Chapter 26

THE HALLWAYS WERE rife with "vote Callie for prez, can't go wrong with a Faction One in charge!"s and "you guys need a hot guy to represent the student body, vote for Lucas"s. Against the barbaric behaviors of unnamed faces and flyers being shoved in my face, I finally arrived at Room 513, Block Augustine. Calculus class.

Ms. Elliot was already at her desk, despite it being ten minutes before class time.

My seatmate, Jaxon was surprisingly not present. I don't think I can recall a time he had been later than me for this dreadful class. Ms. Elliot was wearing a smirk on her face as her manicured fingers stroked the stack of papers before her. I belatedly realized that we had a test today.

Shortly after my discovery, Jaxon entered.

I turned to him as soon as he sat beside me. "If you let me copy off your test I'll do anything for you."

Jaxon, slightly out of breath, didn't immediately respond to me. He took his sweet time to arrange Calculus Volume II along a line of ballpoint pens before he deigned to meet my gaze. I watched as his left eyebrow slowly raised.

"What were you doing last night?" He asked in a cautious tone.

"Just please - help me this time. I, I can't afford to fail this again." I peeped on Ms. Elliot as I said this, relieved to realize that she wasn't paying this suspicious conversation any attention.

Jaxon shrugged. "Copy at your own risk. This conversation never took place."

I grabbed his wrist, flashing him smile to convey my gratitude.

He seemed caught off guard, with his gaze casting downwards at the sight of olive skin against pale skin - a combination that could work. He brushed me off with another shrug. There was definitely something on his mind.

The moment the 8:00am bell rang, Ms. Elliot locked the doors and proceeded to hand the test papers to us. When she was done, she returned to her spot to stare at her alarm clock for several seconds. When she said "go", the uncapping of pens along with the rustling of papers met my ears.

I leaned against my chair, inhaling, exhaling and clearing my mind to the best of my ability before uncapping my own pen and labelling the paper with my own name. The were ten questions in total, with the first three being do-able, kudos to my own hard-work and Jaxon's tutoring.

However, fourth question wasn't something I was very familiar with. I wasn't a newbie when it came to cheating on tests. There was a rhythm - one that you could grasp given enough observation. For example, I knew Ms. Elliot took thirty second breaks to stare at the mirror at the back of the classroom with each round she made. In a few seconds, she would be reaching the mirror and I would have half a minute to discreetly peek at Jaxon's paper.

Jaxon wasn't putting any effort to conceal his answers from me. He was working on his second page, which put his first page on full display, with answers that I needed for the fourth question.

Peering through my peripheral vision, I managed to paste Jaxon's answers on my own paper with little effort. Then I decided to copy the fifth question, then the sixth.

By the time Ms. Elliot's alarm rang (signalling the end of the test), I was positive that I would acquire a good score. I handed in the paper with a beating heart, hoping no one saw me cheating. Consequences for cheating at Richmond Park Academy cannot be light.

Hushed conversations surrounded me as I stood up, gathering my possessions. An arm rested on my shoulder, prompting me to turn around. I was slightly disappointed to realize it wasn't Jaxon.

"Hey Emily," I greeted my ex-seat mate, the girl who had to move one row behind to accommodate Jaxon.

"I totes saw what you did just now," she said, wide eyed.

The size of my eyes mirrored hers.

But then she brushed it off with laughter. "Nah, who cares? YOLO."

I laughed awkwardly, unsure what to respond.

"Hey, we're having a Halloween party like this weekend," she said. "You need to come."

I frowned. "Is it going to be in the forest?"

"Oh no," Emily leaned in. "It's in the old gymnasium, the one that is haunted."

I took it in with a nod. "Oh."

"Come on," she grinned. "It's gonna be fun. It'll be like, a chance for you to dress like a skank without anyone judging. I mean, last year, this guy totally went nude and no one judged him or anything."

"I'll think about it," I told her, before leaving the classroom.

I was supposed to have Literature class right now, but class was canceled because the teacher had personal matters to attend to. So I found myself roaming school grounds as I tried to find a solution to my money problem.

