A Heart Still

9 Embarrassed

I was right about what I said the day before. The lack of sleep made me look like a scarecrow. Just getting out of bed made me feel like I had no energy left and I was really glad mom hadn’t heard me getting home in the middle of the night.

Looking into the mirror, I took my last option out of the cabinet. My makeup bag was almost covered in dust because I scarcely used it.

I wasted about twenty minutes trying to make myself look presentable, so my stomach was growling from the lack of food on my way to school. Jake left early, so I walked alone.

I got to school just before the bell rang and crashed in my seat in the English class.

The class ran by so slowly and I tried my best not to fall asleep, but you know the feeling when your eyes are closing and you just can’t keep them open? I surely couldn’t.

I fell asleep at least three times, but fortunately, the teacher didn’t seem to notice me.

After the bell finally rang, I lazily got up and headed to my next class. All I wanted today was to be left alone and get my lost sleep back, but that didn’t seem like a possibility.

Molly stopped me in the hallway and Rachael was staring at me from behind her.

Those two were always together lately, at least so it seemed. “Hey, Rebecca..” Molly trailed off making me stop dead in my tracks.

“I just wanted to apologize for Gina. I didn’t know she would be so mean to you.”

I sighed and looked at the two. They both had solemn expressions on their faces and I couldn’t have that.

“It’s Ok. Just don’t invite me and Gina to the same room ever again.” I joked, but they didn’t laugh. I thought it was funny, wasn’t it?

“I promise,” Molly said, dead serious and I smiled at her. “Ok ladies, have a nice day,” I said and moved to go to my other class.

When I entered the room, I could see Ethan sitting in the back and he lifted a cup of coffee in the air, smirking at me.

He looked like he wanted to laugh at me when I stumbled to the seat next to him.

His hand put the cup of coffee in front of me and I looked up at him with big grateful eyes, which were almost watering from the gratitude.

At that moment, he looked like a god to me, I really needed that coffee.

“Thank you!” I said in a broken voice and sipped the still hot coffee. It was delicious, like really delicious.

“Hmm, what’s this?” I asked when I set the cup down again. “Cinnamon cappuccino.” He chuckled and I  sipped the mouthwatering drink again.

“I thought you could use a coffee and this was the girliest drink they had.”

A scowl came to my face because I suddenly felt like I was being offended for some reason. I scanned him from head to toe and saw that he looked as good as ever.

There were no dark circles under his eyes, nothing. Was he a vampire that he didn't need to sleep or what?

“How do you not look tired?” I asked and he threw me a smirk. “Because I’m not. I am used to not sleeping much and I decided to ignore the first period.”

I glared at him for being irresponsible. It was bad to skip school on purpose. “You can’t just ignore your classes.”

“Relax, it was just math, that’s easy.”

I gasped and looked at him in horror, which made him raise an eyebrow. “Math isn’t easy! Who are you and what planet are you from?”

He shook his head with an amused smirk on his lips but didn’t reply because Mr Rogers started the class. I didn’t even notice him enter the room.

Ethics was a good class to chill so I let myself relax and drank the coffee while I tried to listen to what Mr Rogers was saying but couldn’t fully concentrate.

Ethan was distracting me with his constant stretching. He would stretch his arms or neck every few minutes and it always brought my eyes to him.

The worst one was when he decided to stretch his back and threw his arms behind him and arched his back, which made his chest puff out and his t-shirt slide up. Oh boy, he did have a god-like body.

I kept staring at him and when I lifted my eyes he was smirking at me. Oh s**t, did he just catch me checking him out?

I could feel myself blush furiously and fixed my eyes ahead of me.

Now I wished the class would end soon and I could just run away. It felt like an eternity of me sitting straight and unable to relax but finally, the bell rang and I moved to get up from my seat.

“Don’t forget to meet me in the library after school Grayson,” Ethan said and I just nodded, rushing out. Why was I always so nervous around him?

I was taking my books out of my locker and when I closed it, I was greeted with Todd’s smiling face.

“Hi Rebecca, are you going to the game tomorrow?” he had a smirk on his face and I sighed, I had a feeling where this was going.

“Yeah, I’m going. With my mom.” I added, but the look didn’t leave his face. “Oh, I’ll be glad to have more fans watching.”

I scoffed at that. “Not a fan.”

He just chuckled, probably thinking I was joking. I wasn’t.

