A few minutes of silence passed by. I closed my eyes and just let him hug me. Then, Caden had to break the moment with the stupidest comment.
“I think I’m going to be late to English class.”
I pulled away from him. “You totally ruined the moment.”
“Sorry,” he gave me a small smile, “Unlike you, I care about being on time to class.”
“But you’ll be late for me, right?” I asked, half-jokingly.
“Well …” he hesitated, looking at the clock, “Only if you tell me what happened.”
“You just have to be Mr. Know-it-all, don’t you?” I rolled my eyes. I walked to the couch they had set up in the office for visitors, and sat down. Seriously, why weren’t any of the administrators here?
“That,” he agreed, “And because I care.”
“And when did you start caring?” I raised an eyebrow.
“After I kissed you,” he said simply.
Well this just became awkward. I shifted uncomfortably as he sat down on the couch next to me. What was I supposed to say now?
“Then why did you run away from me?” I decided to answer him with that. He didn’t reply right away, staring at the clock. Probably calculating how late he was going to be if he kept on talking to me.
It suddenly felt like one of those times when you send a risky text, and you’re just there, nervously checking your phone every few seconds to see if they’ve replied.
I cleared my throat, reminding him I was still waiting for an answer.
“Because I didn’t want to like you,” he searched for the right words to say.
“Why not? I’m so lovable. Well, not to teachers,” I joked. Trying to add humor to an awkward conversation made it less awkward. Except I was sort of failing at it.
Caden smiled.
“That’s why I like you, Ariane. You’re so carefree and … just lovable,” he decided to settle for my word.
“So what’s the problem?” I wanted to know.
“You know what happened with Kristen right?”
I nodded. He used to go out with Kristen, the popular girl who’s dad was endorsing the Prank War. She seemed nice so far, but I didn’t let that fool me. Every nice girl had a nasty side.
Then Kristen cheated on him with I-forgot-who and Caden pretty much just decided to focus on school and being a nerd.
“That’s why,” he answered.
“But I’m not like Kristen,” I complained. Heck, I've never even had a boyfriend.
“I know but … I don’t know,” Caden admitted, looking like he was trying to solve the square root of pi.
Oh my god, I just made a math reference. Caden really was contagious.
I decided to keep quiet, and just let him figure it out. Anyways, the longer it takes for him to decide, the longer it keeps him away from class. So I’m pretty sure he’ll come up with an answer soon.
“Even if we did have a relationship,” he finally said, “We’ll only be together for one more year.”
“What are you talking about?”
He looked in my eyes, as if his next words were going to test my decision.
“You’re still sticking to being a rebel.”
It didn’t sound like a question, but I answered it anyways. “Yeah.”
“That means you’ll be getting failing grades on purpose. And I’m –“
“Ugh, I get it,” I interrupted him, “You’re a nerd, so you’ll be going to a good college. And I’ll be .. well, who knows where.”
“Exactly,” he murmured, suddenly looking tired and worn out, “I don’t want a relationship that already has a dead end.”
“Well, how about this …” I struggled to find the right words to say, “I can uh … start … trying?”
Caden shook his head, “I don’t want you to change who you are for me.”
I rolled my eyes, “Don’t be an idiot. I’m not promising I’ll be a nerd like you, which I will never be. But I’ll actually try to do well on the SATs or whatever test is required. Even if I don’t get into the same college as you, I can probably get into one that’s nearby. Just give us a chance.”
I sat there, staring at him as I waited for his answer.
Say yes, say yes, say yes, I tried to tell him through telepathy.
“I’ll give it a chance,” he finally said the words I wanted to hear. I smiled.
“Ok, ok, now you have to answer a few of my questions.”
Caden raised an eyebrow in question, “I didn’t know my choice came with questions.”
“Shut up,” I told him with a grin, “You’re a nerd. You love questions.”
“True,” he smirked. He put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me close to him.
“What where you doing with Kate?” that was what I really wanted to know.
“Kate?”
“Yeah, that girl you were with when we went to the city.”
“Oh, Kate,” Caden laughed, “Why? Are you jealous?”
“Pshhh, no.”
“I tutor her,” he told me.
“Is that it?” I asked suspiciously.
He grinned again, “You are so jealous.”
“I’m not jealous anymore,” I made a face, “I have you now. Ok, let’s move on from this sappy thing. Remember when I fell from the vent into the gym?”
He grimaced, indicating that he did.
“Why didn’t you catch me? You know, it would have been a lot more romantic if you had caught me instead of Cameron.”
“I was too shocked to react,” he said, “And in my defense, Cameron was standing right under. That was an unfair advantage.”
“Fine, I’ll take that excuse,” I said, “Ok, this is the last one. Mackenzie said that there was a mandatory dance. Is that true, or is she just trying to scare me? Cause if she was only trying to scare me, it worked. She even bought me a dress.”
“It’s true,” he smirked, “It’s mandatory because they’ll be announce the finalists.”
I groaned, “I really do hate dances.”
“Would this be a bad time to ask you to be my date?”
I grinned at him, “Well, since it’s mandatory, my answer is yes. Duh. When is it?”
“Tomorrow.”
“We should pull a prank on the other finalists then,” I told him, “Just quickly end this so I can get the million dollars for my grandma.”
“Your grandma?” Caden asked. Oh right. I never told him about the phone call.
“Remember when you asked me what was wrong? Well that’s the answer. Long story short – well actually, it’s not really a long story. My grandma has some sort of cancer and the operation costs about that a million dollars. Do operations really cost that much?
“It depends on what type of cancer it is,” he answered, and paused. “I’m sorry, Ariane. I feel like I owe your grandma. If she hadn’t stopped you from leaving, I probably would never have met you.”
He remembered what I told him. I normally didn’t find anything sweet, but this was really sweet.
I smiled at him, “Give me a kiss, you idiot.”
“Idiot?” he smirked, “I’m the nerdy one here.”
He leaned towards me and our lips met.