Chapter 38: Chapter 38

Once he opens his notebook and fishes out a pen, Michael tilts his head and looks at me. My heart starts beating like crazy as he looks at my lips. Then he reaches out his hands and touches on my bottom lip causing my heart to play drums inside my ribs.

" Does it h..hurt?", he asks looking into my eyes. I shake my head ‘no'. " Shall I a..apply some cream ?", he then asks.

" Uhm...okay.", I nod. He stand up from the chair and walks to grab his first aid box. Right then a knock is heard on the door. Grace goes and opens the door and it's our pizza and Sprite. She grabs the order from the widely smiling, young delivery boy and hurries to the bed whilst squealing. I take out my wallet and pay for the order while Grace and Gavin already starts attacking the Pizza on the bed. Once the delivery boy leaves, I shut the door and rushes to the bed.

" After applying m..medicine !", Michael says as I'm about to grab a piece of Pizza from the box. I nod to him and crawl out of the bed, sitting down on the edge of the other bed.

Michael takes out a white tube of ointment and squeezes a little of its content onto his forefinger. Then he reaches his finger to my lips and slowly starts applying the medicine over my bruised bottom lip. The medicine has a cooling effect and I involuntarily leave a sigh whilst closing my eyes. Michael giggles a little at that and closes the tube, putting it back in the box.

When he comes back after placing back the first aid box in the cupboard, I get him and myself two pieces of Pizza from the box. Michael mumbles a 'thanks' and grabs the piece from me before sitting down on Grace's empty bed. I get our sprites and then sit down beside him. I start munching on my pizza whilst looking at him taking slow smooth bites.

" Why are you l..looking at me like th..that ?", Michael tilts his head and asks after sometime.

" Nothing.", I shake my head and let out a small chuckle. He smiles and looks away.

I then grab his right hand and slowly roll up his sleeves to reveal the numerous cuts littered across his arms. I graze my fingers slowly over the cuts and he bites down on his bottom lips. " S..sorry..", he murmurs.

I don't know why he told me sorry but I smile at him. " It's okay. Don't do something like this again.", I say. He just nods. " Thank you..", he then says.

" For what ?", I ask softly grazing over his hands.

" For s..standing up for me. I didn't think..you..you'd do this for me. Th..thank you.", he says.

" Don't need to thank me. I'm also grateful to you. You made me change. You made me want to speak against them. I'm really happy today that, I'm finally free from that gang. I feel so relieved.", I reply honestly. He smiles at me beautifully from his heart before going to munch on his pizza.

" Where did you get those dimples?", I ask him.

" Don't know. Wh..why ?", he asks swallowing down the pizza.

" They are gorgeous.", I say touching his smooth cheeks. He blushes away and starts eating fast. Soon he starts coughing.

" Slow down.", I say and hands him the sprite after opening its cap. He grabs it and quickly starts drinking. But he suddenly gasps and looks at me crinkling his nose before pushing the sprite bottle to me.

" What happened?", I ask confused.

" B..bubbles..", he breathes and then starts giggling cutely, his nose still crinkled. I laugh at his expression.

" What are you guys laughing at ?", Gavin asks from Michael's bed.

" Nothing..", I say controlling my laughter. " He is really cute."

" Oh you think he is really cute ?", Grace asks smirking. I instantly stop laughing and looks at Michael to see he is blushing crimson.

" C..come let's g..go do the assignment.", he says.

" uhm..yeah. Right.", I nod and get up from the bed before hurrying to the desk. Michael quickly follows me. Grace and Gavin looks at us for a few more seconds before again going back to their talk.

It's 8 PM when I and Michael finally close our history notebooks after finding as many questions we could from the long chapter. But it wasn't tiring or anything. It was kind of fun. I would read the paragraphs and Michael would find questions from it like we did last time. Three hours went by really quickly.

The whole time, Gavin and Grace were playing some video game on Grace's Xbox. We could hear the both of them alternatively laughing and squealing saying they won. Grace won the most number of times and she is really loud after winning that we had to beg her to keep quiet. Or else Warden will come and throw me and Gavin out of here. Anyway now the both of them are playing comparatively quietly after a guy from the adjacent room came and knocked on our door saying we are disturbing him from studying peacefully.

" You guys finished ?", Grace asks us, as we both get up from our chairs.

" Hmm..", Michael nods to her while I take my bag and pack my history notebook inside it.

" Then let's watch movie !", Grace says and crawls out of the bed, dropping her controller to get her laptop.

