'I'm fine.'
I stared at the single text bubble Nolan had sent me. It was delivered at five in the morning.
My phone had been the first thing I reached for when I woke up this morning. Seeing his reply reassured me that maybe he wasn't dead after all—no, wait ... what if this was the last text he sent as he was dying somewhere on the way back to school?
Still bleary-eyed, I jumped up to get ready for the day.
I had to see him in person to make absolutely certain that he was really fine.
Besides, what was with that pathetically short text? It explained nothing.
When I made it to class, the first thing I noticed was that Nolan was at his desk with his face buried in his forearms. Relief washed over me. It all looked perfectly typical of him, as if he hadn't just gone off several hours ago gallivanting in the forest like the biggest idiot in the world.
It struck me how normal he seemed. The thought that maybe this really wasn't the first time he had done this nudged at me again.
Feeling uneasy, I walked to my desk, and started in horror when I realized Ariel was sitting in my chair.
Was I so entirely focused on Nolan's presence that I didn't even notice her?!
She stopped talking and eyed me with irritation when I approached her. I narrowed my own eyes at her in return. This was my desk! What right did she have to glare at me when she was the one sitting at my desk? Unfortunately for her, I was still somehow assigned to sitting next to Nolan in biology.
"Excuse me, this is my seat. I'd like to sit down," I said, trying to sound as indifferent as possible.
Ariel scoffed at me, but she otherwise stayed silent as she stood up. I wondered if she was in this class too—I didn't really remember seeing her, but I mostly only noticed the students who sat at the rows in front of mine. I rarely bothered to look back unless one of my friends happened to be sitting behind me.
Deliberately ignoring her piercing glare, I shook Nolan's arm. I didn't care if he blew up at me for waking him. This was a serious matter and I wouldn't allow him to brush it off.
"Hey, Nolan," I said, unable to keep the brusqueness out of my voice. "I need to talk to you."
His head rose without much fuss. Considering how late he was up last night, the fact that he wasn't in deep, unrousable sleep was strange. He looked grumpy, but it wasn't the usual kind of cranky anger that came about after just waking up.
"What do you want?" he said, rubbing the temples of his head.
"You weren't asleep?" I said, kind of astounded.
"I haven't had the chance to sleep," he said.
"I thought you were because you didn't respond to my questions," Ariel said, sounding a little wounded.
He turned to her. "Go away. Your incessant chatter is the reason I can't sleep. Just stop talking to me."
"But you're not supposed to be sleeping in class anyway," she protested.
She was kind of right. On the other hand, Ariel's behavior was starting to grate on me, and Nolan's grades didn't seem particularly affected by his constant sleeping.
Before I could change my mind about sticking up for him, I said, "Class hasn't started, so what's it to you? Aren't you tired of always talking at someone who won't even respond?"
The hurt on her face quickly gave way to fury. "Nobody was talking to you. Don't think you're so special because you get to sit beside him most of the time! You're just his assigned desk partner!"
I stared at her for a moment, stunned by her spiteful outburst. Then I sniggered while desperately trying to hold in the laughter that was determined to escape from my lungs. "Are you serious? Do you think it's some sort of privilege to sit next to him? Have you seen the books Mr. Jameson throws sometimes?"
She looked even madder than before. I almost expected to see steam come out of her ears.
"She is special. At least listening to her voice doesn't make my ears want to bleed!" Nolan spat.
The surprise that hit me when I heard that nearly choked me more than my laughter did.
"B-but ..." she said weakly, and then stopped as if she didn't know how to continue.
Yeah, those were definitely tears welling up in her eyes. Great, now I really did feel bad for her.
"Just what do you want from me?" he said in a curt tone. "What will it take for you to leave me alone?"
"I've liked you for a long time," she said, her voice small now. "When you helped me, I thought you finally noticed me... I thought maybe you liked me back ..."
I was glad that not all of our classmates were already in class. I quickly looked around the room and spotted quite a few of them staring openly at Nolan and Ariel. This was perfect gossip fodder. I almost felt bad for them, but it wasn't my problem that they couldn't move this dramatic scene to a more private location.
"If I had known you'd be this annoying, I wouldn't have helped you," he snapped, jaw tightening. "Even if you were about to be run over by a car, I wouldn't have lifted a finger!"
Her eyes widened.
Gasps floated around the classroom. These people were just devouring imaginary popcorn while watching the show, weren't they?
Ariel's tears spilled over as she made a sound that sounded suspiciously like a sob.
"Okay," I said, standing up and ignoring the stares that came my way. "That was out of line. She just said she likes you. You didn't need to go that far."
Nolan turned his head back to glower at me. "Oh, and it was fine for her to stalk me around school, even to the extent of waiting for me outside the boys' toilet?"
I gaped at him.
"No, of course not! I never said it was okay—that sounds completely scary." I looked back at Ariel, who looked devastated. "What were you even thinking?"
"But he never even glances at others ... When he helped me, I thought he was just hiding how he feels—"
"Are you kidding me?" I blurted out. "Is that why you brushed off all his blunt requests for you to go away?"
"I—"
"You said before that you were thankful for his help. Don't you think that involves expressing gratitude by respecting his wishes? He's said so many times that he wants to be left alone. You don't act like someone who is actually grateful. It's like you're just using this as an opening to latch onto him."
She said nothing.
I turned back to Nolan. "But Nolan, you've definitely gone too far in saying you'd rather she be run over by a car. I don't think you really mean it. Take it back."
He sneered. "Take it back so that she can continue to happily stalk me all over school? I don't think so."
"Take it back and I'll go with you to talk to the teachers if she continues," I said firmly. "I doubt they'd consider this healthy and appropriate behavior from a student. I'll help you."
