The classroom was strangely empty for how late I was.
Normally, Professor Beth would've been waiting with that exhausted, disappointed look she reserved specifically for me.
But today… nothing.
Just half-filled desks and a silence that didn't belong in a room full of the usual hormone filled seventeen year olds.
I was about to slip on my usual mask, the easy smile, the casual "What's going on?" when suddenly hurried footsteps started echoing their way down the hallway. Someone was sprinting, footsteps hammering the hallway floor, getting closer with every second.
Those footsteps stopped right outside the door.
And then Zayden burst in.
Zayden, the most energetic guy in our class. The kind of kid who seemed to collect friends the way others collected trading cards. Sports, cultural events, volunteer drives, if the school had something happening, Zayden was at the center of it, laughing like he owned the place.
But right now, he looked like he'd sprinted here from the next city over. Sweat dripping, hair a mess, breathing hard.
"Fucking hell," he gasped, leaning on the doorframe. "I'm late for practice. Sarah's actually going to murder me this time."
Arin blinked, still trying to process how weird his morning had been. Everything felt slightly off, like someone had tilted his entire day a few degrees to the left.
He wished things would settle back into normal.
They didn't.
"HEY, you're Arin, right?! Perfect. You're exactly who I need right now!"
Before I could react, Zayden, the Zayden, burst into the room and grabbed my wrist like we'd been best friends since birth. Next thing I knew, he was dragging me out of the classroom with zero explanation.
My brain scrambled for something to say, anything at all.
"Zayden, I mean.. I was just wondering…"I forced a smile, the kind of smile that felt taped onto my face, especially since I was practically being dragged to wherever the fuck Zayden seemed fit? "Is there… something going on at school this week?"
He stopped dead in his tracks, staring at me like I'd just confessed to not knowing what gravity was.
"It's prep week for the annual cultural event," he said, voice rising. "Don't tell me you haven't seen the flyers... Arin, they're literally 'everywhere'."
Is this guy for real right now?
The smile I'd been holding onto slipped, just a little, but enough for me to feel it crack. I should've known about things like this. Everyone else did. If I started falling behind on stuff that everyone knew… would they think I was weird? Out of touch? Not normal?
If that happened…I'd be alone. And I can't be alone.
"Arin?" Zayden waved a hand in front of my face. "Did you just zone out? I've been telling you what you need to do once we meet Sarah. And I'm not explaining everything again, just keep saying yes to whatever she asks, alright? I owe you big time."
This entire conversation was happening in the middle of the hallway, and with Zayden being the walking spotlight he was, we'd gathered attention like a magnet. It felt like its own cultural event had spontaneously formed around us.
As eyes turned toward us, one gaze in particular cut sharper than the others.
A girl,
Long blonde hair,
Expression unreadable from a distance,
No.
Not unreadable
Disgust,
Directed at me.
My stomach tightened. I looked away before the thought dug deeper. I couldn't afford to get stuck on this, not now. I had a mask to keep in place, after all.
"Yeah, for sure, Zayden. I've got you covered," I said, smoothing my smile back into something acceptable.
After all…saying yes is what I'm good at anyway.
We reached the school auditorium, the place where half the student body seemed to have migrated for prep week. Well… that's where my class was, apparently.
Zayden bulldozed through the crowd like a celebrity late to his own premiere and stopped in front of a girl of small stature, legs crossed, a sheet of paper in hand, and an expression that could cut through steel.
She didn't even look up before speaking.
"So our precious Zayden has finally decided to show up," she said, her tone sharp. "Only an hour late. Perfect timing, considering we're drowning in work."
Zayden panicked instantly. Like a true coward, he grabbed my shoulders and shoved me forward as if offering me as a sacrifice.
"Here you go, Sarah!" he announced, voice cracking. "The antagonist you needed. I auditioned like.. so many people on my way here, and he was the best one. That's why I'm late. Totally valid reason. Definitely."
Sarah finally lifted her gaze to me.
Her eyes scanned me slowly... my slightly above average height, the inky black hair I styled depending on how chaotic my morning was, my brown eyes that always seemed too alert or too tired depending on the day. Nothing special. Nothing threatening. Nothing remarkable.
Something in her expression softened. Just slightly.
"So," she said, tapping the paper against her knee, "You're an actor, huh?"
In that moment, I felt it, the will to have no will left.
To agree, to comply, to shape myself into whatever others wanted me to be. To survive the moment by surrendering to it.
So I answered without hesitation.
"Yes," I said.
"Yes, I am."
As soon as I said it, that blonde girl's disgusted gaze crept back into my thoughts, like a stain I couldn't scrub out.
I wonder why I feel that gaze sharpening...