Apple Tree Hearts

"Are you going?"

"Totally. Are you?"

"Obviously! Won't it be fun watching people..."

Excited whispers; eager voices.

Lexis frowned and leaned towards Katherine.

"What are they talking about?"

Katherine, always the drama queen, dragged her through the between-class crowd, and over to the wall. She smacked her hand loudly against one of the many fliers taped up around their school.

"The Cuts for Cancer event, duh!"

"What?" Lexis removed her friend's hand and squinted at the flier. Clearly, it was done in a rush.

Whoever had written the flier obviously could care less on how it looked. The penmanship could have belonged to a toddler, the Sharpie ink was smudged, and making the situation even worse was the horrible photocopying job. The school's machines weren't that great already, but coupled together with the badly written flier, it was even worse.

"People are buzzing their hair to raise money for cancer. I have no idea why they would do that though." She twirled a lock of her hair around her finger, popping her bubblegum loudly.

The clichéd image would have made her laugh, but the rudeness of Katherine's tone of voice irritated her.

Lexis frowned. "That's not really nice, Kat. Why wouldn't they? It's awesome that they're buzzing their hair for cancer. It's a good cause."

"Sure. I never said it wasn't." Katherine stifled a giggle as she glanced around. "We should go, y'know?"

Lexis nodded seriously. "Yeah, we should."

Before Katherine could open her glossy mouth and say anything, a boy squeezed between them, his bag bumping them both backwards.

"Hey, watch it, buddy," Katherine snapped.

Lexis shook her head. "It's a crowded hallway, Kat. It wasn't his fault."

The boy turned around with bright eyes, though the way he looked at the two girls suggested that he was not the kind of person that was happy all the time.

He gave Lexis a small nod and mumbled a quiet apology to Katherine, who rolled her eyes in response.

"Sorry, she's a grouch."

Katherine laughed and elbowed Lexi. "Who the Hell says 'grouch' these days, dork?"

Lexis elbowed back. "I don't know. I guess I do." She smiled at the kid standing a few yards away. The people in the hallway went around him. It gave Lexis the illusion that he was a single rock standing in a rushing riverbed.

"I'm Lexi, and the unhappy grouch over here is Katherine."

A flicker of a smile crossed his serious face. He opened his mouth.

"Croy."

"What? Troy?" Katherine blurted.

"No, Croy," he repeated. His eyes darted over to the 'Cuts for Cancer' flier taped onto the wall. His smile grew a bit wider.

"You guys should go. Give some support to the people that are doing it." He started to turn and walk away.

"Hey, wait. Are you doing it?" Lexis called after him.

Croy turned swiftly and walked backwards, calling out his response. "Yeah."

When he had disappeared around the corner and up a set of stairs, Katherine burst out laughing. Lexis looked at her in confusion, unaware of what was so funny.

"What are you laughing at?" she asked.

"Nothing, nothing. Just him, and heck, he is nothing."

Eyebrows come together and creases appear on Lexi's face. "Kat, you don't know him. It's cool that he's doing it for cancer."

"Maybe he has cancer, and that's why he's doing it!" Katherine said through a mouthful of giggles.

Lexis shook her head. Sometimes things just weren't exactly funny.

-

Brriing.

Thirty textbooks slapped together in unison, zippers sounded as pencils were packed back into their pencil cases and stuffed back into backpacks.

The sharp scrape of metal chair legs grated against the scuffed linoleum floor of Lexi's Business class. She felt a vibration in her pants pocket and instinctively clapped a hand to her thigh, where her cell phone was buzzing.

"Remember to read pages—"

The class was gone already, Lexis included.

She hurried down the hallway, squeezing between talking friends and saying 'sorry' whenever someone complained. Her mother had scheduled a dentist appointment right after school, and though Lexis wanted nothing more than to stay away from the uncomfortable plastic-covered seat, she didn't want to keep her mother waiting.

She bounded through the corridor in front of the library, skidding to a halt right in front of her locker before dumping her bag on the ground and twirling her lock expertly.

"Hey." The voice belonged to someone standing behind her.

Lexis mumbled a quick 'hello' in return, and yanked on her lock, flinging the door of her locker open. It clanged; metal against metal.

"Um...Do you even remember me?"

Lexis sighed in exasperation. The guy that was trying to make a lasting impression on her was not doing a great job.

