oh my god.” I exclaimed turning on him. “You--you idiot. I hope Kai hears about this. You very, very evil person.” I reprimanded.

The principal reached out and pinched Tom's ear, making him yelp, before letting go and sitting down. I stood next to Tom, not wanting to ruin any of the chairs. The principal turned to me with sympathetic eyes and gestured for me to take a seat.

“I don't want to ruin school property sir. I'm alright.” I offered, my voice sounding harsher.

“I insist Miss. Winters. You have been traumatized enough for today.” he replied.

I reluctantly sat down at the edge of a chair, trying hard not to get the red stuff on it.

Tom followed only to have Mr. Meyer, the principal give him a sharp look.

“What do you think you are doing?” he asked, his eyes narrowed at Tom.

“Uh...sitting down.” Tom replied, taking a seat beside me.

“You don't get to sit.” growled Mr.Meyer.

“But I'm not the one covered in animal blood.” he argued, but took the bait and shut up a second later.

The door to the principal’s office opened and Ivan stepped in, took a proper look at my state and immediately stepped out.

“Hey, Ivan! Wait!” I called after him, excusing myself and following him out.

I hurried out of the office till the end of the corridor before being pulled aside.

“Who was it?” thundered Kai, who'd suddenly apparated out of thin air.

I let out a weary sigh.

“Tom.” replied a voice for me instead.

“Ivan!” I scolded. “Seriously, he's already in enough trouble. I made sure that he will be punished. Justice shall be served.”

Ivan flashed me a stern look. “You never did anything to him and yet he harassed you. You deserve revenge.”

“Walking the path of nemesis is never a solution for anything ever.” I advised wisely.

“Whatever you say.” Kai relented.

I and Ivan both looked equally astonished.

“You're going to do nothing?” Ivan questioned, still seeking confirmation.

“Nothing at all.” replied Kai.

I smiled at him, proud of his decision.

Ivan looked like he wanted to protest but he didn't speak any more and walked away.

That left me and Kai- who was looking at me with an expression of intense curiosity.

“What?” I barked, wondering what I looked like as an aftermath of Tom's prank.

“Come, let's get you cleaned up.”

With that he grabbed my hand, not even bothered by the fact that it was wet with the liquid, and dragged me along.

One floor down, I realised he was leading me to the boy's gym locker room.

“Hey hey hey!” I protested, digging my heels into the floor to make him stop walking. He arched an eyebrow in question.

“I can't go in there.” I explained.

“I'm not taking you in. Just grabbing you a shirt to wear. Didn't you say that you were taking your gym uniform home for laundering, yesterday.”

I gave him a sheepish look when I realised that he was right, and I'd forgotten all about it.

“What about pants?” I asked. My jeans were ruined as well.

“Ah…..that is your problem now. My gym shorts won't fit at all.” He answered before walking into the locker room.

In the meantime, I decided to check the girls locker room to see if there was a pair of shorts lying around somewhere that I could borrow.

“Hey. What are you---what happened to you?” asked a very horrified looking Kate, who had been putting on her cleats.

“You look like your period lost its way!” she remarked, giving me a once over.

“More like a murder scene from the Saw.” added Sally, who had excavated her whole locker and thrown everything that had been inside onto the floor, searching for something.

“Halloween prank.” I replied not going into details.

“What is that?” Kate enquired, walking closer for a better look.

“Don't ask. Trust me you don't want to know.” I warned backing away.

She wrinkled her nose and went back to her shoes.

“Can I borrow a pair of pants?” I asked, hoping one of them would be kind enough to lend me one.

Sally nodded and pointed to a pair of shorts she'd thrown on her pile, a few seconds ago.

“Take them, they're clean and don't fit me. I got them in the wrong size.” She explained.

Finally done with her cleats, Kate stood up, ready to go and Sally joined in a second later after having stuffed everything back into the locker.

“We have extra practice because we missed it yesterday.” they explained. “ We'll see you later.”

With that they were gone.

I walked over and picked up the shorts she'd left me, to check their size, when the door opened behind me. Assuming it was the girls, I didn't bother to turn or talk. Footsteps, that weren't that of a person wearing cleats, echoed behind me and I turned, right at the moment he yelled “Catch.” as Kai threw a tee shirt at my face.

