A Dare With The Bad Boy

Chapter 6: The Seatmate

It felt like the tension inside the clinic was becoming more and more intense as Luna continued to stare at Theo in shock and confusion. 

To her, none of this made any sense. How did Theo know who she was when she thought all along she never existed? Luna’s head was filled with questions as she didn’t move an inch from her position on the floor. 

Theo cleared his throat and she was brought back to reality, not realizing she had been staring at Theo’s face for the past minute. 

“You’re welcome about the pillow, by the way. I reckon that fall would have hurt.” Theo commented in a cheeky way as he leaned down to grab the pillow off the floor. 

Luna was too mesmerized with everything that happened that she just followed Theo’s every movement with her eyes. She wasn’t sure why his presence always suddenly makes her feel like she could just look at him and watch his every movement. It was not like she wanted to stare at him, but more like she was a magnet and he was metal. 

Theo grabbed the pillow and dusted it off before putting it back on the bed. Although he looked like he didn’t care about a lot of things, he was actually very meticulous about keeping things in order, a trait you wouldn’t usually see in many guys. After placing the pillow on the bed, he turned back to the floor and was confused to see Luna still in the same position. 

“Uh… I will go and give you the floor some privacy then.” Theo commented as he looked at Luna who just stared at him like she couldn’t believe she was there. 

Luna shook her head to get her back to reality and immediately felt her face warm up from embarrassment when she realized how long she was out of it just looking at Theo.

“Wha-no, I’m-” Luna feeling quite humiliated tried to explain her side but was failing miserably doing so because she was too at a loss for words. 

Theo looked at the girl in front of her with a small grin, watching her in amusement as she was struggling to explain herself.

Luna stood up abruptly, too fast that her body wasn’t able to process her movement and suddenly felt dizzy again. She felt her legs feel like jell-o and she cursed the heavens for making her anemic all of a sudden. She didn’t have this problem before she lost weight, and for a second when she saw herself falling back to the floor, she thought maybe it was better that she ate a lot so then she wouldn’t feel so weak. 

While Luna was cursing in her head, she didn’t notice that Theo’s reflexes were out of this world when he managed to once again save her from her demise. 

“Oof!” She said as she landed on Theo’s arms. 

Luna slowly opened her eyes, still embarrassed about earlier but was even more now that she was staring straight into Theo’s gray eyes. She felt shivers all over her body as his eyes pierced deeply into hers. She couldn’t understand why his eyes had both a hint of coldness and sadness at the same time as if the person in front of her was not the bad guy she always thought he was. Luna started to think that there could actually be more to Theo than the bad boy the whole school thought he was. Nevermind that he often got into fights or that he basically just slept during classes or that he always just ignored Luna every time. 

Luna’s thoughts began to wander off again as she got hypnotized more and more while looking into Theo’s eyes. She started to think of reasons about Theo not being so bad after all, when she was disrupted. 

“You know my arm is kind of getting tired.” Theo commented coldly. 

“Oh, right.” Luna instantly pushed herself off of Theo and recomposed herself. 

She immediately erased the thoughts of Theo even having a hint of good in him right after he teased her. His eyes were probably playing tricks on her, she thought. 

“You need to eat more iron.” Theo commented in a way that was somewhat bossing her around and this made her huff at him. 

He turned back and raised an eyebrow at Luna and she instantly cleared her throat and turned her head away from his look, pretending that she didn’t just huff at Theo. 

“Anyways, I’m here because Aiden asked me to. He’s waiting for you at class so hurry up.” Theo commented before he began to walk away from her to get to the door. 

“Wait, wait. What did you say?” Luna asked in confusion, trying to check if she really heard the words Theo said right or if she was just imagining it. 

How could Aiden be waiting for her? Wasn’t Aiden doing something with Mr. Ferguson and that’s why he had to go ahead first? Luna’s head was filled with questions as she looked at Theo with furrowed brows. 

Theo let out an annoyed sigh as he stopped on his tracks and turned around to look back at Luna. 

“Like I said, hurry up because Aiden is waiting.” Theo replied unamused. 

A shy smile formed in Luna’s face as she realized that what she heard was really correct and Aiden was definitely waiting for her in the classroom. She let out a little laugh and positioned herself to go to where Theo was.

“Well, let’s go then.” Luna exclaimed happily before taking a step.

Theo stared at the girl next to him, shocked to see the sudden change of mood and how fast she ended up right beside him by just mentioning Aiden to her. It almost annoyed him.

Little did Luna know that her shoes were still untied from earlier and the first step she took got her stumbling back on the floor. 

Luckily, before that happened, Theo was once again faster than her fall and managed to push her back. 

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry.” Luna said as she buried her face in her hands out of embarrassment. 

“Exactly how many times are you going to fall for me, Valentine?” Theo asked in a teasing way as he smirked at her. 

Luna felt her face start to get warm again from Theo’s comment. At that moment she just wanted to disappear. She couldn’t believe she’s tripped so many times already and right in front of him, out of all the people. But the weirder thing that got Luna thinking was why did the way he said her name made her heart flutter a little?

Luna cleared her throat as she straightened her clothes. She pursed her lips at Theo and because she wanted to spare some of her dignity, hissed at him in a way that would make it look like she was definitely not just double-guessing herself about Theo. 

“Exactly zero times, Donovan.” She replied before rolling her eyes and walking right past at him. 

Theo’s mouth opened in surprise as he processed what Luna had just said. He was definitely not expecting that, but he actually found it quite amusing. For a split second, Theo saw a different kind of Luna he had never experienced. She had a fierce look in her eye that somehow said not to mess with her. He had gotten so used to the Luna that couldn’t even look a person in the eye that this deeply intrigued him.

