You Are the Shell to My Tortoise | ✓

30

The next day, Nolan was sitting up in his seat when I got to my first class.

Pleasantly surprised, I grinned as I walked to my desk. Did he finally decide to sleep early last night or something? He was normally only awake in-between classes.

"Good morning," I said as I reached my desk. "Had a good night's sleep?"

Pulling out my watch from his bag, he handed it to me. "Here."

"Oh, um, thanks," I said, startled by the abruptness of his action.

Why was he returning it to me now? I wanted to ask him but the thought of him changing his mind made me decide not to.

Before I could ask him if he wanted me to delete the photos now, Nolan put his head down on the desk, facing away from me.

"Good night, I guess," I murmured, fiddling with my watch.

That was weird. He usually answered my greetings.

Deciding that maybe I was overthinking things, I slipped my watch around my wrist and fastened the strap.

The next thing I lost would definitely not be my precious watch.

Nolan slept through the entire first period, which wasn't strange on its own. What was weird was that the moment we were dismissed, he got up and left the classroom before I could say a thing.

We had the next class together too, so it didn't make sense that he wouldn't wait for me.

Questions swam around in my mind at his abnormal behavior. Was he actually avoiding me? Did that have anything to do with why he returned me my watch earlier?

I didn't even know what I could've done to warrant his avoidance.

As I stood up to leave the classroom, I frowned down at my watch.

What was going on?

-----------------------------------------------------

"Mm, this is so good," Melissa said, closing her eyes as she savored the meatball she was eating. "I can't believe it took the school this long to put meatballs on the menu."

Grimacing at her, Ashley said, "Couldn't you have said that after you were done chewing? I don't really need to see half-eaten food in your mouth when you talk."

"I thought you already knew that she lives to gross you out," Derek responded, and then promptly jerked away from her. "Ow! Why did you kick me?"

"You deserved that!" she said, glaring at him.

He rolled his eyes and deftly nabbed a meatball from her plate. "What, for speaking the truth?"

As Derek popped it into his mouth before she could do anything about it, Melissa stared at him with fury in her eyes.

"That was my second last meatball!" she snapped, looking about two seconds away from throttling his neck.

"And you deserved that," he said, his smile so wide I could see Melissa getting even madder because of it. "Or maybe I should eat your last one too, huh?"

"You guys, stop provoking each other," Ashley cut in, dropping her own meatball onto Melissa's plate. "Aren't you playing soccer together later? Don't put strain on team relations and all that."

Seemingly appeased by Ashley's tiny gift, Melissa sniffed and turned away. "We could just play on different teams. Evan is better at passing than him, anyway."

Derek spluttered, looking like he had just gotten slapped. "Excuse me? How is he better than me? You're just saying that because he strokes your ego the way you like it. He's more interested in hitting on you than actually playing soccer!"