Forces of Nature

Please Don't Go

"I swear to God, if you can't or won't answer this question I'm going to smack you upside the head."

Though now that I'd warned him, I wouldn't have the element of surprise, meaning he'd see it coming and duck. At least I was certain he wouldn't try to hit me back, despite the venomous glare he was levelling me with that said otherwise.

"I think even I can tell you my name," Tyson said irritably across the table from me. "Not that you don't already know it."

I scoffed at him, ignoring the lazy butterflies in my stomach that seemed to deploy whenever he was close by, and shifted in the rigid wooden chair I was occupying. You'd think that at a library they'd at least have comfy chairs to entice people with. But no, Clearview's library budget only stretched as far as necessities, not luxuries. And they wondered why the majority of students avoided it like the plague. Though in all fairness a large part of that could be due to the head librarian, Ms. Evans. The old bat had a tendency to hover over you while you worked, practically breathing down your neck waiting for you to break one of her golden rules. She'd only just shuffled on from eyeing Tyson and I like a hawk after it's prey, probably off to harass the trio of freshman girls who'd come in and headed straight for the magazine rack down the far end.

"Oh, I don't know," I said sarcastically, watching as the old biddy veered right and walked out of my line of sight. "You appear to suffer selective amnesia whenever I pick up the list of questions."

I shook said list with a flick of my wrist. The printed copy of questions had definitely seen better days. In my frustrated state I'd screwed it up, torn the edges to shreds, doodled over every spare inch of it. Heck, I'd done everything short of stomping on it, which I was bound to do next if he evaded such another simple question. We'd been stuck in a battle of the wills for two days now.

As promised, he'd stayed behind on Monday after school and followed me to the library, but I honestly didn't know why he'd bothered. Or why he'd suggested we do it in the first place. I'd stupidly thought that because he'd taken the lead for once, he'd decided to open up and be helpful. Yeah, right. Naivety thy name be Noah.

We'd come in and made our way to the group study booths at the back of the library, to this same table actually, and sat down as we were sitting now with me facing one of the large windows overlooking the school field and him with his back to it. Then we'd passed the entire half hour in strained silence. He'd dragged out his chemistry homework while I'd endeavoured to identify the exact shade of blue the library walls were in a half-hearted attempt to satisfy my boredom. So far I'd narrowed it down to two possibilities: turquoise or cyan.

I had tried to get the ball rolling at the beginning, hoping to get all of the answers I needed in one go, to avoid repeating the experience. But when I'd asked him if he had any siblings, he'd scowled at me something fierce, barking, "Next Question." Well, three "Next question" answers later, I'd taken the hint and shut my mouth, choosing instead to seethe quietly.

Half of me had been hoping he'd bail on today's study session, but if I was learning anything, it was that he was true to his word. Even if he did regret opening his mouth in the first place.

So after World History last period he'd grudgingly followed me down to the library and here we were, no further along in our assignment but both of us closer to exploding in anger. Me at his unwillingness to share, him at my constant pestering.

Tyson gave me a disdainful glare before opening his mouth to answer, but I cut him off as a thought struck me.

"Full name," I said again. "That includes any and all middle names."

"No, really?" he asked, matching my earlier sarcasm with that of his own. "I never would have guessed."

I rolled my eyes, wondering not for the fist time how I had gotten stuck with such a moody partner. No doubt God was up there in Heaven, sitting on his royal throne, on his royal ass, head chucked back while he roared with laughter at the series of misfortunes that was my life. Still, I had determination if nothing else, and I wasn't going to let Tyson get out of here without answering at least one question. Miss Clarke was becoming very unimpressed with the blank papers both Tyson and I were handing over for a review of progress we'd made on our case study's. If we didn't have anything solid soon, she was likely to sit us down and supervise our work like we were misbehaving five year olds.