" Come let's put the beds together.", Gavin says and we three together pushes Grace's and Michael's beds together before jumping up on it and making ourselves comfortable. Grace soon sets the laptop and plays the movie and we snuggle closer to each other for a better vision of the screen. Grace is on the right end and I'm on the left end with Michael between me and Gavin.

The movie has just started. But then someone knocks on our door. Grace pauses the movie whilst cursing something under her breathe and goes to the doors. When she opens the door, none else than our warden Mr Garvey is standing straight in front of her, glaring at her with his arms crossed over his chest. I and Gavin instantly crawl out of the bed.

" How come there are four people in this dorm ?", Mr Garvey asks glaring at us.

" Ahm...we came to do group project.", I say.

" But I see you guys are watching movies.", he says.

" Honestly we were doing assignment until now. I and Michael are partners in history assignment. Sir, we can show you the assignment we did. We just sat down to take a break. ", I say.

" Okay then what about the other two ? ", Mr Garvey asks sighing.

" I'm his roommate. I came because I'm afraid to sit alone at my dorm.", Gavin says innocently.

"I see. But don't you know the rule that you can't stay in other's dorms after 8 ? Why haven't you gone back to your dorm yet ?", Mr Garvey asks.

" Sorry sir.", I and Gavin mutters.

" Okay now, go back to your dorms. If I see you both once again in any dorm other than yours, then there will be fine. Now hurry.", Mr Garvey says sternly. We both nod and quickly hurry out of the room after taking our bags.

" Don't let others into your room after 8, especially boys. And don't hesitate to tell me if you have any problem.", I hear Mr Garvey say to Grace as we walk away from the room. I tilt my head a little and see Grace nodding to him before closing their room door. Mr Garvey then walks to the next door and knocks on it before taking his signature pose of arms crossed heavily across his chest.

" Why the hell he decided to check today ?", Gavin asks me annoyed. Seems like he is so disappointed in not being able to watch the movie with Grace.

" Don't know.", I say sighing. I'm also angry that Mr Garvey had to come and ruin our moment. I could have watched the movie with Michael and then probably fell asleep hugging him if Mr Garvey didn't decide to check dorms today.

I really regret making Michael change dorm. Gavin is nice. He's being really nice to me since today morning but it'd have been nice if Michael was my roommate. Now how will I get him back as my roommate?

Gavin falls back on his bed after we reach back at our dorm. He rolls about on the mattress cursing on Mr Garvey for sometime while I change my clothes near my cupboard.

" Dude, do you have Grace's number ?", Gavin suddenly sits up and asks me.

I chuckle. " You didn't get her number yet ?"

" I forgot. Do you have or not ?", he asks.

" Yeah..", I nod and he instantly crawls to my bed to grab my phone.

" Are you interested in Grace ?", I ask walking to the bathroom. He doesn't reply but just grins whilst typing down the number on his phone.

" So you don't have a girlfriend?", I ask stepping into the bathroom.

" I'm single right now. ", he says. " Between are you...", he starts but pauses and shrugs. I'm almost sure about what he was about to ask me. Anyway I ignore him and closes the door shut. I don't really know whether I'm interested in Michael. No..actually I know I'm interested. But I don't know whether I should act up on it. I can't even imagine myself confessing to a boy. Maybe it's just a phase. It will pass. I need to wait.

When I come out of the bathroom, Gavin is busy chatting on his phone. " Grace ?", I asks him a bit surprised.

" No. She didn't reply.", he chuckles. " I'm on our basketball team group.", he replies. I nod and lie back on my bed after putting my alarm. Tomorrow I need to wake up early. I've football practice.

I wake up to my alarm going wild. Gavin wakes up soon after. He too has basketball practice. We both quickly get ready in our Jersey and exist the room, rushing down the stairs along with other sports players.

Kevin and Tony were the main topic of discussion during the football practice. All were talking about them and suffocating me with a lot of questions while we were jogging round the ground. I was tired answering everyone's questions.

And I was frustrated to hear a few people talking about why I didn't get dismissal or suspension along with them since we were a gang. I tried my best to ignore such comments. But I couldn't help but feel myself pathetic for being with them all this time. However a lot of people also cheered me for what I did yesterday and It was quite relieving.

Anyway I could really feel the positive change. A lot of people came and talked to me while I was having breakfast in the canteen after practice. Also people especially girls greeted and smiled at me in the corridors while I walked to my classes. And usually no one talks to me during classes. Because all were afraid of me, since I belonged to that notorious gang. But today a lot of people talked to me in class. And I really love the difference. I'm no more feeling pressured and suffocated. Now I'm just one among the normal senior students.