Street Lights || Sim Jake

3 ¦ Nr. 81

"What's this going to be when it's done?"

I quickly turned to the side and caught sight of a stature I didn't know yet. Or so I thought, but as the guy stubbed out his cigarette and lifted his amused gaze again, I recognized his face. Heeseung and Jay's buddy. The one who raced with them.

"A relationship," I gave coldly, trying to turn away again. "With Heeseung? You can forget that. All he talks about is Aleyshia."

Aware of that, I bitched at him. "Yeah, I know that, but I'm his best friend." A deep, raucous laugh rang out and the tall black-haired boy leaned against the tree. "And you have that status for a reason. If he wanted more from you, he probably would have tried that himself."

"Do I even know you?" The fact that he was in the right made me slightly hotheaded. "I don't know. Doesn't really matter either, huh?" His white teeth flashed as he grinned at me impishly, yet friendly.

"You ride with Heeseung on the team," I noted, also making sure not to mistake those brown eyes for anyone else. My interlocutor nodded and tucked his hands into his pants pockets.

"Well... You don't have to listen to me, but if I were you, I'd leave it alone with Heeseung. Unless you want to burn your friendly relationship with him.... And tear it apart." I was about to respond, however, when he just kept blathering. "Burn, ruin, demolish, destroy-"

"Yes! I get it!", I gave a little louder. "But feelings don't just go away. Especially not when you've been feeling them for several years."

The boy in front of me, who actually looked pretty good, pushed himself off the log and sauntered over to me. He stopped in front of me and shrugging his shoulders, he looked down at me. "If you really want to try, you should do it differently. Not like this. Not when there's another girl in the picture too."

I tried to understand his words and my stupidity got the better of me. "You want me to kill her?" "Holy shit." With those words, he briefly grabbed his forehead and rubbed his slightly tan skin. "I don't want anything. I'm just saying you can get attention in other ways."

I nodded, understanding him, and eyed his face. The longer I looked at him, the more familiar he seemed. "You're number 81, aren't you?"

Confused, he lifted his head again as I suddenly changed the subject. "Wha-" "Your number in motocross. It's 81."

Briefly he tried to weigh my voice pitch, but then nodded in agreement. He was tall, had black hair, big hazel brown eyes that could tell stories, and his face seemed quite grown up, though I was aware that he could probably be barely a year or a half older than me.

"So... Eighty-one, I have school. So do you." With that stammer, I stumbled away from him and nodded at him. He shook his head in amusement and then turned away from me, as I recognized in the corner of my eye how he leaned against the tree trunk again and picked up his cell phone.

Wow... For that funny behavior I had just brought, I deserved at least an Oscar and 4 Grammys. Best performance. Honestly, Estela. You killed it.

With each step away from 81, I regained my footing and caught myself. I shook my head as I glanced briefly at Heeseung and he smiled at me. I grinned sheepishly at the ground then, smiling briefly in response anyway.

Whatever that had just been... It had confused me. Number 81 was partially right, though. Did I really want to ruin the friendship I had with Heeseung? Was it really worth it? Would the chance to have a romantic relationship with him really be worth ruining a friendship?

Of course, since I had a mastermind, I knew what lesson I now had. Who was I kidding anyway? I just typed away on my phone and opened Snapchat to see where Melissa was. I was way too proud to text her and ask about it.

I walked towards Melissa's whereabouts, but did a 180 when I realized she was in the math room. Oh Hell no...

As I was about to disappear around the next corner, I slammed into a chest and as I processed who was in front of me, I got really small. Oh no...

"Where do you think you're going, Miss Rodriguez? If I remember correctly, you should be attending my classes now." "Should I?", I smiled innocently and anchored my fingers together. "Yes." Monotonously, my awesome teacher pushed me toward the room and closed the door behind us.

I looked like the new kid in a school and looked distraught, like a scared deer, at my class. Yes, I had known everyone for just under a year, but I had not yet made friends with my seat in the front row today.

Mrs. Grahams gave me a warning nod and I settled down in front of my best friend. This I did with a pained look on my face and a stressed exhale.

I was feeling fine. No stress or panic at all. No, I hadn't forgotten my books or homework. They were just a little later than I was.

"So... I've given you quite a bit of homework, and we'll look at that together during double periods on Wednesday. Today we'll review what you learned last week, and together we'll reinforce your math skills."

I want to die.

Mrs. Grahams turned to the blackboard, and I heard my classmates heave a sigh and their paper pads slash.

The click of pens rang in my ears and I squinted at Melissa, feeling her gaze on me. Why wasn't I doing anything? I... uhm... I had back problems and couldn't bend down to my bag.

When the little woman turned back to us, her eyes wandered through the rows and her gaze lingered on me. She began to smirk and took a breath. She was going to make fun of me now. I knew it now.

"I have to say that it always amuses me how tortured some students look when they sit in my class." She pointed the chalk at me.

Dude... That wasn't funny. That was the truth. I looked like I had the worst period pains of 2023.

I rolled my eyes and then looked out the window. What did she expect me too? I wasn't here by choice.

I forgot about hating her, though, when I realized I had a clear view of the sports field. Automatically I looked for my best friends and I felt warm when I saw Heeseung.

They were playing soccer.

Jay and Heeseung were not on the same team. Jay wore a blue band and Heeseung wore a red band. There was a third group, but they had to do strength exercises on the side. These wore no color at all and few guys who felt really rad didn't even wear a shirt.

Yeah... 6 times 4 is 24, so I just saw 24 individual abs. That's how you like to sit in math.

There were three others, but they just stood there and only moved when Mr. Melendez looked at them. Same... that's what I was doing when i'm in PE class.

I recognized number 81, who was squinting paranoidly at the coach and slowly slinking backwards off the sports field.

I drew my eyebrows together and focused on him truly. His body seemed to be really well built and athletic. So why would he want to get away from sports? Well... After all, I could confirm myself that the school sports here were beyond crap, so I could understand his fleeing.

I couldn't help it and started to grin slightly when, once he was far enough away, he did a half turn and scurried away.

Clever, that boy.

Escaping from the lesson with Mr. Melendez was not easy and only worked if you were as brilliant as I am. So hats off to number 81, he had exactly 2 brain cells....

A/N: Who is this Nr. 81?