I nearly forgot I was angry with Cassie the next day at College. I was just rounding the corner of the corridor that lead to my History classroom when I almost walked into Mr. Henderson. His briefcase bumped against my knees but he didn’t seem to notice. He looked down to see who was blocking his path, giving me a withering look.
“Ah, Harriet Collins. Turn around. Class is in the computer room today.”
I felt myself frown at his use of my full name. It irritated me how he couldn’t just call me by my first name like every other teacher did. I wiped the frown from my face when I realised he was staring at me. I was still in his way. I stepped back, allowing him to move past me, before I followed him to the computer room at the other end of the corridor.
It was when I spotted Cassie sitting a couple of seats from the door that I remembered I was annoyed at her. I could smell her perfume and it hung in my nose, making my throat itch. Cassie considered me with a blank expression for a second before she moved her eyes to her computer screen. It was the secret smirk to herself that made my blood pressure rise and I headed to the far corner of the classroom.
I’d sat alone in French class yesterday. I’d contemplated taking the seat next to Cassie, just to see how she’d react, before deciding that it wouldn’t be worth the hassle. I’d almost wished that we’d have to sit with our speaking practise partners, so that Cassie wouldn’t get the satisfaction that she’d forced me out of my usual seat. But then I’d remembered that my partner was Brandon and I’d been thankful that luck, if I actually had any, was on my side.
Now, I chose to ignore her, pretending that I couldn’t feel her icy blue eyes on my back. Mr. Henderson had set up post at the front of the room, his back to the class as he wrote down the topics that we needed to research. I didn’t know why we needed to do research in lesson time when I was pretty sure that everybody in the room had at least one computer at home, but I didn’t shrug off the chance to check my emails. It was something I rarely did, receiving spam and junk mail more often than anything of importance, but something inside me was urging me on. I typed in my email address and password slowly, trying not to make the keys click, alerting Mr. Henderson to what I was up to, and then waited for my homepage to load. Twenty-six messages. I scrolled down the page, seeing nothing of interest, until I spotted an email address that I’d only seen one place before; on The Dead Atlantic’s blog page. I was pretty sure it was the email account that Sonny used. My heart skipped a beat as I clicked on the message.
Hey Harriet,
Just wondering if you’re free after college today? Don’t worry about emailing back, just meet me at the coffee shop on Parlor road at 4.30pm. Feel like we should have a chat J
Sonny x
My eyes lingered on the kiss at the end of the email for a long moment before I made myself read the message over again. A chat? What did that mean? Nerves and excitement bubbled inside me as I signed out of my email account and tried to focus on the speech that I’d only just noticed Mr. Henderson was giving. Usually I’d be annoyed at myself for missing one of his lectures. They were always boring, but they held answers to questions that I knew we’d have to answer for ourselves later. Today, though, I couldn’t care less.
The email flashed in front of my eyes again and I propped my elbow on the desk, leaning my face into my palm. A chat? Was that a good or a bad thing? I was about to reason with myself that it could be either, or both, when I heard Mr. Henderson calling my name in full, like he always did.
“Harriet Collins?”
Assuming he was taking the register, I called a vague ‘here’. When the classroom erupted into whispers and sniggers, I realised I’d assumed wrong.
“No, Miss Collins. Just as I thought, you weren’t listening.”
My cheeks flushed at his accusing tone and I found myself looking to Cassie. She was watching me with a confused expression. She didn’t have to be on speaking terms with me to know that something was wrong. I mean, I always listened in class. I was usually the only one listening.
“Sorry,” I said, glancing down at the floor in humiliation.
I felt Mr. Henderson’s hard gaze on me for a moment longer before he looked away and resumed his speech. I tried my best to listen, keeping my eyes on the board so it looked like I was, but my brain was on the email again. Under normal circumstances, I would have told Cassie by now but, seeing as we were giving each other the cold shoulder, I knew I couldn’t confide in her. That only left one option.
***
I gave Lara a smile as I bypassed her lunch table, on my way over to Aiden. I’d never eaten lunch with him before. I’d half expected him to go home for lunch, fixing him as the type of person who wouldn’t hang around in an educational environment for any longer than necessary, but I’d spotted him almost instantly when I’d entered the canteen.
I felt suddenly intimidated as I noticed the three other guys occupying his table. They were laughing over a book they had open on the table and I couldn’t help wanting to know what book it was. My curiosity overpowered my nerves and I found myself at the edge of their table, my arms folded over my chest, guarded, but my expression light. The conversation they were having died down at my arrival, two of the guys looking up at me with confused expressions. Aiden didn’t seem to notice that no-one was listening to his joke, so I tapped him on the shoulder.
