'Should I kill him?'
Rhea glared at him.
"Riri?" she repeated.
"It's your name."
"Nickname."
"But we are friends. You call me by my nickname. I should call by yours too."
Rhea was going to protest, but then Hugo waved at someone. She swallowed down her anger as a blond short boy came into view.
Hugo did not need to hint anything at her. She had already known. It was Justin, whose father was a construction worker and sometimes brought his work trucks to pick Justin up.
"How you doing, buddy?" the blond boy asked with a huge smile. Rhea was pretty sure she never smiled that big in her entire life. Or, maybe she did. However, she could not remember.
"The usual," Hugo replied and they did some kind of strange movement with their hands. He looked at Rhea as he said, "Rhea, this is Justin. And Justin…"
"I know her. Isn't this the brilliant girl who always stands first in your class?"
"I am that girl," Rhea simply said. "So, you are not expelled?"
Hugo was surprised and Justin just laughed as he rubbed his broken nose. It was bandaged clumsily.
"They attacked me first. I just defended myself," he said and smiled at her. "How do you know it? Were you looking for me?"
"No."
"You got into a fight?" Hugo asked, pushing Rhea slightly with his body so he was almost in the middle of her and Justin.
Justin scratched the back of his head and let out a grin that was anything but innocent.
"Those bastards dared pull my hair in the damn class. So, I beat them up with chairs," he said.
Hugo was horrified. And to his surprise, Rhea smiled. Both he and Justin stared at her.
"That actually is not a bad move," she said, a smile still playing on her lips.
"To you, it is not," Hugo said.
"… I hate angels like you," she said, giving him side eyes.
Hugo knew she had gotten expelled from her kindergarten because she hit a boy with her bag so hard that he had to get two stitches on his forehead. Hugo's father had to go and calm the boys' parents down because Rhea's mother was not helping much. Rhea's mother had a complicated personality and gave complicated opinions.
"Right? He always is a good kid. I mean, if you don't be a little reckless now, when will you be? When you grow old and wrinkly?" Justin said and tried to nudge Rhea on the elbow playfully.
But she moved away quickly. "Don't touch me," she said. Her voice was dangerous and Justin backed away quickly, a little shocked. But he recovered quickly. He was one of the craziest people Hugo knew. Justin might look like a cute little boy, but in a fight, he was the one with a freaking hammer. And he was someone who did not get offended, at least, Hugo had never seen him taking any offense. He was a little shameless at times.
"You truly don't like to be touched, right? I heard it once, but now I see it," Justin said. "Why though? Any trauma?"
Hugo cleared his throat. "Well, did your father say anything? Did he get mad?"
"A little. It doesn't matter. He knows I am not wrong. The getting mad part was just a show-off," Justin said.
"How long did the principal even hold him in his office?" Hugo asked.
"More than an hour, I think," Justin replied. "Why are you so interested?"
"Because I have been looking for you for a while and could not find you," Hugo said. "I could not find the coach. Someone said the coach was with you."
"He wasn't with me," Justin said.
"Now I know," Hugo said, scratching his scalp.
"Hugo got hurt. He wanted the coach to know that," Rhea said.
Hugo was not used to lying. There was a good chance he would start acting suspicious if he lied for a long time.
Actually, he truly needed to talk to the coach to inform him about his knee. It looked like it would take more time to heal. But that had escaped his mind quite a long time ago. His mind was in chaos, thanks to one particular girl, who he could not stop thinking about and since getting a little close to her, she was always in his mind.
"You got hurt? Again? How?" Justin exclaimed. "Now that I think about it, you were limping a little. What happened?"
"I slipped."
"In the bathroom," Rhea added.
Hugo glared at her and she just shrugged.
It took Hugo a while to explain the condition of his knees to Justin. He had gone to the doctor after returning from the police station. It was nothing serious, but would just take a while more to recover.
In the end, he had to meet the coach as well. Rhea had left at one point. He could not even tell her to wait as that would be extremely selfish. Even after being friends with Verdell and Clara, he never told them to do anything for him. He just could not get close enough to them for that. They tried to get close to him, but he unconsciously pushed them back. Or, maybe he knew what he was doing, but just did not care enough.
"Take care of yourself. You are needed," the coach said, placing his hand on his shoulder.
Hugo resisted the urge to shake the hand off. He had seen the coach wiping his sweat with that very hand.
As he made his way outside the school gym where the coach had been, he took his jacket off and folded it, before tucking it in his bag. He washed his hand with some water from his bottle.
That was when he noticed.
Rhea did not leave. She was sitting on the round seat built around a huge mango tree. She was reading a book. She annoyedly tugged a strand of her hair behind her ear. Her beautiful brown skin glowed under the sun, but Hugo preferred her under the moon. She looked like herself then; calm, composed, beautiful, and fearless.
He could not hide his sheepish grin, so he waited until he could collect himself before making his way to her. She set her big brown eyes on him and his whole body stiffened up. It was not just a teenage crush. He was too much in love with her. He had always been. And he was only falling more every minute he spent in her presence.
"So, Justin's father left the truck here and like the dumbass he seems to be, he left the keys too. Your attacker took the chance and almost ran over you," she said. Her voice was cold, but it was just how she talked. Some people had a resting bitch face and an unwelcoming voice.
Rhea was a great example.
"My question remains the same. Why would someone attack me?" Hugo asked.
Rhea closed the book with a loud thump and chewed on her bottom lip. Hugo's fists tightened and he had to look away for a second.
"I am not sure, although I have some…"
"Theories?"
"Not theories," she said as she placed the book back in her bag. Hugo was not sure what kind of book it was as it did not have the name on it, but it had great binding. "Just something I think is most necessarily true."
"Mind if I ask?"
"… What if I say whoever gets close to me dies?"