I was sitting on the ground, leaning against my locker, when Alex walked up to me. “What’s going on?” he asked, sitting down next to me, “You left Music to go to the bathroom and you never came back.”
I turned my head to look at him. “That’s because I got a call on my cell. They’re letting my dad go early. He’s out Wednesday.” I looked back over to the wall across the hall, just as I had been before Alex joined me.
Alex let out a breath. “Oh. That sucks.”
I looked over at him again. He was biting his lip. Normally, I would’ve found that attractive, but, due to the current situation, I didn’t. I sighed and nodded.
He turned his head to look at me, our faces only inches apart. I looked down at his lips, and then looked away. We had kind of made a silent pact that we wouldn’t show affection of any sort at school, or in public for that matter.
“If you want, I can come over tomorrow and we can hang out, since it’ll probably be the last time we can hang at your house,” Alex suggested.
I nodded again. “Yeah. Sounds good.” A smile played with the edges of my mouth, thinking about hanging out with Alex outside of school. We usually didn’t hang out this early in the week. Not sure why, but we just didn’t. I stood up and dusted off the back of my jeans, since the hallway floors were really dirty, and held my hand out to Alex, offering to help him up.
He took my hand and hopped up and dusted off his own jeans. We picked up our backpacks and parted ways to go to our next classes. I looked at the time and started a sprint down the hall, seeing as I only had one minute to get to class before the bell rang.
I stumbled through the door right as the bell rang. The substitute teacher raised an eyebrow at me and I sat down in my usual seat in the back of the room, next to this girl named Juliet. I looked over at her and smiled as I tried to catch my breath.
She smiled back. “You look like you just ran a mile.”
I shook my head. “No. Just down the hallway.”
She giggled and looked down at her desk, then back at me. “You’re really out of shape, aren’t you?”
My jaw dropped. “I’m offended,” I said, half-joking.
Her smile faltered. “Sorry. That didn’t sound near as mean in my head.” She brushed a lock of hair behind her ear and looked up at the substitute, who was just looking over some papers on the teacher’s desk. “So, do you think our teacher is dead?” she asked me quietly.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe. I mean, she is old after all.”
She giggled and looked at me again. When she saw I wasn’t smiling, her smile disappeared. “Oh. You were serious.”
I half-smiled at her. “Age is nothing to joke about. Especially when you’re prehistoric like Mrs. McCrow.” I folded my hands and rested them on my desk as the sub passed out a worksheet. I looked over it and sighed. Math was beyond my worst subject. I wasn’t really good in school as a whole, but, God damn it, I sucked at math.
We were given the whole hour to work on the paper. I just copied off of Juliet. She was a straight-A student. I just figured she got all the answers right.
She stood up with her paper in her hands. She looked down at me a smirked. “Something tells me you’re finished as well.” She took my paper off of my desk and walked to the front of the room and turned both our papers in to the sub, before returning to her desk. She turned toward me, that smirk still on her lips. “So,” she said, crossing her legs, “How do you think you did.”
I smiled sheepishly back at her. “I think I did pretty well. I mean, it’s not like it was hard or anything,” I scoffed, before looking down at my desk as I twiddled my fingers.
“Can I ask you something?”
I glanced over at her, and then back at my desk. “Shoot.” Woah. De ja vu.
“Would you like to go out for some coffee or something tomorrow?”
I looked over at her. “I’d love to,” I said, smiling, but then I remembered that Alex was coming over tomorrow, “…but I have plans tomorrow. Sorry… How about today after school?”
Her face lit up and she nodded. “Sure! Sounds great!”
I nodded to her and gathered up my things as the bell rang. “Meet me at the flag pole after school.”

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“We’re just going to get some coffee, and that’s it,” I reassured Alex as he walked with me out of the school building and over to the flag pole.
He wrapped his arms around himself and looked down at his shoes. “It’s a date…” he mumbled for the millionth time.
I shook my head and placed my hands on his shoulders. “No. It’s not. It’s just two people drinking coffee. It’s not a date. It doesn’t mean anything. I promise.”
He looked up at me, his lip sticking out in a pout. “Promise?”
I chuckled. “Isn’t that what I just said?” I pulled him into a quick hug and nudged him away. “Now, go home before you freeze to death.”
He nodded and turned away to head home.
“Hey!” I shouted after him. He looked over his shoulder at me. “I’ll text you later, okay?”
He nodded and continued down the sidewalk.
A couple minutes later, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked over to see Juliet. I greeted her with a hug.
“Sorry it took so long,” she said, shoving some stray papers into her messenger bag, “I had to get some extra credit for History. I got a B on the last assignment and I couldn’t risk it lowering my grade.” She smiled and shoved her hands into her coat pockets. “You ready to go?”
I nodded and led her over to my car. I got in and started it up as she got into the passenger side seat and closed the door behind her. I shifted it into drive and pulled out of the student parking lot.
After about five minutes of silence, I finally caved. “So,” I said, breaking the awkward silence, “Where do you plan to go to college?”
“I don’t really know, yet. First, I need to decide what I’m going to major in. It’s a tie between photography and music. But it could very well be something else. I tend to be rather indecisive. So, I’m keeping my grades up, because I never know what I’ll end up doing. Whatever I decide on could require really high grades. I’d rather be safe than sorry.”
She continued to talk about school and grades the rest of the car ride until we arrived at Starbucks. I mostly just tuned her out. I nodded every once in a while, trying to look like I was listening. I parked the car and we both headed into Starbucks. I ordered a mocha, and she ordered something fancy with a really long name and we sat down in one of the booths as she continued to talk about school. Man, could she talk about anything else? Like, music? Something I knew something about?
After a few more minutes, it grew silent, again, which, I guess, meant that she had run out of things to say about school. I quickly took advantage of this opportunity.
“So, what kind of music do you like?” I asked her.
She shrugged. “Just about anything. Except rap. I can’t stand rap.”
I nodded. “Rap is okay. I mean, it’s not terrible.”
She took a sip of her fancy coffee, looking unamused.
And… silence took over again.
We sat there in silence for about ten more minutes when we decided to head back to the car. I dropped her off at a friend’s house and went home. The second I walked through the front door, I pulled out my phone and texted Alex.

To: Alex Gaskarth
Just got home. Coffee was boring as fuck.

I slipped off my Chucks and went straight downstairs and plopped down on my couch as I received a text.

From: Alex Gaskarth
I’m sorry. :( I told you not to go. You should have listened to me. :P

I rolled my eyes.

To: Alex Gaskarth
Lex, I was just being nice. She wanted to get coffee, and so I took her.

From: Alex Gaskarth
Still. So, since it was so boring, I take it no second date?

To: Alex Gaskarth.
There hasn’t even been a first date, so, no. No second date.

From: Alex Gaskarth
Okay. Whatever. Hey, I’ll text you later. Mum wants to take me shopping and wants me to leave my phone at home.

To: Alex Gaskarth
Okay. Have fun! :)

From: Alex Gaskarth
Will do. ;)

Notes

I think someone might have a crush on Jack. :o

-Ryan