His head snapped up instantly. I was surprised to see that he was wearing a startled expression, but then it seemed to evaporate in favor of his familiar cheeky grin. My heart stopped thudding so dramatically when I saw it.
“Hi,” I said, still aware that all three guys were now staring at me.
“Hey, Sexy. What brings you to the cool table?”
I couldn’t help smiling. Whether it was at my nickname, of the fact that he’d declared himself cool, I wasn’t so sure. The guys he was sitting with looked anything but cool, and I hated myself for coming to that conclusion, but it was true. They looked like they’d be more at home eating lunch in the library.
“I was wondering if I could eat lunch with you?”
His eyebrows raised ever so slightly before he turned to look at the three guys sitting opposite him. The one with dark hair and glasses looked like he was going to have a heart attack. The other two, equally as stereotypically nerdy looking, started eating their lunch again as if they felt like they hadn’t been invited into the conversation.
“Of course. I’ll let you borrow some of my cool.”
I rolled my eyes before taking the seat next to him. “Thanks.”
“No worries.” He stabbed a chip with his fork while he watched me take my lunch box from my bag. “On second thoughts, you can have a little bit more cool on top. I didn’t know seventeen year olds were even allowed to own lunch boxes anymore.”
“Only the coolest are allowed,” I replied, ignoring his laugh and opening a packet of crisps. “Want one?”
Aiden shoved the chip on his fork into his mouth quickly before taking a crisp from my open bag. “Thanks.”
I chewed on my food for a moment, wondering what I’d imagined Aiden’s friends to look like. Knowing that Frankie went to the only other College in town – the one where the geniuses went – I hadn’t really thought about the friends that Aiden had here, before. I mean, I’d always assumed that he had other friends besides his band mates and Frankie, but I hadn’t imagined them to be so. Nerdy? Not with Aiden being the class clown, not really worrying about grades, type.
“So you’re still not talking to Cassie then?”
I looked up from the book on the table, a dog eared copy of ‘How to pass A-level English’, and fixed Aiden with a puzzled look. I hadn’t told him Cassie and I weren’t talking.
“Oh, come on, Harriet. Cassie was muttering like a woman possessed when I passed her in the corridor just now. Something about not apologising and Mike. And she’s insulted me four times today. That’s twice as much as usual, because you’re usually with her, telling her not to pick on me.” He grinned at me then. “So as she was alone, I figured you and her must have had a fight or something. I don’t know. I don’t get involved when girls have arguments. Their hormones seem to heighten and they shout at you for doing as little as breathing.”
I raised my eyebrows at him.
“My mum and my auntie fight a lot,” he continued. “I’ve learnt never to take sides again.”
“I’m not asking you to take sides,” I said. “Not at all. I’m just asking you to not bring it up.”
He nodded and motioned locking his lips shut and throwing away the key. “But what was it about?”
“Aiden!”
“What? I bet it was over her using your lip gloss. Or a guy.” Something in my face must have changed as he bit his lip. “Mike?”
I nodded. “It was stupid and we said some stuff we shouldn’t have. We’ll both get over it.”
Aiden took another one of my crisps, contemplated it for a second, and then ate it. “Sure you will. You’re best friends. Something as stupid as a guy shouldn’t keep you two from each other. And I should know, being a guy and all.”
I smiled. “Thanks.”
“Though I am kinda glad she’s not here. There’s only so many times you can get called a mug in one day before you bite back.”
“You didn’t insult her back?”
Aiden shrugged and chewed on his food slowly. “It’s not as fun when you’re not there, punching my arm and telling me to grow up.”
“So you like annoying me?” My tone was light, jokey, and Aiden seemed to hear it.
“It’s fun. Especially when you screw your nose up. I know I’ve really got under your skin then.”
“Really?” I wiped my crumb covered hands on my wooly tights and bit my lip, tasting salt from the crisps. “I didn’t know I did that.”
Aiden nodded. “I think it’s cute. You look like a small furry animal when you do it.”
I stopped trying to figure out if it was a compliment when I spotted Aiden peering across the room at Lara’s table. In amongst chatter and laughter, Lara was sitting alone again, reading the same book I’d seen her with yesterday. I suddenly remembered wanting to ask Aiden about the book. It had been on the list of books he wanted to read; he’d shown me the list one English lesson, a couple of days after he’d told me about it when he’d seen the same book in my room. I was pretty certain the copy Lara had was Aiden’s. I couldn’t come up with a reason why Lara would have a ‘Haunted Vegas’ sticker on her book. I didn’t pin her as a rock music fan, partly because she’d told me she didn’t like rock music. It was the only time I could remember Lara admitting she disliked something; she was the sort of person who seemed to like everything, just to keep the peace.
