Heartstrings (Narrated by Danzel Lee)

"You finally dumped her?!!" My best friends squealed like a girl.

My arched black brows wiggled playfully to convince him that he did hear the news correctly. At the moment, we were sitting cross-legged at the corridor in front of our class, gathering books and papers that we would use from the lockers. There was still twenty-five minutes before the first lesson started, so I spent it to tell Meng about last night. He patted my shoulders, his face beaming with pride.

"I knew you could do it, Man. Hmm, no wonder there were a lot of prying eyes staring at you."

I rolled my eyes. "Apparently, the whole school had known. What a drama queen..."

Our conversation was cut short with a loud bang on my locker door. I instantly jumped on my feet and glared to the culprit. She was tanned-skin and wore highlights of golden strands on her pony-tailed, dark brown hair. I wondered how she managed to pass the scrutiny of our teachers with that kind of hair. Our school was an international one, so there were a lot of expatriate kids whose parents were working in J City schooled here. The school had Black, Caucasian, Asian, and Eurasian ones(like me(as students here. Therefore, the school policy regarding hair colour was not as strict as in other schools. However, as far as I remembered, the rule said it should be in one natural colour, not zebra-styled like hers. She was tall for a girl and very athletic. As we spoke, her hazel eyes glared fiercely at me, whilst her plump lips stretched down, almost touching her dimpled chin. Meng once introduced her to me as Kencana, his long-lost, childhood friend. Her mother was Indonesian while her father was British. Her family used to be Meng's neighbour and Meng often played together with her. And…, if I might guess, she was Meng's crush up-to-date.

"What the hell?!" I yelled, still glaring at her.

Meng also stood up and used his long limbs to shield the girl from my upcoming rage.

"Ken..., chill... Just calm down first and tell us why you came here this angry to Danzel?"

Kencana pointed me with her finger and roared. "Danzel Lee, leave Megan alone from your problem with your girlfriend!"

My face started to fluster with irritation when I felt attention had been drawn to us by other students. They started to whisper to each other and the corridor was immediately filled with buzzing sounds. I hated it so much if someone were making such scene out of me. That was on top of my most-hated list and I cared zilch whether the said person was Meng's childhood friend or not. If she tried to test my temper with no solid reason, she would definitely regret it. Truth to be told, I was no gentleman.

"Shouldn't it be you who stay away from my own problem with my ex-girlfriend and Megan. If it were Megan who sent you to humiliate me, tell her to come by herself!"

Kencana snapped. She tried to break through Meng's body shield. His cheeks were scratched a couple of times when Kencana tried to hit me. After noticed that her effort was futile, she screamed hysterically.

"If Megan could come to face you at the moment, I would have made her come. But..., because of you, now she was missing!!"

My rage died down completely. "What did you say? What happened to her?"

"I only left her alone for toilet no more than five minutes! When I came out, she was gone! I tried to call her phone, but no one answered. According to the other students, your bitch girlfriend and her friends took her away!"

The corridors promptly filled with more whispers and hisses. I felt a knot twisted in my stomach and as though a huge hammer slammed my head. I forced myself to stand straight, although my knees had started shivering. I did not understand why my body giving out such reaction. I just met the girl yesterday and barely knew her. I didn't understand the reason of this state of shock I was into. I might feel a bit guilty, but there was no reason to be this worried. Without consulting first with my brain, my feet had dashed out, leaving Kencana and Meng behind. I clutched on my hand phone firmly, as if it were my lifeline.

I dialled the numbers I still memorized by heart without slowing down my running pace. I gritted my teeth when no one was answering and dialled again, and again. On the fourth dials, Irene finally answered her phone.

"Hello, Danzel," she said flirtatiously. "I'm so happy that you called. I've tried to call you several times last night. Listen, I wanted to apologize to you. I..."

"Where is she? Where is Megan, Irene?"

"What do you mean? I don't understand, Danzel."

"Our problem was your fault and it has nothing to do with Megan. Just let her go!"

"Danzel, I don't know what you're talking about! What have I done to her? I know nothing about her! Hey, what do you say if we just skip school and have a chat about us?"

That's enough. I shouldn't have wasted more time like this. I knew Irene and her friends very well. They were the school number one bullies, despite their angelic appearances. Their hearts were as black as the night and they would not bat an eyelash when they were bullying anyone on their blacklist. At the very least, a slap on the face and hair cutting would be used to 'punish' Megan.

I stopped running and tried to gather my power. I had never tried to use my power through a phone line and I didn't know if this would ever work, but I ran out of options at the moment.

"Tell me, where are you right now?"

"I was at the cafe we used to visit, the one nearby my house..."

