The Sun Always Sets in Paradise

I doodled on my notebook as my English teacher, Mr. Rook, droned on about Charles Dickens. I couldn’t believe that after only two weeks into school, I was already wishing it was over. Plus, I really didn’t care at the moment what Mr. Rook was telling us. My mind was elsewhere; preoccupied with my boyfriend, Haden.

My ribs still hurt from when he beat the shit out of me two nights ago. He was smart enough to avoid my face and arms. Yet, there was the occasion that he would leave a faint mark on my cheek from a slap or something.

I hated Haden. I hated the relationship. I wanted out of it but the last time I tried, he fucking let his panties get into a twist and beat the shit out of me.

I shuddered at the thought of his fists hitting me that night in my room. Fear started to creep into my mind but anger quickly ruled it out.

The bell rang, startling me out of my dark thoughts. I quickly got up and headed to my locker to put my books away. Next hour was lunch and I was thankful to see my best friend, Ellie.

Ellie and I had been friends since first grade. We shared a crayon and that was just it! We have been inseparable ever since. She is practically a sister to me; the kind that I would never hide anything from.
My stomach growled making me shut my locker and head quickly to the cafeteria. There were kids everywhere and you’d think that it would be deafening but I just sighed, sad that I was already accustomed to it all.

My eyes scanned the cafeteria for Ellie. I found her sitting near the floor-to-ceiling windows on the way far end. I smiled when I saw that it was our old spot from last year.

I walked briskly over to her. I was nearly right next to her when she looked up from her sandwich.

“Hey bitch.” Ellie gave me a toothy grin after she swallowed her mouthful.

“Hey hooker.” I replied while sitting next to her at the table.

Ellie pushed her batman lunchbox, known also as batman-box, over to me. I smiled in delight. “What did momma make for dinner last night?”

See, I referred to Ellie’s mom as my mom because my actual mother was a complete bitch to me. I swear she fucking hated me. I knew the reason and it pissed me off to no end. My egg-donor hated me because I looked like my dad. Like that’s really my fucking fault that I looked like the man that walked out on her and I.

“She made fettuccini last night but tonight is leftover night so I just made us some heart-attack sandwiches.” Ahh, so Ellie made her famous peanut butter and chocolate chip sandwiches for our lunch today.

I dug into the batman-box for my lunchbox. All the while, I looked nonchalantly around the cafeteria. Just as I grabbed hold of my sandwich, my eyes landed on Haden.

He was walking towards the table that Ellie and I were sitting at.

No, no, no! Please, don’t come over here! I begged in silent fear.

Haden looked overly joyed and I was starting to panic. I didn’t know why but I always thought that the happier Haden seemed, the deadlier he was.

“Hey ladies!” Haden was now standing in front of a wide-eyed me and a practically hissing Ellie.

“Hello.” I responded to him quietly.

Ellie, however, said nothing. She just stared at him with pure hatred. Thankfully, Haden didn’t seem fazed but I assumed that was only because he was ignoring her. He had his brown eyes focused completely on me.

“What?” I questioned in a small voice.

“I found another girl to date. I think that she could be the one so I just came over dump your ass.” He smirked, almost as if he was feeling triumphant.

My mouth literally fell open. I was so shocked that I couldn’t even pretend to be hurt. Was it seriously that easy? By his word, we were fucking over? Really?

I quick pushed down my rising anger and acted like I was panicked and hurt. “Really?” I whispered.

“Yeah, so don’t fucking talk to me again. I’ll beat the shit out of you if you try and break this girl and me up.” His voice got low and menacing.

I was honestly getting panicked and my anger quickly high-tailed it to the corner of my mind.

“O-okay.” Bastard…

He turned around and just left.

“That was just too easy…” I whispered, now truly terrified at what might come later.

Ellie must not have heard what I had whispered because she just proceeded to go into a very angry rant about Haden. I just blocked her out after a while and let my mind go blank. I didn’t want to think about what Haden might be plotting next. I didn’t want to let him intimidate me before he even fucking did anything!

“Dezzy!” Ellie snapped her fingers in my face.

I blinked, dazed, before looking at her in surprise. “What?”

“Hun, if you want to, you can stay at my house tonight.” Sympathy was evident in her amazing blue eyes.

I just nodded slowly before smiling the smallest bit. “Thanks, Ellie.”

My smile widened just a fraction. I knew that Ellie would help me forget it all

“Then it’s settled. We’ll make a pit stop at your house so you can get clothes, then we’ll do something tonight!” She grinned at me before grabbing her lunchbox. “What’s your next class again?”

