Some Body

Wearing a safety helmet at all times

Sam

Glancing back, I noticed my friends looking at me with their thumbs up because I was taking a girl home. It definitely wasn't like that. Nora seemed so cool and collected, I doubted she even liked me.

"I already have a bunch of ideas we could do for our project. I forgot them at home, that's actually why I wanted to meet there," I said to break the silence. I hated silence so when I noticed Nora wasn't going to start talking, I needed to do something.

"You have ideas?" she asked, not really sure if she heard me right. The look of confusion on her face was kinda funny.

"Is that so weird? I like bio," I grinned, feeling slightly uncomfortable because I couldn't read her.

"You like bio?" she repeated again. This was gonna be a lot harder than I'd imagined. I figured Nora could hold a conversation. She always seemed to be talking and having fun with her friends, regardless of what was happening around them. Maybe I'd been wrong about her.

"I'm sorry, I sound like an annoying bird echoing everything you say. I swear I'm not as stupid as I'm sounding right now. At least I hope I'm not... maybe I'm just too stupid to notice. Oh well, ignorance is bliss after all," she shrugged.

"You don't sound stupid, you sound ... surprised," I told her.

"Yeah, I figured all the tackling did some damage to your head so I didn't expect you to be good at bio," she said without any shame.

"I said I liked it, I never said I was good at it," I replied with a smile. "And yes, it probably did some damage. I'm one tackle away from wearing a safety helmet at all times."

That made her laugh and I felt relieved the tension was over.

"This is my place," I told her as I walked up to the door. After some fumbling with my keys, I opened the door.

"I can see the damage is subtle but definitely present," she laughed when she walked through the door.

"You're a little evil, aren't you?" I grinned as I shut the door behind us. "My room is upstairs."

I followed her up the stairs and tried not to look at the view in front of me.

"I take it back. There's a lot of brain damage," she concluded when she walked into a room full of paper planes and planets.

"You do realise that's not my room, right?" I said, raising my eyebrow.

"I'm really hoping it isn't," she replied, meeting my eyes.

I went to the right room and waited for a witty comment but she didn't say a word. Although, I could tell she was eyeing the room carefully, slowly forming an opinion about it in her mind and probably not telling me what she was really thinking.

"Alright, hit me with your brilliant ideas," she said dryly as she went to sit on my desk chair.

"From brain damaged to brilliant? We're gonna get along just fine!" I teased as I got my notepad.

The next few hours were really productive and I was pleasantly surprised she was working along. When I get teamed up with one of my friends, I'm usually the one doing all the work. It was nice when somebody actually put in some effort.

"Ugh, can we quit now? I'm so over it," she whined.

"Me too," I said with a yawn. "Let's go do something fun," I grinned. I had a free evening and I wasn't looking forward to it by spending it at home with my parents and my little brother.

"What? I thought I was going home," she said, slightly confused. Or was it concern?

"Right, you could. But I was thinking ice cream," I shrugged, "oh well, not for you then."

"Ice cream?" she repeated after me.

"My treat!" I smiled. I was in a good mood and I always tended to reward myself after I did a task. Since masturbating wasn't an option right now, I opted for food.

"Your treat?" she gasped. "I think I'm starting to like bio."

"And by bio you mean me?" I smirked.

"Will my answer change your mind on buying me the food of the gods?" She answered my question with another question. I pretended not to notice how she ignored my teasing question.

"Come on," I gestured, rolling my eyes. We went downstairs just as my little brother came home.

"Sam! Who's this? Where are you going?" Flint asked. Kids were like dogs, always happy to see you. And always asking for attention.

"Hey kiddo," I said, rubbing his hair, "this is Nora. And we're going -uh-"

"We're going to solve math equations outside. Lots of sitting still and thinking hard," Nora chimed in, saving me from my bad lying skills. If I'd told Flint we'd be going for ice cream, obviously he would want to come and I didn't want that. Nora picked up on that quickly.

"Ew," Flint said, believing Nora immediately.

"I'd ask you to come but I don't want to do that to you," I patted his shoulder.

"Thanks, Sam!" he smiled, gave me a quick hug and ran upstairs.

"Close call," I muttered once we were outside.

"You suck at lying," Nora told me. "It's actually really terrible. A part of me wanted to see where your lie was heading but the secondhand shame became too strong."

"Math equations? Your lie wasn't that incredible either," I shot back but couldn't hide the smile from my face.

"Hey, he bought it," she shrugged. "I totally deserve ice cream right now," she muttered. I didn't think she noticed I'd heard her.

We fell silent for a few minutes but this was a silence I enjoyed. There was no tension, I actually felt comfortable around Nora. It never took me long to get used to people. She didn't seem to mind either.

"Wow, is that circus still in town? I went there with Ian and Milly last week," Nora said, breaking the short silence.

"A few more days. I can actually hear the obnoxious music from my house. I can't wait til they leave," I sighed. Let's just say circus music wasn't my jam.

"Aw, don't be a hater. Did you go or did you only mope because of the music?" Nora asked, looking at me with a raised eyebrow.

"I only moped," I muttered. I could tell she'd heard me.

"You're such a big baby. Come on, they have cotton candy and the place smells like popcorn," she said with a childlike enthusiasm.

"I'm not a big baby!" I shot back. I ignored the fact that I said that kinda whiny which probably made me sound like an actual big baby. "Wait, we're not actually gonna ... you know, do the circus stuff, right?" I asked carefully.

Nora started to laugh at me. "Do the circus stuff? Don't tell me you're afraid of clowns?" she said while nudging me gently in the ribs.

"I'm not afraid of clowns, I just don't like the way they look. And behave," I said hesitantly.

"Okay, whatever you say. Let's just walk around and if you see a clown, you can cry on my shoulder," she grinned.

"I have an awesome comeback but I'm distracted because I smell food," I told her, feeling like I lost this battle.

"Right, I forgot men don't multitask," she rolled her eyes.

We strolled by the tents and food trucks and I had to admit, it was kinda fun. I was on the look out for clowns, though. Not that I was afraid but just ... shut up, okay?

All of a sudden I heard angel music as I saw the an ice cream truck near us. I instinctly walked towards it, not paying any attention to Nora.

When I finally looked at her, I noticed she wasn't paying any attention to me either. The lady behind the counter must've thought we were both brain damaged.