Chapter 5. |Coffee and Curses|

If you've ever had a terrible first day of school, you know by now that it always starts with you minding your own business, probably trying to navigate the large hallways until that one person destined to ruin your existence bumps into you and makes a complete fool out of you.

Only I was the one sent to ruin someone's existence.

I raced through the multitude of straggling students either trying to get to class or loitering in the hallways and bumped into some of them resulting to loud insults being thrown at me. I didn't care though, I was on a mission.

When I woke up this morning, I felt like I had dreamed up the whole events that occurred last night until I saw the date which clearly read, October 1st and then there was the fact that things seemed to be repeating themselves. I had really gone back in time.

I glanced at the clock above at the main hall as I halted to a full stop and breathed a sigh of relief, 8:15am. Now around this time a month ago was when I first ran into him, and like how it all went last time, I was determined to correct it and be in his good books.

Step one, be nice to him. Easy enough, right? 

Now the reason why I was rushing to get here and currently standing by the main doors was simple, today was Blake's first day of school and I had literally ran right into him causing all his piled up books, worksheets and timetables to strew across the hallways. We had picked and tried to sort everything out together but I got the feeling that he mainly started avoiding me after because of that incidence. I planned to run into him again, this time not clumsily but to put up the front of the nice girl he first meets in this new environment.

I glanced at the wall clock, only a minute had passed. He should be passing by any second now and I reached up to sip my hot coffee from the Styrofoam cup. I hadn't had time to grab a decent breakfast from the whole weirdness of the morning so the coffee was doing both a job of filling my empty stomach and keeping me alert.

I peered at the little tattoo at the back of my hand with renewed determination. It was a small, black writing of the number 31 that stood out on my pale skin, I had tried scrubbing it off this morning when I noticed it but then realized what it was. A reminder, of just how many days I had to complete this heinous task.

A hand tapped on my shoulder, jogging me out of my reverie and Molly's familiar face appeared. She was dressed in her red and white cheerleader's uniform for some reason. Her chestnut brown hair was tied into a tight ponytail which really brought out her soft, oval face and big almond eyes.

"Ruby," she really stressed out the 'b' in my name, probably for dramatic effect. Molly quite enjoyed drama or being the centre of attention and I rolled my eyes at her to get to the point. "Where have you been? Amanda wants to see us all."

Amanda was our honey blonde cheerleading captain, the definition of a typical high school queen bee. What she wanted today of all days, I didn't understand.

"Molly, go on without me. Tell her I'll be there in-" I was saying, throwing out my hands in exasperation and hitting a hard surface. The Styrofoam cup slipped from my hands and I heard a male voice cuss loudly. I turned to meet the sight of a very annoyed Blake Johnson whose white T-shirt was currently soaked through by my hot coffee.

His books, timetables and all were scattered all over the tiled hallway and it felt like time had stopped as everyone seemed to pause to stare at this scene that was most likely not going to end well. Blake was dressed exactly like I remembered a month ago, in blue jeans and a currently coffee stained white tee, his curly, black hair stuck up everywhere and his electric blue eyes were narrowed in disliked behind his black, thin rimmed glasses. He was actually pretty good looking but that was by the way now.

I had one thing to do, just one thing and I blew it. Great going, Ruby. Even the tiny tattoo on my hand seemed to burn as he glared at me.

"I'm so sorry, I swear, it was a mistake, Blake," I apologized as I bent to start picking up his books. Meanwhile, Molly still stood behind me ogling him with her mouth probably hung open. 

Some best friend.

"You've ruined my shirt! And how do you even know my name, weirdo?" Blake asked gruffly, bending down to join me in picking arranging the fallen books and I realized that I just made yet another mistake today. Technically, we just met, I wasn't supposed to know his name and I just uttered it like I had known him for ages.

"Uh...you look like a Blake," I rushed out, thinking fast to stop how he was currently staring at me suspiciously, it was bad enough that he already thought I was weird. "Also, I'm a really great guesser and I guess people's names like every time." That strained nervous laugh I gave at the end of my sentence probably did more harm than good.

"O...kay." He didn't sound like he believed me and I heard the late bell peel overheard and suddenly, all the normal school activities returned and people seemed to stop staring. We finished picking the books and stood straight, he was just a bit taller than I was and he studied the brown stain on his shirt with a frown.

"Umm...about that, let's maybe go the lost and found to-"

"Stay away from me, weirdo," he snapped, piling up his books to his chest and walking away. I noticed how adorable he looked with the glasses sliding down his nose as he walked past. I ran my hands through my hair, feeling like this task was about to get way harder than I expected.