Page 10 of Silent Desires

“Mina?” My eyes move from Max’s hand to Jasper’s face. Did he ask me something? “Take a drink,” he says again, pointing to the bottle of water I’m holding.

I stare at the bottle, not remembering where it came from. Max reaches up and takes the top off before giving me a small smile and nodding to the bottle. I lick my lips before bringing it to my mouth and taking a few hesitant sips. It’s hard drinking with two identical pairs of eyes staring at me so intently. It does feel good though, and even better, it helps to stop the tears somehow. Or perhaps that’s more to do with my focus moving to the two handsome twins in front of me.

Once I take a few more sips, they smile warmly at me, but I can see the worry in their eyes. Are they worried about me directly or worried about me making a scene and embarrassing them? I have no idea how to read anyone other than my family.

Max sits back on his butt on the floor and braces his hands around his knees. “Do you need to buy lunch today?” he asks with an adorable tilt to his head. I shake my head. No money, no lunch. “Alright, well, why don’t you get your lunch out and I’ll go get lunch for me and Jasper?”

Dammit!I bite my lip and look at my hands nervously as I play with the water bottle. Are they going to be mad when they realize I don’t have a lunch? I didn’t lie, but I have no way to explain that I’m not buying one nor did I bring one. Would this be an issue for them? Would they realize how strange I am and finally leave me alone? I hope not. I’m finally starting to relax around them, just the tiniest bit.

“Angel?” I start to fidget, feeling uncomfortable without being able to answer.

“I’ll help you,” Max says, jumping up and grabbing my bag, placing it on the table and opening it up. He must think I don’t understand what they’re asking.Because my mother told the school I’m an idiot.

I let him rummage through my bag. He’s going to realize I have no lunch pretty quick anyway and there’s nothing in there to hide. “I can’t find it.” Max’s eyes shift to meet mine, and I see the look of confusion on his face. “You didn’t bring a lunch? Then why did you say you didn’t need to buy one? Are you not hungry?” I gave my head a quick shake, not really sure which I was saying no to.

I see them exchanging a weird look with one another, like they are having some sort of silent conversation. They were twins, so for all I know, they are.

“Alright!” Max stands with a smile. “I’ll go grab the grub, back in a bit!” He gives me a wink and leaves the room.

Jasper stands up, looking like he’s considering something for a minute before he asks, “can I show you something, out there in the library?” He holds out his hand to me, and every instinct in me is telling me to take it. I slowly stand and take his hand, placing the water bottle on the table as he pulls me to the door.

He leads me to the bookshelves, stopping in the science section. “See this book here?” He points to one, and I peer up to read the title. “That’s the one we were using in class today.” He must have seen how interested I was in class. Images of my mother’s possible reaction to finding out I didn’t play along with her instructions have me squeezing his hand tighter in fear.

What is his angle?Is it possible he was reporting back to my mother? Anything was possible, but she didn’t seem to know about anything that happened yesterday. And I think I could trust him, just a little bit. I don’t want to get caught with the book, so I glance around and when I see nobody else around us, I reach for the book, pulling it out and holding it to my chest. Jasper stares at me like he’s trying to figure something out.

“Can I… Would you let me hold that for you?” I don’t know why he’s offering, but it seems less risky in case someone in here is reporting back to my mother. I nod quickly as I bite my lip and hand it to him. He gives me a huge smile as his shoulders drop with what looks like relief. I wasn’t sure why letting him carry the book would make him feel that way. Maybe he didn’t trust me not to drop it and damage it?

“Shall we go back?” he asks, motioning towards my study room. I hesitate for a moment, eyeing the shelf. Taking a small leap of faith, I nervously point to the one called Biology. He looks a little surprised but grabs it and asks, “any others?” I shake my head. I was probably only here for my lunch period, anyway.

When we get back to the study room, I sit at the table and he places both books in front of me. I pull out my coloring books out of habit. Although… It doesn’t seem like I need to hide my ability to read from Jasper. Taking a deep breath, I push the coloring books aside and pull the chemistry book towards me, flipping it open and skimming through it until I find the part we stopped at in class and start reading.

Absorbed in the content, I flip through page after page until the door opens, startling me. I jump, instinctively grabbing the coloring book and pulling it on top of the textbook to hide it. I look up and see Jasper watching me with confusion as Max enters with a tray full of food, followed by Mr. Hargrove and a man I’ve never met before.

His strawberry blond hair sits messily around his ears and his blue eyes seem to study me as he moves to one of the free seats around the table. He has the shadow of a beard growing in and I can’t help but notice how his arms and upper body seem to stretch his button up flannel shirt to the max. There was no way this man was a student.

“I picked up food and company!” Max announces as he places the tray down.

“Is it really a good idea for us all to be here together?” Jasper asks, glancing at all the men with a look of worry.

“Nobody can see us, it’s fine,” Mr. Hargrove says in his soothing British voice. I furrow my eyebrows in confusion. Why would they not want to be seen together? Was it because teachers aren’t supposed to eat lunch with students?

As they all take seats around the table, My eyes move to the new man. I don’t know him or if he’s safe for me to be around. I bite my lip with worry. Why is he here? Why is the guidance counselor here? This has my mother written all over it. She probably has all these people watching me. Or else, I’ve done something wrong.

My eyes move to Jasper as I go over what he knows about me. He knows I can read, well, he knows I was looking at the textbook, he doesn’t know that I can actually understand it. Maybe he doesn’t really have anything to tell her yet, I just need to be more careful.

I watch the new, tall, broad man as he leans back in his chair, aiming a mischievous grin at me.

“Hello there, Sugar, I’m Tucker,” he says confidently, but a cough from Mr. Hargrove makes him falter.

“Uh, well, I guess it’s Mr. Stone, or Tucker Stone. My students call me Stone. But you can call me whatever you like.” His words tumble outawkwardly, and I can’t hide my confusion. Not only could I physically not speak, but I had no idea which of those names I was supposed to call him.

“Or well… You know… Umm…” His voice trails off, and I blink in surprise. Is he… flustered? I’ve never seen someone who looks so sure of himself stumble like that.

Jasper and Max burst out laughing, and even Mr. Hargrove’s face cracks into a smile.

“There’s a first time for everything,” Mr. Hargrove says quietly while placing portions of food in front of each of us. I glance at him, confused by his comment. He just shrugs and gives me a small, reassuring smile. I wasn’t sure what he meant or what was so funny.

“Max bought too much, so you’ll have to help us eat some of it, or it will go to waste,” he explains, placing some fries on my plate.

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