I wrinkled my nose in distaste before replying, “Chemistry with Mr. Leroy.”

“Ah, he’s so hot!” She exclaimed.

“That’s incredibly gross. He’s like nearly forty!” I joked.

“The fuck he is! He’s exactly 27!”

“You’re such a stalker.” I laughed as I stood up.

Ellie gave me a toothy grin and I knew that she felt triumphant in being able to make me laugh. I just shook my head slightly in response and headed to my class. I knew that the bell wouldn’t ring for a while yet but it gave me a chance to reread what we would be covering in class. I had trouble really understanding the concepts of anything science related so I found out that it helped for me to read a lot of material more than once.

As I made my way to my locker, I saw a few students in the hallway, but otherwise it seemed fairly quiet. That was fine though. That was how I liked it but mainly because I had a small issue with being surrounded by groups of people.

After I retrieved my books, I walked the short distance to Mr. Leroy’s classroom. As I expected, he was sitting at his desk, eating lunch and doing something on his laptop. No matter how much I disliked any kind of science course, Mr. Leroy seemed to make chemistry a little bit easier. He was a kind, younger man and even though he portrayed himself as a stereotypical loner around any people, he was actually a very kind and sociable person.

“Afternoon, Miss Kriston.” Mr. Leroy greeted me while looking up from his computer screen only momentarily.

“Afternoon, Mr. Leroy.”

I headed to my assigned seat, sat down, and then let my books basically get pushed to wherever before I started to read quietly to myself.

It didn’t take long before students started flooding into the classroom and taking their assigned seats. I tried to concentrate on my reading but the chatter from the other students disrupted my studious manner. I angrily tore my gaze from my textbook to assess who was all in the classroom. The majority of people were the smart students of school who easily understood – and even enjoyed – chemistry. There were a few stragglers that hadn’t completely finished an assignment from last night. I had finished it in class but that was only because we had time to do so.

Finally the warning bell rang. Hmmp… I didn’t even hear the first bell…

A few remaining students, who were trying to kill time in the hallway, settled into the classroom. Mr. Leroy started to right something on the white board when a young male walked into the classroom. I just quickly glanced over to verify that I didn’t recognize him. I just assumed that it was probably Mr. Leroy’s nephew or something, relaying a quick message.

“Oye, attention class!” Mr. Leroy’s stern voice made everyone quiet down and pay attention. “We have a new student. His name is Maxim Volkov.”

Maxim just lifted his hand up to wave politely but otherwise his facial expression was completely void of any emotion. He reminded me of a stereotypical soldier about to go to war.

I eyed him curiously. He was handsome. That part was definitely clear. He sounded like he was Russian, too. He also stood a good four inches or so over Mr. Leroy which meant that he was at least half a foot or so taller than me. Maxim had short, light brown hair and a smooth face. His eyes were either a pale blue or grey. I couldn’t exactly tell what color from my seat, though.

I barely noticed Mr. Leroy motioning for Maxim to sit down. I did, however, notice Maxim coming over to sit in the empty chair next to me. Quickly, I averted my eyes to my book in embarrassment at my gawking.

“You two will be permanent partners in any group labs that we have this year.” Mr. Leroy informed us.

I just merely nodded my head in acknowledgement. I could practically feel Maxim’s presence next to me. His very intimidating presence, that is.

Maxim cleared his throat causing me to peek over to him. He gave me a barely-there-kind-of-smile ever, but there was no kindness anywhere in his gorgeous, feather-grey eyes.

I returned his very small smile with a tight one. “I’m Desiree but you can call me Dezzy.”

“You, eh, already name know my name.” Maxim had quite a thick Russian accent, “but, uh, you can call me Max.”

“’Kay.”

I turned back to my book and tried to concentrate the rest of the class period. Yet, just like my English class, my mind was wrapped up with Haden. I was silently picturing what horrible things that would probably happen later.

“Umm, Dezzy?” I was startled out of my sick imagination by Max’s whisper.

I looked at him with a raised brow. “Yes?”

“You look sick. Is something wrong?” I could tell that he felt uncomfortable form the awkward concern etched on his face.

I returned this “concern” with a tight smile. “No. I’m fine.”

Lies! My conscious screamed at me.

I stiffly returned my head back to my book.

It made me sad how someone I didn’t even know showed more concern for me than my boyfriend. I’m sorry. Ex-boyfriend.