He rolled his eyes but said, "Amanda. You're getting on my last nerve, but I don't wish death on you."
I let out a small sigh of relief.
"I-I'm sorry for bothering you," Ariel whispered, and ran out of the room.
"Thank you," I said, sitting back down.
"I only did it because you probably wouldn't stop nagging at me otherwise," he said, leaning back in his chair.
I grinned at him. "I still appreciate it anyway."
"Good morning, class!" Mr. Price's bright voice suddenly filled the room as he entered.
With a jolt of surprise, I realized that most of our classmates had already entered the classroom while we were busy being caught up in this little soap opera.
"By the way, this isn't over," I whispered to Nolan as Mr. Price began writing on the whiteboard. "Just because we got a little distracted doesn't mean I forgot what you did last night."
"Yeah, yeah." He was unruffled.
The classes before lunch period rolled around couldn't have lasted any longer. Time crawled slower than a snail sliding over glue. When the last one finally ended, I practically leaped out of my chair.
"Hey, Ash!"
Ashley looked startled when I scurried over to her desk. "Hey, Chels. Are you that hungry?"
"I just wanted to let you know that I'll join you guys later. I have to talk to Nolan for a bit," I told her, sending her a small smile. "I'll be over once I'm done."
Despite looking dubious, Ashley nodded and said, "Alright. See you later."
Backing away, I waved at her. "See you later!"
"Text me!" she called out.
When I spun around, Nolan was already halfway out the door. I knew he would try to escape. I practically raced over to him and stood in his way to block him.
"Where do you think you're going? I need to talk to you," I said, aware that I was scowling at him, but unable to stop myself.
"But what if I don't want to talk?" he said calmly, sidestepping me and continuing to stroll at a leisurely pace.
"I took pictures," I whispered harshly, trying to keep up with his fast pace. "So if you don't want the teachers seeing—"
He came to an abrupt halt, and I almost bumped into his arm.
"Okay."
"What?" I looked up at him.
"You want to talk, right?" he said, looking down at me. "Okay."
He started walking again.
"Where are you going now?" I said.
Nolan stopped to give me a strange look. Like I was the strange one here!
"I'm taking us to a place where we can talk," he said slowly. "Maybe you want to, but I don't feel like discussing this in the hallways."
I felt my cheeks start to burn. "Of course I don't!"
He snickered, and all I wanted to do in that moment was to yell at him to stop laughing at me.
He led me to the staircase, and we went up flights and flights of stairs. It seemed endless—I hated climbing up the stairs—and I wondered if he even knew where he was going.
"I'm tired," I complained when we had just finished climbing up another flight. "Are we reaching?"
"We're almost there," was his nonchalant reply, as he began embarking on a new one.
"That's what teachers say when we're in a race to keep us from giving up," I said, rolling my eyes. "I bet we're only halfway there."
Were this guy's legs made out of metal? How was he not out of breath at all?!
When we reached the landing, however, I realized that he was right. We were at the very top. There was a door that had a large plaque on it, declaring that unauthorized personnel were prohibited from entering. I could see from the small window on it that it led to the rooftop.
"We're not allowed on the roof," I said, leaning back against the wall to catch my breath.
"We're not going there," he said. "The door's locked anyway."
"Oh," I said, hating that my cheeks were starting to heat up again.
His lips curved into a smile, as if he could read my embarrassment. "People usually don't come up here. We can talk now. You can go first since this was your idea."
"Okay." It took me so much willpower and effort to stop leaning and stand up properly, but I needed him to take me seriously.
"Look, I saw you go into the forest last night. Why would you do that? It was like 2:00 a.m. and you were alone!" I forced myself to lower my volume at the last part. "Were you alone?"
"So what if I was?"
"It's even more insane that you went in there alone," I whispered, frowning at him. "Why did you do that?"
"Because I felt like it," he said, crossing his arms.
"What kind of answer is that?!" My mouth fell open. I felt like a goldfish. "Who goes into a dark place like that in the middle of the night just because they feel like it? What if you died in there? What if something terrible happened to you and nobody even knew to search in the forest for you? I almost told a teacher I saw you. I wanted to. I was worried sick about you!"
His eyes seemed to soften.
"Nothing's going to happen to me," he said, running his hand through his hair. "Thanks for being ... concerned, anyway."
"This isn't some relaxing afternoon stroll in the park! There are wild animals in the forest! Have you done this before?" I asked, feeling like this was the biggest question.
He was acting like none of these were actual problems, but that on its own was shocking enough. How could he not see how dangerous this whole thing was?
"So what if I have?" Nolan raised an eyebrow. "I like going there sometimes. It clears my mind."
"You're going to keep doing this, aren't you? Do your parents know what you get up to at night?" I said in disbelief. "This is crazy. I'm not going to just stand back and let you get potentially maimed or mauled while nobody else has a single clue about your location. You have to stop, or I'll tell a teacher."
He stayed silent.
I thought I'd gotten him, but then he calmly slid his book bag off his shoulder and unzipped the front pocket. "I was going to return this to you without bringing it up. But given the circumstances ... I don't think you're one to talk."
"What?" I said distractedly.
"Does this look familiar to you?"
Abruptly, he dangled something before my face.
It was my green sports watch that had mysteriously gone missing a couple of weeks ago.
My blood froze.
"If we're talking about things that we're not supposed to do ... I would think we're on the same boat, wouldn't you?"
His voice was cool and even as he stared steadily at me with those piercing green eyes.
"Take a guess, Chelsea. Where do you think I found this?"
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AN: oof. thaaaank you so much for reading! if you enjoyed reading it, i'd be super thankful if you voted!