I had only taken a couple of steps down the hall when Klaus put his arm out to stop me.
"Are you okay?" he asked. I wasn't in the mood to try and explain things but the concern in his voice almost made the words tumble out. To avoid that situation, I kept my mouth firmly shut and just nodded, hoping he would drop it, and tried to keep walking but he put his arm out again.
"I hope you don't mind me coming to the library with you," Klaus said quietly, so quiet in fact that I almost had to strain to hear him over the other kids around us, "You know it's my favourite place to be."
I couldn't help the small smile that appeared on my lips, "Of course I don't mind, stupid."
And at that, we completed our trip to the library in silence. Even after reaching our destination, we both wordlessly went towards our desired shelves, making an unspoken vow to meet back at our usual spot when we both had what we were looking for. It was something we always did when we came here, so it wasn't something we needed to discuss anymore.
I beelined towards my favourite section, a small selection of poetry anthologies on the bottom shelf of a bookcase dedicated to Shakespeare and other playwrights. I grabbed my favourite and headed through the library, towards Klaus and I's favourite table. It was in front of a window which meant it alway got better light than any of the other tables in there. But as I approached, I realised that our table had been taken by some other kids who were laughing and joking around.
So where did Klaus go then? I thought to myself before glancing around and feeling my eyes lock onto a familiar burgundy armchair right at the back of the room. And of course, because today had just been one for coincidences, there sat Klaus.
Tucking the book under my arm, I hurried over and tried to ignore the feeling of deja vu. I closed the gap between us fairly quickly and it was only when Klaus looked up that I realised how close I had come to him, and self consciously took a step back. I don't know why I didn't stop walking to a point where it would normal to stop. My mind flashed back to the dream despite me telling it not to and all I could do was grab Klaus by the hand and pull him over to a table.
"Can you believe someone's in our spot?" I laughed awkwardly as we sat down, trying to make conversation to cover up how uncomfortable I suddenly felt in Klaus' presence.
All he did was clear his throat in response and it took me a second to realise I was still holding his hand. My hand flew away as quick as lightning and we both looked anywhere but at each other.
Why did I have to make this so awkward?
I felt my face heating up so I brought the book up to cover it as much as I could and forced myself to read with every inch of my being. I wanted to do anything but think at that point but no matter how hard I tried to make the words go in, my brain just ignored them and instead decided to overthink the whole day so far.
How did one kiss, one kiss that didn't even happen, manage to completely change everything? I felt like I couldn't make eye contact with Klaus without thinking about his lips on mine.
I cringed at the thought and buried my head in the book before half throwing it on the table in frustration. Why wouldn't my brain let me think of anything except for the kiss? I sighed, rubbed my eyes, scratched my nose and sighed again before catching Klaus' eyes and noticing him staring. He knew something was wrong. He had to know it was about him. But almost as quick as I caught his eye, he looked away, and I couldn't help but notice the dusting of pink across his cheeks.
He must know I'm acting weird because of him and now he's embarrassed, I thought to myself, great one Isadora.
I could've jumped for joy when I realised it was time for class again. Then I remembered I was just going from one situation with Klaus to another, but at least we wouldn't have to try and come up with conversation if we were working. I could just work really hard so it would eliminate every opportunity to chat.
Klaus and I popped our books away and wordlessly fell into step with each other once more. The halls erupted with students rushing to class and everyone pushed and shoved each other, some messing around and others who were just really excited to do work for some reason? Maybe Mr Remora had been telling an interesting story before lunch and they were intrigued to hear the end? From what Duncan and Violet had told me, that wouldn't be the case but I couldn't think of any other reason people would be so enthusiastic to get to their classes. Not even the threat of having their hands tied behind their back for lunch was enough to scare Prufrock students into getting to class early.
All of a sudden, Carmelita Spats sashayed past, shoving me aside and into Klaus. I put my hands up to stop the collision and ended up grabbing his arm to steady myself. I rolled my eyes at the situation, because of course every awkward event that could possibly occur would happen today, and let go immediately as to not have a sequel to the awkwardness in the library.
Finally we reached room 202 and filed in behind some of our other classmates to see that the desks had been pushed together into pairs.
Of course this is happening today.
"Okay class," Miss Bass droned in her boring monotone voice, "get into partners for today's activity."
Klaus and I always worked together, mostly because no one else in the class was worth talking to, but today I wanted nothing more than to work with literally anyone else. Today was proving more and more difficult to be around him. I just seemed to become a nervous, awkward mess. It was a feeling I really didn't appreciate and I just prayed it all be back to normal tomorrow.
Nevertheless, Klaus and I sat at a desk together. Deep down I knew there was no one in the class I would rather work with and I hoped he felt the same. We usually worked well together and a stupid dream wasn't about to get in the way of that.
The partnered task was basically just the same as our normal measuring work but you had to work together to measure bigger items. With the smaller ones, we each measured a few and then shared our answers to get through the workload quicker. Soon there was only one item left and as I went to grab it, Klaus did as well and his hand landed on top of mine. We both quickly pulled away and I couldn't help but stifle a laugh at how cliche and grossly awkward it was.
"Wow," I said, before I could stop the words from leaving my mouth, "we just can't stop touching each other today."
I immediately realised what I'd said and there was a split second of silence, the calm before the storm, before Klaus and I erupted into laughter.
"I'm so sorry," I managed to get out, "you know I didn't mean it like that."
"I know," Klaus smiled.
We laughed a bit more, each of us getting repeatedly set off by the other until we finally got over it. All the previous stress and tension seemed to have disappeared and it felt nice to feel like I could actually breathe again.
Klaus sighed and shot me a small smile again, "I'm so glad you don't hate me."
"What?"
He shook his head, "You've been acting so weird, it made me think I'd done something to mess up our friendship. You're like my best friend, I don't want to lose you."
I ignored the way the phrase "best friend" made my heart plummet.
"I'm sorry, it's just been a weird day," I explained, and gave him a reassuring smile.
He nodded and finished measuring the last item. I expected him to just start packing up but instead he turned and placed a hand gently on my shoulder.
"You would tell me if there was something going on, right?" The serious tone in his voice caught me off guard and, maybe it was the sudden prominence of his touch or maybe it was how, up close, I realised how deep of a brown his eyes actually were, but I found myself nodding even though it was basically a blatant lie. Yes, something happened and it's made me self conscious and paranoid all day. But, standing there, there was no chance in hell I was going to ruin that moment and the butterflies in my stomach that came along with it.
