The Lies We Share ✔

Chapter 17

The next day at school, Laura walked in past the bell, realizing this she rushed to her locker. Unfortunately, she had overslept from staying up well into the night wondering what just happened between her and Ryan. Her mom reluctantly brought her to school after she had missed the bus.

She tore open her locker after she tried the combination and failed several times her mind winding a mile a minute. Hopefully, her teacher would be late, or else she was screwed. Laura hated showing up past the bell, though she was never habitually truant, it wasn't nice to walk into a full classroom. However, getting punished was the least of her concerns.

She took off down the empty halls, rushing past the full walls of neon posters and white paper flyers. Heat rose to her cheeks as she slipped into the classroom, the teacher looked at her briefly before she continued to drone on about the lesson plan that day. Laura noticed a slight, but reassuring smile from Todd, which she acknowledged with a grimace. Laura took her seat in the back and opened her notes to a blank page, scribbling down today's topic, functions. More specifically rational functions, hurray, more complexity.

Laura rolled her eyes, which were peeled to her notebook. She listened carefully as Ms. Samson spoke. But the scenario of last night repeats like a broken record.

Laura was taken back to his line, "aren't you proud of me?" her reluctance was not his trophy to be captured with sympathy. She frowned at her corkscrew penmanship she had forgotten she was even writing for a second. Laura looked up at her teacher while attempting to scrub her mind of thoughts about Ryan.

After class she was slow to leave, taking her time in the classroom, her teacher came up to her after most of her classmates had left, "Hey, Laura," she smiled and handed her a pass, Laura's eye's passed over the note, it was a truancy pass she had to hand to the office for attendance records.

She smiled half-heartedly back, "good job on that pop quiz last week, you are doing well this semester, keep it up." she complimented, who hardly acknowledged it. Laura's smile was barren of truth.

"Thanks, sorry for being tardy this morning," Ms. Samson waved her hand, her eyes drifted to her desk, "no problem, it happens. Just have a nice rest of the day." she walked back to her slightly chaotic desk it looked out of place in her minimalist classroom.

"You too," Laura said before she made her exit, hugging her books to her chest.

Laura was quick to notice a boy on her right side, it was Todd. He had waited for her outside of the classroom and was keeping stride with her.

"Hey Laura, how's it going?" Todd started, looking at her surprised expression.

"Oh, so you are risking your reputation to talk to me. How special am I?" she said sarcastically, he just smiled before continuing, ignoring her jab.

"No, you're not special, you're the one who thinks I am, obviously. I just wanted to tell you something, I am being more honest lately. And I am going to honestly tell you that I stole your phone number from Marie, but don't get mad at me I did it as a thing of kindness."

Laura rolled her eyes.

"You, kind?"

"No seriously, I was kind and flirty with her, asked her to exchange numbers, she agreed, and let's just say I looked up you in her contacts." Laura scoffed, wow this guy was trained in deception. How did he know she hung out with Marie? He must've done some research.

"No lie, that is a work of genius, are you some sort of spy? But not necessarily what I would classify as nice, giving a girl false hope, I'd say that's pretty much a jerk move, sorry." Although Laura was sure Marie appreciated that a hot guy would be remotely interested in her, she was basically invisible to everyone besides Ryan and Laura. Laura would know this because she was a ghost in high school too.