18

Chapter 19

Once they were a short distance away from their respective classrooms, she released his hand, as if she had suddenly remembered that they were at school and that other people could still see them. She then took a step backwards slightly, giving him room to breathe, and then stared at him, waiting for him to speak.

Njat wasn't sure what to say. Why hadn't she just kept her word? Why would she have done all of this if she hadn't meant it at least a little bit? It was clear that she had liked him too, otherwise she wouldn't have taken such extreme measures to avoid him. Why had she tried so hard to hide that fact though? Did she hate him? Did she regret spending the last few hours with him? Maybe she had regretted getting caught and didn't dare to show herself again because of how ashamed she would feel. Or perhaps he was reading too much into the situation and she was just trying to protect her friends by pretending to not have seen him, so that no one would know. Either way, he felt like there were things he needed to know. Things he needed to know about her, things he needed to know that she was hiding from him, so that he could help her.

"So, what was that for?", he asked.

Argo hesitated for a while before replying. Her eyes fell onto the floor, as if she didn't know how to reply. A couple of seconds later, she looked back up at him and replied in a soft, uncertain tone, "I just wanted to apologize for how I acted earlier. I... I was really mad."

"Why did you need to apologize?", Njat asked, furrowing his eyebrows as he gazed at her concernedly.

"Because..." she paused, her gaze dropping once more to the floor before continuing, "I don't understand you very well. Sometimes, you seem like you're so good at everything that you don't even realise how terrible you are. I mean, look what you did to me, Njat", she cried angrily. "I've never met anyone who's been so hateful and cold towards everyone. You made me completely lose my temper, and I was afraid that you would try to hurt us." She shook her head as tears formed in her eyes. "And then what you said afterwards made me realise why you've always seemed different from all the other kids in your class. Why you seemed like a complete stranger. I... I didn't realise how much you mean to me, or how much you have done for me. So I came to give you back your clothes."

She stopped talking and averted her eyes in order to keep crying quietly and failing miserably at holding her tears back. For the first time since she had arrived, Njat felt like he finally understood her. The only thing he was still unsure of was why she was telling him these things, why she had suddenly become so upset and decided to come over and apologise to him. He knew that he needed to be careful of what he said to her, especially because he was fairly certain that her feelings could be real. If she really loved him, she wouldn't have lied to him. At that moment, he almost hoped that she truly did love him, but then, he reminded himself that his life wasn't exactly easy and it was impossible for people to love you easily. No matter what he said right now, she wouldn't take it seriously, and if she believed that he loved her too, nothing would happen between them anyway.

"Don't worry", he replied softly as a tear escaped Argo's eye, "you're still cool to me. I haven't forgotten that you helped me and defended me during our fight against Eriko. I will always be grateful for that. So don't worry. We're cool." He smiled at her.

A couple of moments passed. Argo stared at him for quite some time, with tears threatening to spill from her eyes.

"Well", she whispered, trying to compose herself, "I guess we should get changed then."

Njat nodded in agreement and proceeded to open his wardrobe, grabbing an oversized hoodie with holes at the shoulders and a pair of blue jeans, while Argo went over to her own wardrobe, taking out a green hoodie as well before opening her drawers and putting her shoes inside, along with a jacket to match her hoodie.

After they had changed, and put their school bag inside one of the locker closets nearby, they headed downstairs to the parking lot, which was crowded with students, and joined the queue to get on some bikes and drive to the bowling alley. They soon got on their bikes and started their journey, following the road towards the closest exit to campus.

As Njat watched his girlfriend ride alongside him behind his bike, he could only chuckle to himself quietly, as he thought to himself, 'She has to be the strangest person I've ever met.'

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

They were sitting in the same row and had decided to sit together on the bench seat so they could get a decent view at the bowling alley. Their seats weren't the best ones