Chapter 3: Unexpected Move
I'm not a morning person...
The idea that those kind of people exist on this planet is inconceivable.
My eyes were heavy with sleep as I slipped out of bed, sluggishly moving to the kitchen and starting the coffee machine.
Angie finally woke up, pouring out a cup of coffee for herself. "So, any early morning lecture?" Angie asked, taking a long sip of her coffee.
"Nope... But I do have a class by twelve... I'll be in the gym till then,"
She nodded, blowing the hot coffee. "Tell me how things go when we get back, I've got a lecture any moment now." She patted me on the cheek before downing the last of her coffee and heading to get dressed.
•••
I was the first to make it to the gym so I opened up the place, grabbing my phone and playing Candy Crush.
Jessica finally showed up at about 11:30am, a huge grin on her face as she carefully dropped her purse on the desk.
"You're late," I noted.
She was always late but I'd never seen her this happy in a while. I watched as she began applying lipgloss on her lips.
"If you must know, I spent the night with Ashton Malik and he was awfully good in bed, left me feeling sor–"
"Okay, I get it... Even though I didn't ask," I said, uninterested in hearing more. Jessica simply shrugged, her grin getting wider.
"Don't be so jealous. Unlike you, I actually take time to prepare for my day so it was inevitable he would notice me."
Blah blah blah
But she was right, I hardly ever took time getting dressed, my clothes were simple, avoiding the dilemma of what to wear. Today, I was in a white button up shirt, sleeves folded, and black leggings.
Compared to my dressing, Jessica looked like a queen in her black crop top and denim mini skirt, her fruity perfume invading my nose as she walked by.
•••
After yesterday, the gym had gone back to its lonely state, it was still empty by the time I had my first lecture, Jessica was going to handle the place but I still promised I'd be back by tewelve to give her a hand.
I sighed, making my way into the P.H.Y building for my Electric circuit class, our lectures were to be held on the third floor and my lazy ass wasn't about to use the stairs, so I climbed into the elevator.
I was about to push the button when I heard a familiar voice.
"Hold on!" It was Paul, running to the elevator.
I left it open, welcoming him in.
"Hi," I said.
"Hey," he greeted in between deep breaths from running. "We're so... Late for class."
"Ms Mathers hardly calls attendance so I think we're safe," I said.
He nodded, wiping off the glistening sweat on his forehead, his grey sweatshirt already soaked.
Damn, how long had he been running?
"I'm glad I found you here, I actually wanted to ask you something," Paul said.
"If it's about my apartment, no, it did not burn down, thanks for caring," I immediately replied which left Paul laughing.
"Nah... It isn't about that." He dug his hand into his pocket, recovering what seemed to be two tickets. "I managed to snatch us two tickets to the boxing match this saturday, wondering if you could be my plus one?"
To be honest, I'd hardly gone on a date with anyone in my life (perks of looking like me) so I was excited Paul was asking me to come. Even though the highlight of the match (Ashton Malik Vs Joey Malcolm) wasn't going to happen, there were many other matches.
I was about to say yes when I remembered that I had a ton of assignments plus my apartment was a mess from yesterday and Angie was definitely not going to clean that up.
"Sorry... I'm kinda busy on saturday, but I'll definitely make it up to you. Next time, I'm buying the tickets for both of us," I said.
He seemed a little bit sad but just grinned, running a hand through his chestnut locks, "sure... Can't wait."
Ding! The elevator opened, Paul and I walked out.
"Okay, the lecture is at hall 4," I said and Paul nodded.
In an unexpected move, he held my hand. Now, I have no problem with friends touching me but this felt different. He dragged me along, pulling my still stunned body until we got infront of the entrance. Hall 4.
Just peeking through the window, I could tell we were late, the lecture had already began and all the students were seated, it was impossible to get past Ms Mathers.
"Don't worry, just act natural, she'll think we were already in class and left for the bathroom or something," Paul whispered to me, squeezing my hand a little.
Okay Maddie, act natural...
The only problem was, my natural was unnatural.
"Are you ready?"
No.
I nodded and we walked in.
•••
Now, I don't know what gave us away, maybe it was the fact that I kept sweating each step I took, or the fact that I had a wide ass grin in my attempt to "act natural" but Ms Mathers caught on straight away.
"May I know why both of you are late?" She asked.
The hall was filled with nearly two hundred students, all of whichs eyes were on us, Paul and I.
"We're so sorry ma'am, I got held up at my job," I tried to explain.
"Unacceptable... You can count this as an error your grades are taking damages for, both of you," she said, "now, take a seat and stop distracting by class."
We both hurried into the crowd of students before she spoke again.
"And by the way, I'd handed out a project to be submitted the end of the month. Since both of you love coming late, you may as well do it together."
Paul and I simply nodded, taking our seats on the only two empty ones we could find.
We'd started writing things we'd missed out on when I heard a certain girl at my front say, "did you hear what happened yesterday? Ashton Malik sprained his leg."
"Really? How?" The blonde friend asked.
I'd taken for granted how popular Ashton was, of course everyone was going to find out he had a sprain.
"Well, he was at that messed up gym to see Jessica and all of a sudden, the dumbbells came crashing, he managed to get her out of there but sprained an ankle while doing so."
Wait, what?! That never happened... But as long as my name isn't on the front page of the story, who cares.
"Damn, I wish he saved me," the blonde said dreamily.
"Me too."
Maybe I'd been staring for too long cause the girls finally noticed I was eavesdropping, they stared at me with frowns.
"What are you looking at, ogre?" The blonde asked, "you work at that gym, I bet you're so jealous about Jessica."
"Actually–"
The brunette interrupted me. "Someone like Ashton could never notice a nerd like you."
"That's enough, Kelsie," Paul intervened, "don't you girls have something better to do than terrorise a fellow girl."
The brunette shrugged, "the truth hurts sometimes." They both turned back to their books and continued writing.
Although I hated to admit it, they were right, someone like Ashton was no we're close to my social circle.
•••
When I'd gotten back to the gym, Jessica was gone, she'd left for a date or something and said she wasn't coming back till tomorrow.
The gym had been just as boring as usual, the emptiness of the place made my voice echo.
It was finally evening, around six, when I finally switched the open sign for closed, going to my desk to pick my bag and get the heck out of there.
The door slid open like whether it wasn't didn't care there was a closed sign outside.
Someone was here.
Was it a robber? hadn't they seen the closed sign? it was illegal to rob a closed store, I'd read that somewhere.
Sweat prickled through me as I looked for a weapon, I finally found a bat, probably belonged to Mr Pipeson.
I quietly stepped closer to the entrance where the intruder stood, their back facing me.
Then he turned.
It was Ashton Malik.