Ghost Lover

The school hallways in it’s usual moment of silence, Austin made his way Inside and was glad the Principal didn’t see him This time. He couldn’t go to the class because he was sure there would a teacher and not too many of them liked him. He made his way into the school cafeteria, it was in modern form with different benches and wide tables in different rolls where students come with their cliques to eat. Different cliques and different kinds of people, the popular rich kids, the footballers and cheerleaders. He always ate alone and surprisingly for him, no one had noticed him enough for them to disturb his lunch break.

He went into the cafeteria and met it empty with no one there at the time. He looked outside the window and saw the school field, he immediately remembered the incident where he punched jade and chuckled. He couldn’t believe he actually did that, well there was a good side to him getting angry. Now he has to live with the consequences and dealing with Jade throughout his remaining year in school.

The bell rang and he knew the cafeteria would be flooded with student any moment, he readjusted his body immediately. His legs were on the table initially. Students came rushing in and he used one of his hands to cover his face. He was sure the news of him punching Jade had traveled really fast.

“What are you doing here?”

Austin looked up to see who that was and his heart skipped a bit immediately, he has no idea he was sitted in the part of cafeteria meant for the football team.

“Umm. Jade I was about leaving”

“And why’s that?” Jade dropped his food on the table and urged others to sit.

They all Sat congesting Austin who sat in between all of them. He swallowed hard, he wasn’t sure how this would go down, all of them against him? He didn’t stand a chance.

“I don’t want any trouble ”

“You did, when you punched me hard”

“I’m sorry about that”

“You shouldn’t be, that was sexy”

“What?”

“I’m sure you feel like a star right now” Jade grinned. “You know, the first person to hit me in school”

Who does he think he is, Austin thought , he just felt like he should jump over the table and Hit this pompous bastard again but he ended up keeping himself in check, wouldn’t want to be suspended again when his recent suspension wasn’t over.

“Look Jade, I said I was sorry” Austin stood up to leave.

“Where are you going” Jade asked, sipping his lemonade “This is the table for us footballers, except you aren’t one of us again”

Austin rolled his eyes and sighed, he knew what Jade was up to and looked straight at him but was only replied to with Jade’s mischievous smile.

“I’ll need to go get my food” Austin made up an excuse

“Well let him go with you” Jade replied, pointing to a guy equally as short as him. Light skin and slender like Austin. He stood up, wanting to go towards Austin.

“Do I look like I need someone to watch over me?” Austin asked, frustration oozing from his tone as he held out his hand, instructing the guy to stop.

“No, it’s not that, you just need someone to talk to” Jade replied calmly with a straight face.

“Whatever” Austin excused himself from their presence and went over to the counter to order his food. The guy followed him but he had no idea.

“Just chicken chips?” the guy asked

Austin took a glimpse at him and took his attention right back to his meal.

“The name’s Jason”

Austin still did not reply

“I know you might not be okay with this but for what it’s worth, I know he is a Jerk too”

Austin looked back at him again “Then why are you with him?”

“I’m not with him” Jason said Smiling ” I need my grades to be perfect, and being good at football would help. Plus I love the sport too, same way you do”

“Trust me, I feel everything but love towards football” Austin replied taking a bite from his chips.

“You’ve got to be kidding me”

Austin smiled and still continued eating at the counter.

“You know I’m here because I actually like you”

Austin immediately started choking while drinking his lemonade, surprised by what he heard.

“Is anything wrong” Jason asked, Patting Austin on his back and was met by Austin’s eyes which screamed Yes!

He immediately burst out laughing “That wasn’t what I meant, Bro I’m straight as a ruler.”

“Then what did you mean?” Austin not convinced by what he said.

“After what you did with Jade, the punch? Bro it’s hard not to like someone as Confident as that”

Austin let out a sigh of relief smiling and urged him for them to get back to the other guys.

“It was worth it, you should try punching him yourself sometime”

“And that’s your reply, you don’t like me I’m guessing ” Jason smiled as he followed Austin back.

They sat with the boys and barely said a word again, as Jade was busy talking and telling them how winning the state championship that year would be such a big achievement for them. The bell rang again and they knew it was time for them to all go to the field. Austin tried staying back, while they all went and Jason noticed him not making any preparations to go with them.

“Hey, what’s up?” Jason came back running.

“I didn’t come with my kit, I must have forgotten it at home”

“Well I have a spare jersey in my locker, you could use mine”

“And Play with my sneakers?”

“Well the choice is yours man” Jason said leaving him with instructions to his locker, should he decide to join them for training.

Austin sat alone in the cafeteria, thinking of how he’ll join up with them without coach Damian acting up with him present there. He just couldn’t stay there doing nothing, he decided to go check Jason’s locker for his jersey and ended up walking into Nala on the way.

“Hey Nala” he said, Nala tried to ignore him but he stood in front of her immediately causing her to stop.

“Hey Austin” she replied with an Indifferent look

“I’m sorry about last time”

“You are always sorry” Nala tried to get past him and he stopped her again

“I’m serious, I have a valid explanation for not showing up”Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

“Let’s hear it then”

Austin cleared his throat ” so I went to the cemetery to visit my mum and ended up meeting this girl who had no idea how she got there”

“How’s that possible?”

“I’ll tell you about it tomorrow, I promise”

“Where are you going?” Nala asked as Austin sprinted off

“Training!” He screamed.

Austin got to the pitch and saw the boys divided into two sets and some others sitted on the bench, coach Damian sighted him from afar and folded his hands, wondering what he was doing there.

“Do you have a problem understanding what a three days suspension means?”

“Coach Please” Austin pleaded,

“Coach, please. I’m guessing I overstepped with him the last time.. please just let him train with us” Jade intervened. Austin left in shock, stared at Jade and nodded in appreciation. He had no idea why he did that but he just had to be grateful for this atleast.

“Well then, Join up with the other boys” Coach pointed to some set of boys and Jason happened to be among them.

“I hope you aren’t that terrible” Jason said to Austin as he was stretching out.

“We’ll see” Austin grinned.

They were seven versus Seven with a little goal post the reaching their waist in length. Austin got stuck with the role of the defensive midfielder, other roles were already taken by the guys and Jason was a striker. Jade was the striker of the other team facing Austin, the whistle was blown and their training started.

Few minutes into the game and Austin hasn’t even had the ball, the coach noticed this and urged him to get into the game and instructed

“pass to Austin!”

Jason got the ball and gave a low fast pass to Austin, he struggled to keep possession with the ball as he went forward. Suddenly he felt a jab at his back and he went crashing down. The whistle was blown for a foul

“Hey that was too hard” Jason fumed at Jade who was smiling and standing over and Austin. Jade left out a hand to help him get up, Austin slapped his hand rejecting his help and stood up immediately, standing toe to toe with Jade again.

“You didn’t think I was going to let you get off that easily, did you?” Jade asked with a low voice, still smiling. Austin enraged, held his fist so tight with his nails plunging into his skin. Coach Damian ran into the pitch

“Is everything okay, or do I need to suspend someone again?”

“Everything is okay coach” Austin replied backing off from Jade.

“Good”