The rest of the week went by in a flash. No one at school seemed to be surprised when they saw Brandon and I walking hand in hand through the hallways. No one seemed fazed when he walked me to class and placed a gentle kiss on my forehead before the late bell would ring causing him to run off to class while he thought up an excuse for being tardy. At lunch we sat next to Abby who never so much as glanced my way. She spent her time eating her food silently and talking to Brandon when she had the chance.
The only person that seemed to steer clear of us was Nate. I hadn’t talked to him since the day that we had hugged at lunch. I know that it was only a simple hug but I couldn’t help the guilt that consumed me. At the time it had felt like so much more. I enjoyed being around Nate but I couldn’t see myself actually falling for him. He was handsome and fun to be around but he was no Brandon. I just didn’t feel that special connection with Nate that I felt when I was around Brandon. I know that sounds silly and cliché but it’s the only way that I can my feelings towards Nate without confusing myself.
On Friday during lunch Abby addressed the lunch table for the first time that week and stated that she was having a “small get together” on Saturday before her parents came back on Monday.
“Everyone’s invited,” She passed a few flyers down the lunch table as she spoke, “as long as they have cash with them. It costs ten dollars to get in at the door but if you have a flyer then you get in for half price!” She hastily shoved the remaining flyers into her tote bag and clapped her perfectly manicured hands together happily. “I hope everyone can come! It’s going to be the party of the century!” Her big blue eyes twinkled as she glanced over at Brandon who was too engrossed in picking the pepperonis off of his pizza to even notice. “Brandon,” She cooed flirtatiously, “do you think you can come to my party?”
Brandon looked up with a dumbfounded expression on his face. His eyes examined my face for a moment before he turned to Abby with an amused expression on his face. “Sure Abby,” If it was possible, I could have sworn that Abby became even more excited than she already was, “We’ll be there!” Brandon laced his fingers through mine and held up our intertwined hands for Abby to see. At the sight of our hands, she scoffed and glanced down at her lunch tray; not saying another word until the lunch bell rang.
After lunch, Brandon and I gave each other a quick kiss outside of the cafeteria before we went our separate ways to our last class. As we kissed I couldn’t help but remember that Nate had comforted me in that exact spot not more than a week earlier. As I approached my classroom, I shook the memory free from my head and walked through the door to take my seat next to Nate.
He was slumped over with his bronzed arms crossed on the desk in front of him while his head rested on top. His hair had grown over the week and was spiked naturally as he squeezed his eyes shut tight, pretending to be asleep. A rhythmic thudding was coming from his ear phones and with a sly smile I leaned over and pulled one free from his ear. I watched his face as his eyes tightened and I stuck the ear phone into my ear waiting for him to acknowledge my presence.
The soft music that filled my ears was instantly recognizable and I couldn’t help but quietly sing along to the words that I had long since memorized.
“I won’t hesitate no more, no more, it cannot wait, I’m yours.”
I was so into the soft music that I hadn’t heard in so long that I did not notice when Nate opened his eyes. He stared at me with his eyebrows furrowed together for a moment causing me to abruptly stop singing. The look on his face was a look of confusion. It was as if he was trying to solve a very complicated math problem. Nate carefully rearranged his features until the look had completely vanished from his face and a look of disappointment took over. He shook his head slowly and held his hand out for his ear phone when it was suddenly ripped from my ear.
If it weren’t for the confused look on Nate’s face I would have sworn that he was the one that had so rudely snatched the ear phone out of my ear. Nate and I glanced up at our Chemistry teacher as he stood over us with Nate’s ear phones dangling from one hand while the other was placed firmly on his hip.
“I will be confiscating these until the end of the day. You two know very well that electronics of any sort should be turned off and out of sight during the school day. Nathaniel please hand me that phone. You may get it back at the end of the school day along with your speakers.”
Nate chuckled and shook his head in disbelief and glared at me while he handed over his phone. He looked up at Mr. Hyman with squinted eyes and said, “It’s an iPod. Not a phone,” whilst rolling his eyes as he leaned back in his chair.
