“I know what I’m doing,” I inform her as Mom pulls the car in front of the main school building, “and besides…good things come to those that wait.”
She proceeds to roll her eyes at me. “Whatever.”
“Okay, Meg,” Mom says, unlocking the car doors, “you have everything, right?”
“Yep,” I drawl, popping my seatbelt off and opening my door, “see you guys later.”
“Bye, Megan!” Kyle exclaims as I get out of the car. “Tell Brayden I say hi!”
Yeah, I probably won’t. Giving Brayden space essentially means I should avoid him as much as possible.
I offer a tight smile to Kyle, which neither confirms or denies that I’ll be telling Brayden “hi” for him, and then I close my car door.
“All right,” I mutter, turning to face the building, “let’s get this day over with.”
Once I’m inside, however, I take my time in walking to Mr. Sunshine’s classroom. I have no patience for Beth’s stupid routine this morning. As a matter-of-fact, I take the long way to the room. Which, unfortunately, gives me plenty of time to reminisce about when Brayden asked me to be his girlfriend back in middle school. We were in the library, working on some school project, and then he started to drum his pencil against the table. It was super annoying, so I scolded him, and that’s when he gave me one of his lopsided grins.
I remember my cheeks warming up, and my stomach doing somersaults all at once. Then, without any warning, he tapped the eraser-side of his pencil against the tip of my nose and said: “I want you to be my girlfriend, Megan. Will you?”
I told him yes before I could even think about it. And I’d tell him yes again—if he ever ends up asking, that is.
I hope Gianna is right about giving him space…
Thankfully, I missed Beth’s hair flip (even though I was almost late for class), and now I have to survive seeing Brayden in Mrs. Flint’s class. But maybe he won’t see me. I can probably sit behind Lester Owens. He’s pretty tall, and I don’t have a problem with using that to my advantage. Yeah, that could totally work.
So, I enter the classroom, spot Lester sitting in the middle section, then I go ahead and sit behind him.
Brayden strolls in a second later and sits in the front row—without even looking around the room. Which is fine, there’s no rule saying he has to look around the room, but I just thought that maybe he’d try to search me out. I guess not.
It’s better that he didn’t though. Giving him space isn’t going to work if we’re around each other.
Celise also walks into the room and wastes no time in sitting beside Brayden. Seriously? Is this the new norm? I can’t stand her!
He’s still not your boyfriend.
Yeah, well, he should be. I want him to be.
And besides, did he take Celise to the roller rink where they had their first date? Did he kiss Celise at the roller rink?
No, he did not.
Celise needs to stay in her lane.
Halfway through class, I peek around Lester’s wide shoulders to catch a glimpse of Celise flat-out staring at Brayden, who’s attention is (thankfully) on Mrs. Flint. This girl is being so obvious that I actually have second-hand embarrassment right now.
On the other hand, I can’t really blame her though, I mean—Brayden always looks good, but today he’s got a little something extra going on. I couldn’t tell you what that “little something extra” is, but it’s most definitely there. FOR. SURE.
Needless to say, I have a hard time focusing for the rest of class; and when the bell rings, I make sure to stay glued to my seat. Brayden needs to leave the room first, then I can slip out. However, Lester decides to get up, leaving me COMPLETELY visible.
“Crap!” I hiss, turning my head just in case Brayden looks this way.
Lester couldn’t wait another second or two?
My luck must be changing though, because Brayden doesn’t spare a glance in my direction as he leaves the room.
Ha!
So far, so good…
I gather my stuff before walking out the classroom, and then I—
“Hey.”
I mentally curse at the sound of Brayden’s voice, and I reluctantly look up to see him leaning against the wall on the left side of the classroom door.
“Hey,” I echo, forcing myself to focus on the upper half of his face, “I wasn’t expecting you…to be there.”
Hecka smooth, Meg.
Was he waiting for me? Why? To tell me he’s having second thoughts? Or to tell me that we should date again? He doesn’t look super happy to see me though, so maybe he was waiting for me because of the first option.
But I don’t know if I can handle hearing that right now.
He tucks one of his hands into his pocket. “Well, I—”
“I don’t want to be late for my next class,” I interrupt him, stepping farther into the hallway. “Later, Brayden.”
Once I’m walking away from him, I wince at how indifferent my tone sounded. Is that why he’s not following me? My uninterested responses never stopped him before though. Why isn’t he coming after me?
It’s good that he’s not, you’re supposed to be giving him space.
Right.
I can’t help feeling a little disappointed though.
——————
“I think this is the first good idea you’ve had in a while,” Lora comments with an approving nod, “giving Brayden space is very mature of you, Megan.”
Yeah, I’m not telling her that this mature decision of mine was actually advice from a middle-schooler…no way.
I force a smile. “Yep, that’s me, totally mature.”
Except, a totally mature person wouldn’t be
