Banks of Lethe [Open]

Esra came to an abrupt stop when she reached where her shoe had fallen, she hadn't expected to actually hit him the face. She'd hoped in an overflowing of anger but that seemed unlikely, shoes were not balanced aerodynamically, it was fate as much as her that disliked this boy. Deftly slipping her shoe back on she looked at him just as she had before, maybe he had gotten the message by now, that she had given him more than enough warnings.

Taking two more steps out into the hall she stood over him, "That does for cutting off then," Looking at his redding nose, "We might share a school but I never want to see you, got it?" It didn't seem like that big an ask, he had managed it up until today. If he hadn't made a scene, she might not have even noticed. Seriously was it that hard to act normal for this guy?

At a glance she could tell that bruises he had were not from her, so she wasn't the only one he was bothering. Turning she started back towards the classroom with people staring, "Go to the nurses office, if you got beat up so bad." She was going to have to explain this away to everyone now, if only she'd been able to ignore him. Well it was all his fault, he was the root cause.

Seriously? Did she seriously have to do this, in front of all these people!? She was really really threatening him, he was sure this time. Something in her eyes told him to stay clear or say goodbye to his life. Or worse, his lunch money!

However, that same something that told him to stay clear also shone an alluring light. As he watched her face, her beautifully framed eyes, from the floor, gripping his broken nose as it bled out, he could see himself getting drawn into that light. So, although the people were staring, some giggling and although she pretty much ruined his high school social life, he found himself caring little for those things. He knew, in whatever was left of his concious mind, that he should've been getting angry at her for doing this, that he should've been getting up and getting back at her for this, but he just couldn't feel angry at her. His unrealized anger was overshadowed by the immense love for her. The love that was proning him to keep going, the love that was- oh shit, nonono! Don't say it, don't say it! He tried to subdue the need to confess, but his attempts fell flat. He kept going, and spoke up through his broken nose, looking up at her from his lowered position on the floor.

"W- ...g-go out with me..? W-would you go out with me!?!"

A crushing silence swept the room as the collective breaths of thirty seven people that had by now gathered around them were held. Esra came to a complete stop, her hand clenching into a shaking fist at her hip. This guy, such a child. So he liked the way she looked, of course. She was athletic, she took care of her face, wore clothes that fitted her. All the things she was meant to do to be respectable, playing the role of student as best she could, retaining that rebellious aura however. So yes, she had no doubt that people found her attractive, though she would put several others even in this class as more so than her.

However just finding a girl attractive, is no reason to try and date them. It riled her that he had failed to even attempt to have a conversation with her prior to spewing that line. That her own feelings meant so little to him that he didn't even consider them for a moment.

The Esra three years ago, she' dated, horrible human beings, nice ones too. That girl was gone though, swept away with the ashes of the life she had left behind for this one. The life that would leave her in a dead-end, unable to hide how terrible she was from her brother and her friends. As far as her friends today, her classmates knew she was just the distant, quick to anger girl who got average scores and took flight on the track team. Not standing out terribly and while distant, not a bad person. One who did her fair share, helped out if needed and while being rather blunt and informal, not terrible to talk to. Of course some rumors persisted that she had run a gang, was a monster and in some versions still was. Not that anyone would say that to her face however.

This made what was happening by far the most interesting thing relating to her that had ever happened in their eyes. Though a few had seen her getting aggressive on occasion. At least the boys in her class though, they'd talked to her once in a while, might know a little bit about her. Even if she wouldn't pick any of them herself, she might be open to the idea. Yet this guy, he had seen only one side of her, violent. Rather than running scared like any sensible or even sane person, he was stalking her. Was he really so in love with the way she looked that he would go that far, or was he so sick that he would?

On top of all that, he was doing this here, now, like this. What happened to that sappy letter in the locker thing, he had to be laid out on the floor bleeding. In front of people she would rather not display her personal life to, even if he wasn't even remotely part of it. So infuriating!

That fist overflowed, smacking full pelt into the door frame, sending shock-waves up her right arm. Breaking the silence and making some people jump back. Her voice a growl tore into the air, she was visibly shaking, "Not ever." That hung, stinging in the air. Before she turned around in a whirlwind of hair to face him again, "You stalk me, you try to assault me and now this?" Her anger carried her forwards, the shaking stop but a wild fury replacing the cold murder in her eyes, "No one would ever date someone who was such a scumbag, let alone one that can't even look after themselves." She was standing over him again now, wanting to smash something. Even if he wasn't all the things she just listed, she would never say yes to him. Maybe if he lost fifty pounds, learned how to fight and not act like a lovesick puppy, but hardly likely.

Maybe, if she knew him at all she might give him a hand up but that seemed like a terrible idea. She wanted no mixed messages, so instead commanding and loud she added, "Get your sorry ass up and to the nurse, now, and never speak to me again." Her fists were clenched again, as she started to walk away, outside this time, so she could really start punching something.

A-alright... Her response was perfectly viable... He had kind of been a bother to her and all, and it wasn't like he was a hunk or something, so she wasn't gonna fall for his looks, that much was sure. But still, he couldn't help but feel a chunk of his heart crumbling as he got shot down.

He remained sitting there, wanting to cry but having to surpress it as to not embarrass himself even further in front of the whole school, just staring at the spot she had been standing on, even after she went away. He lamented his current state as the crowd around him started to rouse. Blood rushing to his face, it had now turned so red it was nearly indescernable from the actual blood smudged all over his nose and hand. It was in this state that the teach would have found him, surrounded by at least several dozen students, all murmuring to one another.