Mr. Hyman scoffed in disbelief before turning around and walking to his desk, where he placed Nate’s iPod in the top drawer of his desk before turning to the class.
“I made up some flash cards last night for you all to go over today in class. On the front of the flash card is the atomic structure of an element, “ he held up a flash card using it as an example, “and using your Periodic Tables you should all be able to figure out which element it is. It should be quite easy if you’ve all been studying. I’ll let you choose what groups you want to be in. No more than a group of three!” He set the flashcard that he had been using as a n example down on top of a pile of cards on his desk. “There should be about eight groups so once you get your cards you can begin.”
My eyes roamed around the room as I looked at a few people that might want to partner with me. I figured that Nate wouldn’t want to work with me after the look he gave me less than ten minutes ago. The rest of my classmates were busy texting under their desks, sprawled across their desks snoring shamelessly or pointing across the room to their preferred partners.
The girl in the desk in front of mine, that I recognized as Julie, had her elbow propped up on the desk top and her head was being held up by her hand. She looked at me with a questioning look that I assumed was her way of asking if I would be her partner. Before nodding, I glanced over at Nate who quickly averted his eyes from mine.
I sighed, “Sure, I’ll be your partner.”
She sat up straighter in her chair and turned fully so that she was facing me. “Your friend can work with us too if he likes. Hyman did say we could work in groups of three.” She unconsciously ran her hand through her curly blonde hair, untangling some of her thick locks.
I shrugged my shoulders, “Ask him if you like.”
She leaned forward in her seat causing her thick blonde locks to fall in front her face as she tapped on Nate’s desk top with the black finger from her index finger. From the corner of my eye I saw Nate nod as she asked if he wanted to work with us.
“Cool. I’ll just go get the flash cards then,” She said as she stood from her seat and began to walk to the front of the classroom.
I kept my eyes fixated at the front of the classroom. If Nate was mad at me then I wasn’t going to push it. I never was the type of person to like confrontation. I was planning to give him his space all class period until I felt his finger as it began tracing my jaw line. The warmth from his finger caused my skin to heat and a soft tingling sensation to set in.
“Claire, why have you been ignoring me all week?” He questioned in a soft whisper.
I turned my head towards him with a confused look on my face. What was he talking about? It was so obvious that he was the one that had been avoiding me every day since Brandon and I had started going out officially. Before I could ask him what he was talking about, he pulled his hand away and set it on his desk just as Julie placed the flash cards in front of him.
“You can hold the cards while Claire and I guess first and then we can rotate.” She said as she sat in her chair.
Nate shrugged and held up the first card for us to see. Julie and I looked over the Periodic Table copies that we had in our note books before saying, “Neon” at the same time. Nate nodded and moved on to the next card.
“So Claire, are you still ignoring me?” Nate asked as he held up a flashcard.
“Carbon, and I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I rolled my eyes and pointed to him, “You’re the one that has been avoiding me every chance you got. You don’t even walk with me to lunch anymore.”
Nate held up the next card and stared straight into my eyes as he spoke, “Why would you need me to walk you to lunch anymore? Can’t you walk with your boyfriend?” I couldn’t help but notice how accusing his tone of voice was.
“Potassium,” said Julie as Nate went on to the next flash card.
“Yes but Brandon comes from a direction than I do, so we just meet in the cafeteria. You know that. Carbon,” The words came out harsher than I had intended them to.
Nate smiled innocently as he held up the next flash card, “How could I have possibly known that?”
“Fluorine,” said Julie as she began to use a pink sharpie to give herself highlights.
I used my eyes to shot daggers at Nate as I said, “You’ve walked past me on the way to lunch every day. You know that I walk to lunch alone so don’t try and play dumb, Nate. Xenon.”
Nate smirked and held the card deck out to me, “You’re turn.”
I reached to snatch the deck from him but when I reached for it Nate held the flash cards out of my reach. “Say please,” He said with a huge grin on his face.
