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10. Trying to Help

Alex made history interesting, he muttered to himself constantly about how stupid different decisions were, and re-enacted the events in little cartoons in his books rather than taking notes. He said it helped him learn better, but they just made Allie laugh as she read his captions. Whenever she laughed a little too loudly their teacher shot her disapproving glances and she had to cover her mouth and bury her head in the textbook.

“Stop judging me,” Alex muttered with a small grin.

“Sorry, you just make it so easy,” Allie teased him, stifling her laughter.

Alex pouted and pretended to ignore her for the following ten minutes before he got bored with actually paying attention and proceeded to kick Allie lightly under the table and act like it wasn’t him for the last fifteen minutes of class. They squabbled silently at the back of the classroom, receiving confused, amused and irritated glances from different classmates seated around them, which they easily ignored.

When they were excused from class, Alex walked off in the opposite direction to Allie, shouting over his shoulder, “See you later, Australia!”

Allie laughed to herself as she made her way back to her locker, putting away her books and pulling out her bag, Allie was relieved at how light it was compared to that morning. It was about a twenty minute walk home from the school, and it had been painful on Allie’s shoulders to carry her books that morning. The crowded hallway was full of laughter and shouts combined with the banging of lockers in the enthusiasm for the end of the day, Allie understood it, because she shared it. Alex had managed to distract her a little, but Allie still hadn’t been able to keep her eyes from straying to the clock, counting down until she finally go to leave. As if on cue, her phone lit up with an incoming call. Allie grabbed it as she closed my locker, pressing it to her ear.

“Hello?”

“Where are you?”

“I just got out of class, I’m walking out the front of the school right now,” Allie told Zach as she walked through the oversized main doors.

“I’ll see you soon then.”  he hung up.

Allie frowned as she walked towards the school gates, what was that about? Zach didn’t know how long she would be or anything like that. Was he expecting her to go over or was he talking about something else? He could have at least asked how her day had been. Or, said goodbye instead of just hanging up. Did Allie do something? No she couldn’t have done anything, she had been stuck there all day. Maybe he was busy, that must be it, he was just busy. Allie didn’t notice anyone approaching her while she was frowning at the pavement in front of her feet, so when someone grabbed her around the waist and lifted her off her feet, Allie  let out a loud gasp.

“Wha-Hey!”

Zach spun her around, “Hello beautiful! How was it?” he asked, putting Allie back on her feet and kissing her cheek.

Allie blushed as the butterflies started going mental in her stomach. “For the most part, not so great,” she admitted.

He looked down at Allie and concern filled his eyes, brushing a strand of hair away from her face. Allie tried to shrug it off; smiling, she pushed past him and continued heading in the direction of home. Zach stepped up beside Allie almost immediately, tangling their fingers together.

Hannah’s voice reached them from a little farther back from where they were walking. Zach pulled Allie to a stop and looked around to see Hannah towing Mike along beside her, her skateboarder tucked under her other arm.

“Why are you in such a hurry?”

Zach shrugged, “We’re not.”

Hannah rolled her eyes and dropped her skateboard to the pavement, letting it roll in front of her as she stepped onto it, still attached to Mike.