Sorry, I Love You.

1.24

Zoe instantly jumped from her seat with her books in hand and skipped across the room through all the calm commotion around her as everybody found their partner. She slapped her books on Teddy's desk, causing him to flinch. Grabbing the chair from the table in front of Teddy's, she spun it around and sat on the other side of his desk. Her eyes were bright and her smile brighter as she looked to the boy in front of her. Teddy, who was mildly amused, relaxed in his seat and let out a long sigh.

"Out of all the people in the classroom, you have to buddy-up with me." Teddy muttered.

"Vanessa isn't in class this morning because she has to practice for the final football game of the season and I'm no longer a cheerleader so, I have no excuse not to choose you as my partner." Zoe confessed.

Teddy rolled his eyes and sat up again, though, he wasn't actually annoyed. He actually found it funny that Zoe would admit that to him. That meant Zoe would usually pick him on any other day, as well, if she had the opportunity. Teddy wasn't sure if he should be flattered by that. Sure, part of him was. But that bigger part of him was still yelling at him to distance himself. He could feel this odd relationship between them becoming more and more dangerous.

Or, in other words, comfortable.

Don't get attached, don't let her any further under your skin, don't even make eye contact for too long.

"You're good at this kinda stuff, right?" Zoe asked as she got comfortable.

Teddy was already filling out answers on his sheet, his back hunched and his face inches from his slightly angled paper like always. "Yes. Leave it to me."

"You're not going to explain it to me?" Zoe rested her chin on her hand as Teddy looked up at her through his eyelashes.

"You don't want to just copy the answers?" Teddy questioned awkwardly as he gestured his pencil between their matching papers.

"No. I want to know what we're doing." Zoe lied.

Usually, she would do very little work with Vanessa and probably end up getting the answers from another friend. Her grades didn't really matter so she never really put that much work into it, anyways. She was rich with a bright future ahead of her. This whole public school thing was basically a hobby. But, she wanted to actually interact with Teddy instead of watching him scribble silently for half an hour like she always did at lunch.

"Alright.." Teddy took a deep breath to mentally prepare himself. He was better at working alone or, used to it, at least. Explaining how he got the answers might be a little harder since he had never done it before.

Zoe kept her eyes on Teddy as he gestured between the textbook and the question on their paper. He would read out a sentence or two and then explain where the answer lied before scribbling it on the blank line. Zoe would write down the answer as well and hum in agreement so he knew she was listening. She didn't hear much of what he was saying, honestly, though. Simply watching the way he sat up to explain something and then hunched to write the answer was amusing. His voice was raspy and never smoothed out, even though, he was talking more than he usually did.

Zoe liked when Teddy would mumble to himself until he found the answer and then try to explain it as clearly as he could, although, he still stumbled over his words because he was trying to talk too fast. Zoe smiled happily with content in her eyes as she never took her eyes off him. She had never heard him talk so much in one sitting. This was exactly why she told him to explain his answers, even though, she really didn't care about the assignment. She just liked to hear him talk.

"Your face healed nicely." Zoe tilted her head as her eyes examined every inch of Teddy's dark features. Teddy glanced up at her, waiting for her to explain. "From when Chuck hit you with his ring."