The Rejected

Scene 1: A Bad Day

He said you were beautiful at times when you were too tired to even comb your hair or to put on makeup. He won you the bear you wanted at an arcade and gave it to you as a surprise. He always smiled at you, encouraged you and supported you when you were about to break down. He always teased you playfully, asking you to cook for him and to take a midnight ride at the back of his bike.

Kris made you fall for him… slowly. You even accepted it to yourself: that you are in love with the giant man with the dyed hair.

However, the girl resting her head on his shoulder, holding his hand tightly while watching a movie isn’t you, but the y and confident girl you know from school. Your chest painfully tightens as you glance back at them discreetly. You must have imagined everything, that Kris liked you.  You stupidly held onto something that probably never was there in the first place.

Kris invited you to his place to watch a movie, and for some reason, you thought it’d only be you and him so you dressed up and were all excited. Only to arrive and realize he invited a dozen of his friends. Feeling silly, you simply smiled as the night went on. The other girl sat down next to him naturally, and they’ve been all touchy since the movie started.

All you want is to run away and cry, but that’d be too obvious. In that moment, you decide to give up. It’s not like a shy, socially awkward and quiet girl like you can compete with someone as fun and outgoing as her. You bite your lover lip, as you decide to go home by yourself, one Saturday night even though Kris warns you it might be dangerous. He used to walk you home, but it seems like he rather stays with her so you put on a strong front and says you´re fine.

Him worrying over you used to make you happy, but now, it only makes your heart ache more.

It’s cold. Your warm breaths turn to white clouds in the chilly February air. A sigh leaves your dry lips as you try to hide your face from the world, using your white fluffy muffler. You enter your own world as you walk back the empty streets towards your apartment. You are torn about being strong and move on and cry as you really want.

You turn the corner, and almost fall as you stumble into something. It’s a body. A small yelp escapes your lips at the realization. There on the ground lies a young man, eyes closed and no sign of life. Panic starts to take over, but you force yourself to act: you do know how to do CPR after all.

 “Hey, can you hear me?” Your voice trembles violently.

You kneel down and touch his shoulder, slightly shaking him to try to get him to wake up. He has dark short hair, plump lips, pierced ears and almond shaped eyes. Asian features: a tall and slender but muscular body. That’s when you notice that his face is bruised, and that he’s bleeding from a small cut on his lip.

He must have been in a fight. 

Is it really a good idea to try to wake him up? What if he is actually the bad guy? Your hand trembles slightly as you continue to shake his shoulder. Fear is building up inside of you. Even though you want to run, and cry over your own pain, you can’t. What if this person is good? How can you cry over a heartbreak when someone is lying on the ground, bleeding and unconscious? You wouldn´t be able to forgive yourself if you ran now.

“Yah! Wake up!” You yell as you shake him violently.

A deep groan can be heard, and the surprise makes you flinch away a bit. A pair of dark eyes flutters open, and they go wide as he stares at you who is now sitting on the ground about a meter away. An awkward moment of silence passes by, as you simple stare at each other but he breaks it by groaning in pain. He seems hurt a lot.

“Are you…alright?” You ask him in a quiet voice.

He coughs, covering his mouth with his hand, while staring at you once again. His dark eyes seem to look straight into your soul, bold and unwavering. It makes you a bit uncomfortable.

“I´m …fine.” He mutters in a hoarse voice, probably from screaming.

A breath you didn’t know you were holding leaves your mouth. If he was a bad person, he wouldn’t have answered you. A hesitant smile grows bigger on your face.

“I thought you were dead.” You laugh.

Another moment of silence passes by.

“Why are you crying?”

You frown at him, being confused by his sudden and strange question. Then you touch your wet cheeks. It seems as if finding out that the guy you love, loves someone else, and finding a guy almost beaten to death is enough to make you cry. You´re in shock.

“I guess I’m just relieved.” You laugh again, wiping your tears away.

Smiling, you approach him and offer him your hand. After a bit of hesitation, he takes it and you help him get back on his feet. When he loses his balance, you support his weight with all your might. He´s a bit heavy.

“Thanks…”He says in a weak voice.

He steadies himself and you step away, giving him space. He is a stranger after all.

“Will you be able to get back by yourself?”

“Yeah…” He murmurs.

You take off your muffler, and wrap it around his neck without saying anything. Those almost black eyes are staring at you again but you avoid meeting his gaze. He needs it more than you right now, and that muffler, was something he gave you after all. You won’t see this guy, or the muffler, ever again. You give the stranger one last weak smile, before you leave.

You wake up with a headache and a snotty nose the next day. You cried yourself to sleep last night, and your body feels a lot heavier than usual. Luckily, today is a Sunday. That means you got a day to recover before you have to show your face at school again. A groan leaves your lips as you force your sore body out of bed: you need to get something into your grumbling stomach.  As you´re about to pour some milk into your cereals, your cell starts to vibrate. It’s your best friend: Min.

“Hello.” Is enough for your friend to realize something is off with you.

