Page 99 of Obsession

The class was already almost full because I had enjoyed my moment of solitude in the field a little too long, and now the only empty seats were the ones at the front of the class.

Great.

My breath quickened briefly when I saw him.

He was sitting at the very back, at the last table by the window. Harris looked like he always did, like he was the angry supervisor of every student present in the class who might break their bones if they didn’t listen. He could barely fit behind the desk and all he had with him was a pen that he twirled betweenhis fingers. I could never master that trick; it was a drummer’s signature.

He noticed me as soon as I entered, and not just him.

I cursed in my head, because the class was full of all the people I already knew. My friends, and his.

Violet gave me a cheeky grin when she spotted me. Jay was sitting in front of Harris.

Sitting next to Harris was… Amber.

They sat there methodically, like predators ready to hunt, and I wondered how important grades were in this subject, because I felt tempted to skip it for the rest of the school year.

I let out a soft sigh and sat down in the front row, at the desk by the window because it was the only one unoccupied.

I felt every pair of eyes stabbing into my back like poisoned daggers and I clutched the pencil tighter to block out all thoughts and reactions.

I wasn’t in the mood for these people, I felt sick, and the class began to spin with me. I was getting restless and, fuck my life, my irascibility level increased by the second. I felt able to shout at everyone in the classroom, even though none of them said a word to me.

“Kath, are you okay?”

I turned my head to Zac, who was sitting in the middle row, and forced myself to smile as I nodded.

A worried expression crossed his face, but he didn’t continue the conversation because the teacher entered the class.

She appeared to be no older than thirty, was very slim and wore a summer dress that came down to her knees. Her chestnut brown hair was long and reached the nape of her neck, thin and straight. The look on her face told me that she was perhaps one of the nice ones. If I didn’t get her mixed up, her name would be Ana Ghelager.

She began to call our names in alphabetical order, and I waited my turn before answering “here”. At that moment, I heard the first interruption that threatened to detonate the bomb that was ticking inside me.

“It would have been better if you weren’t…” Amber commented right after I spoke.

I clutched the pencil tighter to hold myself back: If I had blown up, I didn’t know what would have happened.

“Shut up, Amber,” I heard Violet’s voice.

“Why? It was so quiet before this freak showed up and acted like she belonged here.”

The pencil cracked in my hand.

The sound of the wood breaking caught everyone’s attention more than her words. I thought I heard our teacher reprimanding her for her lack of shame, but my hearing was unreliable because the blood was pulsing so loudly in my ears.

Before I could think, I stood up, determined not to stop until I had all her hair in my hands, but someone else moved faster than I did.

Harris was already standing in front of me when I turned around. He’d been on his feet since I’d broken the pencil.

He looked at my face, and I knew exactly what he saw.

I was shaking so much that he covered my body with his so the others couldn’t see that I was acting like a rabid dog. Unlike the others, he knew exactly what was happening to me.

“Get out of my sight,” I growled more devilishly than I ever thought I was capable of.

He grabbed my arms and held me tightly as I tried to walk past him.

“Miss Ghelager, Katherine needs some fresh air. We’ll be back in no time,” his voice was sweet and deceptive as he smiled at the teacher above my head, while his grip didn’t match that tone.

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