I added a few drops of dilute iodine solution to the bread. "The colour changed to blue-black. Starch is present. Write it down". Samson didn't move a muscle. I snapped my head in his direction ready to give him an earful but on seeing the look on his face, whatever it was that I was about to say got caught in my throat.
I knew he was not in the best of moods after I brushed him off but I was in no way prepared for the steely glare that met me.
His eyes in a face contorted with fury glinted dangerously. I expected him to reach out and hit me any second. All this anger because I did not happily welcome his advances? You gotta be kidding if you think I would cower in fear, I thought. Just like he had thought I would flirt back like other girls, he probably thought I would run away like a scared little rabbit.
I swallowed and smirked, "First time huh? You certainly don't expect every girl to fall for you. Word of advice, never flirt with a girl like me, who already has a devoted boyfriend she loves".
A vein popped out in his neck and my eyes widened in fear. He took a step towards me and I instinctively and quickly moved to the opposite side of the table. He looked so intimidating and hell he was because I felt so intimidated that I did not know when I stammared, "S-s-sorry", for no good reason. I did nothing wrong but apologizing to avoid a bruise was not so bad. Why else would he want to come closer if not to hit me? Before the teacher would come to my aid, I would already be sporting nothing less than ten bruises. As they say, prevention is better than cure.
Few seconds that felt like an eternity with his chest heaving with anger passed before he sneered, "I actually thought you were going to be worth my time but obviously I was wrong. You are rude and such a prude".
I snorted mentally. Rude maybe but prude, no. He knew nothing of the dirty things I've done with Sam. At the thought, a smile crept up my face.
"Am I being funny?" He queried. Insert eye roll here. Olive High's Ladies man was being a baby.
"No".
With the look on his face I could tell he was contemplating on whether to believe me or not. Suit yourself man. "I'm not writing down shit. Do it yourself".
I shrugged and mumbled; "Even better".
"I didn't quite catch that".
"Nothing". I bent and penned down my observation and inference for the test of starch I had performed. Having done that I brought forward an egg white solution along with sodium hydroxide, one percent copper(II) solution and proceeded to carry out the Biuret's testโtest for proteinsโ ignoring Samson who was still glaring at me.
*******************
"Oh and Sam, nice prank you played on me this morning. I totally fell for it". I said drily and lifted myself up to sit on his car boot. School hours just got over, so you can guess how filled and noisy the parking lot was. Like us, some people were not ready to go home so they stood in groups or leant on cars talking. Sam came in between my legs and placed his hands on the boot on either sides of my butt. I wrapped my arms round his neck.
"What prank?"
"Don't play dumb, babe".
"I so love it when you call me that", he purred.
I smiled slightly at him and played with his hair. "So you admit that you put the note about the secret admirer crap in my locker right?"
Sam shot up with furrowed brows, completely serious now. "What did you say?"
I frowned, he wasn't the one. Then what did this mean? A true secret admirer or still a prank from someone else. Who would play such a prank on me? I tilted my head thinking, nobody came to mind.
"Show me the motherfucking note. You should've told me immediately". He angrily ran his hands through his hair.
"I don't have it, I threw it away immediately".
"The son of a bitch". He banged the car's boot and started pacing.
"Relax, babe, I'm sure it was nothing. The poor guy must've been so nervous he put the note in the wrong locker". I laughed like it was nothing.
"That had better be the case or I swear I'll hunt the son of a bitch down and mutilate him if actually he wrote that note for you".
"Whoa, lover boy, no one's mutilating anyone". I got down and hugged him from behind so he stayed still. Jealous boyfriend has been awakened, I smiled feeling special and I was to him. So this was how it felt to be someone that another someone does not want to lose. It felt good. A month ago I had been the one afraid to lose him. He turned around and tightened his arms around me in a close and affectionate embrace. He nuzzled my neck and I giggled, "Sam!"
"If you get that note a second time, you have to tell me ASAP alright?"
