First Love

Chapter Thirteen

  After that first day, the acting became much easier. So was being around Flynn. We managed to get past the immediate action after that when Flynn had to embrace me. He played up the clumsiness of Mitch, so that helped me to stay in character. It was awkward, it was strange, but it also felt alright because I was Blanche when that happened. He was Mitch. Once the rehearsing stopped, we stayed as far apart as possible.

  I admit, I started to feel a little like a genius for introducing the treaty-agreement thing because it helped us to control our tempers. Once we got the mundane details of our lives out of the way, we realized that there was lesser information to offer. Somehow along the way, it turned into something more like questions instead of facts. Either of us could have chosen to remind the other that the agreement was to offer up a fact for each tiny argument but we both had something in common: asking questions gave us more power over the other and we milked it. I couldn’t resist. There was just so much about Flynn that I wanted to (reluctantly) know about and this was my chance.

  Giselle had seemed extremely relieved once I’ve returned home in one piece. That was just about what we talked about because Flynn was just that good a topic.

   On Monday when school was back on, I was surprised to see Galen at my gate. I expected a little sort of heart flip when I saw him this time but my little organ remained pretty placid at the sight of him.

  “Hey,” I said, digging my hands into my pockets. “What are you doing here?”

  “Well,” He gave me a warm smile. “Got out of the house a little earlier today so I’d thought I’ll wait for you.”

  “You know what time I leave the house?” His awareness surprised me further.

  Now, my heart started to pick up its speed.

  “Well, Giselle told me,” He confessed. “I was a little worried, you know, about Flynn…”

  Oh wow. There was this strange moment where my heart gave a jump at the end of his sentence but then my brain responded with a nu-uh. He was spending time with Giselle so don’t get your hopes up, lady.

  “Well, it was fine,” I shrugged. “How’s your play coming along?”

  “We’re doing Hamlet,” He shrugged. “Collin was fine,” He glanced at me. “Nowhere as dramatic as Flynn I suppose.”

  I turned away, trudging down the pavement.

  Somehow, it felt strange to talk about Flynn with Galen. I don’t know what it was, but it was just strange. Even when talking to Giselle yesterday, I didn’t share any of the facts that Flynn told me. It felt almost like a crime to reveal the things he said.

  Or maybe it was just affection-starved me craving to hold something to myself. He offered me information about his life, something that didn’t happen often enough. I wanted to be the only one who knew that Flynn once had braces and like me, was blind without contact lenses.

  “Well, I’m dramatic too,” I offered when the silence got a little too long. “And I guess that puts us on the same boat.”

  “Are you performing today?” He asked, fiddling with his camera. He took a test shot at the sky.

  “Nope. Tomorrow,” I felt relieved remembering that. “I would have gone today if I was still partnered with Lewis but Flynn was scheduled for tomorrow.”

  “Mr Adam was alright with this?” He was still messing with his camera.

  “Yep.”

  Don’t ask me how. Flynn just assured me that everything was alright and when I texted Lewis, he told me everything was fine too. Frankly, I was too caught up with the whole acting thing to wonder. Flynn had a way with words and that’s that.