“You can't be in here. Go away.” I whisper-shouted, hoping nobody outside had seen him coming in. Otherwise he was going to be in huge trouble.

He shrugged it off and settled himself on a bench. Making himself comfortable before surveying his surroundings. I huffed but decided to ignore him as I went into one of the showering stalls and locked myself in.

“If someone catches you, you'll be in trouble.” I yelled over the sound of the shower as I stripped off my clothes.

He tsked in answer. “You worry too much. I'll take the blame, Sugar. Chill out.”

Ten minutes later I was dressed and out. And Kai was taking an inventory of all the things he'd found on the floor.

“A watermelon flavoured chapstick. A single neon pink sock with blue glitter on it. A hair tie. Tissues. An empty box of tissues---hmm--and a copy of Oliver Twist.” he muttered as he walked around the room.

“Oliver Twist? Might be Ann's. She was searching for it everywhere yesterday.” I remembered.

He turned to look at me, slightly surprised.

“That was fast! Why do all the other guys keep complaining that their girls take forever?” he asked, slowly walking towards me. His eyes raked over my now clean and clothed body as he took in the appearance of me wearing his shirt.

“It's huge.” I complained, a smile plastered on my face. It was big, but really comfortable and it smelled like him.

“You look cute enough to bite right now.” he muttered under his breath, his pale lips pulled into a half smile.

“Uhh--how was your chemistry test?” I asked instead, not knowing what to say and immediately regretting it.

My subconscious face palmed hard enough to knock itself out.

“Say something sexy. Say bite me, stupid.” it urged.

“It was great.” he replied, before putting his hands on my waist and pulling me towards himself. I raised myself on my toes, held the side of his face before planting a kiss on his cheek.

He smiled, I couldn't see it up close but I saw the dimple crease into his cheek.

Just then the bell rang, signaling the start of recess.

He laced his hands with mine and we sneaked out of the locker room before anybody could catch us, and made a run towards the cafeteria.

The cafeteria was already brimming with a hundred teenagers walking around, some grabbing food and some grabbing their friends. Kai tended to sit with his friends from the soccer team, he often told me it was to build team spirit and loyalty. I wasn't exactly a fan of everyone at that table. Some guys were just downright mean to me, so I avoided them as much as I could.

But today was a particularly bad day it seemed because Kai wasn't letting go off me that easy, he was worried that I'd be pranked again.

So I grabbed his sandwich and settled myself between him and Ivan.

“I heard you got pranked by Riva?” Mason asked, from across the table. “I heard he threw blood at you or something.”

I nodded but kept eating.

“Somebody told me that you were crying like a baby and were begging for help.” Mason continued, knowing that it would irk me.

I flashed him a glare but didn't say anything, not wanting to start a fight. But that idiot was totally asking for it today, because he refused to shut up.

“Oh I also heard that you were so scared that you wet your pants and cried for your mother.” Mason added.

From the corner of my eyes, I could see Kai, gripping his spoon hard, trying to rein in his anger. Even Ivan looked like he wanted to jump across the table and tackle Mason. I took action instead. I stood up and quietly walked away from the table.

“Oi coward, you running away already? The truth is painful love.” someone jeered from behind me.

I didn't bother to turn back and simply left the cafeteria. Seconds later, I heard footsteps running behind me. I turned only to have Kai crash into me and both of us collided into a locker nearby.

“Gah!” Kai groaned, trying to sit up.

“You are digging your elbow into my stomach Kai!” I howled into his ear, to get him off me.

He winced and rolled away, before standing up and offering me a hand.

Once I was on my feet, I threw him a questioning glance.

“I didn't beat him up.” he explained “ because you said you didn't want revenge.”

That made me smile.

"So you wanna go and eat in the library instead?” Kai offered. This kid knew me so well.




We were sitting next to each other, in complete silence, munching on sandwiches while reading after having begged the librarian to allow us to eat there. It felt nice to be spending time together, without talking. Kai had a paperback copy of ‘The fault in our stars’ balanced on his knees, with me leaning onto him from the side with my thick copy of ‘Anna Karenina’ resting in the crook of my arm.