“So, you probably know about the party after we win the game. How about we hang out together baby?”

He reached to touch my hair with his fingers, but I moved his hand away, frowning at him. “Not your baby. And I don’t think I’m going.”

His smile faltered, but he smirked again, not a second later. “You sure? Just let me know when you change your mind.” He said and left. Finally.

How overconfident could he get? He was good-looking, with his brown hair and brown eyes, but he was a moron.

Shaking my head, I headed to the next class. This was my last one and then I would work on the project with Ethan and after that, I could finally go home and get my sweet sweet sleep.

*****

“So what are we doing today?” Ethan asked when I sat down in the library.

“Well, I tried to do something during the weekend, so there’s not so much to do. I think we can review what we’ve got and maybe stay a little late to finish it.”

He furrowed his eyebrows, shaking his head a bit. “I need to go at four, but I could come to your house in the evening.”

I stared at him for a moment. I wasn’t sure if I wanted him visiting my house. “Let’s just start and maybe we’ll be done by four.”

He nodded and we started working. I tried to concentrate as best as I could, but we weren’t done and it was quarter to four.

I sagged in my seat and closed the book in front of me. “Ok, I’m tired and it’s almost four.” Ethan checked his watches and nodded, taking his things.

We headed out of the library and stood on the school parking lot. “So, do you want me to come by later so we’ll get this over with?” he asked, sitting on his bike.

“Yeah, sure. I’ll get home in twenty, twenty-five minutes tops. After that, I’m not going anywhere so stop by whenever you want.”

“Are you walking again?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah” I scratched the back of my neck and he sighed, looking at his wristwatch again.

“I can give you a ride, there’s still a little time. Otherwise, I could probably be there before you.” He smiled at me. Why was he so kind?

“Where are you going that it would take you just a few minutes?” I asked curiously but he didn’t answer. He just handed me his helmet again and I took it.

I didn’t know why I was so curious, but I couldn’t help it. “Hurry up.” He rushed me and I sat behind him, circling my arms around him just like yesterday.

He sped up in the direction of my house and a few minutes later I was standing in our yard.

I handed him back his helmet with a grateful smile. “Thanks.”

“I’ll see you soon Grayson.” He said and drove off. Where was he going? I shook my head and went inside.

Mom wasn’t home yet. She was working shifts, that was why she couldn’t always drive us to school, but Jake had a lot of friends, so he usually took a ride with someone. I usually walked.

It was nice that Ethan gave me a ride, but I didn’t get why. I looked on the fringe to see when mum’s shifts were and saw that she wouldn’t get home until eleven. Good. I didn’t know how she would react about Ethan coming by.

“Jake?” I shouted, but he wasn’t home either. I guess they had some basketball stuff before the game tomorrow.

After I put my stuff in my room I headed downstairs again.

Smiling, I played some music on my phone and opened the fridge to fix myself something to eat.

I didn’t realize I was dancing like a silly person in the middle of my own kitchen until I heard someone knock on my kitchen window.

I stilled in my place and saw an amused Ethan staring back at me. I guess my expression had to be funny because he started laughing at me and he pointed in the front door’s direction.

Shit. How long was he standing there? I facepalmed and ran to open the door for him.

“Tell me you didn’t see it.” Was the first thing I told him when he stepped in.

“Oh, I very much saw it. Was that you dancing or were you having a stroke?” I blushed furiously and hit him on the shoulder but he didn’t look like it affected him at all.

“Shoes off.” I pointed to his army boots and he sighed and took them off. As he bent over to do so, he put a helmet on the ground and I frowned.

“Why do you have the helm?” I asked curiously. This wasn’t his helmet. It was the same type but his was all black and shiny. This one was also black but had stickers on it and was dirtier.

He took it off the ground and straightened again. “I got an idea. I drive from here every day and you have to walk, so I can as well give you a ride. I have this old helm so if you can clean it and get that pink s**t off you can borrow it.”

I took it and rotated it in my hands. The stickers looked too girly to be Ethan’s. There were some stickers with band names or clothes brands.

“Yeah, thanks, that would be great. But it doesn’t need to be every day, my mom sometimes drives me and Jake to school.” I said and led him further to the house.

“Do you want something to eat or drink?” I asked and got the plate with my sandwich on it.

He just shook his head and I led him upstairs to my room.

Putting the helmet aside from now, I stuffed my face with the sandwich and we started working on the project.