Thoughts #1

Study Partners

As Aryse gets into the passenger side of his dads car, he sighs.
"Bad day at school?", his dad asks.
"Yeah.. I may have lost Sadie..", Aryse replies.
"Wait, how?"
"Well..I stood up for a girl that she was bullying..", his voice cracks a little.
"Stood up for who?"
"Lyra Tate.."
His dad raises his eyebrows. "Lyra Tate? As in Jace Tate?"
Aryse nods his head.
"Well then.. And this is bad how?"
"I just lost my girlfriend!" Aryse yells.
"Aryse calm down! Its not the end of the world!"
Aryse sighs. "Media is gonna love this.."
************************************
"I still can't believe that happened. You could've asked him to be friends or even his - "
"Addison!", Lyra interupts.
"Sorry.. got carried away. Anyways tomorrow at school could be a bad day. I mean Aryse stood up for you and totally told Sadie off. She's not going to be very happy tomorrow."
"Thanks for the reminder... She's probably going to make up some fake rumor and spread it around school and embarrass me and everyone at school will hate me and make fun of me and Aryse will never talk to me again and -"
"Lyra calm down. You're over thinking this. I'm sure nothing will happen. Her and Aryse are most likely going to make up tonight and be fine tomorrow."
Lyra sighs. "Wonderful.."
"I should get home its getting late. Text me before bed. I'll see ya tomorrow", Addy says as she gets up off the bed and walks out of Lyra's room. Lyra follows her downstairs to the front door.
"See ya tomorrow..", Lyra replies.
Her mom gets home a little after six. Lyra comes back downstairs as she hears her mother come inside.
"Hey, sweetheart. How was your day?"
"Good I guess..", she tries to not let her excitement out. Remembering what happened at school, she blushes a little.
Catching the blush, her mom smiles at her. "Thats good. Anything exciting happen?."
Lyra smiles a little. "Not really." Trying to avoid having to tell her about Aryse, she asks, "What's for dinner?"
"Your dad is supposed to bring something home.", her mother answers.
Her dad arrives shortly after with takeout. "I'm getting tired of the same thing everyday..", Lyra says.
"Honey you know how busy we are. We don't have time to cook an actual meal." her mom replies. "Between your dad and I getting home late there's just not time. Maybe this weekend we could - "
"Don't sorry about it.", Lyra says excusing herself from the table. "I've got homework to do." She leaves the table and heads upstairs.
Once in her room, she logs onto Twitter and scrolls thru until a tweet catches her eye. A tweet by Sadie.
"I don't need anyone in my love life. Especially one that stands up for a loser like Lyra Tate."
Lyra looks at the comments. Some agree with Sadie and some arguing with her about how rude she is. 104 likes. "Too scared to tag me" Lyra says out loud to herself. She likes the post and logs out. She lays down and turns out her light. She stares at the ceiling for the longest time before falling asleep.
************************************
Aryse sits at the table waiting on his dad. He flips through the weekly issue of Teen Style and sighs.
"Still feeling down about yesterday?" his dad walks in the room. Aryse sighs again. "Let's go son or you'll be late." They head to school, Aryse staring out the window not ready to face Sadie.
When he arrives at school he's greeted in the hall by the students as usual. He smiles, gives high-fives and fist bumps. So far the day is going good until he notices that Sadie isn't in her usual spot.. He sighs. "Oh well.", he whispers to himself. He gets his things from his locker and walks to his first class alone.
"Did you see that?!", Addy says standing by her locker.
"He's alone. So what? Maybe Sadie isnt here.", Lyra replies.
"Um no, she's here.." Addy says pointing towards the door. Sadie walks in with her group being greeted. Lyra stares for a moment.
"Okay..so?"
"So?? That means her and Aryse didn't make up! And maybe you'd have a chance with him!"
"Shh Addison! You're crazy." The bell rings for class to start and they walk off to class.
************************************
"Alright everyone take your seats.", Mr. Anderson, the English Literature teacher, says. "Once everyone is seated we will begin this project.
Everyone slowly takes their seats. Lyra notices Aryse has his head down. Is he okay? She wonders to herself.
"Okay class! Pay attention. This is a group project and I need everyone in groups of two.", Mr. Anderson explains.
Before I can turn around to ask Addy to be my partner someone else walks up to her. Hayden Kayne. Aryse's best friend. Of course Addy says yes.. I look around the room and notice everyone has a partner, except Aryse.. I walk up to his desk and tap his desk lightly. He raises his head up.
"Um we're supposed to have partners for the group project and um I was wondering if you uh.. -"
"You want to be partners with me?" He interrupts.
"Uh yeah..", Lyra gets suddenly nervous.
"Sure." he smiles at her.
"Okay..great."
"Yeah."
Lyra takes a seat next to Aryse.
The teacher explains the topic and rules of the project. He whole time Lyra can feel Aryse's eyes on her but she's too afraid to turn to look at him. The bell rings and Lyra hurries out of class. "Wait!", she hears his voice behind her. "Who's house tonight?"
"What?.." Lyra says confused.
"For the project.. Who's house?"
"Oh! Right. Um..mine?"
"Great! I'll be over around 5. I got a photoshoot today." He rolls his eyes.
"So where do you live?"
She writes down her address on a piece of paper and hands it to him. "Cool." She watches him leave the room.
"What just happened?", Addy comes up behind her.
"I just gave Aryse Baylor my address.."
************************************
"He's going to be here at four so don't embarrass me please."
"Oh honey this is great. Nice to see you making friends." , her mom says.
"Who did you say it was again?", her dad asks.
"Aryse Baylor."
"The Aryse Baylor? Wow honey." , her dad says a bit surprised.
"Oh be quiet." They hear a knock on the door. "Shh" Lyra puts a finger to her mouth before walking to the door.
"Hey!" Aryse says as she opens the door.
"Hey. Come in."
He walks in and smiles at her. "Lovely home you have."
Her parents greet him with handshakes and smiles. "How are you?" Lyra's dad asks.
"Great, and you sir?"
"Wonderful. Thanks for asking."
"If you kids need anything I'll be in the kitchen." her mom says with a smile.
"Thanks.. Aryse lets go upstairs to my room."
"Okay." He follows her to her room.
They enter her room and she notices she forgot to take the posters of Aryse off her wall. Aryse smiles. "Nice."
"Yeah.. Um so the project."
"Oh right. Any ideas?"
They explain their ideas to each other and work on the project. Aryse looks up from writing and smiles and Lyra. "Has anyone ever told you how beautiful you are?"
"Um..what?" she says caught off guard.
"You're beautiful." He smiles at her again.
"Thanks.."
"You're welcome, Lyra Tate."
Lyra blushes a little at the sound of her name coming out of his mouth. Aryse smiles once more before kissing her on the cheek. "We can finish this tomorrow. See ya then!" He fathers his things and walks out her room to the front door. Lyra stays on her bed trying to think over what just happened.. Aryse kissed her well kinda. A cheek kiss counts, right?