You Are the Shell to My Tortoise | ✓

18

'I'm fine.'

I stared at the single text bubble Nolan had sent me. It was delivered at five in the morning.

My phone had been the first thing I reached for when I woke up this morning. Seeing his reply reassured me that maybe he wasn't dead after all—no, wait ... what if this was the last text he sent as he was dying somewhere on the way back to school?

Still bleary-eyed, I jumped up to get ready for the day.

I had to see him in person to make absolutely certain that he was really fine.

Besides, what was with that pathetically short text? It explained nothing.

When I made it to class, the first thing I noticed was that Nolan was at his desk with his face buried in his forearms. Relief washed over me. It all looked perfectly typical of him, as if he hadn't just gone off several hours ago gallivanting in the forest like the biggest idiot in the world.

It struck me how normal he seemed. The thought that maybe this really wasn't the first time he had done this nudged at me again.

Feeling uneasy, I walked to my desk, and started in horror when I realized Ariel was sitting in my chair.

Was I so entirely focused on Nolan's presence that I didn't even notice her?!

She stopped talking and eyed me with irritation when I approached her. I narrowed my own eyes at her in return. This was my desk! What right did she have to glare at me when she was the one sitting at my desk? Unfortunately for her, I was still somehow assigned to sitting next to Nolan in biology.

"Excuse me, this is my seat. I'd like to sit down," I said, trying to sound as indifferent as possible.

Ariel scoffed at me, but she otherwise stayed silent as she stood up. I wondered if she was in this class too—I didn't really remember seeing her, but I mostly only noticed the students who sat at the rows in front of mine. I rarely bothered to look back unless one of my friends happened to be sitting behind me.

Deliberately ignoring her piercing glare, I shook Nolan's arm. I didn't care if he blew up at me for waking him. This was a serious matter and I wouldn't allow him to brush it off.

"Hey, Nolan," I said, unable to keep the brusqueness out of my voice. "I need to talk to you."

His head rose without much fuss. Considering how late he was up last night, the fact that he wasn't in deep, unrousable sleep was strange. He looked grumpy, but it wasn't the usual kind of cranky anger that came about after just waking up.

"What do you want?" he said, rubbing the temples of his head.

"You weren't asleep?" I said, kind of astounded.

"I haven't had the chance to sleep," he said.

"I thought you were because you didn't respond to my questions," Ariel said, sounding a little wounded.

He turned to her. "Go away. Your incessant chatter is the reason I can't sleep. Just stop talking to me."

"But you're not supposed to be sleeping in class anyway," she protested.

She was kind of right. On the other hand, Ariel's behavior was starting to grate on me, and Nolan's grades didn't seem particularly affected by his constant sleeping.

Before I could change my mind about sticking up for him, I said, "Class hasn't started, so what's it to you? Aren't you tired of always talking at someone who won't even respond?"

The hurt on her face quickly gave way to fury. "Nobody was talking to you. Don't think you're so special because you get to sit beside him most of the time! You're just his assigned desk partner!"