The Bad Boys Are Back

19

I tried to drown myself in school work the following day.

I wasn't lying to my mother that I had a spelling bee contest coming up, with Nancy in it. It was tomorrow and I haven't even had the time to read the dictionary yet. Last year I read the entire dictionary to prepare for the contest and right now I wasn't even sure how to spell 'onomatopoeia'.

Someone tapped on my shoulder as I was rushing to the library to print notes for Physics.

"Jasper," I said, slightly shocked. "Hi."

"Hey Ava," he went, casually, as his golden hair swayed, as though being caressed by the movement of air from students moving about in the hallways. His eyes were the same shade of sky blue I kept seeing in my dreams. And his lips, luscious as always. He truly was beautiful.

"I have an assignment due in two days, sorry for the late notice, it kind of slipped my mind...?" He ran a hand through his hair, sheepish smile playing on his face.

Something deep and instinctual rumbled within me, and from the pits of my guts, butterflies erupted. Just because we hadn't interacted in a while, it didn't mean that all butterflies were dead - they were just hibernating.

"Well?" Jasper went.

"Um," I bit on my inner cheeks. I did have a spelling competition coming up, and I was rather behind on my school work, but I did shake hands in agreement that I would do their school work. "Right, send me the details. Sorry," I went calmly, even though I wanted to scream and pull my hair out. "Sorry, I just have a lot on my plate right now."

"Oh," he went. "I... I guess I could try doing it myself. I'm just not that good at the essay stuff, you know?"

"I completely understand, wait no - I didn't mean it like that. I just meant it like, we all have our strong suits," I quickly rambled out.

"Do you wanna maybe, get coffee? Then I'll try doing it myself but I can ask you if I'm unsure about anything. You'll be able to do your work there, too." Jasper suggested.

The butterflies in my guts ascended to my throat and when my jaws came unhinged, I prayed none of them would fly out.

"You alright?" He asked.

The entire hallway was a blur now, all I could see was Jasper and his bright blue eyes.

"Of course, that'd be great actually. But I'm only free tomorrow afternoon onwards."

Jasper broke into a wide smile. "You're the best, you know that? Alright I'll text you," he said. "See you around."

I wanted to melt into a puddle of mud on the floor. But I kept it together and continued walking towards the library.

The moment I stepped in, I saw Nancy.

My eyes narrowed as the butterflies died instantly.

Nancy.

There she was with her ugly ponytail, thick glasses, working at an inhumane pace occupying two desks in the library for all her books and papers. She had three volumes of dictionaries before her.

Here I was, not remembering the last time I touched a dictionary, and there she was, probably just done going through three different ones.

I can't talk to her, Mom, I'm sorry.

But my legs had a mind of their own. On a subconscious level I wanted to walk up to her to cause a scene. Implicit memory recalls my last interaction with Nancy that ended badly, and implicit memory wanted vengeance.

Nancy noticed me approaching, with a start, she snapped her laptop shut, probably not wanting me to see what she was up to.

Through thick glasses, she narrowed her eyes at me. I narrowed my eyes back at her through my own glasses.