He walked Into math wearing his usual contagious smile. He stopped to talk to Connor before taking his seat next to me. Math was the only subject that I looked forward to due to the inevitability that I would at least have some kind of contact with the only thing (or person) that I cared to think twice, or in this case every second of the day, about.
"Hi, Aiden." I said looking up from my warm up and into his cripplingly beautiful eyes.
"Hello Harley." He replied flashing the smile that always made me want to curl up within myself.
I was lost in his facial features and when I forgot to respond he laughed. I think he knew how much he could affect me, to some extent. I laughed awkwardly too because I didn't know how to admit to someone that their very presence made it hard for me to think.
I turned back to my work and tried to ignore the desire to crawl into his lap and fall asleep.
"Finnish your problem and listen up." announced Mrs. Birtcher.
She really did have an unfortunate last name because most kids called her "mrs. Bitcher".
"Today we will be doing group work."
With that everyone perked up and began exchanging gazes. but that didn't last very long because Mrs. Baker then said she would be picking our partners.
I heard a collective sigh of disappointment from the class.
She rattled off a list of partners
I got partnered up with some guy named Noah.
Noah was tall, and very awkward, He tended to talk to himself sometimes and enjoyed babbling about random things. this caused people to avoid him, But for me, there was no escape.
Noah walked over to me as Aiden walked two rows away to join a girl named Melanie.
"Harley are you ready for some fun?" Noah said wiggling his fingers at me.
"Yeah, yeah, Hold on." I brushed him off and continued to watch Melanie.
"I don't understand." Melanie pouted sticking out her bottom lip.
Classic.
Aiden began explaining how to complete the work and when he was done she looked up at him.
"Thanks Aiden." She said drawing out her words in a sing-songy kind of way.
She was flirting with him.
"Harley come on talk to me. We have to Finnish the work sheet. If we don't she'll yell at us, come on now don't make me fuss." Noah said in the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
I slowly turned around to face him and watched as he drew a worm on his paper. He didn't make an effort to provide any conversation after his little ballad so I tried to ignore him and started the work sheet.
I heard Melanie laugh loudly and looked up to find her making eyes at Aiden, again. He seemed unphased by her attempt to "get at him" and I was thankful for that.
He saw me looking at him and he turned his gaze towards me. There was a second of awkward eye contact before I turned away and pretended to be doing my work. I say "pretended" because for the rest of group time I was unable to focus due to Melanie's annoying laughter and Noah telling about his Pokemon collection.
When we returned to our seats Aiden seemed to be as relieved as I was.
"How was Noah?" He said mockingly.
"Fun, how was Melanie." I said looking at my desk.
"Annoying." He stated bluntly.
I let out a weak laugh.
"Are you okay?" He inquired genuinely.
I looked up at him and tried to hide the pride I felt at knowing he was worried about me.
"Yeah, I guess I'm just tired." I said trying to smile.
I didn't have to try for long because he smiled at me I smiled back, for real this time.
What he said next surprised me.
"Can I have your number?" He said breaking eye contact a second after he said it. i think he was blushing and that surprised me even more.
"uh..yeah..sure." I said fumbling for a pencil. Why did I have to be so awkward.
I handed him a slip of paper that had my cell scribbled on it.
"Thanks, Harls." he said looking back up at me.
"No problem." I tried to hide the giddiness in my voice but I guess I failed because he, again, laughed at me.
After school
I sat on my bed awaiting the texts from Jake, Caitlin, Veronica saying they were free for another Cheeto talk.
My phone buzzed and when I picked up I was surprised to see that it wasn't from either of them.
The unidentified number said
"hey Harls." And I automatically knew who had sent it. I quickly entered the number into my contacts.
I proceeded to make a series of animal-like noises whilst clutching my blanket in my hands and sliding down the side of my bed.
I sat on my floor, my head and back leaning on my bed.
"Hey Aiden."
Hi guys, sorry for not updating yesterday. Tbh I don't really have an excuse. But yeah, Noah's based on an actual guy in my classes and he did a flip in the middle of gym today. Okay, well bye. Hoped you liked it
~ Harls