“Harriet? I said are you going to eat your raisins?”
I snapped out of my thoughts to see Aiden shaking my unopened packet of raisins, inches from my face. “No, you can eat them.”
“Thanks, but I’m not going to eat them. I plan on throwing them at Mr. Lloyd next lesson.”
I rolled my eyes.
“I like it when I make you do that too.”
I smiled, deciding to wait awhile before I brought up the book. There were more pressing matters in the shape of a chat with Sonny. My stomach squeezed.
***
I confiscated the box of raisins from Aiden when I spotted him opening them beneath the table. I didn’t know if I was an idiot for thinking he’d been joking about throwing them at Mr. Lloyd.
“Oh no, Serious Harriet’s back.”
I frowned as I shoved the raisins into my bag. They fell out of the box and I sighed, knowing I’d have to pick them all out later. “I’m not being serious. I’m just trying to get you to concentrate on the work sheet we’re supposed to be doing.”
Aiden tutted.
“And it’s not very nice to throw things at people.”
“It’s a raisin, not a hammer,” Aiden muttered, picking up his pen and hovering it above his yet to be filled out work sheet. “Are you going to help me with this?”
I looked down at my answers before shaking my head. “It’s all about things we’ve learnt this term. You should know the answers.”
Aiden rolled his eyes and I knew he was trying to impersonate me. “Oh, she’s so back alright.”
I pinched his arm, but he only laughed. “What?” I asked. He was looking at me like I had something on my face.
“You screwed your nose up.”
I had to try really hard not to roll my eyes back at him.
He let me write down the answers to two questions before he spoke again. Mr. Lloyd had allowed us to chat quietly while we worked, but Aiden knew I preferred to work in silence.
“So what’s on your mind then?”
I frowned at my work sheet. “What?”
I heard him sigh. “There’s definitely something.”
I shook my head. “Nope.”
“Was it overwhelming meeting the coolest people in the College?”
A laugh slipped out of my lips. “No.”
“Well what it is then?”
I looked up to see him studying me with a serious expression. It was probably the only time I’d seen him not wearing a smirk or a cheeky grin. His blue-green eyes were wide and I spotted a smudge of freckles across the bridge of his nose that I hadn’t noticed before. I looked away and down at my hand holding my pen. Why was he so convinced that something was on my mind? I tried looking at my reflection in the silver cap of my pen, but the surface was too rounded and small, making my face look warped and thin. I couldn’t feel a worried expression on my face. I bit my lip and stared hard at my work sheet. Maybe Aiden knew about Leanne liking Sonny. My pulse quickened. What if he knows that Sonny likes her back? I blinked a couple of times before looking back up at him. He was still watching me. Was I supposed to tell him about Sonny’s email? What if he can help? Maybe he knows what Sonny wants to talk to me about. Should I tell him?
“You can tell me, you know,” Aiden said. He sounded honest and I could feel the hesitation to let him in on my thoughts being overpowered by the need to know whether he knew something I didn’t.
One last look at his face told me what to do and I told him everything. Everything except Leanne liking Sonny. I wanted to leave that out to see if Aiden already knew. If he did then there was a good chance that Leanne had already told Sonny how she feels. The thought of Sonny knowing the truth made the void in my gut expand.
“A chat?” Aiden was biting his lip.
He didn’t appear to know anything about Leanne liking Sonny. At least, he hadn’t said anything and if he knew I’d have thought he’d have said something straight away. My pulse slowed ever so slightly.
“A chat?” he repeated.
I nodded.
He tapped his pen along the table, starting near my arm, to the end of the desk, and then back to my arm again. Watching him, I was suddenly struck with inspiration.
“Hey, you’re a guy.”
I could tell he was trying not to say something rude back to me. “Thanks for noticing.”
“No.” I gave him a shy smile. “I mean, if you asked a girl for a chat, what would you mean?”
“We’re chatting. Right now.”
I felt like pinching him again. He was playing dumb on purpose. “You know what I mean.”
He stroked his chin like he was thinking of the answer to a tough algebra problem, not my simple question. “Umm. If I asked a girl for a chat. Well, I guess I could be thinking about asking the girl out. Or wanting to get to know her better.”