Every time he laughed, his whole side vibrated causing me to erupt into giggles with him.

“Kai?”

“Mhmm?”

“Do you think I'm a coward?”

“No Isa. You're one of the bravest people I know.” he replied.

“How? I mean, I get scared easily and never watch horror movies and I always run away.” I wasn't brave by any means.

“Sugar, being able to watch horror movies without wetting your pants doesn't make you brave. Conquering your fear of heights, just to save an injured bird single-handedly, does.”he said, ruffling my hair.

I scooted out of his reach, before looking at him this time.

“But I wish I was, you know, brave enough to watch a ghost movie sometimes.”

I wanted to prove that I wasn't a scaredy cat like everyone thought I was. I really wanted people to stop looking down at me.

“Who said you aren't? Just watch one. I don't think that you would be as scared as you had been when you were 8, anymore.” he said, rather encouragingly.

That put me in high spirits so I vowed to watch a horror movie all by myself.




So far so good, I thought, as I grabbed my bowl of cereal as we had no popcorn and turned on all the lights in my room. I double checked to see if I had my flashlight and my backup flashlight on my bedside table. I'd even grabbed a spare bulb for my lamp despite the fact that I didn't actually know how to change it. But I, being the optimist, believed I could figure it out in case of an emergency. Also I'd read the instruction manual a bunch of times and it promised that I could work it blindfolded and still nothing could go wrong. So grabbing my laptop, I made myself comfortable and pressed play.

I was halfway through the movie until I realised that I had to stop it there. It was creeping the hell outta me to the point that I was quivering.

So I shut my laptop, tucked it under my bed and pulled the blankets over my head.

But I couldn't calm myself at all.

My mum had was on a night shift schedule this week and it was 1 in the morning, which meant I was going to be alone for at least 4 more hours. Frightened and trembling, I picked up my phone and called the first person I could think of. It rang for 2 long minutes till I'd almost given up hope that he was awake, when a sleepy voice answered at the other end.

“Isa?”

“Kai!” I whimpered despite myself, I was shaking like a dry leaf caught in the wind.

“Isabella? Are you alright? Is something wrong?” he asked, sounding more alert.

“No. I'm---” I hesitated. Was this worth disturbing his sleep? It wasn't.

I should probably just hang up and pretend I accidentally sleep-called him or something, I thought.

“Isa? Please kid, say something.” He sounded worried. I could hear him shuffling around for his lamp.

“It's….nothing.Everything's perfectly fine. I accidentally called you instead of mum. Go back to sleep. I'm sorry.” I replied, hoping that I sounded convincing and my voice wasn't as weak as it sounded to my own ears.

He sighed, accepting the lie. “Alright. Go back to sleep, sugar. Goodnight!” he'd hung up, probably eager to go back to sleep.

I exhaled through my mouth trying to relax myself.

“All you have to do is close your eyes and fall asleep. Easy as that.” But my brain had other ideas.

‘Can you hear that? That scratching noise at the door?’ my subconscious started.

“I bet it's just the wind or the---.”

‘Or a murderer sharpening his knife at the door.’ it supplied, rather unhelpfully.


And then they all ceased to exist. 

The End.




(I think even I'm tired of how consistent I am at not completing my stories. They never make it past a certain point and then I end up with a million pieces that are basically useless, but I'm too sentimental to let them end up in a trash-can. You bet I have five half-filled notebooks, stashed under my bed at home containing more such 'sentimental trash'. Half written out novels and terrible poetry. That's the story of my life. Also my writing used to be so influenced with the YA I read, mostly woven around white characters and American highschools. I really can't relate to my own writing sometimes. Maybe that's why I ended up with two-dimensional characters and null writing inspiration so often. Hopefully, the next time I post something, it'll be a part of a completed story which is more me than all these chick-lit one-shots, considering that I complete the one I'm working on right now. Until then--ciao!!!)

(My wannabe attempts at being fancy are so much more cringey. *awkward laughter* ^-^)



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