A Surreptitious Relationship

 “Come on, Holly!” Casey cried, yanking on my arm.

Shaking my head, I planted my feet firmly on the ground so she couldn’t pull me closer to the gym door. “No! I’m sick—”

“You were perfectly fine in Mr. Heywood’s class!”

“That’s because… That’s because…”

“What? His penetrating gaze heals you?”

I rolled my eyes as Casey snickered at her own joke. “I really don’t feel good, Casey.”

“Too bad.”

With one vigorous pull, Casey sent me stumbling forwards. She took the advantageous moment to quickly wrench open the gym door, roughly throw me through it, and swiftly close it behind us. Immediately I tried to leave, but Casey stood immobile in front of the door. “You’re not going to make me face the new gym teacher by myself, are you?” she demanded, crossing her arms.

I returned her expression with a miffed one. Instead of telling Casey Jeremy was the new gym teacher, I figured I’d let her find out for herself. My plan was to feign sickness so I wouldn’t have to go. Casey was now ruining that plan.

“Just change,” Casey ordered, pushing me further into the locker room. “I’m sure he or she won’t be that bad.”

Sighing deeply in resignation, I allowed Casey to push me to our lockers. A bunch of girls were already changed and now heading up the stairs, while some were still throwing on t-shirts and gym shorts. Opening my locker, I pulled out my bag of gym clothing, regretting not packing sweatpants for backup. If Jeremy said one word to me, I’d punch him as soon as school was out…

“Hi Holly! Hi Casey!”

I quickly yanked my shirt the rest of the way off my head, turning to see Lexi standing behind me, beaming. “Hey.”

“Do either one of you have a pair of gym pants I can borrow? I didn’t know we had to bring our own…”

As I shook my head, Casey gave her an affirmative answer. Lexi turned her attention to Casey, her smile growing broader. I watched as Casey produced a plain white t-shirt and our school’s black sweatpants. My eyes widened when they landed on them. Casey had sweatpants!

“Casey—”

“Here you go!” Casey chirped, handing off her extra gym clothes to Lexi. “Sorry they’re sweatpants.”

My heart plummeted at once. Scowling, I turned back to my locker to pull out my gym shorts. I should have asked Casey earlier. Lexi could have worn my gym clothing. Reluctantly I stripped out of my jeans and into my gym shorts, now very aware of how short they actually were.

Lexi and Casey started up the stairs first. I followed along slowly, taking my time with each stair, taking extra care not to slip on the dust. Not that there was dust— it was just incase. When I finally pushed open the door to the gym, I braced myself for Jeremy’s smirk and teasing gaze. However, Jeremy was nowhere in sight. The students were running around amuck in the gym. The boys were playing with the mats— doing flips off the bleachers onto them or belly flopping. Lance was one of them. I smiled as he did a belly flop, letting out a loud shout when another student jumped onto him. On the other side of the gym, one student was playing basketball with his shoe, trying to throw it through the hoop.

“Aaron! Aaron over here!” Lexi cried, waving at her twin enthusiastically. “Whose gym clothes did you borrow?”

My eyes followed the young man with pecan colored hair as he slowly started coming towards Lexi, Casey, and myself. His gaze met mine and he smiled mysteriously. I blinked at him, not sure what his smile meant. “Hey, Casey,” he greeted when he grew close enough. “Hi, Holly.”

“Hello,” Casey and I chorused, her tone chipper, my tone wary.

Lexi squinted her eyes at her brother’s gym shirt. “Isn’t that your shirt?”

Once again, Aaron was wearing a shirt from a band I liked. I had to admit, he had great taste in music. He nodded, looking down at it. “I’m not stupid like you and I figured we’d have to bring our own clothes.”

“I’m not stupid,” Lexi protested, crossing her arms.

Casey sent me an amused look and I pressed my lips together to stop myself from laughing.

“Hey Holly,” Aaron started, turning his attention to me. “Can I ask you something?”

For some reason, anxiety filled me. It took me a moment to wet my mouth enough in order to reply. “What?”