Detention and denial

Keisha’s pov 

I sighed dejectedly as I dragged my feet towards the table that my friends and I usually sit for lunch. I sighed again as I placed my food tray on the table and sat on my chair.

“Woah! Keisha, you sighed so hard that you blew my napkin away.” Yuri, one of my friends stated as she picked up the napkin that I unconsciously blew away. She was Korean. She had really dark long hair and fair skin.

“The reason she is like this is so obvious.” Nicole added, staring at me intently. Her skin was a darker shade than mine, her dark hair was braided in perfect cornrows on her head.  

“Jake is back.” Amy said in a bored tone, as she tossed a fry into her mouth. 

“Why did he come back? What is he doing here? I thought he was gone for good.” I blurted out as I slapped my palms on the table.

“Yeah, we all thought so too until he decided to show up unannounced today.” Nicole said.

“And do you guys even know the worst part?”

“That he has gotten ten times hotter?”

“No!" I glared at Yuri, “He got me into detention, on the first day of school.” I noticed my friends were no longer paying attention to what I was saying. I looked behind me to see what they were looking at. Behold, Jake was making his way through the cafeteria, holding his tray and looking around for where to sit, some of the guys in the basketball team invited him to their table.

“Damn! He is really really hot. Just take a look at those large arms, girls.” Yuri commented, I looked at her and saw her mouth hanging half open.

“Yeah, it really sucks that he and Keisha have bad blood. If it weren’t for that, girl, I’d be on the list of girls that want to climb him like a tree.” Nicole added.

What the actual fuck?

I gaped at Nicole as those words came out of her mouth. I looked at Amy, she was the most sensible one amongst us, and also the ‘I’m not fazed by anything’ one. But, surprisingly, Amy was also staring at him like she had never seen a guy before.

“How did he become that huge in just three years? He had braces the last time we saw him and he looked so short, but now-“

“He is way uglier.” I helped Amy complete her sentence with a smug look on my face.

“Come on, Keisha. Even though you don’t like him anymore, you have to admit the truth.”

Anyone with eyes that were working would know Jake was now more handsome, hell, even the blind could sense his sexiness from a mile away, but was I going to admit that to my friends? Never.

“Guys, stop looking at him like that. We hate him, remember?" 

“Yeah. Unfortunately.” Nicole tsked and looked away. I thought the rest would do the same, only for Yuri to gasp and squeal.

“Oh my God! He is heading towards us. Guys, he is going to sit with us.”

“What?!” I almost yelled as I turned and truly, he was not only heading towards us, he was staring at me.

“Shit! What are we going to do?” I asked anxiously as I stared at my friends. I remembered that Jake barely had any other friends back then, he wasn't close to any other guy like he was close to me. Even Rowan, who was his cousin, didn't have a close relationship with him.

If Jake sat with me for the second time today, I might as well start world war three. It was better to avoid him.

“We could just get up and leave.” Amy suggested, her usual unfazed expression was back on her face. 

Her brains were finally back to normal. Good.

“That’s a really good suggestion. Everyone, get up on three.” The girls and I grabbed our trays, ready for my count.

“One… two… three!” 

Just as Jake placed his tray on our table, we all stood up and headed towards the exit without looking back. Yuri couldn’t hold her laughter as soon as we got out, Nicole joined her too and I couldn’t help but join them.

“That was so funny, I bet he is really confused.”

“Yeah, I bet he is now starting to realize that what he did to me was really wrong.” I said with a satisfied smile.

***

I walked into the class that was meant for detention, greeted the teacher in charge and gave him my detention card before going to sit at the back. A few students were here too but I paid no attention to them. I was annoyed about the fact that instead of doing something meaningful like reading, I would be stuck here for an hour.

I brought out my notes and decided to work on some of the assignments I had. I couldn’t help but think back to what happened earlier today, and how I flared up in front of the whole class. This was all because of him. He came back and had already started to make my life a misery, and the worst part, we had the same timetable. I wasn’t going to let him ruin my chance of having a happy and fun filled senior year.

Speak of the devil.

Jake walked majestically into the classroom and he made his way towards me. I couldn’t hide the anger I was feeling, my brows pulled into a frown as I watched him. The smirk on the idiot’s face became even wider when he noticed my expression and I wanted nothing but to wipe it off with a punch. 

Trust me, I wasn’t a violent person, I just hated this guy. He made my blood boil with anger.

“Hey!” He said as he sat in front of me.

“Thanks to you, I got into detention on the first day of school and for the first time in my life. You must be so happy." I was careful not to yell this time. 

He gasped dramatically and faked surprise.

“It’s your first time? Well, it’s not that bad and there is always a first time for everything. But, don’t worry, I will make your first detention one to remember.” He said as he winked at me.

“What are you doing here?” 

“I came to see how you were fairing.”

“Well, I’m sure you must be very excited to see me suffering like this.”

“Come on, Keisha, you didn’t even ask how I have been all these years and why I came back.”

“I don’t care about that, Jake. I don’t give a shit about whatever you’ve been doing with your life. You can go and come back whenever you want to, I am not bothered by that. But, just do me a favor, I don’t want to have anything to do with you ever again, so just let me be.” 

Surprised by my harsh outburst, he stared at me for about a minute or two.

“Look, I know you are mad at me for not reaching out to you or letting you know that I was leaving. Believe me, I am truly sorry about that, I tried get-“

“That is nowhere near the reason why I don’t want to talk to you, Jake."

His jaw clenched like he was holding something back.

"Can you please just leave me alone? I've had enough of you already.” I packed my books and moved to a seat farther away from him, hoping he wouldn’t follow me and thankfully, he didn’t.

I scoffed as I sat down. He wanted me to ask how he had been? He didn’t care about how I had felt when he broke my heart years ago. And the most annoying part was that he kept acting like he had a memory loss. Like the years we had spent apart would automatically erase the hurt I felt that time.

I looked over to where he was seated, he was still looking at me with a mixed expression of confusion and surprise. What was he confused about? He probably thought I had forgotten about it. I would never.

How dare he just forget that and act like everything was fine between us? How dare he expect me to just forgive me like that? He didn’t even act like he was sorry.

Jake stared at me for a while longer before his face hardened and he walked out of the class.

That was a tiny fraction of how he made me feel years ago and if he thought that I was going to give up and start talking to him again, he was totally wrong.