It wasn't like my parents would pay for the bribe. Five million, what the fuck was I thinking? Should have just gotten myself expelled and then run away from home to work some odd job in some secluded state up north. I groaned aloud, deciding to kick the cobblestone ground.

But I kicked too hard and tripped in the process. Next thing I knew, I was on the ground with a scrape on my knee.

"Fuck my life," I looked around quickly to make sure no one saw me. Sadly someone saw me, and he seemed to be laughing.

"What's so funny?" I grumbled as Jaxon made his way over to help retrieve my books from the ground.

"How did you trip on your own foot while standing on flat ground?" He asked once he had sobered up and regained composure.

"Shut up, Jaxon," I grunted out as I eyed the scrape on my knee that had accumulated gravel and blood. It didn't hurt yet, but I had enough experience to know that this was the sort of thing that would only haunt you in the shower.

"I feel like this is the first time you actually said my name aloud," he said after a while.

"Shut up, your name is just a pretentious spelling of Michael Jackson's Jackson."

"I don't think I've ever heard that pickup line," Jaxon marvelled with this faux surprised expression.

"Why do girls like you?" I complained. "You're such a sarcastic ass."

As I spoke, I felt something wet sliding down my knee. Upon closer inspection, I saw a crimson trail. My first reaction was to bend down to swat the blood away. Jaxon made some kind of noise as he tried to stop me, muttering about bacteria and shit. Then I realized he was probably right about the bacteria part.

So I stood back up, stared at my now bloodstained hand, and then wiped it on Jaxon's forearm. I don't think we've ever been more intimate.

He shot me an unamused expression, before deciding to drag me to the nearest restroom, which was the male restroom. As I limped (it was starting to hurt) towards the restroom, I began consciously worrying about CCTVs.

I protested, "Isn't there a nurse in this school?"

"They're gonna do the same anyway," Jaxon said as he closed the door behind us. I calmed myself down by telling myself that this was an emergency and... the school probably wouldn't penalize me for this. Besides, it was Jaxon's idea. Not that we were up to hanky panky.

I first noticed the urinals, before I noticed the row of sinks - or more specifically, how high the sinks were. Then I caught sight of the cubicles with bidets. Dare I?

Jaxon seemed to think the same, as he guided my limping ass to the nearest stall.

It was small, and made for one student; a detail both of us seemed to miss out when we had the grand idea to wash my wound here. I inhaled shakily. If Jaxon was nervous, it didn't show. He just told me to lift my foot and rest it on the rim of the WC.

I did as told, with a lot of shifting and brushing against each other. Adrenaline made my blood rush, I couldn't tell if it was from the thrill of hurting my knee of being in such close proximity with Jaxon.

His hands brushed against me again as he bent down to get the bidet. I lifted my skirt so it wouldn't get wet. If he liked the creamy skin of my thighs, he didn't show it. I inhaled teaspoon-like breaths as he allowed cool water to run over my injury. My eyes were fixated on him the entire time, whether to distract myself from the pain or to admire his physique, I wasn't too sure.

I just didn’t expect him to tilt his head upwards to pin his gaze on me. I felt a jolt of electricity in the nether regions of my being. I gulped. He gulped too.

We were close. Too close. Far too close.

“You’re blushing.” He pointed out, under his breath.

“You’re making me wet,” I said in a small voice, referring to the water flowing down my legs and wetting my socks. But whatever.

He must have taken it another way. He had to have. Because next thing I know, he’d dropped the bidet to pin me against the fragile walls of the bathroom stall. We were both breathing heavily now.

He was holding a hand against my injured leg, wrapping it around his waist as he stepped impossibly closer.

“I meant,” I struggled to say. “I meant you were making my socks wet.”

“Really?” He asked. I could feel his breath warm breath against my face. It took a Herculean effort not to seal the gap.

“Mhmm.”

I wished the moment would last longer. Just as unhealthy fantasies began fostering in my head, I heard - we heard the restroom door being pushed open. Jaxon stilled, before very slowly placing the bidet back.

The person who entered was whistling, probably didn't realize there was an injured female being pressed against the wall of a cubicle by Jaxon Ortega. We should have closed the door.

