Audrey in Love

Chapter Three - Disgrace

"The door's locked," Liam pointed out.

She knew. Yet for some dumb reason, she was still fiddling with the lock.

"Um, I guess the lab assistant hasn't opened it yet," she replied, finally taking her hands off the knob. It was just both of them out in the hallway now. Damn her reputation for punctuality.

"Aren't you the lab assistant?"

Her heartbeat spiked. Another question. Why did all his words to her have to be questions?

"What?"

"Who's the head of the lab?" A different question.

"Um ... Our chemistry teacher, Mr Ronald."

"So you're not his assistant?"

"No. Why would you think that?" She asked, leaning her back against the door. Trying not to notice how nicely his white button-up accentuated his chest abs.

The corner of his lips twitched. "I mean, you are the smartest girl in the whole school. Shouldn't that honour be yours?"

Something about the way he said it made her heart jump and-

Oh no. No no no no no no.

She felt her cheeks heat up and redden.

Was she blushing? More importantly, was she blushing right in front of him? What happened to being immune to flattery?

"Well, see... Um... It errr... It doesn't really work that way," she cleared her throat afterwards, carefully avoiding eye contact. Which wasn't really difficult since his eyes were too far up to reach.

He feigned an angry look. "That's not very democratic. Who even makes the rules around here?"

She huffed, still blushing. "There wasn't an election. Mr Ronald just asked for a volunteer."

"Well who—"

He cut short his own statement as he made way for someone behind him. Audrey looked up. Her blush disappeared and a frown took over.

Ugh, Malcolm. His friends surrounded his back like evil henchmen, and all of a sudden, she wished she'd disappear.

Scratch that. They didn't scare her. She wished they'd disappear.

She knew they were going to say something dumb about her now, right in front of Liam...

Only a matter of seconds now ...

3...2...1...

Nothing. Well, that was unusual.

Come to think of it, Malcolm didn't have that evil grin on his face as usual. He'd also been really quiet all day, like he was in a bad mood. Was he still mad about the previous day?

Oh, he should grow up. She was just kidding. Sure, she got mad and went a bit overboard, but compare that to how much he managed to annoy her every single day since they'd known each other.