A to Z of Falling in Love

B is for Broken Backpacks

By the time we sat down and got situated, the bell rang signalling the end of fifth period. I didn't realize how hungry I was until my stomach started to growl. I hoped Charlie wouldn't hear the fact that I was starving, but right on cue he turned to me with his dopey smile and said, "Let's get you some food before you pass out from hunger this time."

We were heading to lunch when I saw my two friends walking out of their history class. "Mara! Claire!" I ran towards them and gave them a big hug. They both were taken aback at seeing me.

"Oh my gosh Alice I heard you ran into something this morning and had to go to the nurse's office. Are you-" Mara stopped mid sentence when she saw Charlie next to me. "Alice, I didn't know you made a new friend today."

"Oh yeah it kind of just happened. Charlie, these are my best friends Mara Walsh and Claire LeBlanc and this is-"

"Charlie Jones. Alice's new best friend. It's nice to meet the both of you."

"Likewise," replied Claire who looked at me with a curious glance.

"Well I'm glad everyone is acquainted. Why don't we continue this conversation at lunch? I don't know about everyone else, but I'm starving." I looked at Mara and Claire, but Mara only seemed to be looking at Charlie.

"Yeah. Let's go. We don't want to be late do we?" Charlie grinned at me and started walking towards the lunch room.

Mara grabbed me and let Claire and Charlie walk together in front of us. "Who's the cute guy?" She asked.

"He just transferred. I'm just supposed to be showing him around, but something happened this morning. That best friend thing he said was just a joke. Oh by the way, what classes do you have? I'm hoping to have some classes with you guys. We didn't really get to talk to each other over the summer. I know soccer keeps you busy nowadays. I heard about that scholarship for UVA. Congrats."

"Oh yeah thanks. They have a good engineering program so I can at least have a back up plan if soccer doesn't work for me."

Before we knew it, we were already in the lunchroom and grabbing a table for the four of us. Good. I didn't have to answer any more Charlie related questions.

"I'll be back. I'm going to go buy some lunch," I said to the group. I knew that Mara and Claire always packed lunch, so I was used to going alone.

"Wait up. I'll come with you," Charlie responded just as I was turning to go and wait in line.

"Oh okay," I replied, a bit shocked,

"Why are you so surprised that I'm buying lunch?" He chuckled at my reaction.

"Well, you came from California so I just assumed you would be healthier than the rest of us who live in PA."

"Only healthy people in California are healthy. Everyone isn't on a kale diet you know."

"Yeah I guess," was all I could mutter. I suddenly realized that I was bringing up the fact that he lived in California, but he never actually told me this information himself. I just tried to stare at the ground and not look at him.

His face was suddenly right in front of mine. God those eyes. My stomach did a flip. "Why are you looking down? Is the ground more interesting than me? I have to say I am a great conversationalist," he laughed. Another flip.

I looked up at him and before thinking, I blurted, "Why did you and your family even move from California to Pennsylvania?" I'm stupid.

His face seemed to get dark. "I think family is a bit of an overstatement. It's just my dad and I and he's not even here with me."

"Oh." It didn't seem as though he wanted to indulge me in the details of his life, so I dropped the subject. We grabbed some pizza, paid for them, and walked back to our table. I felt eyes following us, but Mara was the one following with the most intensity.

"Hey, you guys are back so soon. I guess it just gives us more time to chat." Mara shifted to face Charlie, directly. "So, Charlie, what classes do you have after lunch?" Mara questioned before he and I could even have a bite.

"Well, I have AP English with Mr. Harper and then at the end of the day I've got AP Computer Science with Mr. Castor. What about you?"

"That's perfect! I have AP English with Mr. Harper, too! Alice, you have that with us don't you?" I nodded in agreement. "Well I guess we can walk together then. I've been curious about this. If it isn't too much to ask, how did you guys meet?"

"Um, I was supposed to be his student guide, but I ended up in the nurse's office instead of giving him a tour," I laughed at how pathetic it sounded.

"I mean, you make it sound a lot more anticlimactic than it was. Your dear friend Alice here ran into a wall and I had to help wheel her to the nurse's office." I didn't need Charlie to go into that much detail in front of my friends especially if it was details that I didn't even know about. I shoot him a glare and he responds with a wink.

"Charlie do you like Alice?" Mara blurted out as if to grab our attention. I was shocked, but Charlie just laughed because right on time the bell rang. I guess I was quite literally saved by the bell. Who knew a 90's sitcom would be applicable to my current situation.

I went to grab my backpack when suddenly the strap broke, letting all my books tumble out. Shit. I didn't think I opened it during lunch. Everyone around me stared as they were milling out. I could feel my vision blurring with tears. God this is embarrassing. I'm a senior and I still cry from stress.

Before I started to fully cry, Charlie grabbed my hand and gave it a squeeze. "Hey, Alice, look at me. Just breathe." I looked up and felt a sense of comfort wash over me when I saw his face. "Don't worry. Just grab your backpack and I'll take care of the rest of your things, okay? Breathe. It'll be okay. Just keep breathing in and out, slowly."

I don't know why I believed him or anything he was saying to me. I had met him that day, yet he already knew how to calm me down from having a panic attack. I quickly wiped away the tears that had already formed and I grabbed my backpack as he gathered up all of my books. Only then did I realize that Mara and Claire were both gone, probably already heading to English. They didn't even help.

Before I could feel a sense of loneliness, the warning bell rang signalling that class was starting in a minute. We both ran as quickly as we could to English, but by the time we got into the room, we were already a couple minutes late.

"Ah. Miss Alice and Mr. Charlie I presume," Mr. Harper remarked as the rest of the class snickered at our tardiness. I looked at Mara and Claire with hurt eyes and they both shot me an apologetic look. "I'm disappointed to say that the two of you are tardy and on the first day no less. Please do say that you have an excuse as to why you are late to my class."

I felt the heavy breathing coming back as I stood there making the worst first impression in the world. I didn't even think of an excuse when Charlie stepped in and said,"I'm sorry, sir. It's my first day and I had trouble looking for my locker. Alice was helping me because she's my student buddy. She was kind of forced to wait until I was done." He gave his explanation with such ease that even I thought it was true.

"And it would have nothing to do with the fact that Miss Alice is currently holding her mangled backpack?" Mr. Harper questioned, glancing toward the backpack I was holding.

"That may have added a couple seconds to the delay. A runner can only be so fast, right Mr. Harper?" I stood still as the rest of the class laughed at Charlie's response as if they knew about an inside joke that I didn't.

"Alright. Alright. Just don't disrupt my class again, okay? Now sit down," replied Mr. Harper with a hint of a grin. He gestured toward the two empty desks in the middle.

We sat down and after I got all of my things from Charlie, I looked up at him to see he was already looking at me. I gave him a grateful smile and looked up at Mr. Harper who was going over his syllabus. I felt him looking at me for another second before looking up, too.