Stay With Me (Come Back to Me #2)

Chapter 4

Adelaide

I wish I could say the familiarity of my high school comforts me as I head for my final class of the day, or that this new sense of adventure rattles me to the bone, but it doesn't. English is the only class I have without Sophia, Jacey, or Nadira, and I'm a little nervous about being alone. Sure, I know more people than my three friends, but friends is the key word in this situation. None of the people I simply know are my friends.

Glancing at my timetable, I realize that I'm in front of my English classroom, the big white numbers standing out against the dark paint. I take a deep, steadying breath and step through the doorway.

The classroom is already full, giving me limited options as to who I'm going to sit with. Not that it matters – it's not like I'm missing out on the chance of sitting with a friend.

I choose an empty seat in the far back corner beside a person wearing a baggy black Nike hoodie with the hood pulled up, covering their face and only revealing two white wires from a pair of earbuds. I can hear the soft pounding of a beat coming from the source.

As I unpack my binder and pencil, I find myself sneaking glances at this mysterious person. There's a vibe coming off of them that makes me feel like they're the insect repellent and I'm the annoying mosquito buzzing around them.

To stop myself from obsessing over the idea that I'm inadvertently annoying them, I gather my planner, taking my time to write down my classes for the semester and my basketball practice times, along with the dates I volunteered to keep score for my brothers' hockey games; I was undecided when my dad first brought it up, but when I was given other options for volunteer work, I decided to go for it – I like watching my brothers play hockey.

The next time I look up at the clock, only three minutes have passed, leaving two more until the final bell rings for class. It feels like time has cut its usual rate in half and is now moving in slow-motion. I sigh and look to the ceiling, wishing that class would start already. At least when the teacher is babbling on and on about English terminology there's something to do. Right now, I'm just sitting here, feeling awkward.

To give myself something to do, I reach into my backpack for my water bottle. I'm that desperate for a distraction that I busy myself with my water bottle. It's abnormally large for my backpack, purple, and holds the daily eight cups of water the human body needs. Jake bought it for me for Christmas last year because I used to always leave a trail of cups behind in the house due to the amount of water I would drink, and –

A single tap on the shoulder eradicates my tangent of thought.

"You dropped your pencil."

I jump, almost shrieking. After sitting in silence for the past five minutes, I didn't expect the person I'm sitting beside to speak, let alone tap me on the shoulder.

I spin around in my chair and come face-to-face with a boy. He's not exactly stunning like the captain of the boys' basketball team, Sebastian Ripley, but he's still cute; rounded dark blue eyes, long lashes, short ashen blond hair, a button nose, and the faintest hint of stubble along his well-defined jawbone make him stand out amongst the rest of the boys in this class. Well, that, and the blackness of his hood that outlines his face like two quotation marks. I glance down at the desktop, where his earbuds now rest, and then back at his face.

"You dropped your pencil," he repeats, the look on his face telling me I'm stalling.

His voice is feeble and warm, yet there's an underlying abrasiveness to it. A contradiction.

I look down at his hand and reach for my pencil.

"Thanks, um..." I trail off and take the pencil, frowning at it. "What's your name? I've never seen you here before and I've lived here my whole life. I don't know a lot of people, but I can recognize them. Just not you. So, yeah...Are you new?" I stop filling his ears with my nervous ramble and bite my bottom lip.

The sapphire-eyed boy looks at his hands, and then sighs. "Justin. Justin McCallister."

I slowly nod my head. "Well, um, it's nice to meet you, Justin. I'm Adelaide Levesque, but you can call me Addie." I hold out my hand.

Justin glances at me, a tinge of annoyance visible on his face, but the left corner of his mouth is also quirked up a little. Just like the sound of his voice, the components of his facial expression contradict each other, making it hard for me to read how he's feeling.

My hand lingers in the air between us for two more seconds before he grasps it. His grip is timid compared to mine. So timid, in fact, that I'm scared I'm going to break the bones in his hand. I loosen up a little, and then smile at him.

He doesn't smile back, and beneath the gaudy fluorescent lighting that panels the ceiling, I catch a hint of regret in the depths of his eyes.

A bruise forms on my ego.

What did I do to make him so upset?

I want to ask him why he's upset with me, but for some reason, I go in the opposite direction and ask him another question. "So," I say, "are you from the Okanagan?"

Justin adjusts the hood of his sweater, and I withhold a comment about how the teachers at WKSS hate hoods and ballcaps. "Nope."

I blink. Okay, so he's a new kid. "Where are you from?"

"BC."

A crease forms between my eyebrows. "Okaay..." I drawl, suddenly wishing Sophia were with me instead of him. "Where in BC?"

Justin grabs his earbuds and stuffs them back in his ears, and then proceeds to cross his arms over the desk and hide his face away from the world by leaning down.

My frown deepens.

But just as I'm about to pluck the earbud from his right ear, the teacher walks in and the bell rings, both events declaring that our English class is now in session.

I glance at Justin one more time before picking up my pencil and waiting for the teacher to hand out the syllabus.