Edited
"First things first..." Autumn began as we took our usual seats in the cafeteria at our lunch table.
The cafeteria was nothing special. You simply entered through the glass double doors to a somewhat large room that was filled with circular and oval lunch tables. Towards the back of the room was where most of the jocks and popular kids sat, right in front of the towering glass windows that gave you a view of the surrounding campus. It was one of the best views in the school, which explains why the popular kids claimed that area.
Unlike other schools, we didn't have the whole typical social separation. Since it was a small town almost everyone knew everyone even if they didn't speak. Heck, I'm pretty sure a good percentage of the school is related to each other in some way, even if they don't know it.
The only real social separation here, is between the populars, the normal kids, and the normal-but-seen-strange-in-the-eyes-of-the-popular kids. They all sat in the front of the cafeteria, near the actual lunch line. There's also a small school store just to the right of them that's student run.
All in all, it's a pretty normal cafeteria.
Autumn and I sit towards the back, a table or two in front of the populars. We liked it there because it was usually just the two of us and since we're right in front of the glass windows we get some pretty good lighting for when we're studying. People probably classify us as nerds.
"...if you want any shot with Evan we're going to have work on your talking skills." she explained, before taking a few sips out of her water bottle.
My talking skills? What's wrong with my talking skills? I talk to people all the time it's not like I have a speech impediment or something!
I furrowed my eyebrows. "What's wrong with my talking skills?"
"Actually, let me rephrase that. We're going to have to work on your talking-to-Evan skills."
Oh. Now I see what she means.
"Oh."
I don't know what it is, but there's just something about talking to Evan that literally makes me so nervous. It's like my body just completely freezes and stops functioning, like a car with a bad transmission. I'd give anything to be able to hold a decent conversation with him without stuttering or even getting nervous, but I just don't know how. Our conversations are just always so one sided and awkward.
"Oh? Emery, you're supposed to be super excited for this! You're finally going to get Evan to like you!" Autumn smiled, bumping my shoulder with hers.
"I am, it's just – " I looked over my shoulder to the table where Evan sat.
He was sitting at a table surrounded with all his soccer teammates, laughing and joking with them. I immediately felt a tug at my heartstrings as I saw his bright smile light up the room. That smile never ceased to get to me. I'd never seen anything so amazing before. I just wish he'd smile at me like that.
"But what?"
I sighed. "Autumn, every time I try to talk to him it's just so awkward and I just get so nervous I don't know what to say. I feel like I'm going to say something wrong and he's going to hate me forever."
"Emery look at me." she said as I looked up at her. "He's not going to hate you. In fact, I'm pretty sure if you say something wrong he's going to think it's cute. And heck if he doesn't than that's his problem because he's going to miss out on one of the most amazing people I know." she smiled. "And besides the only reason it's so awkward is because every time he asks you something you just reply with one word."
"Well what am I supposed to do?!" I cried, laughing a bit as I laid my pencil on my notebook, open to any and all suggestions she had for me at the moment.
She crossed her legs and angled herself towards me. "First of all, you need to flirt more."
Oh god. Not the dreaded flirting. I can't flirt to save my life, so if I try to flirt with Evan it's most definitely going to end badly.
"I don't know how to flirt!"
"That's the whole point of me teaching you!"
I opened my mouth to argue, but let's face it... she's right. If I want to talk to Evan than I'm going to have to learn how to flirt.
I sighed. "Okay,"
Autumn's face lit up and I could just tell she was concocting this genius plan in her head of how this was going to work. If there's one thing Autumn's amazing at it's being able to come up with plans for everything. And those plans were always good ones.
"Okay, so the first thing you should know about flirting and talking to someone is you have to maintain eye contact. It's okay to look away sometimes, but don't completely look away from them and if you are then glance subtly at like his lips or something. It gives him the feel that you wouldn't have a problem kissing them."
"Autumn!" I laughed, looking at her incredulously.
"What?! Oh, come on we all know you're dying to kiss him!"
Well, there was no arguing with that. I've dreamt of kissing Evan so many times it's not even real.
She continued talking about the ins and outs of flirting and the importance of eye contact and subtle touching. Although, the subtle touching part definitely wasn't my thing I promised Autumn I'd give the rest of it a shot the next time I saw Evan.
The other half of me, really didn't want to go through with this, but I didn't listen. Autumn was right. I've sat in the shadows, waiting for Evan long enough. Sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith and if it works out then great, but if it doesn't then I'll know it was never meant to be. Even though deep in my heart, I just know that we're meant to be. I've always just felt so connected to him, and I don't know why. It's like there's this invisible tether that reels me into him all the time, never letting go. It's kept me holding on for so long.
I stood up from the lunch table, grabbing all my trash. "I'll be right back,"
I headed for the large black trash cans in front of the cafeteria, nearly slipping in a puddle of water, but swiftly regaining my balance. I tossed all my things in the trash, turning around and abruptly bumping into someone.
"Oh, sorry!" the words immediately came out of my mouth, out of habit, but when I looked up to see the person that I'd run into my breath caught in my throat.
Evan.
He smiled brightly at me and my tummy couldn't help but do flips. How many times have I run into him in the past few days? That's strange.
"Oh, you're fine, it's all good," he responded as my eyes wandered to Autumn who was motioning crazy things at me from our lunch table. Although, most of it I couldn't really make out I did make out a few particular words... flirt with him!
Curse you Autumn Sawyer!
My heart was beating a million miles a minute as I looked back at him.
You are going to flirt with him if it's the last thing you do, Emery Elizabeth Hall!
I opened my mouth, feeling heat creep up to my cheeks.
Here goes nothing...
Wait! Oh my god! What do I even say to him? What's a good conversation starter? How about the weather? The weather's always something nice to talk about.
