Leap of Faith

Day Six

“What face?” I ask, suddenly aware of how I looked.

“You look smug,” TJ says with a questioning inflection in his voice.

“My sister is getting married,” I tell him, although I’m not sure why. I get that TJ and I are trying to be friends, but why am I opening up this much to him? “She’s going crazy over bridesmaid’s dresses and while I’m here, my other sister, Anna, is playing dress up.”

“And that’s why you’re happy?” TJ laughs with a shake of his head.

“Gym class,” I say as I create a balance with my hands. “Or dress shopping with my sister? This will be the only time gym class ever wins.”

I finish placing my books in the locker and close it, taking a seat next to TJ on the window ledge. TJ, being a muscular jock, took up most of the space but he’d left an opening for me. It meant having to sit with my arm touching his, but surprisingly I wasn’t freaking out. Instead, I felt my body relax and gravitate towards him. I rested my head on his shoulder and sighed contentedly.

“Comfortable?” He mused but didn’t move. I nod against him and feel his body shaking with a quiet laugh. “Glad I could be of some use to you.”

Now it was my turn to laugh. Eventually, we fell in to a comfortable silence. TJ continued to play on his cell and I watched as he scrolled through a girl’s profile. I couldn’t see her name, but whoever she was, she was really pretty in a stereotypical way. You know the type- blonde hair, blue eyes, wore a cheer leading uniform. Of course that’s the type of girl TJ likes.

I roll my eyes at the screen of his cell and start to look around us as the hallway fills. A few people shoot us bemused glances but they don’t say anything. TJ’s friends converged at my locker for some reason and they were all talking animatedly about things I had no interest in. Something about a party this weekend was mentioned, but it went over my head.

I spotted Georgie arriving with Greyson and held up my hand to wave at her. She beamed at me and waved back, but instead of rushing towards me like she usually would, Georgie went to her locker. She and Grey stayed there, pawing each other until I got too nauseated to look anymore.

“They need to get a room,” someone else spoke my thoughts. I turn towards the voice and see Landon Harris from my gym class rolling his eyes at the public display of over affection. “I think I preferred it when they weren’t dating.”

I cleared my throat and held up my hand to show that I had something to say. “That’s my friend you’re talking about.”

Landon stuttered, searching for an apology, but in the end he gave up with a shrug. “They still need to get a room, though.”

Actually, I couldn’t argue with that. If they were going to make out and try to give each other an endoscopy with their tongues, then they really should get a room. A sound proofed one wouldn’t go amiss, either.

“Psyched for gym, Cate?” Landon asked. I groaned and buried my face into TJ’s shoulder. It’s a good thing I don’t wear make-up, otherwise TJ’s white shirt would be looking a little orange streaked about now. “I’ll take that as a ‘no.’”