CHAPTER FIVE

The air in the clinic smells of medicine and Swiss Air Freshener. I shut the door, the sound making Mrs Green, the fair chubby nurse sitting at her desk near one of the beds in the clinic to look up from the stack of office files in front of her.

"Hey Alicia. How are you?"

"To be honest Mrs Green, I am not fine."

"Is everything alright?" She asks, her eye brows raised as she stands up from her chair.

"I fell down on the stairs in front of the school's entrance and hurt my left knee. It is really painful."

"Oh my dear."

She reaches me where I stand and wraps one of her arms gently around my waist. She guides me to a spring bed draped with a blue bedsheet.

"Here, sit."

I settle my ass down on the bed. She brings a chair, places it in front of me and sits down on the chair. I wince when she lifts my left leg and places it on her laps.

"Sorry dear. I need to examine the area."

I wince further when the fingers of her right hand begin to press around the regions of my left knee. Some parts she presses don't hurt much, but when she presses the top center of my left knee, I nearly scream.

Fuck Luke Evans!

"Oh dear. Thank God no bone around this area is broken. I will prescribe you some painkillers and an ointment that will help with the pain and injury. You will be fi—"

The buzzing of her phone in the pocket of her white lab coat cuts her off. She brings the phone out and after staring at the phone screen for a while, she looks up at me.

"It is Principal Miller. I have to go see him right now. I want you to wait here for me. I will get the ointment from the school's pharmacy on my way back. Have some rest, alright?"

I nod. She gently lifts my left leg from her laps and places it on the bed, an action that made me wince in pain again. I lie my back on the bed, relishing in the softness of the mattress.

I turn to face the wall, shutting my eyes. I hear the sound of Mrs Green's footsteps as she leaves the office. When the door clicks shut, I open my eyes.

The white oil painted wall before me shines like a slippery eel. I run my fingers across it, feeling its coldness seeping into my fingertips.

The door of the clinic creaks open, and I turn around towards the sound.

I jerk up to a sitting position on the bed when a very familiar face that represents the Hades of Hell peeks through the small door opening.

Luke Evans.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I spit out.

He opens the door further and enters the room, shutting the door behind him.

"I came to check if you are alright. You didn't look too well in class this morning."

"And whose fault do you think it is?"

He edges closer to my bed, and I begin to draw back slowly to the wall behind me. He sits down on the chair that Mrs Green previously sat on when she was examining my knee.

"Is it painful?" He asks, his hand reaching for my left knee.

"Don't touch me." I nearly yell. "Like you fucking care."

He withdraws his hands and slides it back into the pockets of his leather jacket.

"How did you even know I am here?" I ask.

"Reece told me. Although I had to receive some serious tongue lashings from her before she decided to spit it out."

He blurts and looks around the clinic, his blue eyes scanning the walls pasted with medical educational posters and quotes. Now that he is sitting right in front of me, focused on the pinned quotes and images on the walls, I am given the chance to be immersed in the tempting allure of his flawless facial features, despite the voice in my head telling me to look away.

His smooth face. His finely shaped eye brows draped with the hair strands of his messy black hair. His blue eyes that look so intense and hypnotic like the magic pull of a wide blue ocean. His aquiline, perfectly curved nose. His arched cheekbones. His full pink lips that is now, oh fuck me, filing me with an almost insatiable urge to lock my lips on them. . . . . .

"I still can't believe that Mr Douglas paired us both for his class project Alicia Smith."

Luke's voice snaps me out of my trance. I blink a couple times and clear my throat, adjusting my slumped shoulders and smacking myself in the head for behaving so stupid in front of my enemy.

"I should be the only one surprised, not you Luke Evans. You have never cared about your school grades anyway. I doubt if you even care about anything in your life."

Luke leans closer, and I feel my heart banging against my chest.

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

His tone is so low and sounds lethal. The next words fly out of my mouth before I could stop them.

"It means you are bad luck to me Evans. And I don't need bad luck bombarding my grades right now."

Like a bolt of lightning, Luke is on my bed, his left knee digging into the mattress. I can hear and feel the hotness of his breaths as his face draws nearer to mine, his piercing blue eyes paralyzing every bone and nerve impulse in my body.

"I dare you to say that again, Smith."

"And I dare you to stop acting like some gothic badboy punk, Evans."

I can hear my breaths coming out in rasps now, blood pounding in my ears. I notice Luke's eyebrows knit together. A low taunting chuckle escapes his lips.

"Did you. . . . . . did you just call me a gothic badboy punk?"

"I think I did."

"You are one hell of a blabber mouth Smith."

"And you are one hell of an asshole who goes about hurting people and not even feeling apologetic about it in the slightest!" I yell.

Yes. I admit that the pain in my left knee is hurting like hell right now, but I feel more excuriating pain tearing through my heart muscles because the stupid boy who has caused it will not apologize for what he did.

A moment of dead drop silence falls between us, and in that moment, my heart does a mad flip when Luke's eyes turn a hundred shades darker.

What have I done?!

"You know nothing about me Alicia Smith. Nothing."

I remain silent. I guess now is not the time to play tough girl.

"Whether I go about hurting people or not is none of your fucking business. When people stand in my way, I bump them out. You stood in my way this morning, so I bumped you out."

I scoff. Typical egostic Evans.

"And thanks to you, I am walking like a cripple. You know what, Evans? If you can as well bump me out from being your project partner, I will be most delighted."

I try to push him away from me, but his hands pin mine above my head on the wall behind me.

"I want that more than anything else Alicia. But Mr Douglas is a knucklehead, so I guess we are stuck together."

Our breaths are both heavy now, coming out in thick pants blending together in mixed fury. When I squirm under his hold, my left knee hits on his leg by mistake.

"Arrgh!"

I scream, feeling the excuriating pain tearing through my joint ligaments. I feel an immediate release on my hands and I use the opportunity to push Luke away from me as hard as I can.

"Stay the hell away from me Evans!"

I clutch my hands to my left knee, not giving a fuck about the concerned look smudged across Luke's face as he withdraws to the side of the chair, standing beside it.

If he is trying to pity me for the pain he himself inflicted on me, then he is the worst person I have ever met.

Just then, the door opens, and Mrs Green walks in. Her eyes widen in surprise as they lay hold on Luke.

"Evans. What brings you here?"

"I came to check on Alicia. She wasn't feeling too well in class this morning."

He plasters a smile on his face. A smile that feels forced. He turns around to me.

"Take care of yourself Alicia. We will talk about how to go about the class project after school. See you later."

And with that, he walks past Mrs Green and reaches the door. With one turn his hand makes on the door handle, he pushes the door open and exits.

I place my hand on my chest, feeling the deep thumping of my heart on my anterior chest wall.

Luke Evans is such a frustrating asshole!

"Here Alicia. The prescription for the painkillers is written on a paper I tucked into the drug's packet. Apply the ointment at least two times a day. If the pain feels as hurtful as it is now or perhaps increases after three days, please don't hesitate to inform me."

I nod. I climb down from the bed, sucking in a breath as I feel the pain returning.

Don't worry my lovely left knee. Three days and you will be back to healthy shape like nothing happened.

"Thank you Mrs Green."

"You are welcome Alicia."

I smile and turn towards the door. I reach the door in seconds, open it, and find myself outside on the hallway.

I close the door behind me and huff out a heavy sigh.

It will be an almighty wonder if Luke Evans and I work together on this project without killing each other.