I crossed my arms over my chest and looked up at the clock in the front of the classroom. I groaned when I saw that we still had an hour left.
“Go on, it’s not that hard to say.” His face showed that he was amused.
“Whatever,” I shrugged, “You’re the one missing out on the review.”
Nate chuckled and I couldn’t help but smile a little. I hadn’t heard him laugh all week on account of his avoiding me at all costs.
“How about you say sorry instead? After all, you did get my ear phones and iPod taken.”
I laughed humorlessly, “You want me to apologize for that? You shouldn’t have had them out in school any way! You know the policy!” I stuck my tongue out at him not caring how childish I looked.
He laughed and gave me the flash cards, “That was cute,” After he said it he looked a little embarrassed so I decided to change the subject.
I held up the flash card to him since Julie was too engrossed in her home made highlights. She had already added pink highlights and was moving onto purple.
“Nitrogen,” Nate’s voice caught my attention again and I looked away from Julie as I held up the next card.
“So will you enlighten me on why you have been ignoring me all week?” I asked hopefully. I had been wondering what had happened to make him so mad at me. Last week he was so sweet and we ate lunch together almost every day. He even comforted me when I was mad at Brandon and Abby.
He shrugged nonchalantly as he fiddled with his fingers, “I just think you took Brandon back too easily.”
I glared at him but he wasn’t even looking at me to notice, “What makes you think that?”
“Well, just last week he was making out with your best friend in the cafeteria and now all of a sudden you’re the school’s cutest couple.” He looked up at me and shrugged, “I just think you could do better.”
I turned to face the front of the classroom. I had heard enough. Brandon has been so sweet all week and he had explained why he asked Abby out in the first place. It was none of Nate’s business what went on in my relationship. Why does he even care about who I date in the first place?
I felt someone take hold of my hand and my first instinct was to yank my hand away, until I saw that it was Julie. She smiled and shook out her multi colored, platinum blonde curls. “What do you think?”
I was about to give her my opinion when Nate spoke instead, “It looks awesome Julie. Makes your eyes stand out.”
Julie blushed and thanked him happily as I nodded and agreed with him.
“I could do you too if you like Claire. It might not show up as well but I could use black,” She had a huge grin on her face, “You’d look hot for Brandon,” She looked at Nate and laughed before looking back at me and waiting for my answer.
I wanted to say no but she looked so happy at the thought that I was close to letting her until the bell rang. “Sorry Julie. Maybe we can do it next time,” I smiled as I tossed my bag over my shoulder and followed her out of the classroom while Nate went to retrieve his earphones and iPod.
“It’s okay,” She smiled before turning and walking down the hallway with her colorful hair bouncing along behind her.
Next to me, Nate grabbed onto my arm and pulled me into the direction of my locker. “Walk faster Claire. We don’t want your boyfriend to have to wait.” I noticed how he put emphasis on the word “boyfriend” but chose not to say anything about it.
At my locker, Nate turned and looked my directly in the eyes as he spoke, “I’m not mad at you and I’m definitely not avoiding you. Just remember,” he shook his head slowly and traced my jaw line with his finger, “you could do so much better.” He smiled sadly and walked away leaving me gaping at his quickly retreating back.
+*+*+*+*+*Future Author's Note*+*+*+*+*+
Thank you for reading! Please vote and comment if you can! I would really apreciate it although I don't deserve it seeing as how I haven't updated in years! :( The last month of school was so busy with all of my projects and last minute exams that I didnt have time to write as much! I thank you all for sticking with me! Your support means the world to me! :D
Thank you to Bananarama77 for constantly begging me to upload! I usually hate that but she motivated me to write when ever I could so that I could have a long chapter for you guys! My school ended today so I had time to write and upload! You can expect quicker uploads! :D Thanks again everyone!
Mr. Hyman. That name makes me laugh so hard! It's my Chemistry teachers name so I decided to use it. On the first day of school when I asked what his first name was, he said, "Buster. Buster Hyman." XD
The song that Nate and Claire were listing to is in the link.