‘What the hell Claire?’
‘What’s wrong, Boo-boo?’ she says and tries to cup my face. I lean back, avoiding her touch.
‘You can’t just kiss me like that.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because you just can’t.’
‘Oh, I see, too soon?’
‘Yes, too soon, Claire, we haven’t even been on a date yet,’
‘I’m sorry, Boo-boo, I’ll hold off until then,’
‘I’d appreciate that,’
‘Now, are you going to try this shirt on?’
I take the shirt and put it on.
‘Oh, very smooth, now try this one on.’
‘This one is fine, Claire. We have an outfit picked there. It’s time I take you home,’
‘So soon?’
‘Yeah, I forgot I have an um… assignment.’
‘Oh, okay then,’
On my way out of the Packhouse, I run into Seth.
‘Hey Magnus, where are you off to?’
‘Taking Claire home. She lives near the school.’
‘I’m about to drive past the school. I can drop Claire home if you like?’
‘Oh, could you?’ I say, a little too excited, to Claire’s dismay.
‘Sure,’
‘Great!’ I take Claire’s hand and help her in the car and shut the door before she can kiss me on the cheek goodbye,’ I had never been so happy to see the back of Seth’s car driving away into the distance. I run back inside, and halfway up the staircase, I’m stopped by Josie storming angrily towards me.
‘What is wrong with you? You said you wanted to make things right with Nina. Minutes later, you are making out with Claire!’
‘Look, it wasn’t what it looked like, I swear.’
Josie laughs. ‘Are you serious? It wasn’t what it looked like?’
‘Yes, Claire gave me shirts to try on for the stupid party. As soon as I took my shirt off, she climbed onto me and kissed me as you walked in. I swear I didn’t know she was going to do that. She caught me off guard.’
Josie takes a moment, calming herself down.
‘You need to fix this, Magnus. You need to make things right with Nina, and after what just conspired between you and Claire. Well, let’s just say it’s going to take more than grovelling and apologies to fix this,’
‘I know Josie, I’m going to see Nina now,’ I say and walk around her, continuing up the stairs.
‘Nina?’ I say gently, knocking on her door. ‘Nina?’
The door opens abruptly. Nina holds the door open with one hand, and her other hand is on her hip. Her face shows no emotion.
‘What do you want, Magnus?’ she says, sending a hot shiver down my spine, saying my name.
‘I wanted to come to apologise to you?’
‘For what exactly?’
‘For what you just saw between Claire and me.’
‘Why are you apologising for something that’s not my business?’
I’m stunned by what Nina is saying. She left and ran down the corridor. I thought it upset her seeing me with Claire?
‘You ran off upset when you saw us, I thought?’
‘You thought wrong. Why would I be upset? We have meant nothing to each other for seven years, so why would I care now?’ Her words hit me like a knife in my heart. Her words were brutal, but I could see where she was coming from. ‘What you do isn’t my business and hasn’t been for seven years now, so why would I care whose mouth you stick your tongue down? Now, if you excuse me, I’m going to bed. Goodnight, Magnus,’ and slams her door in my face.
Leaning our backs against either side of the door, we slide down and stare at our feet with sadness, although she won’t admit it. I know I hurt her again. She will be in the Science class tomorrow. That will be my opportunity to speak to her. I return to my room, step into the shower, and bang my head against the wall in frustration. Once I’ve finished sulking in the water, I climb into bed for another restless night of little sleep.
The morning arrives, and I sit at the table for breakfast to find Nina completely ignoring me again. She runs to school ahead of us again.
On arrival at the school, I walk to my locker with Josie and Flint on either side of me. I look over at Nina. Moss has an arm above Nina leaning into the locker. She blushes and giggles as he whispers in her ear.
Josie and Flint observe them and then give each other a worried look.
‘Let’s get to class,’ Flint says.
‘What do we have first?’
‘Physical Ed, let’s get our training gear on,’
PE is just what I needed to help me burn some of this frustration out. We go to the change room, change into shorts and tank shirts, and walk to the oval where Mr Tilley waits to train.
While we wait for the rest of the class, I begin some stretches with Flint and a few other guys.
‘You got to be kidding me?’ Flint says, looking over my shoulder. I look to see what his problem is, only to repeat Flint’s words.
‘You have got to be kidding me?’
‘Hey guys,’ Moss smiles and waves and stretches with us.
‘What are you doing here?’ I snap.
‘I have PE,’ he smiles. ‘I’m Moss,’ he says, putting his hand out to shake mine. Instead, I stop stretching, cross my arms, and glare at him.
‘Ok, fellas, let’s begin with a few laps around the oval, and you start now,’ Mr Tilley says and blows his whistle. I jog past Moss knocking into his shoulder, and he immediately gets that I don’t like him. Moss races to catch up to me. He jogs by my side with a smug grin that keeps growing. If that smug smile gets any bigger, he’d be the joker’s doppelgänger. Flint and I increase our speed to lose him, but he keeps up with us. He whacks his shoulder, nudging me with force. I do the same back. Then the next thing you know, we are both on the ground tackling each other. He punches me in the jaw. I hit him in the left eye, and he punches me in the right eye. I hit his cheekbone. Mr Tilley runs toward us, blowing his whistle. ‘Stop! Stop right now, break it up!’ He continues to yell at us, but neither of us listens to him. I grab Moss’s arm, turn him onto his stomach, wrap my other arm around his neck, and keep him in a lock hold, cutting off his airway. He is about to pass out before using his free arm to grab my precious jewels and twist them.
‘Argh,’ I yell and sit back, releasing him whilst I cling onto my goods.
He turns around, and we glare at each other, panting. We both have black eyes, bloody noses, and bruises in different areas of our faces.
‘Magnus, what has gotten into you? And Moss, you are new here. You should know better about getting into fights. Now both of you see the school nurse and report to the principal’s office.’
‘Yes, Mr Tilley,’ Moss and me grizzle.
Mr Tilley sends Flint with us to make sure Moss and I didn’t get into another fight along the way. We walk through the corridors, and it horrifies students at the sight of us as we walk past the windows. Nina sees from her class and races out with a gasp. I smile and feel warm as she races out to check on me. My mouth drops open when she races up to Moss and wraps her dainty little arms around him. I can hear my growl across half the school grounds. Nina steps back from Moss.
‘What happened to you?’ she asks, staring at me, then at Moss.
‘I was in PE training, and that guy was unfriendly and tried to knock me over when we were running laps. We ended up in a fight. I’ve never met the guy before, so I don’t know what his problem is,’ he says with a glare towards me.
Nina marches up towards me in anger. ‘How dare you! How dare you get into a fight with Moss like that! Just because he is my friend and treats me with kindness, unlike someone else, I know Magnus! Does not give you the right to destroy another friendship!’ She storms back to Moss; she takes a handkerchief from her pocket and gently dabs the blood away from his face. He cups his hand over hers and gives her a sweet, brief peck on the tip of her nose.
‘Thank you, Nina.’ he says, smiling down at her.
My blood is boiling. I felt so angry that I could spontaneously combust and take half the school buildings with me. Flint places his hand on my shoulder.
‘Best to just see the nurse. Standing here watching is only going to make matters worse.’
I march past them in anger and stomp into the Nurse’s station.
‘Magnus, what on Earth happened to you?’ Nurse Carla asks.
‘Got into a fight.’
‘Well. Who with?’
‘The new guy, Moss.’
‘Where is he? Did he sustain any injuries?’
‘Probably a few extra bruises than I, but he already has someone attending to him.’
‘Take a seat.’
I took the seat while Nurse Carla cleaned my face up as best as possible.
