Betty, August, and Me

Chapter 2

"What?!" Inez exclaimed during lunch, with them sitting on their favorite spot in the cafeteria. Inez was so shocked that she stood up in fright and got a lot of the crowd's attention.

"Shh!" Betty hushed quickly, "sit down or I won't tell you the whole story."

Inez quietly sat down and draw deep breaths. "So you're saying, that he gave you that expensive pen and ask you to bring him water at the soccer field later?"

"Yes," Betty replied and took a bite of her mac and cheese.

Inez furrowed her eyebrows and sat back at her chair. "Why did he do that?" she asked.

Betty simply shruuged, and kept on eating. After a minute or so, Inez suddenly brightens up, like a light bulb with electricity.

"I think he likes you," Inez said and raised her one eyebrow.

Betty choked, and had to drink the apple juice she got. "What?" she asked, looking at her bestfriend like it was some kind of perverted stranger, "I barely know him, and this is the first time that I talked to him, so why would he like me?"

"Girl, there's a high probability that he does," Inez said with a laugh.

"And the probability of the opposite js higher," she replied and took a sip of her juice, "just because he gave me an expensive pen, doesn't mean that he likes me."

Inez furrowed her brows. "You're such a killer, I just want you to have an early love life."

"Nah, I just love you," Betty replied with a smirk and a wink of an eye.

The both of them laughed at Betty's lame joke, and continued to eat their lunches. After they've done eating, Inez quickly went to the library, she said that she has matters with the librarian, and left Betty going to the lockers by herself.

When she went to the locker hall, it seems very empty. Only two to five people are there, and they were mostly those who are introverted.

She goes to her locker and read the book she has in there, just to pass the time, there are still 15 minutes before classes start.

"Wow, miss popular is here," a deep voice behind her said. She turned her head around only to see that smirk and a face that's been haunting her for hours now.

She rolled her eyes and sighed, "what do you want?" At first she was expecting that he will ask the pen back, but he kept silent. So she turned again and asked, "why are you here anyways?"

"I hate crowds," James replied and leaned on the locker, "I spend all of my lunches here."

"Did you just came here just to tell me that?" Betty asked, not looking up from her book.

"We have the same class, stupid," he said suddenly. She flipped her head back and looked at him with wide eyes.

"How come you've know?" she asked, raising one eyebrow.

"I saw your schedule when I was sitting with you at Homeroom," he said indifferently.

Betty looked at him, very surprised, and her mouth shaped into an 'o'. She really have a habit of spreading her things on her table, and get flustered when she needs to gather them up for the next subject.

"Let's go," James suddenly said, making her flustered.

"Where? There is still fifteen minutes to go."

"No, there's only seven minutes remaining, and this hall will be full of people, and I hate crowds."

Betty looked at him with furrowed eyebrows, and get her things for Geometry and fullowed the guy closely. She noticed the back of his jeans, the jeans were so similar to the jeans she had at home. Then she remembered, it was the men's version of the Levi jeans her dad gave her for Christmas.

When they got into the classroom, it was still empty, except for a girl sitting at the front, sleeping. Betty quickly got into the back seats, and sat down.

James went down to seat beside her, but she quickly puts her leg on the chair, refusing him.

"Inez will sit here," she said and gestured towards the other seats, "go find another seat for you to sit on."

James gave a small laugh and went to look for other seats, and chose one at the back, a seat away from Betty.

Betty opened her book and didn't minded anyone who went inside, she just read and read until her loud friend came.

"Betty!" Inez called, but her gaze went to James for a few seconds, before sitting down.

"You finished your matter at the library?" Betty asked Inez, not seeing Inez's peculiar look.

"Yes," her friend replied, "were you with him?"

Betty looked at where Inez was pointing, and saw James. She shook her head, and said no more.

Inez looked at them back and forth, not knowing what happened, and she won't easily belive what Betty said, afterall, something seems fishy.

When the professor came, everyone went silent, Betty was taking notes of everything important, and so as Inez at her side.

The day went slightly dull, the afternoon has it's particular effect, and it makes you badly want to sleep.

When the clock striked 3:30 p.m., Betty was beginning to think about leaving, then she remembered that she still needs to give James his water on the soccer field. Betty ran her hands through her hair, a habit when she's annoyed.

She reluctantly bought a bottle of cold water, and the reason why she's doing this is because, he gave her an expensive pen, so she could just repay that pen and all of it will faid away.

Inez was not accompanying her, for Inez had to go to the library again to do some matters, so she slowly walked her way to the soccer field, feeling sleepy.

At roughly 3:54, she reached the soccer field, and saw James wearing the school's jersey, playing soccer.

She walked up to him, and called, "hey!"

James' attention went to her, and that smug smirk immediately went to his face. He ran up to her. She gave him the water and rolled her eyes.

"I didn't think you would come," he said after drinking a mouthful.

Betty's sleepy attention went to being annoyed, "so I actually did not need to give you water?" she asked in an annoyed tone.

"I gave you my pen, and that's expensive," James said and flicked her forehead.

She slapped his hand and said, "don't flick me, I'll kick you."

James laughed. Betty got more annoyed so she tried to kick him, but before she could reach what she's aiming at, a sound of something hard hit the ground.

She looked where the sound came from, and saw her phone on the ground, screen cracked. She cursed and crouched down to receive it.

James chuckled.

"What are you laughing at?" Betty bombarded, angry. "This is a brand new phone!"

"Who told you to kick me in the first place?" James asked her, showing his sequin smile.

For the first time in her life, a boy caught her off-guard with a smile, leaving her breathless.