She Was Ugly

Chapter 10: The Apology Part 2

Leo's POV:

I realized my mistake as soon as I saw her whole body freeze.

I called her AJ.

It felt so natural to call her that though. That was my nickname for her when we were little. She always hated it and would glare or yell at me every time I called her that. She claimed it was a boy name. I don't remember how I came up with the nickname, I just started calling her that.

Slowly, she turned to look at me, her eyes wide with surprise. "What did you just call me?" I could see the surprise blooming in her eyes. "I called you AJ. What, am I not allowed to call you that anymore?" I asked.

"No, you can it just took me by surprise that's all. You haven't called me that since 6th grade," she replied. As she started to walk towards the door of her next class, I stopped her by grabbing her wrist. "Wait, I was wondering if you wanted to come over to my house after school today after school to study for anatomy?"

"Why would I want to do that?" She looked at me as if I was the dumbest person in the world. Maybe I was, for asking her this when she just accepted my apology a couple days ago. "I don't know. So we can study for the experiment next class and do the reading together. Maybe it'll give us a little time to catch up," I said.

I could see that she was actually thinking about my offer, which was major progress. One step at a time. Maybe science wasn't her best subject and she needed a little bit of help with it. After a few moments, she finally answered me.

"Fine, but only for an hour."

Yes! This was major progress. Just a couple of days ago she wouldn't even talk to me and now she's coming over to my house to study. A smile made it's way onto my face. She has know idea how happy she just made me. The corners of her lips twitched up in a small smile when she noticed that I was smiling.

"Go, before you are even later to class," she laughed a little as I turned around and waved goodbye before making my way towards my next class. The bell rang a minute ago which means I was already late for Spanish. My teacher is very old, though. You could shout something right in his ear and he probably still wouldn't be able to hear you.

He needs to just retire. He would be doing everyone a favor.

By the time I got to class, it had started 10 minutes ago. I took a detour to grab some books from my locker and ran into my best friend, Miles. We talked for a little bit and then we both left to go to class.

---

When school got out, I rushed to my motorcycle and hopped on, tearing through the parking lot so I could go home and get everything ready. Athena had texted me saying that she would come over right after school. That way she didn't have to stop at home, she could just come over right after school when she already had all her things.

I ran up the stairs and rushed into my bedroom, slamming the door shut behind me. I had only been back a week, but my room was already a complete mess. The first thing I did was pick up all of my clothes and put them in my hamper. I made a mental note to do my laundry later.

Then, I picked up all the trash and take out boxes that had piled up on my nightstand. I have been too lazy this past week with taking out my trash. My father just went to the store on Sunday, so now our fridge is fully stocked. Maybe I can make something for Athena when she comes over.

I ran back up to my room after dumping everything in the trash downstairs and did a quick survey of my room. There wasn't that much left to do. Vacuum my carpet, clean and wipe down my desk, and make my bed.

I decide to start with the vacuuming since that was the easiest. After I fished the vacuum out of all our stuff that was still unpacked, I quickly vacuumed my carpet and put it back in the hall closet. As soon as I shut the door, I heard the doorbell ring. No! I'm not done cleaning yet.