Aaron's POV
I have never been in detention.
Ever.
As I stood in front of the door, all I could think of was my parents' reaction if they ever heard of it. Disappointment would not even begin to cover it.
Taking a deep breath, I push open the door to reveal a class that is totally empty except for the disciplinary teacher, Mr Sol, sitting at a desk in the front, his legs on the desk and a magazine in his hand.
"Take a seat", he says sin a very droll monotone voice. "No talking and don't disturb me."
Quietly, I walked to a random seat near the middle, and set my back beside me as sat down. I was just reaching for a book from my bag when the door burst open.
Mr Sol raised up his eyebrows in astonishment before returning back to the magazine.
"Take a seat Miss Barnes", he said to Kayla, who was already making a beeline towards me.
She takes the seat beside me, and I groan. We are in an empty class, and of all the seats, she had to pick the one right beside mine? I mean, I know that we are fake dating and all, but that is only for the public eye, and in private, I would like to forget that I ever hooked up with her in the first place.
I try to ignore her as I bring out my advanced physics textbook from my bag, avoiding her eyes staring at me. The fact that I am in detention doesn't mean that I can't catch up on the homework right?
Wrong.
Kayla pops a stick of gum into her mouth and starts chewing loudly, then she makes a large bubble, and pops it. Loudly.
The noise startles me, and I nearly jump out of my seat, only just managing to restrain myself as I hear her pop another bubble.
Resignedly, I shut my book and give an exasperated sigh.
"What do you want from me Kayla?"
"Hey", she says, making another bubble. "I didn't do anything. I'm just chilling here with my gum."
"Don't you have a class to go to?"
"Actually, I may have accused old kebab of denying my freedom to expression, and I may have told him that a dog ate my calculus homework, so he may have given me detention for a week.", she says counting off her misdeeds on her fingers.
I can't help but smile. "Why would you do all that?"
She looks at me seriously. "Because I wanted to skip class. And also, I wanted to say thanks.", she adds, as an afterthought. "You didn't have to do what you did for me"
I clear my throat nervously. "Jason shouldn't have said what he did. I don't care about your... previous experiences with him. He shouldn't have told me..."
"There's nothing to tell. Jason broke up with me because I refused to have sex with him. On multiple occasions. Some guys just don't handle rejection well."
There is a bit of awkward silence, so I feel compelled to say something.
"Alicia broke up with me because her friends said that I was too boring for the daughter of an heiress.", I say, my heart twinging a bit as I feel the familiar pain in my heart. The only person who knows why Alicia broke up with me is Keon.
"You're not boring – a bit uptight for a jock, but certainly not boring"
"Uptight?", I practically shriek, and she gives me a pointed look.
I give a rueful grin, and she eventually shakes her head.
"I mean, you do translate books to Greek for fun", she says, counting it down on her finger.
"Mandarin", I correct.
"And you've never attended one of your own football after parties", she continues, putting down another finger.
I roll my eyes, reluctant to reveal the real reason for that.
"And no one even knows that you date. Seriously, did anyone know that you and Alicia were dating?"
I shrug.
"Face it dude. You're as straight laced as my sneakers.", she said, putting her Nike clad feet on my table.
"Well, that's what Alicia's friends thought. Alicia cares a lot about her social position – she had no choice but to break up with me, but I know that she still loves me – I just need her to see that I am not as 'boring' as her friends think I am."
If I expect Kayla to make a rude or snarky comment, she proves me wrong, simply sitting beside me and nodding.
It's a comfortable silence that envelopes us, one of understanding. Who knew that I would be sharing comfortable silences with the girl who breaks every rule and irritates the sanity out of me? It is a very warm thought.
"This is cringe", Kayla bursts, popping an extra-large bubble. "Want to ditch?"
"What do you mean – ditch?"
"Well, I was thinking that we would head out for a while, maybe watch a movie at the cinema?"
"Are you asking me out on a date?", I say, visibly shuddering. Sharing a moment with my fake girlfriend is tough enough; I don't need any extra time with her.
"I am not asking you out on a date. It's simply an impromptu meeting between two people who have a common goal to while away an hour of boredom.", she explains.
"Half of what you said does not even make any sense. It's still a date."
