Always a Friend

Chapter 7

By some miracle, I managed to have some "me" time at my locker without drama from Claudia about how I was trying to take Ashton away from her. I don't think she got the memo that they weren't together, even though she's the one who broke up with him. I'm not quite sure how that worked. 

"Gemma! Wait up!" Ava hollered down the hall.  

I took a deep breath and recited to myself that I wouldn't say anything mean about Caleb. I stopped in the middle of the hall as kids rushed by me, trying to get to class on time. "Come on, Ava, or we're going to be late." I motioned her to hurry up as she paused to mess with her phone. "You can do that once we get to class!" I hollered, then turned and started walking again.  

"Gemma! Wait!" She cried out again." 

I slowed down enough for her to catch up, but I wasn't about to stop because she would've stopped and looked at her phone again. She had a bad habit of doing that if she knew you were waiting on her. "You do realize we have class to get to, and you're going to see Caleb then, right?" I smarted off, giving her the side-eye. 

"What's that supposed to mean?" She tried to sound clueless. 

I turned and looked at her. "You'll see him in less than five minutes and can't stop texting him." My eyes narrowed. "Don't you see the problem here?" 

Ava's eyes narrowed a little bit, "No." 

"No?" I rolled my eyes and shook my head in disbelief. 

"What?" She asked. 

"Nothing." I decided to drop the subject because there was no use in trying to explain it to Ava. When it came to Caleb, trying to tell her anything was useless. Either we were accused of not liking him or trying to break them up. The not liking him part was definitely true, but we would never stoop that low to break them up. We rounded the corner, and I could see the Math door at the end of the hall on the right. I sighed, knowing I'd be in the same class with Ashton for the next hour, not being able to gaze upon Jude because then he'd know I liked him. 

I walked into Math class, and my eyes locked on Jude toward the back of the classroom, sitting in front of Ashton. He had on a gray and navy striped t-shirt and blue jeans. He was sitting there talking to Caleb, not paying attention that I was staring at him as I made my way to my seat across the room. Ava looked over toward Mr. King's desk to see if he was sitting there yet, then hurried over to Caleb and kissed him. 

"Ava, stop kissing Caleb and take your seat. This is why I sat you across the room from him. I don't need my class interrupted all the time by your constant kissing," Mr. King said, walking to his desk carrying his usual cup of coffee from one of the local coffee shops. I didn't know how old he was, but he was definitely younger than most of the other male teachers. His brown hair wasn't sprinkled with gray hair here and there. The class erupted into laughter. "Ava, take your seat so that I can start class." Mr. King motioned to her seat over by me. Mr. King was one of the cooler teachers; he didn't make a huge deal about things. Most teachers would've sent Ava and Caleb to the office for what they would call "inappropriate behavior" in class. Instead, Mr. King would just embarrass you as he did with Ava and Caleb by calling you out for whatever you were doing at the time. I'm surprised he hasn't sent Ava and Caleb to the office because this was like the seventh or eighth time he's called them out.

I sat there with my Math book open, looking toward the board, but did I hear a word Mr. King was saying about pre-calculus? Not really. Good thing we didn't have a test in the next few days, or I'd be screwed. Then again, Math has always been one of the classes I could not study and still pass. I peeked over at Ava a few times to see if she was paying attention, and of course, she was either secretly texting Caleb or smiling at him. I couldn't do either of those things with Jude because I didn't have his number, and he was sitting close to Ashton, who would catch me flirting with Jude and tease me about it later. 

The bell rang, and Mr. King kept talking as everyone rushed by; we needed to pay attention in class tomorrow because it would be a review for the test in a few days. I shoved my books into my book bag and headed toward the doorway. 

"Gemma, wait up!" 

I froze a few steps in front of the doorway, unable to move. I was scared to turn around, afraid he'd disappear, or worse, I just imagined he called my name, and I'd been standing here like an idiot for no reason. I started to turn around when I felt a gentle tug on my arm, pulling me to the side. I turned in the direction I was being drawn; Ava let go of my arm and smiled. 

"Thanks." I mouthed. 

She nodded, then motioned her eyes to the side of me as she grabbed her phone. 

"Hey, Gemma." Jude smiled. "Can I walk you to class?" 

"Sure." I smiled. 

"Um...I'll see you in class." Ava walked out of Math and down the hall. 

"She could've walked with us; we're all heading to the same class." Jude walked out of the classroom. "I'm kinda glad we're alone because now I can ask you without an audience." He looked away, running his hand through his dark brown hair. "Would you go out with me Saturday night?" He peeked over at me. 

"Yes." The word flew out of my mouth before I had a chance to even think about an answer. 

"Great. I'll pick you up around six. You live next door to Ashton, right?" 

"Yeah." My voice drifted off as I tried not to panic. I just agreed to a date and never went on one. What the hell have I done? Now, I had to sit through English class, trying not to panic about my upcoming date with Jude. I had to pay attention in this class because we had a test in a few days, and I didn't need a lousy grade. I sat down at my desk next to Ava in the middle of the classroom while Jude walked over to his seat toward the window. 

Ava looked over her shoulder back at Jude, then leaned closer to me. "So, what happened?" she whispered, keeping her eyes on the door. She was watching out for Ms. Clark to come strolling through the doorway to start class. Ms. Clark had a strict rule of no talking once she stepped into the classroom to begin class. If she caught you talking, she'd make you take your books and go to the office for disrupting her class. She was young but super strict when it came to her classroom. Honestly, if someone didn't know any different, they could almost mistake her for a student. Most of the time, her long blonde hair was curled, and she wore stylish clothes that you'd see some of the popular girls wearing sometimes. 

I turned, acting like I was looking for something in my book bag, and peeked around Ava over at Jude to make sure he wasn't looking our way. He was busy looking down at his phone, his thumb swiping across the screen. I assumed he was probably looking at videos on his Vine. Then, I turned to face the front of the class. "He asked me out on a date Saturday." 

Ava's mouth fell open, and her eyes widened. She sat there staring at me for a few minutes, unable to say a word, and when she was about to say something, Ms. Clark walked into the classroom. I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief because this wasn't the place I wanted to play fifty million questions with Ava. 

Author's Notes:

Wow, Gemma's got a date! 

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