Seriously.
Okay, maybe not. Ugh, screw it I'm just winging it. I said the first thing that came out of my mouth. "I like your shirt,"
Oh. My. God. Did I seriously just compliment him on his shirt?! It was just a plain old white button down that he'd paired with some dark khakis, although the shirt did manage to bring out the blue in eyes more than ever.
I felt my cheeks turning a bit red as he chuckled, still smiling.
"Thanks," he replied, and he honestly seemed genuinely thankful.
I felt the air in the atmosphere shift a bit. Gone was the innocent, awkward conversations we always had. Something was different. I couldn't help but smile a bit as I felt the change in. And somehow his smile managed to give me all the courage I needed.
It was like I was a completely different person in that moment. For a split second, I felt this confidence radiating off me as I realized that I'd actually made him smile. Somehow that made me feel so accomplished.
I laughed a little as I looked into his eyes, pushing my hair behind my ear, looking down at my feet for a moment, before looking back into his eyes for a few seconds. My cheeks had a slight tinge of pink on them before I decided that the flirty move to do here was walk away.
So, I did.
I walked away with the smile still on my face, but as I distanced myself it was like this entirely different part of me just took over. I looked over my shoulder, holding my hair behind my ear as I managed to make eye contact with Evan again. I could see the wide grin that was forming on his face, but not before I quickly looked away again, walking back to my seat.
I sat back down in my seat, imagining the many faces that Evan could have held as he watched me walk away. There was silence for a moment before Autumn spoke.
"That, is what I'm talking about."
I didn't even have to look at her to tell she was grinning like a madman.
After the way the events of lunch had unfolded I'd spent the entire day glowing. According to Autumn it seemed that when I'd walked away from Evan and left him there he had this strange grin on his face. That alone had me jumping for joy even though he could've been grinning at someone else for all I know. The fact that I was able to bring a smile to his face made me feel accomplished.
"How's it going beautiful?" the voice of the one and only Aiden Parker asked as he took the empty seat next to me in the library, with that huge smirk plastered on his face.
For the past couple of days he'd been pulling every move in the book to try and get some sort of reaction out of me, but I'm not an idiot. I know the only thing on his mind is trying to get in my pants.
Despite the fact that he was probably the first guy to ever call me beautiful I didn't fall for it. The only thing going through my head was the fact that I wished those words had come out of Evan's mouth instead.
"Fine," I replied simply, paying him no attention and continuing to balance out some chemical reactions that we were working on in AP. Unfortunately, in AP Bio you also had to know some chemistry as well.
After I finished, I pulled out the regular Biology book I had borrowed from my teacher—since I had no doubt in my mind that Aiden wasn't going to bring his—and set it in front of him, flipping to the pages on photosynthesis. I pushed the book towards him.
"Okay, so your teacher said you guys are working on photosynthesis." I said, flipping my AP book to that section and looking up at him. He was staring strangely at me, as if there was something wrong with me. I furrowed my eyebrows, reaching up to touch my face. Was there something on it? A booger, or maybe some dried food?
"What?" I asked in utter confusion.
He snapped out of his trance and looked back at me, that stupid smirk coming back. "Can I ask you a question?"
The smugness on his face told me it wasn't going to be anything related to what we were talking about.
"If it has something to do with photosynthesis, sure."
"Are you always this..." he paused as if he was searching for the words, "serious?"
I stared at him for a moment, with furrowed brows, before pushing the biology book further towards him and handing him his worksheet. I'd never considered myself to come off as a super serious person, I guess it's just because of how focused I am on school.
I got back to my work, waiting for him to ask me a question or something, but he never did, and of course, it was because the nincompoop wasn't even doing anything. In reality he was just sitting there, smirking at a blonde sitting at the reception desk. I watched in absolute disbelief as he winked at her, before getting up, casually sliding into her view and shooting her that God awful smirk. She was trying to keep from smiling the entire time he stood there and charmed her.
His eyes flickered to mine as I watched him in annoyance, meanwhile the girl was falling completely for his lies, handing him a piece of paper with a phone number written on it, as she batted her eyelashes at him, cheeks tinged pink.
What a pig.
I stared at him in disgust as he came back to the table, taking his seat and watching the girl walk out of the library. He didn't even try to hide the fact that he was blatantly staring at her butt. In fact, I could've sworn she even smiled on her way out.
He continued smirking as he turned to face me. "What can I say? I'm smooth with the ladies." He leaned back in his chair, kicking his feet up on the table, and placing his arms behind his head.
Wow. What a playboy.
I sighed. "Can we just get back to what we're actually supposed to be doing?"
"And what's that?"
"You're failing Biology... and two other classes. That's why you're here."
He chuckled. "Yeah... I don't really care."
Wow. Does he seriously not realize that he won't be able to play basketball if he doesn't get his grades up? They're obviously on the verge of placing him on academic suspension.
"You do realize that if you don't get your grades up they'll put you on academic suspension and you won't be able to play basketball, right? I'm assuming that's one thing you do care about." I explained, opening his biology book and pushing it towards him.
He sighed, looking at the book, before looking back at me. "Alright," he said, taking his feet off the table and leaning forward towards me to the point I could smell the mint on his breath, "but I'm not gonna make it easy on you."
I stared at him, dead set in his eyes, not backing down.
You don't scare me, Aiden Parker.
"Bring it on."
He smirked, staring at me for a moment, before replying. "Challenge accepted,"
________________________________________________________________________________
Things are starting to heat up now!
Do you think Emery's going to fall for Aiden's charm or beat him at his own game?
And what about Evan?
Hmmmm, thoughts anyone?
Thanks for reading! I appreciate it to the ends of the world! Be a kind soul and click that star button at the bottom of your screen! :)
- Katy