Afterglow

03

I nudge him slightly causing him to chuckle. "I just needed another class to take."

"And you picked one of the hardest sciences." He stares at me like I lost my mind which I probably have at this point. This class is mainly a filler and a GPA boost more than anything.

"What's your last class than?"

He smirks at me. "AP Physics."

I gawk at him. Parker seems to impress me more and more as the day goes on. Not going to lie, I never pinned Parker as the type to take harder classes, yet excel at them so why is he coming after me?

"Ok Mr. Smartass." I roll my eyes playfully.

He laughs lightly. "Unlike you, I take interest in physics."

My eyes widen. See, this kid never fails to surprise me. "Really?"

He nods his head as we enter the science wing, at least I assume it's the science wing. "Yep. I want to be an engineer."

My mouth couldn't be hanging open more. Parker looks over at me and laughs. "Close your mouth love. A fly might fly in."

A blush creeps it's way to my face as I close my mouth and look around the hallway to avoid eye contact. Parker nudges me. "Don't get shy on me Juliana. I'm just teasing."

I smile. "I know."

We walk in silence as we get to the dead end of the hallway where two doors are tucked away.

Parker points to the right door. "Well, this is your stop." He point behind him to the other door. "I'm right next door, so if you cause an explosion, text me so I can film it."

"Parker!" I gasp.

He laughs. "Bye Juliana."

With that, he disappears into the classroom.

I walk into the chemistry classroom seeing about half the classroom already filled up. It's a typical boring science classroom with the black, fire-proof counter tops and the life seeming like it's sucked out of it.

I look up at the projector board to see a seating chart up. Everyone is in pairs of two, and my heart stops right there.

Right there, row two, table two, next to my name is Jace Lockheart's name.

Just as I thought I would avoid him, there he is sitting right next to me as my lab partner for the year.

I notice that I'm standing in front of the board for a little too long, so I go sit down in my seat. My palms are sweaty, and the pulse of my heart rate can be felt in my throat. God. I feel like I might puke, and he hasn't even shown up yet.

Speaking of the devil, he walks in with a guy I've never seen before. They're talking and laughing quite loudly compared to the light chatter in the room.

My eyes fixate on the boy who my heart aches for. He's changed completely. His style is elevated wearing a light blue Nike crewneck with a white collar sticking out at the top. All paired with a pair of loose black jeans, blue Nike Blazers, and a shit ton of jewelry. From where I'm at, I see a pearl necklace paired with some silver chain with matching earrings, and a shit ton of silver rings on his fingers. His wavy brown hair is styled perfectly to make him seem like a boy straight from Pinterest.

It's a 180 from his style before I left him which consisted of athletic wear exclusively.

He looks good. Too good.

"Aw man. We have assigned seats." The boy next to him whines. Jace rubs the boy's hair, earning a smack from him.

They scan the seating chart, and the smile disappears from Jace's face when he reads his name.

"Holy shit is that-"

"Shh!" Jace smacks the boy in the arm.

They turn to look at classroom, catching me looking. I quickly turn away and look down at my phone, scrolling mindlessly though my apps.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see the boy next to Jace widen his eyes and his mouth hangs open as he stares to me. He composes himself quickly, and takes a seat next to a redhead girl.

Jace slowly approaches our table, avoiding all eye contact, not saying anything, sitting down. He pulls out his phone and starts texting someone, while I continue to stare at mine.

God, you can cut the tension with a knife.

The bell rings, and our teacher starts to talk.

"Welcome to AP Chemistry class! My name is Mrs. High. Before we get started on the boring bits, turn to your lab partners and introduce yourself if you haven't already! These are your permanent seats for the year, so I hope you like your partners!"

Both Jace and I groan, not turning to introduce ourselves.

God. This is going to be a long ass year.