Chapter 3

Conrad's POV

"Damn, man, you were such an idiot," someone laughed from behind. Everyone gave me their opinions and made my heart feel smaller and smaller. It's not their fault, it's mine for letting something unprofessional slip out. Although I don't care that they're laughing at what I felt for her, I look at them, they're all around my age, but they're not like me at all, they still look childish, or maybe they're still taking advantage of their adolescence. I missed out on that too quickly, I forgot about it by focusing only on Kamila, and now she's gone.

I think it would be a good idea to go see her clarify what happened, and I bite my lower lip firmly.

"That's enough, that's enough," I declared. "What happened in my past relationship won't happen again. Now I just want to enjoy my life."

"We can drink whenever you want!" a group of guys yelled.

"I don't drink," I said nervously.

The brown-haired guy with whom I smoked laughed. I gave him a look that said "Shut up if you don't want me to rip you apart," and the smile disappeared immediately. After a few more minutes of talking with them and listening to them mock me again for saying I don't drink, I relax.

Everyone starts to leave, and the same girl who arrived late stops to look at me. She opens her mouth and closes it again when the dark-skinned guy walks past her. Their relationship must be bad, and just by looking at that gaze, I realize they're more than friends, even, I dare to say they're boyfriends.

"Can I help you?" I ask politely. Her deep eyes look at me, and I notice they're even more beautiful up close.

"I just wanted to tell you that that girl did the right thing by breaking up with you. You wouldn't have been able to live truly if you married her. I advise you not to be so stupid when you're in a new relationship. Have a good day."

"Good day," I mutter, scrunching up my face.

My first thought after that is, "What a strange girl." I wait for them to keep leaving, and the brown-haired guy, whose name I still don't know, stops.

"Her name is Gwen, she's pretty, but she's damaged."

"Damaged?" I furrow my brow.

"Yeah man, she's damaged. The chick spends her breaks getting high, has bad grades, and has problems at home. She's damaged," he repeats for the third time, but I can tell he's no different. He's got deep bags under his eyes, wears a lot of black, and smokes. Who's to say he's not getting high too? Anyone would assume so.

"What's your name?"

"Johan."

"Alright Johan, you can go to your next class. And don't talk about Gwen like that again. Nobody knows what's going on in her life. It's better not to meddle."

Johan shrugs and looks at me before leaving through the door.

"My grades are good, you can check. And I don't get high, I only smoke."

I'm surprised by how calmly he says those words. I let him go without saying anything else and check his file out of curiosity. And he's right, all his grades are tens, he never goes below that, except in English, where he has a nine, but it's not a big deal or anything of relevance. He's one of the top students in the classroom.

I need to stop judging people, it'll end up ruining me. I just told him not to judge a girl we don't know, and here I am doing the same thing. How stupid of me.

I stretch and gather all my things to leave. I'm walking down the hall feeling happy when I bump into Jeremias, he looks upset, very upset.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"I've already finished class," I hasten to say. "I attended, I promise."

"Conrad, I don't want any lies. Why did you leave so early?"

"So early?" I look at the time on my watch and furrow my brow. I left right on time, neither more nor less. "I left on time," I say, confused. He looks at me as if he still doesn't believe me and takes out his phone to check if what I'm saying is true. When he sees the time, Jeremias widens his eyes and runs off with all his papers in hand.

It surprises me that someone like him would lose track of time. Everything must be in its place so that he doesn't feel tense or nervous. For Jeremias, having a slightly crooked ornament means danger. I'm aware that he suffers from perfectionism, and it's not a bad thing. He's never said anything to me when I leave something out of place, he just furrows his brow and tells me to put it back in its place, sometimes not even that, other times he does it himself.

When we were in school together, many of the students made fun of him for that. I never picked on him for being a perfectionist. I thought it was stupid to say something to him about it. Being that way can be good, everything turns out better, although sometimes the person can get frustrated for being like that. I put all that aside and continue on my way to the car. I open the door and see Gwen a few meters away from me. She has a cigarette in her right hand and a lighter in her left.

Should I approach her and say something? Will something bad happen if I let it go? I have no idea what to do in cases like this. I've never been taught what to say to a student who's doing dr*gs. I've never had students!

I continue to debate whether to leave or approach her, and I end up getting out of the car. Her eyes are on me, but she doesn't show any expression. She's calm and serene as if she doesn't care that a teacher has seen her.

"Gwen, what do you think you're doing?"