You Are the Shell to My Tortoise | ✓

45

Once chemistry class ended the next day, I shot up from my seat. I had to get to Derek as soon as possible. This was one class we didn't share with either Ashley or Melissa, so it was the perfect moment for me to talk to him.

"I'll see you at lunch later!" I said, waving at Nolan.

Having just woken up from the bell, he nodded at me before slowly getting up from his chair.

Derek was sliding out of his seat when I reached him.

He glanced up at me, blinking.

"What's with the stampeding?" he said. "It's not lunch period yet, just in case you saw the time wrongly."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "I know it isn't! Not everything is about food for me, you know."

He snickered and began walking with me towards the door. "I kind of doubt that, but sure."

It really didn't seem like he was trying to avoid interactions with me. It was as Melissa had suspected—he was probably really only avoiding her.

"You have English after this, right?" I said as we followed the small crowd of students streaming out of the classroom.

"Yep," he said, adjusting the binder that he was clutching in one hand. "We're going there together, aren't we?"

"Yes, we are," I said. "Hey, have you been avoiding Melissa lately?"

I had originally planned to ask him in a very tactful manner, but whenever I was in Derek's presence, all diplomacy flew out of me. It was just that comfortable to be around him. He just wasn't the kind of guy anyone ever needed to tiptoe around.

His hand, which had been on the way to brushing aside some fringe that fell into his eyes, froze mid-air. "What?"

"You heard me. It's not that noisy here, so don't pretend you didn't," I said, crossing my arm.

As he turned his head away from me, his eyes darted from side to side. "I ... Why?"

Well, that was suspicious.

"Melissa said you've been off for the past few days. Apparently, you told her to pay attention in class when she tried chatting with you. That doesn't sound like something you'd normally do."

"I mean, I did," he said, still not looking at me as we made our way down the hallway. "We're just a few weeks away from our exams. We shouldn't be talking during class anyway, right?"

I stared at him with my mouth agape. "I would agree if you were Ashley, but unfortunately, you aren't. Who are you?"

Clearly offended, he frowned down at me. "Hey, I'm finally doing what you guys are always nagging me to do! Shouldn't you be happy?"

"Look, the point is that you only seem to be doing that when it's Melissa you're interacting with," I said. "She said you didn't even want to study with her. Did something happen?"

He spluttered. "I ... I—!"

I gave him a tiny smile. "You can tell me, you know. You're my best friend too, Derek. We're also worried about you. If there's something wrong, I don't want you to feel like you can't tell us. I can keep it between us if you want."

Shaking his head, he let out an enormous sigh. "Alright. Since you said you wouldn't tell anyone, I'll just say this, okay? I needed space and time to think about some things, but I didn't think that Mel would notice. I didn't mean to make her think I was avoiding her, but I'm fine now."

"What things?" He left it so vague, I was suddenly overwhelmed with curiosity.

Derek waved his left hand at nothing in particular. "Just, you know, things. It's nothing, really. Anyway, don't tell Mel or Ashley, okay? I don't really want to talk about it, but I promise that I'm okay."