Jo
I was woken by an annoying beeping coming from somewhere beside my ear.
I groaned, was it morning already. I squinted at the light coming from my window and swiped away the alarm on my phone.
With another groan, I rolled onto the floor, the blanket falling with me and reluctantly got up. After getting dressed and trying to make my appearance at least a little presentable, I made my way downstairs.
I was not a morning person.
"Morning dear", my mum said chipperly, as I slumped into the kitchen.
I mumbled a reply.
"Here, have some breakfast" mum said, putting a piece of toast and a glass of juice in front of me. "I need to be leaving for work now. Have a good day at school honey" she added and kissed my head.
"Hmm", I muttered and took a bite of the toast.
"Hey!", I waved at Miguel when he came out of his psychology classroom after first period. He was talking to a boy whose name I didn't know, but who I remembered I had seen hanging around with the swim team. Huh, that was a bit odd.
Miguel gave a short wave and a smile to the boy. The boy did the same and walked the other direction down the corridor. Miguel joined me, and we started walking the other way.
"Who was that?" I asked Miguel, furrowing my eyebrows.
"Oh, uh no one", Miguel answered with a shrug. I noticed a faint blush rising to his cheeks.
We continued walking in silence for a while. Until Miguel suddenly stopped and turned to me.
"Why didn't you come to theatre practice yesterday?"
Shoot.
I totally forgot about theatre practice. I was so preoccupied with my thoughts after I left the library, I completely forgot I was supposed to meet Miguel.
"Shit, I'm sorry, I completely forgot"
"Yeah okay, it's fine", he exhaled and continued walking.
"I'll come on Thursday, I promise", I said.
"Sure"
Miguel gave me a small smile before walking ahead of me into the math classroom.
Math class was pretty boring. I wasn't particularly bad at math but I didn't find it very interesting either. At least the next class was English. That on the other hand was very interesting. Mostly the literature part though. But luckily Mr. Phillips, the English teacher, seemed to be a fan of literature too.
The last class of the day was history.
When I walked inside the classroom my eyes immediately travelled to Anna's usual seat beside the window, but she wasn't there yet.
I took a seat at my own desk and waited for class to begin. I was a bit confused when Anna still hadn't come into the classroom as Mrs. O'Neill started teaching.
3 minutes into the class Anna came into the room tailing behind a grinning Chase. Anna's face was as red as a beet and both of their hair looked dishevelled. I rolled my eyes.
"Nice of you to join us Mr. Robins and Ms. Bryant. Ms. Bryant, I must say I am surprised", Mrs. O'Neill pursed her lips. "Take a seat both of you".
If it was humanly possible, Anna's face got even redder. She scurried quietly behind Chase to her seat.
"Alright, today I'm assigning you a group project. It is due by the end of the month, when you will be presenting your work in front of the class. You will be working in pairs and you may choose your subject on the topics in our textbook", Mrs. O'Neill announced.
"The pairs will be as follows:"
"Ms. Parekh with Mr. Foster, Ms. Jackson and Ms. Mills, Mr. Rhodes and Mr...", she started listing names.
"Ms. Fields and Ms. Bryant, and then Ms. Davids and Ms..."
I turned to look at Anna as I heard our names. She was already looking at me with an unreadable expression.
Well shit, this would be so awkward.
After class ended I hurried out of the classroom. But Anna caught up to me outside the room.
"Wait, Jo", she said. "Uh, when should we work on the project?"
"Uhh, how about Friday after dinner?"
"Yeah sure, we can go to mine", she answered and gave me a small smile. "See you Friday then, bye!"
"Bye", I mumbled.
_____________
"It's going to be so awkward Miguel", I whined.
It was now Thursday and we were walking to theatre practice while I told him about having to do the history project with Anna.
Miguel just laughed at me.
"We haven't talked a word since the party", I continued my whining.
Once we reached the auditorium Miguel made his way to the front. Allison, the director of the club, gave me a wave. I waved back and took my usual seat at the back and pulled out a copy of 'The Fifth Wave'.
_____________
When Friday came, I was suddenly nervous. I tried to tell myself to relax. Anna and I used to hang out all the time.
But maybe it was just that, we used to.
Ever since the party, everything had changed. The obvious being the fact that we didn't talk anymore. But it felt like something else had changed too.
I hated this. I hated that I couldn't stop thinking about her. I was happy being friends with her, and then that stupid party ruined everything.
And I still didn't understand why Anna ran out like that. It wasn't like I had admitted I was in love with her or something. It was just a kiss and a part of a game none-the-less.
Well, I wasn't sure that was all it was to me. But she didn't know that.
We were best friends for 10 years! And just like that and she had found new friends and a boyfriend and left both me and Miguel behind.
After an excruciatingly long half an hour of dinner with my parents, I began walking over to Anna's house. It was only a short walk from ours, since she lived in the street right on the other side of the park separating our neighbourhoods.
Too soon, I was standing in front of Anna's familiar front door. The butterflies were dancing in my stomach as I raised my hand to knock on the door.
"Hi", Anna inhaled as she opened the door.
For a few seconds, we just stood there looking at each other.
"Oh right sorry, come in", she gestured and moved over to the side to let me in.
I stepped inside and hanged my coat on the coat rack. The house looked the same as I remembered it from the countless times I had been here. Anna led us through the small living room with a faded orange couch and a worn carpet and up the stairs to her room.
The posters of different musicals that had framed her blue walls were gone, but otherwise, her room was the same. Anna took a seat on her bed and I sat on the chair beside her desk.
I looked around the room. Her history books were sitting on the bookshelf, along with a few nicknacks and other school books. Her room was just as clean as it always used to be.
I smiled as I noticed the small picture pinned on the corner of the corkboard above her desk. I gently took the picture of the board and looked at it. It was a picture of us in Anna's backyard. We were both beaming at the camera, one of Anna's front teeth was missing and I was sporting two mismatching pigtails.
"I didn't know you still had this picture"
"Yeah", Anna smiled.
I put the picture back on the corkboard and turned to look at Anna.
"Should we get working on the project then", I said.
"Yeah sure", she replied and went to the bookcase to get her textbook.
We decided on doing our project on the industrial revolution. Anna said it was an important event and a good topic. I enjoyed that she seemed excited about researching for the project. I tried to help out the best I could, but my skills in interpreting history were not exactly great. So in the end we decided I would be handling the visuals of the presentation.
We continued working in silence for about 30 minutes. Until I broke the silence with a question that had been playing in my head for the last six months.
"Why did you leave at the party?"
Anna's hand froze on the notebook she was writing on.
A few seconds of silence followed until she hesitantly opened her mouth.
"I don't know"
"Yes you do Anna. I know you better than anyone else, I can tell when you're lying"
A few more seconds followed.
"I, I was scared"
"Scared of what, It was just a game, it didn't mean anything"
My chest clenched at my lie. But admitting the truth wouldn't do any good. Because there was no way that she would ever reciprocate my feelings.
AN:
*NOTE: Chapter 1 has a new scene*
If you have read this story before this chapter was updated, I added an extra scene to chapter 1. I had planned to have it in this chapter but it didn't really fit here like I wanted. But it was still a scene I wanted to have, so I added it in chapter 1. You can go read it from chapter one if you want to, it is in italics and quite close to the beginning.
Anyhow, thanks for reading the third chapter. I really hope you like the story so far. You can tell me what you think in the comments if you want!
Otherwise, there is nothing much more to tell at the moment. We're starting exam week next week, so yikes for that. Also, I made orange cheesecake yesterday and it was so good. I might have to go get another slice after this:D
Alright I think that's all, bye!
- Veera