Oakwood Academy (Book 1)

Chapter 14

"No I'm serious," he said over a chuckle, twirling a strand of my already curly hair around his finger. "By the time I was 11, I could speak English, Spanish, French, and I was learning Italian."

I scoffed. "Well no wonder you think the entirety of the female population owes you something. Your parents were teaching you romance languages before you'd even hit puberty," I joked.

"Oh yeah?" he smirked, finally letting go of the hair. Although I couldn't feel his touch on my skin, it was oddly comforting to know that he was touching some part of me. Weird. "What's your love language Nadia?"

"Woooow," I said with a giggle. "You just can't help it can you?"

"What do you mean?" he asked with a smile that clearly said 'I know exactly what you mean'.

"Nothing Guzmán, nothing. Look," I said, pointing to his Chemistry book, "as much as I love hearing stories about all of your talents, we have work to do." 

There. That was firm wasn't it? Conveyed my seriousness about school and lack of interest in learning everything and anything about the beautiful boy who sat across from me—even if that wasn't exactly true.

Yeah. I wouldn't believe me either. 

"Yeah, I know. You really have to stop distracting me from," he picked up the book and inspected it, "chemistry. Seriously I'm tryna learn about ions and chemical bonds here."

He opened the book to a random page and started reading. I guffawed.

"Yeah I'm so sure. What chapter are we on again?" I asked with a grin.

"You don't know?" he asked incredulously. "Wow, you are really off your game, huh?"

I tore a piece of paper from my notebook, crumpled it, and threw it at him. "Shut up," I said with a laugh.

He caught it—of course—and tsssked. "No shenanigans in the library missy," he said, impersonating Mrs. Alvarez, the crazy librarian, perfectly. At this I lost it, and fell into a bought of laughter. 

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?"

Great. I knew that voice. Hated that voice.

Lu.

I immediately felt myself freeze up, prepared for the next thing to come out of her mouth—most likely an insult. Definitely an insult.

Guzmán was first to speak though, still with a smile on his face. "Nothing Lu, just working on some Chem."

She squinted her eyes condescendingly. "I didn't know you had a chem project together too." This line followed my a fake smile, one of her specialties if you ask me.

"Nah we don't, but we figured we have all semester. We can work on other things that are due sooner," I said, finally finding my voice.

"Figures," she said, smile turning into a full-on grimace. "Only you'd want to take a break from work with more work."

"It is study period after all," I said, employing a fake smile of my own. "Did you need something?"

"Hmm, no. Just wanted to see what my boyfriend was up to," she said turning her angry glare to Guzmán. "I texted you. Didn't get a text back."

He breathed out an exaggerated sigh. "Turned my phone off. Better for focus."

"Oh did you learn that from Miss Goodie?" she asked mockingly. 

I almost interrupted her at that, but then decided of all the names she'd called me, that one wasn't the worst. Pick your battles.

"Lu," he said, exasperated. "Come on, can you just--"

"You know what? I'll stop you right there. I'm gonna go. Give you two some space to 'study'," she said before turning angrily and practically stomping off.

He let out a breath and started to pack his things up. "Look, I got to go talk to her."

"Yeah, and you sound so excited about it."

His mouth twitched ever so slightly. "Yeah um. See you later okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. Okay see you," I said, waving. His back was already turned though. Gone to make up with his girlfriend.

Girlfriend. He has a girlfriend, Nadia. 

Lately, I found that I had to remind myself of that more often than I'd like.