My pulse accelerated at the thought of Sonny asking me to be his girlfriend. It made my brain hurt just to think how I was supposed to react. “So do you think that’s what he means?”
Aiden shrugged and the movement wafted the smell of him into my nose; sugar and soap. “All guys are different. The same as all girls are different.”
“I suppose.” I could feel myself chewing the inside of my cheek. “I need a distraction.”
“What?” Aiden was tapping his pen along the table again. When he got to my arm, he poked my elbow. “What kind of distraction?”
“I don’t know.” I sighed, setting my eyes back on my half finished worksheet. I’d have normally finished it by now. “Something that’ll take my mind off of the chat with Sonny.”
He stole my pen. “There.”
I frowned. “Give it back.”
“Nope. You said you needed a distraction.”
“I said a distraction. Not a bad grade. Mr. Lloyd will flip if I don’t finish this.” I pointed to my worksheet with my now pen-less hand.
Aiden rolled his eyes at my overreaction. “I don’t think he’d flip.”
“Well he won’t be pleased.”
“You wanted a distraction. You’ll have to think about another way of writing down your answers and while you’re doing that, you won’t think of Sonny.”
I laughed. “It was working until you mentioned him.”
“Oops. Sorry.”
I reached into my bag and pulled out another pen, but before I could so much as think about writing down an answer, Aiden had stolen it. “Not funny.”
He grinned like it was the funniest thing in the world. “Is.”
“Really?”
He laughed hard to prove his point.
“Fine.” I pulled out a third pen and gripped it hard. Aiden eyed it meaningfully. “Don’t.”
“How many do you have in that bag of yours?”
I smirked. “I’ve got a whole pencil case.” I turned to glance down at it and felt Aiden nick my pen from my unsuspecting hand. I fixed him with a glare. “Are you going to steal my whole pencil case?”
“Yes.”
My glare softened as I chuckled. “Then how will you distract me?”
“I’ll think of something.” He chewed on his lower lip in thought and I took a chance, reaching across him to retrieve one of my pens from where he’d stashed them on his side of the desk. I jumped when I felt his hand on mine. “Oh no you don’t.”
I tried to tug out of his grip but he wouldn’t let me go. I dropped the pen in defeat but his hold didn’t lighten. Instead, he rearranged his fingers so that they were interlaced with mine. To anyone who didn’t know any better, we looked like a couple holding hands in class. I looked down at our hands in shock while trying to fight the blush that was attempting to turn my cheeks bright red.
“What are you doing?” My voice sounded shaky and I hated myself for it.
He gave me his cheekiest grin to date and I felt my heart thud. “You can’t write without your hand.”
I laughed before I could stop myself. “Really?”
Aiden nodded, his grip tightening. “Don’t struggle.”
I pouted, at a loss for words, before I surprised myself with a sudden bout of wittiness. “Is this how you get girls to hold your hand? By grabbing them and not letting go?”
He nodded again and brushed his hair out of his eyes with his free hand. “I call it the sneak attack.”
“I call it being a pain in the butt.”
“Ass.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“It’s, pain in the ass. We’re not five anymore.”
“You’re an ass.” I was smiling.
“Thank you.” He was smiling too.
I huffed out a dramatic sigh before I looked down at my sheet. I’d come up with the answers and write them down later. My eyes were drawn to our entwined hands when Aiden shifted in his seat, moving our hands closer to his side of the table as he picked up his pen to start work.
“Question one. Blah, blah, blah.”
I ignored him, choosing to study our hands instead. His fingers were definitely feminine compared to Sonny’s, though I could still feel calluses on his finger tips from his guitar playing. He had a small mole on the inside of his thumb and ink from his pen all over his index finger. The sight made me smile.
“Give in?”
I looked him in the eyes and was surprised to see him look away. “Give in to what?”
His eyes lingered on my forehead and I really hoped I didn’t have a giant zit up there. “Being distracted.”
I was thinking of how to reply when I caught Lara looking at us. Her expression was unreadable, but I saw it as confusion. I was pretty sure she’d be able to see our hands joined on the table through the gap in our chairs. My eyes flicked from her face to my hand and then back again. I could either leave my hand where it was or pull out of Aiden’s hold but, before I could decide, Aiden let go of me.
I moved my eyes to him. “Am I allowed to work now?”
He raised his eyebrows and smiled. “Oh alright then.”
I took the pen he offered me quickly, before he had the chance to snatch it back, but he held onto it.
“But only if you let me copy your answers.”
He deserved the pinch I gave him.