Just A Crush (BWWM)✅

seven

"Projects are due this Friday so I hope you and your partner has begun the research and essay portion of project. I want visuals and facts. Anyone who takes this as a joke will be given an automatic zero." Mrs. May looked at a group of boys in the back corner of the classroom who were laughing at her warning. I could already smell the failure. The bell ring and everyone scattered out of the class before she could dismiss us. "Rudy Doyle, please give me an extra ten minutes of your time."

Kit pointed and teased her as she got out of her desk and went to the front. I continued to pack my pencils and journal while trying to mind my business. Kit then turned around in his seat and placed his large hand on my journal. "You're so quiet. It can be frightening sometimes."

I slid my journal from under his hand and quickly put it away. "I have to go before I get stuck in parking lot traffic." He grabbed his bag and followed me out of the room as if I told him to tag along.

"We have to go to the library and finish this project. It's due in two days and I really need this grade."

I completely forgot about going to the library with him after school to do the project. I've been too busy doing other work and trying not to drown in the thought of hanging out with him. Then again, he didn't remind me either. "It can't be that important if you waited so long to remind me."

"It's your responsibility too."

We made a sharp turn down the hall to the library since I couldn't argue with that statement. It wasn't as crowded as I thought it would be since the end of the week is nearing. Kit and I found two computers next to each other and powered them on.

"Advanced Biology. It's supposed to be hard." I pulled up a picture of a brain cell and added it to our presentation. I look over at Kit's screen and he's copy and pasting information from a website to claim as his own. "You're working on the report? You do know that will be scanned to see if it's plagiarized or not."

"Listen, I don't want to do this but if I have to I will do so to the best of my abilities. While you're looking at drawings of our insides, I'm doing the heavy work. If we fail, pin it on me." He hit paste on the document and I gave up trying to talk him out of doing anything else.

The library closed five minutes after we were done putting bullshit together. I knew the report was bad and I knew the presentation would be worse. I couldn't even concentrate with the amount of times he laughed at jokes in his group chat or clicked the mouse a million times when he got bored.

"Guess I'll see you tomorrow." He smiled at me and I quickly smiled back. We then went our opposite ways to our cars without exchanging another word. At least that's what I thought until I heard footsteps running behind me followed by a hand on my shoulder. "Harvey is throwing another party this weekend. He specifically asked me to invite you even though I was going to do that anyway."

"Harvey wanted you to invite me to his party? The same guy who acts like he doesn't know I exist?" Kit shrugged. "Weird. I'll have to ask Edith first."

I knew she would say yes especially since Noel would most likely be there. Ever since the day at the skating rink, she's been talking about him nonstop. That day was less than two days ago.

"Kay, great. See you everyday after this day then."

"Except Sunday," I corrected.

He chuckled. "Except Sunday."

My mom dusted the dirt off her hands as I walked up the walkway to the front door. "Should I be concerned that you're home early?"

"It's almost half past five." She tilted her head since I proved her point. "I had a project to do after school. Tomorrow I'll be home right after and then the day after that. Except for Saturday, I'll be out with Edith."

"And how is Edith?" She passed me her water bucket then used her other hand to motion for me to help her off her knees. "She hasn't been by lately."

I couldn't help but say Noel's name in disgust in my head. I barely saw her at all today because she'd rather meet up with Noel than listen to me rant about how I'm going to fail Stat. Who knew that it took a simple glance from a boy to completely destroy our friendship within a semester.

"She's fine." I forced a smile on my face then went inside the house to put the water bucket next to the back door. "I'm going to my room to do homework."

On the way, I passed Andre who was face first in a video game. I let out an annoying laugh when he got murdered with his back turned. He got up to slam the door in my face but I quickly ran to my room and closed my door.

All it took was one sigh for my eyes to land on my reflection in my wall mirror. It's been a while since I took time to actually look at myself and pinpoint all the things I found uninteresting. With so many new distractions in my life, maybe that was a good thing. Now that Edith is moving up and Kit seemed to be back with April, I'm in limbo.

—

"We have Kit Richardson and Nova Homes." Mrs. May briefly went over the rubric for our presentation then sat down behind her desk. "Derrick, dim the lights. Everyone else, hush it."

I nervously gathered the PowerPoint while Kit looked at a printed off piece of paper that I had no clue what was written on it. Once our title page popped up, I looked out to the crowd and smiled. "We did our project on lung capacity for different age groups and genders."

"I want to start of by saying that all of our sources are very accurate because Pedia Website usually fact checks all the information submitted before it accepts new entries." I face palmed myself because it was clear in the instructions that we were to not use any information from Pedia Website. "So we all know there is a different volume in lungs from a baby to an adult. If we were to put the same amount of air in adult lungs into baby lungs then they would basically explode."

The rest of the presentation consisted of Kit paraphrasing his plagiarized work and me flipping through pictures and slideshows. By the time we got to our seat, the look on Mrs. May's face was beyond disappointed that I knew we couldn't have done better than an F. To make things worse was Rudy high-fiving Kit to pump his head up with the false narrative that we did a good job.

"God, I'm glad my partner was you," Kit turned to me and smiled. "I would have been nervous with anyone else."

I simply gawked at him in disbelief. "What is this?" I whispered while motioning between the two of us.

"Homes and Richardson. You had your turn to present and everyone was respectful towards you. Please show the same respect to your classmates."

Kit turned around quickly which left me with no answer and even more frustration. I quickly pulled out my phone and sent him a text which he didn't bother checking despite his phone being out in the open on his desk. I even saw it light up with my name and an emoji I couldn't really point out.

"Kit?" I urged again but this time quieter so Mrs. May wouldn't be screaming at me this time. "Look at your phone-"

"Miss Homes and mister Richardson! Since you can't keep your mouths closed in my classroom then you can wait outside and I'll deal with you both after class. You've already caused enough disruption with that performance you called a presentation."

Kit threw his hands in the air and I already knew this was not going to be pleasant. He was either extremely angry with me or hopefully pretending to be at least. Despite our hesitancy, we gathered our things and headed outside the classroom.

"You got me alone." Is all he said before taking a seat against the wall directly across from the classroom door. "What is it?"

I don't know where my confidence went but it was currently walking in and out of my body. "I... I'm just confused." He continued to stare at me as if this wasn't enough. "I understand that you want to be friends." He nodded. "But why?"

"I told you why. Why do I have to keep telling you why?" He ran his hand down his hair causing it all to jump back in place. "I'm just not being honest. I didn't want you to see Harvey. I thought you weren't coming so I invited them. And when I thought he wasn't coming, I felt like me, I guess. Different people bring out a different me. I've always been Harvey's Kit Richardson." He looked away from his balled up hands and up at me. "I like the Kit I am with you."