“What’s wrong?” You can hear the worry in her high pitched voice.

“…”You space out for a moment.”Can we meet up? I don’t think I can talk about it over the phone…”

“Sure!” Min tells you. “When, where…how?!”

You meet Min outside the newly opened coffee shop down town one hour later. Your hair is in a messy bun on the top of your head, and you´re wearing a mask to protect others from your cold. Min, who you met when you where small, throws her arm around your shoulders as she sees you and the state you are in. The scent of bitter coffee blended with the sweetness of cupcakes hit the two of you in the face as you enter. A female employee leads you to a table by the window, facing the streets outside. It’s very cozy. You order some warm tea in an attempt to cure your cold but decides to not buy anything sweet because you won´t be able to taste it anyway. Min, who has a sweet tooth, orders two colorful cupcakes and a chai latte.  Once you got your orders, you tell her about what happened last night. For some reason, you decide not to tell her about the suspicious boy you found.

“What a jerk!!” She bursts out. “He flirted like crazy with you, in front of everyone, and now he got a girlfriend?”

“I was… surprised too.” Your chest hurts, and you feel like crying, but your tears have dried up.

“Don’t make that face! He’s a fool picking someone like her over you. She’ll probably leave him soon, when she found a better guy.”

“She seemed pretty… happy with him… and him with her.” You murmur as you take a sip of your tea. “I guess… I wasn´t enough.”

“You are perfect!” She tells you with wide eyes. “And there are a lot of nice guys out there, you just need to find a guy who’ll treasure you… just like you deserve.”

You can’t help but smile at her. She´s way too sweet.

“Maybe one day, I’ll be lucky to bump into that kind of guy.” You grin.

“By the way, do you know anyone working here?”

“No, why?”

“One scary looking barista has been glaring at you since we got here.”

Eyes widen. You awkwardly turn around to look towards the counter, and for a second, you meet a young man’s gaze. Eyes widen even more, and he looks away. It’s the guy from yesterday, but with a black eye covered rather messily with makeup. It seems like he’s working at this coffee shop. For some reason, your stomach turns ice cold as you watch him from a safe distance. He must be an idiot, going to work in that condition!

“No, I don’t know him.” You tell her, shrugging.

She’d kill you if she knew what happened and you pray to the Gods above that the guy won’t approach you, so she’ll realize you lied. Why would he approach you anyway, you are strangers after all. After some time, you forget about his presence as you and your friend talks about everything and nothing for about two hours.

When you are about to leave, he approaches you silently. You thought you were safe, and that he wouldn’t talk to you but you were wrong. Luckily, your friend went to the toilet, and won’t see through your white lie.  You look up at him, he’s at least two heads taller than you, as he holds out a small paper bag to you.

“What´s this?” You´re confused.

“Your muffler.” He explains indifferently, before his eyes soften a tiny bit. “And something… for that cold.

A knife stabs your heart as he mentions the muffler, however, you feel worse when you realize that he must have been watching Min and you. Eyes widen, and your heart starts beating faster. Of course, it’s obvious that you have a cold, but a barista shouldn’t care about that. You exhale deeply to calm yourself down.

“You can keep it.” Your voice sounds weird and cold, even to your own ears, but you´re not worried about hurting his feelings.

He stares at you with a strange expression on his bruised face. However, his dark eyes narrow as you turn your back to him. He suddenly grabs you by the elbow, and forces you to stop in your tracks rather roughly. A surprised gasp leaves you.

“Let me thank you for your help properly.” He tells you in a rather dark and demanding voice.

It gives you goose bumps. What makes him think it’s alright to give me something for my cold? He doesn’t know you. You also gave him the muffler while being prepared, expecting, never to get it back. You don’t want it. Seeing it again will make you feel sick to your stomach.

“Ah, you don’t need to thank me…” You try to tug your elbow out of his grip, trying to be at least a tiny bit polite about refusing the paper bag.

His hold on your arm grows firmer. Fear is building up inside of you. You found him after a fight. He knows how to fight. You dislike any kind of violence.

“I insist.” He doesn´t seem to want to give up.

You turn around, attempting to give him a piece of your mind, but you can’t. Your confidence fades away as you look up at him. You have no strength to argue. He wouldn´t listen anyway.

“…Alright.” You finally agree. “But only if you keep the muffler…and make sure I won’t see it ever again.”

He lets you go. He seems a bit confused over why you don’t want the muffler back, but he let it slide for some reason. He turns around, and pulls the muffler out of the bad and keeps it out of your sight as he hands you the medicine. You stare at him. You didn’t expect him to do all that to hide it from you. You can’t help but smile a bit.

“Thanks.”

He nods in silence, put his hands in his pockets, and returns to work. You follow him with your eyes. Maybe, he isn’t a bad guy but wanted to repay his debt to you? You shake your head and sigh.

“Oh, sorry for making you wait!” Min approaches you.

You smile at her. “Let´s go.”

You will never see him again, for sure.