"Cazzo", she curses in Italian, and I hide a grin.
"Cursing doesn't change the fact that you asked me on a date.", I reply in Italian as well, and she turns around and glares at me.
"Of course you speak Italian", she says in English.
I give a smirk.
"Si"
She looks frustrated for a minute, and I reckon that I can finally do some work in peace, when she starts to get up.
"Where are you going?", I hiss, grabbing her hand to push her down, my fingers wrapped tightly around her wrist. "He is going to see you."
She looks at me and laughs, jerking her head towards Mr Sol. I turn around to find the diligent teacher snoozing comfortably, the magazine discarded and forgotten on his desk.
She wrenches her wrist away from my fingers, and I instantly mourn the loss of contact.
Where did that come from?
"I'm out.", she says, moving towards the window. She slides it open, grabs the trunk of a conveniently placed tree, and uses it to slide out the classroom.
I rush to the window to see her climbing down. We are on the first floor and the ground doesn't look too far away.
Finally, she lands on the ground with a soft thud.
"Throw my bag down", she whispers up to me. I grab her bag, which is wide open, and almost totally full of papers. Most are of drawings, but one catches my eye but mathematical figures neatly written. I recognize it with a gasp.
It is the calculus homework that Mr Kabab gave us.
But she said that she didn't do it
"Hurry up rulebook", I hear her whisper from the window.
I quickly run to the window and drop the bag down to her.
Then I take a deep breath and swing myself out the window using the trunk of the tree.
"Thought you weren't coming.", Kayla smirks as I land beside her.
"And I thought that you didn't do your calculus assignment", I snap back, instantly regretting it.
Kayla's eyes widen for a minute, almost as if she is annoyed, but then she laughs.
"Oh my goodness Aaron, you sound so strict. Loosen up – you don't want to be so uptight for your Darling Alicia do you?"
I don't say anything. She still has not answered the question about why she came to detention when she had done her assignment – why she lied to the teacher to purposely get detention.
I decide to drop it, and we start walking out of the school, and in the direction of downtown.
"So", I say trying to break the awkward silence, "how did you learn Italian?"
She looks at me as if I had asked the dumbest question known to mankind.
"I'm half Italian", she says.
"I know that, but most people who are half still can't speak their language properly."
"Oh", she twists the skull ring on her finger. "I learnt from my father. My mother was Italian, and she taught me a bit, then he taught me the rest."
"Oh...is your father Italian?" I am genuinely interested now, and our conversation is taking my mind of the fact that we are skipping school., which is in fact, a punishable offense.
"My mother is...well was Italian."
"Did she legally apply to become an American or something?"
In retrospect, that was indeed a question that could get me the award for dumbest coconut of the year.
"She died in a car accident ten years ago. And before you ask, she died an Italian."
I could kick myself, I feel so stupid.
"I'm sorry."
"It's ok. You had no way of knowing.", she smiles, a bit, twisting her ring round her finger.
"So where are we going?", I say, partly to change the subject, but mostly out of fear as we seem to be heading towards a tattoo shop. "Do you want to get a tattoo or something?"
"What no... well not now at least", she says, shooting me a wink that makes my heart lurch a bit. "We're heading over there."
She points towards the mall beside the tattoo shop.
"You made me skip school so that I can buy you a new outfit?", I practically yell.
"Please rulebook, if anyone needs a new outfit it's you, and no, that is not why we are here", she says, dragging me through the mall as we head towards a place with bright lights and loud sounds.
"The arcade?"
My parents have never let me go to an arcade. They consider it a waste of time which will not help in 'my goal' to become a doctor or lawyer. If they catch me here, I am dead
"Of course we're at the arcade. This is literally the best way to spend an afternoon."
"Not really... there are a lot of better things that we could be doing."
"Please", she scoffed "You're just scared that a girl is going to win more arcade games than you."
Despite my better judgement, I rise to the bait. "I'm not scared. I could win way more games than you."
"Let's bet on it then", she said, her eyes glinting with mischief. "Whoever wins more games gets to choose our next activity when we skip class."
Even though I tell myself that I will never skip class again, I can't help it. I grab her outstretched hand, ignoring the tingle that goes through me – probably just excitement.
"It's a deal"