The piercing hit my eardrums and shook my brain. Okay, since I could still sense the lying effect through phone, my power might as well have effect. Feeling motivated, I tried to focus and felt my power spring out.

"Tell me, where are you now!" I repeated my command and added my power.

My head felt so hot like it would explode in no time. The burning sensation crept down to the tip of my nose as well. Before I realized what had happened, drips of reds had spoiled my white sneakers.

"D'..., you're bleeding!!"

I didn't realize that Meng and Kencana had followed me. They approached me, frowning. I lifted up my free hand to ask them not to talk to me first.

"Where, Irene?!" I repeated once more. The tip of my nose soared with pain again and another drip of blood fell on my shoes.

"She's in my house. I told the girls to 'treat' her well in the garage," Irene finally gave me the truth I sought.

I waited for her reply no more and clicked off the line. Meng immediately approached me and offered the wipes he had prepared. I took it, although I had wiped most of the blood with my jacket's sleeve.

"Irene's place. Garage..."

I did not wait for Meng and Kencana's response, and ran to the parking lot. I tilted my head here and there, hoping that the nosebleed would stop as soon as possible. Luckily, it did stop when I reached my white CBR. I put my helmet on and revved the engine as fast as I could to Irene's house.

**

Our school was surrounded by clusters of posh houses and apartments, where Irene's house was in the one of the clusters. It was located about ten minutes driving distant from school. I was in my full-speed when I caught a glimpse of silhouette run out of the bush toward the street, not far from where Irene's cluster was. I did not have to take a second glance to acknowledge Megan's small figure. My tires let out screeching sound when I hit the brake and forced my motorcycle to be in full stop by slamming the handlebar sideways. I tried to balance it, so I would not fall and kiss the asphalt in front of the girl whom I was trying to save. My foot pulled down the main-stand and I rushed myself to her. Her big, round, cognac eyes stared at me bewildered and she let out a gasp when I pull her to my arms.

I could feel Megan's body tense in my embrace, but slowly relaxing. Her body was so warm and soft. Her breath on my chest tickling the skin under my uniform. After I hugged her for sometimes (I didn't know for how long), I finally let her go to check her condition. I stroke her blushing cheeks gently and made way to her tall neck, before caressing her waist-long, jet-black hair. After I convinced myself that she was as flawless as I saw her yesterday, I pulled her again into my arms. This time, she wrapped her hands around my waist and hugged me back.

"Thank goodness you're alright...," I whispered.

My ears caught the sound of motorcycle machine approached, before it was turned off not far from where Megan and I were standing.

"D?" I heard my friend's voice. His voice seemed taken aback.

I pulled back from Megan and turned my head, faced my best friend to report to him that Megan was alright.

"Yes..., I could see that," he replied, an awkward smile was plastered on his oblong face.

Kencana was about to approach us, but she suddenly stopped when I moved my body to Megan's side, as if I was protecting her from anyone who want to come near her. I didn't understand why that tanned girl's face wore similar awkward expression like Meng did.

"Are you really alright, Megan?" She finally asked.

Megan nodded.

"How'd they finally let you go?"

Kencana's question made me return my attention back to the petite girl beside me. I waited for her answer.

"That girl's family suddenly came home before they got the chance to hurt me, so they don't really have another choice than to let me go," Megan was staring back at me. This time she smiled so tenderly.

I returned her smile, desperately holding down the urge to kiss that pretty lips of hers.

"Okay!" Kencana interrupted again. "Please put a halt on that lovey-dovey thingy for a while. Since when the two of you are together?"

Megan and I frowned, answering in the same time. "We're not together..."

Kencana looked as if she wanted to have a heart attack.

"Meng....," she turned for help from Meng.

Meng smiled awkwardly once more. "As far as I know, they're really not together. At least not yet. Danzel just broke up with Irene yesterday and just met Megan yesterday. I didn't miss anything, right D'?"

I enveloped Megan's shoulder and drew her body closer to mine. I really didn't understand why would the two persons in front of us wearing such bewildered expression. Megan herself didn't mind with my ministration. She leaned closer to my body, as I hinted her to do, made my face beam with happiness.

"Yep, you didn't miss anything," I told Meng. "Now, let's go back to school..."

Still holding Megan's shoulder and did not wait for another foolish comment from our two friends, I led Megan to my bike and helped her to saddle up. I gave her my helmet so she could put it on and drove back to school. On the way, Megan wrapped her hands on my waist once more. I could feel her warm body and rabbiting heartbeats as she leaned on my back. I was grinning like a fool to that sensation. I had never been happier than I was on that moment.