I held my breath as he walked past our stall. He wasn't someone I recognized, but from the way Jaxon seemed to tense, I could tell it was someone he knew.

Very gently, Jaxon took a step back. He tore off some toilet paper to dab my knee dry. But then the toilet paper got stuck in my wound. What looked like a small scrape now looked like something out of a horror movie. And it stung.

I hissed, "What the fuck," without thinking.

The whistling outside the stall halted.

"Fuck," Jaxon mouthed.

"Who's there?" The male voice called as footsteps approached.

Before I could move, he appeared at the doorway. Dark skinned male with wide eyes and unhinged jaw.

"Damn, Jax," he went.

I suddenly became aware of what it looked like. I had one leg lifted on the toilet bowl, and Jaxon was standing right beside me, brandishing toilet paper. We looked like a male student helping a female student clean her wound after she suffered a debilitating injury!

"At least close the door, holy shit," the guy went on.

"It's not what it looks like, Trey," Jaxon sighed.

Trey lifted both hands, slowly backing away.

"I won't tell a soul, you can trust me man," the guy went. "Who's the chick by the way? What happened to Cassie?"

"Cassie and I were never a thing," Jaxon said in a measured tone.

Trey frowned. "Man, for real? I swear there were rumors - "

"And that's what they are, rumors."

"Oh shit, man," Trey said. "By the way, did you hear that Mrs. Sanchez is banging the Biology teacher?"

Jaxon now had his full attention on the other male. "Wait, really? I knew it."

"Yeah, real talk man. I was seeing Sanchez for coursework, deadass there was these moans from her office, then I peered inside, lo and behold they having sex on the table."

"Hard to picture anyone banging Mrs. Sanchez," Jaxon raised an eyebrow.

I watched the entire exchange with dropped jaws. I wondered if any of these people cared that I was bleeding to death and had bits of toilet paper in my injury.

"I know, right? Hoe's like fifty or something, and isn't she married?"

"This school makes people do fucked up things," Jaxon replied.

"Guys," I said in an urgent voice. "I'm bleeding out and it really hurts, Jaxon can you please wash the toilet paper off?"

Trey, the intruder raised both eyebrows. "Wait, she giving birth or something?"

Jaxon laughed drily. "Just a scrape on her knee," he said as he grabbed the bidet to wash the toilet paper off.

"Oh, by the way, are you voting?"

"I'm a presidential candidate, I can't vote," Jaxon replied as he slowly lifted my wet knee off the toilet, causing all the water to flow down and wet my Mary Janes in the process. I scowled at Jaxon's doing, but his attention was focused on his friend.

"You're running for prez?" Trey said excitedly. "I'm voting for you, man. You're chill."

Jaxon shrugged as he squeezed out of the cubicle. "My faction sent me, against my protests."

"You not campaigning?" Trey asked.

Jaxon shook his head. "Nah. I can care less."

"Jax, my man, I want you to know you're the coolest guy on campus. I'm getting my whole faction to vote for you."

"Trey, come on," Jaxon said dismissively. "You don't have to. I don't really want that title. It just spells stress and commitment."

For the first time, Trey seemed to look at me. Then he nodded in understanding after seeing my furious expression. "Okay, okay," he backed away. "You should probably attend to your girlfriend."

"Friend," Jaxon corrected politely.

"Whatever," he said as he left the restroom.

A hushed, and awkward silence passed, before I burst out laughing. Jaxon followed suit with the forced laughter.

“Friend,” I wheezed out through forced laughter. “We’re friends.”

All of a sudden, Jaxon wasn’t laughing anymore. He blinked at me, chocolate eyes framed by too thick lashes. “Yeah. That’s what we are. Right?”

I limped my way out of the bathroom for fresh air.

“Andrea?”

“Yeah?”

He sighed. “Nothing.”

I forced my eyes to find his.

“You alright?”

“Yeah.”

“You sure?”

My jaws opened and closed several times, before I mustered the courage to ask. “Is that all we are? Friends?”

“I don’t know, Andrea. I don’t know anymore.