"Rest assured babe. No one can steal me from you". I pulled away briefly to kiss his cheek before wrapping my arms round him again. This was my favorite place to be, the most comfortable place on earth. I felt his hot lips kiss me on the neck and I melted into a puddle. I closed my eyes blushing like the fool I was. A fool for him. He chuckled like he knew what he just did to me and I playfully punched his side.
I opened my eyes and pulled away from Sam but not before seeing Samson and five of his friends on the opposite side of the parking lot. They were sharing canned drinksโbeer most probablyโbetween themselves and laughing. Only that Samson was not looking at them but at me, and I realized with a sudden thump of my heart that he has been watching me minutes before I even realized he was there.
"What are you looking at?" Sam's curious voice made me tear my eyes away from Samson.
"Nothing in particular".
Sam looked back, searching the parking lot for what had caught my attention. He looked back at me when he found nothing of interest, "Can we stop by MacDonald's? I'm craving their ice cream".
"Say, what aren't you craving?"
"Aw, babe don't be like that", He pouted and gave me the puppy look.
I looked heavenward and sighed. "Okay".
He rewarded me with his award winning grin and led me to the car. I walked with him while fighting the urge to turn back and see if Samson was still staring at me. Bet my ass he was, with that unreadable expression he had on his face earlier.
*********************
Tired and exhausted, I shut the front door behind me after Sam had driven off and announced, "I'm home!" I kicked my heels away and let my bag fall to the floor. I got no response, if anything the house had never been more quiet. "Mom? William?" I knew Dad would not be home but I still called out, "Dad?" No response. Good timing for everyone to be away. I was in dire need of a peaceful sleep.
I went to the kitchen for a cold bottle of water. I opened the fridge and after taking out one, I gulped down half of it before I recapped it and shut the fridge. Two fresh yellow papers pasted on the fridge caught my eye. The yellow one was Mom saying something about her having gone grocery shopping. The second one was William saying he's playing with Ben in his house. Ben was his friend and our neighbor. I wished I had telepathic powers so I could tell William not to come home until five hours later. Who was I kidding? He would come running home on receiving my message without even knowing why I wanted him to be away.
Better I enjoyed this quietness while it lasted. I placed the bottle on the table in the middle of the kitchen, the same one we usually ate breakfast on and made my way up the stairs, to my room.
On opening my bedroom door, I went still. I took a step backwards. And another. Someone had been in my room... and had been busy. This person had neatly made my bed with a white bedsheet and sprinkled red roses all over, except the middle, where a white note laid.
"Oh Lord". I gasped in horror as I realized without doubt that indeed, there was a secret admirer. On my bedside table there was a glass of something that looked like wine with a flat cover on it. Slowly I walked inside and took the note with shaky hands. It read;
๐ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฑ๐บ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฆ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ง๐ช๐ณ๐ด๐ต ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฆ, ๐ ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฆ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ. ๐๐ข๐ฎ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ฏ ๐ข ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ข ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ช๐ค๐ฌ ๐ต๐ฐ๐ธ๐ข๐ณ๐ฅ๐ด ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ฃ๐ช๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฐ๐จ๐บ. ๐ ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ'๐ฆ ๐จ๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ง๐ถ๐ญ. ๐ ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ค๐ข๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฌ ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ. ๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฅ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ฃ๐ข๐ด๐ด ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐บ๐ง๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ๐ด ๐ช๐ด๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ซ๐ฐ๐ฃ ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ญ. ๐๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฌ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ธ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ, ๐๐ถ๐จ๐ข๐ณ, ๐ช๐ต'๐ด ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ช๐ค๐ฆ. ๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ญ๐บ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ, ๐๐ญ๐ฆ๐น.
โ๐๐ฆ๐ค๐ณ๐ฆ๐ต ๐๐ฅ๐ฎ๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ๐ณ.
My legs went weak, I pressed a hand on my mouth to keep myself from screaming. This was creepy, really creepy. He has been near me and watching. Was he watching me now? I looked round my room. Maybe he was hiding in my bathroom. Or under my bed! Scared to hell, I picked my slippers and ran out of my room, down the stairs and out the front door.