While Luna was walking in the hallway to the classroom where Aiden was waiting for her, she kept thinking about what a relief that she was finally away from Theo. It felt like a ton of weight had been taken off of her chest and she could breathe in peace. She was still surprised with the outcome of the situations, but what she didn’t understand was why was her heart still beating so fast?

As she turned a corner, she decided to stop and lean to a post while she placed her hand over her chest where her heart’s beating kept going faster and faster like she was going to have a heart attack. She closed her eyes tightly as she did some breathing exercises to calm her down. She couldn’t believe she was getting so agitated with just the thought of Theo. She tried her best to forget about him, but every time she closed her eyes, the first thing she saw was the way his gray eyes looked deep into hers and she was getting hypnotized by them.

Luna was so out of it that she didn’t even notice Aiden was already in front of her, not until he made his presence known. 

“Are you okay?” Aiden asked with worry in his tone. 

Luna immediately opened her eyes when she realized whose voice it was. 

“Oh, uh, yeah I’m fine. Thank you.” She replied as she sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck. 

“Alright, that’s good to hear. Should we get to class? It’s about to start.” Aiden told her with a smile as she motioned for her to walk to the room. 

Luna tried her best to put on a fake smile to Aiden, but deep inside she felt like she just wanted to lie down in bed and roll herself into a burrito blanket. She wasn’t entirely sure if her body was feeling tired from everything that had happened or if it was because she was actually lacking some nutrients and whatnot. She took a mental note to eat more meat, just as Theo said. 

“Ugh.” She muttered under her breath when she realized she thought of Theo once again, something she was trying to avoid.

“Hm? Did you say something?” Aiden asked as she looked at her with a smile. 

“Oh, no. Sorry.” Luna thought she was really out of it today, but the way Aiden smiled at her made her cheeks blush and she wished she could just admire that beautiful face of his. 

Unfortunately for her, that was definitely impossible.

Aiden looked away to open the door and a small smile formed on her lips when she opened the door for him. Aiden motioned for her to go inside first and she gave him a soft thank you. 

She was starting to get into a good mood when she got inside the classroom and the first thing she saw was Emily. 

Crap, she thought to herself. 

Luna tried to keep a calm composure as she kept on walking, trying to look for where her assigned seat was. Deep inside she was praying to the universe to please let her sit anywhere far from Emily and right next to Aiden. 

Aiden moved closer to Luna and she was taken by surprise at first when he stopped her from walking. 

“The teacher arranged us by grades. Highest are behind and lowest are at the front. You know, for productivity.” Aiden commented as he took Luna’s arm and began to walk in front of her, guiding her to her seat.

While Luna was internally squealing over the situation, she realized that the seating arrangement was made for her not to be able to sit close to Aiden since he was always at the top of the class. The whole faculty has decided on a new seating arrangement in order to focus and prioritize on students that ranked the lowest in grades. This year Eastwood High was not going to let anyone have a low grade.

“Here, this is where you are.” Aiden walked over behind the seat and placed his hands on the back of the chair. 

Luna let out a soft chuckle at how he looked like he was trying to showcase the chair as a product. She still couldn’t believe how right now, right in front of her, her childhood crush was actually talking to her like they have been close all along. Everything felt so surreal to her. 

“Thanks, Aiden.” Luna said softly. 

To Aiden, her thank you just meant she was thanking him for showing her the way to her seat, but for Luna, it meant way more than just that. Deep inside, Luna was thanking Aiden for being so kind to her and making her dream come true. To some people it might seem trivial, but to Luna, it meant the world to her. 

“No worries. I’ll be right behind you if you need me.” Aiden smiled as he waved goodbye and started walking to where his seat was which was approximately 2 chairs behind her. 

She began to think maybe this time she should actually begin to focus on her studies and not just write wrong answers on her tests and homeworks so she could also get high grades and sit next to Aiden. 

A smile formed on Luna’s face as she thought of the possibilities of being her crush’s seatmate. They could do so many things together, she thought. Aiden could teach her and become her tutor of some sort even though they maybe knew the same things already and she could just pretend not to know. He could also most likely become her partner in most group works since they sat next to each other. 

Luna tried to muffle her giggles when she realized that if she could become partnered with him during schoolworks, there would be a chance they could go to her place or his to work on it. 

Luna’s daydreaming was interrupted when the bell rang and she hurriedly fixed her things. 

Once she had her things in order, she realized her actual seatmate was still not in the room. 

“Maybe she’s late.” Luna whispered in thought. 

She turned around to catch a glimpse of Aiden once again and felt her cheeks blush when the two of them ended up looking at each other. Aiden gives Luna a small wave and Luna happily turns back to look at the front of the classroom. 

Once she turned, a familiar figure stood in front of her. 

The person was wearing all black and the scent immediately smelled familiar to Luna. 

Slowly, but surely, she raised her head up to see who it was.

And there he was. 

Luna caught a glimpse of the person and his emotionless expression before he continued walking past her. 

Luna let out a sigh of relief when he passed by her because that meant he wasn’t going to be her seatmate. For a second, she was almost going to have a heart attack. 

What would be the odds, she thought. 

Unfortunately for Luna, the odds were definitely not in her favor when he turned around and sat on the chair right next to her. 

Luna turned around and looked at him in surprise. The thoughts in her head kept echoing. 

Was she really going to spend the entire school year sitting next to Theo Donovan?