They all went silent the moment they heard the teach approaching. As he would walk, a path for him would have been cleared by the students, moving away in awe his authority demanded of them. A few of the seniors kept on snickering though. Well, anyways, a path would be open for the teach, leadig his straight to where our hero was sitting, drowning in his self-lamentation. He also reacted to the teach's presence, turning to face him, his face slowly passing the point of red and turning purple, and his eyes wide open. He had to get away from this, he couldn't have the teach scolding him on top of all the other crap! In the spurt of a moment, he somehow gathered enough strenght to stand up on his shaky feet and turned away, trying to push his way through the studnts on the other side, adjacent to where the teach was coming from. They, however, tried their best not to let him, forming a living wall to keep his inside. /Goddamn these people! Akh!/ they pushed him back and he found himself on the floor again. In fear of what might come, he turned and held his face up to look at the teach...

It was now a vivid purple.

Oh Fortuna, thou waxed and waned, and caused a monstrous fate, what is your want of me?

Esra still had her fists balled, her brow knotted and furrowed and her eyes. Still the bore a fury that could barely be sated by any remains of her self control, she seethed as the greatest and deepest storm. It wouldn't take but a straw to push over that teetering edge of reason. As much as her own sake as anyone else's she had tried to rid herself of the situation, yet now she was trapped. Despite it as she might, authority had the rules and she was meant to play by them. Hitting a teacher would be ruinous and would most certainly get back to her brother somehow. Still she could barely hold herself back, stamping her foot in frustration she glowered. Aggressive as it was, it was safer than letting her mouth actually get at any of the hundreds of words she wanted to scream right now.

Instead she tried to focus on not grinding her teeth, standing in the middle of the corridor with her foul look hidden from almost all but the teacher. This could go a wealth of ways. The chances were that no one after what she had just said would rat her out, yet it was clear that she was the one to blame for the manboys current state. The record she had with the school was a mostly good one as well, he was really such a horrible human being, inflicting all of this on her.

Not seeing a way out of this one, he mustered up all his strenght to crush his pride, pushing himself onto his feet as he tattered over to the teach's side, averting his gaze off of the authority figure as he still held a hand over his broken nose. "L-let's just go where we gotta go..." He said unwillingly. This wasn't the first time he had gotten into trouble because of others, so he knew the procedure. Now the teach was gonna lead him to his office or maybe the principal's office where he'd have to explain the situation, taking all the blame onto himself for social status reasons and to just get the issue over with. Someone always needed to take the blame. Sure it wasn't a perfect system, but it was a system that worked and there was no need to fix that which is not broken.

He raised his brow to direct one last soft glance at the girl. Now, it would be up to her to decide whether she was gonna go with them or not. He wasn't gonna complain either way, he knew it was his fault.

She hadn't laid a finger on him. She'd thrown a shoe, one he should have been able to move out of the way of just fine, only he was too busy staring at her. He'd brought it upon himself and right now, as angry as she was, furious, she blamed it all on him. It would have been entirely in her rights to tear his arm off, yet she had held herself back. So now she held her tongue again, vibrating with violence but not, she pleaded the fifth.

Not returning the look of either one of them, she wasn't the bigger person in this, she just wanted it to go away.

Esra spent the rest of the day fuming, it wasn’t like she had actually ended up in trouble. She’d been told not to throw her shoes at people and she hadn’t repeated her outburst that she had given to her class. Her hope had been that he might stay tight lipped about her punching him in the face. It would be far too easy for that to get out of hand, seriously what was with that guy? Between her leaving him spread out on the tarmac yesterday he had managed to get beaten up even worse by someone else and then turned up to school anyway? Then rather than learn anything from that, he would just stop and stare at her like an idiot. So what if she should just ignore him? That just wasn’t something she could do, when someone pissed her off she deal with it. That was the way she had always been, most people learn not to get on her nerves pretty darn quick.

So she had hacked her way through an English lesson knowing full well that if it wasn’t for the fact they had PE last she would have had to make up some excuse to ditch last period. A forty five minute long slaughterfest of full contact volleyball followed that was enough for her to let off more than a little steam and scare the life out of the opposing team. Then without a break she started running laps, and kept going with only breaks for water for the next hour and a half before finally giving in. Talking to anyone else was a bad idea, if only she could afford a gym membership, then she could tear apart a punching bag or something. For her the blame was entirely on that boy, nary a question in her mind. In reality though, she had been tense for months without a proper outlet, these feelings suppressed. She had managed to ignore them without incident right up until he stuck his stupid face in.

Showered, changed and back into her uniform she started the walk home. Only she didn’t take the direct route for once, no her feet took her back towards old haunts. The rundown series of shops that flanked out onto a wilting park and sports center. Back then it seemed different, a place for the best parts of her childhood, tainted black of course. Was that memory why she had wandered back here after the day she’d had? It was unlikely that anyone here would remember her. Back then she had short cropped hair, dressed like a thug and disappeared in the crowd of other like minded people. Now she was a perfectly respectable high schooler with long locks and a smile, or at least she would do if she wasn’t scowling.

Passing the Arcade she listened to the music just for a second, that was something she hadn’t heard in forever. Back when she’d play those games like a person possessed and before things got serious that was enough to get praise. No gangs of kids in there today it seemed though, it seemed deserted. It wasn’t like she had any money anyway, if the notion had taken her, for old times sake. Instead she walked on past the service alley, where there was another familiar sound. Taunting, teasing voices, three or so, this place hadn’t changed so much then. The sensible thing would have been of course to keep walking, to go home. Without a moment's thought however Esra rounded the corner and just walked right past the three guys. An attractive young woman alone, goading them for a reason to break their noses.