Chp. 4 "A New Face"

Waking up for school on this Tuesday morning was a drag. My eye lids were heavy with sleep while I tried to drag myself to the bathroom. I turned on my shower on and stripped, stepping into the steaming water as I felt the hotness rush over me. Soon I was awake as I remembered Avery and I were supposed to work on our project today after school, which excited me.

I hurried to get dressed and headed towards Max’s house, hoping he wouldn’t be late considering we were behind on time already.

I drove up into his drive way and honked like I usually did, and to my surprise he was walking out his door pretty soon. He sat next to me and smiled, “Morning.”

I nodded, knowing he was so odd because he was eager to get to school. He looked back at me and sighed, “So have you and Avery started on your project?”

“Not yet, today after school we’ll start.”

He nodded and smirked, “You excited?”

I shrugged, “It’s just a project?”

“I know but you finally got paired with Avery, and I know how big a crush you have on that girl.”

He was right, we both knew that, but I wasn’t going to make a big deal out of it. I mean of course I wanted to score points with Avery but what was the point in getting my hopes up? I barely knew her, for all I know she could be as straight as an arrow and just be really friendly. There was just no point in getting high expectations when reality had a funny way of shutting them down.

I pulled up into the parking lot and parked quickly, reaching in the back seat and grabbing my booksack. I opened my door to join Max outside when I heard him speak, “Speaking of the angel…”

I squinted in confusion, stepping out of my car and coming face to face with Avery. We were inches apart but for some reason I wasn’t the least bit uncomfortable. She smiled, “Hi… sorry, I just wanted to talk to you before class.”

I looked at Max who was smirking, “I’ll meet you two in class.”

He disappeared through the cars as I locked mine and started to my locker with Avery by my side. She sighed, “Ok, so I get out of school after third hour…”

“Me too,” I looked at her, seeing her light blue green eyes fall from mine to the ground in shyness, making me smile.

She nodded, “Good, so do you want to come over to my house after? I picked up some stuff and I left it there…”

I smiled, I really couldn’t believe Avery Ryan was inviting me to her house… I responded with a slight nod, “Yea that sounds good.”

I watched a slight smile grow on her pink lips as we approached the double doors, allowing me to open it up and let her in. She responded, “So I don’t really know much about you Andy, besides that you’re pretty smart. I would like you ask you something that’s kind of personal, but don’t feel like you have to answer it cause you don’t.”

I raised my eyebrow at her, knowing what was coming before she asked, “Sure.”

“Are you a lesbian?”

I shrugged, “Yea, I mean does that bother you?”

She shook her head, “It really doesn’t, I mean I don’t care who or what you like. If you’re happy then so be it.”

I smiled at her response, she was just so cool… “Ok, so are you a lesbian? It’s only fair that I ask the same thing.”

She smiled, blushing in the process which gave me just a glimmer of hope. She shrugged, “I don’t know, I mean I don’t agree with labels. I guess you could just say I fall for whoever I fall for, whether they’re a guy or girl, you know?”

It was weird, I felt strangely comfortable with this girl when I barely knew her. Maybe this project would give me an opportunity to get to know her a little better. That’s what I was praying for anyway… just for a chance.

We walked up to my locker, allowing me to retrieve my science book and closed it slowly, looking into her mesmerizing eyes. “So you’ve dated both?”

She tilted her head, making my heart flutter hard inside my chest, “Yea, only one girl. We weren’t necessarily ‘out’ but, I felt something for her. I felt something different for her, not like anything I had felt with guys…”

“What happened?”

“She moved away, the typical “we drifted apart” story you know.”

I nodded, knowing that relationships like that never really ever lasted. It was a sad fact of life and I felt her pain, but hopefully I could help her mend it.

We walked into science and I caught Max’s eye, he winked and gave me a thumbs up, causing me to roll my eyes. He was really such a guy.

I sat next to Avery and set my stuff down, feeling like we had grown significantly closer from our recent conversation. I smiled at the thought of her telling me that she didn’t care if I was gay, and how it was cool how she asked me to my face, not to someone else.

She was just so levelheaded, completely herself no matter what…

The class seemed to be growing louder which only worried me; our teacher wasn’t the one to handle the noise. He walked into class and the noise didn’t subside, allowing him to look up and give us a nasty look. He was in a bad mood and I was afraid this was going to bite us in the ass.

“Be quite, I’m here you know,” he stood and started lecturing us on the current chapter but it was like no one was listening.

I groaned, knowing he was growing even more impatient with our class, “Alright, since you all know everything take out a piece of paper.”

I rolled my eyes, knowing we were about to take a pop quiz. The class groaned with disbelief when they should’ve known he was going to pull something like this.

Stupid shits.

Avery cursed, “Shit, just great.”

I slipped her a piece of paper from my binder and I smiled, “We got this.”

She gave me an unsure look as he wrote the questions on the board in front of us. I knew the first one from the definitions we had taken not that long ago and jotted down the answer. I slipped my paper over to let Avery see it as I read the second one, which I did not know. Avery tapped me; showing me the answer she had and I smiled, lip talking, “Thanks.”

We were like partners in crime, cheating and helping each other Ace this quiz. I had never imagined Avery Ryan to be this so down to earth and laid back. She wasn’t like all the other girls at this school that seemed to think their shit didn’t stink. She was helpful, open minded, and just a good person…

Too good to be true.

The teacher picked up our quizzes but I knew we had passed it with a 100 percent. She looked at me, “Told you we would make a good team.

I nodded in agreement, “Yup, you’re right, we do.”

~ ~ ~ ~

After science my day seemed to turn empty, I just wanted to be with Avery. When I was with her it was weird, but a good weird. I didn’t feel uncomfortable, I felt nice and accepted, and happy. She made me happy without even trying because it was just her kind of person that made me feel that way.

She was just different, but a good different.  I was walking out of my last hour, texting Avery as I made my way down the hallway.

“Meet me in the parking lot?”

She responded almost instantly, “Of course :).”

Then all of a sudden I felt my body hit another body, causing me to grab onto their hand. I ended up on my ass as I looked up to see who I had knocked over and saw a boy with light brown eyes and jet black hair. I smiled nervously, “Shit, I’m so sorry!”

He laughed to himself but I could hear nervousness in his voice too. I gathered his books he had dropped because of me and handed them back to him, our hands grazing in the process. I looked at him hard, not recognizing him, “Are you new?”

He nodded, avoiding eye contact with me which sent me a little on edge, “Yes.”

“What’s your name?”

“Blaine.”

I nodded, feeling a little off because of how he was acting, “Well, it was nice to meet you. I’m so sorry for running into you.”

He stood, helping me up in the process, “It’s not a big deal, really.”

He dusted himself and I waved him off in embarrassment, “Well see you around!”

I escaped through the hallway and towards the parking lot, trying to leave behind the embarrassing feeling. I can’t believe I knocked him over, and he was a new student! I probably made him feel like more shit than he already did!

I met up with Avery who was now parked next to my car in the parking lot, she smiled, “Hey, I was thinking you could follow me to my house.”

I nodded, soon forgetting about the incident with Blake… or what was his name? Whatever, I didn’t care anymore. I smiled, “Sounds good.”

And me and Avery were soon on our ways to her house.