"What? I'm going to be late for a dentist appointment," she cried.

"Oh. Well, I'll just put these here then."

A hand reached into her field of vision, holding two unrecognizable tickets. They were tucked into the small plastic container on her door.

"Move your hand, please! I need to get my books. And what are those?" Lexis said in a rush, inserting and withdrawing textbooks and binders with the speed of a long-term librarian.

"Tickets. To the Cuts for Cancer event."

Click.

The clogs in Lexi's head pieced together the voice and the words of the boy. She turned and met Croy's eyes.

"Oh! I don't know if I'm going or not. Is the other ticket for Katherine?"

"Yeah." Croy blinked his chocolate coloured eyes and said with a hint of sarcasm, "I doubt she would go, though." He paused and sighed, pressing a hand to his forehead, covering his eyes. "Sorry. That was rude."

"No, that's okay. You guessed her personality right, though."

Croy laughed dryly. "Sure. And…It's okay if you don't go or anything. I got free tickets 'cause I'm getting my head shaved. And since I don't know anybody else that has even thought about going, I thought I'd find you." He looked up and down the hallway, as if by habit. "It's just my luck, too. My locker is just across the hall."

Lexis nodded wordlessly, at a loss for what to say. She felt instantly uncomfortable. "Well, um…"

Croy blinked. "I gotta go. And I think you might want to hurry too; it's already three fifteen."

Lexis jumped and shouted. "Crap! Are you serious?!" She grabbed the rest of her books and stuffed them into her bag, causing her locker shelf to collapse and her remaining books to tumble onto the ground.

Croy raised an eyebrow and nodded at the clock that was stuck right onto the door of her locker. "Um, yeah."

She groaned and tugged at her hair. "Okay, I gotta run. Bye, and thanks for the tickets!" she yelled, slamming her locker shut, locking it, and racing down the hallway.

Croy gave a small laugh. "Yeah, bye."

He squinted and looked down the hallway before adjusting the straps of his backpack and heading down the hallway after Lexis.

"Time to visit the old apple tree."

That day, a new heart appeared on the bark.

-

The week progressed and the Cuts for Cancer event drew closer. The closer it drew, the more Lexis forgot about it.

The tickets slipped out from the container and dropped to the bottom of her locker.

Lexis did not see them.

-

She was talking to Katherine one night when her friend brought up Croy's name. That was when Lexis remembered.

"Oh, shoot! I totally forgot about it!"

"Forgot about what?"

Pop.

Even over the phone, the sound of Katherine's bubble-popping could be heard.

"About the Cuts for Cancer. Croy gave me two tickets."

For some reason, that seemed incredibly hilarious to Katherine. She was in the midst of popping another bubble when she let out a shrill hoot of laughter.

Lexis held the phone away from her ear as the hysterical laughing started.

"A-Are you serious? He actually gave you two tickets? Wow."

"What's so 'wow' about that?" Lexis retorted defensively.

"Nothing! It seems like someone is a bit hopeful."

"Kat, don't you think you're taking it kind of—"

"Oh my God I bet he wrote your name on that apple tree! I'm gonna tell everyone." This sent her into more hysterics.

Lexis blinked as heat rushed to her face. Thank God the exchange wasn't in person.

"Oh God, Katherine. Stop laughing, you're like a hyena."

Katherine stopped abruptly. "If you don't believe me, go ahead and check."

-

Lexis did. She wanted to rip the entire bark of the stupid apple tree off. As Katherine had predicted, there, at the very center of all the carvings, was a heart. And inside the heart was 'C.J + L. K'.

-

She couldn't face him in her English class. Every time she looked up from her work, he was looking in her direction, looking at her with those chocolate brown eyes.

She wanted to drown herself in those pools of cocoa, wanted to strangle herself after she learned that Croy Karlson was not someone to be linked to.

That day's English class was particularly horrible.

Five minutes before class started and his hat was whipped off his head. He closed his eyes, sighed, and stood up from his desk, before grabbing his hat back and tugging it back onto his head.

"Wha'smatter, kid? Cancer getting to you?"

"Shut up."

Lexis couldn't do anything but watch; she had difficulties looking away or preoccupying herself with anything other than the horrible scene unfolding in front of her.

The teasing worsened; words that weren't exactly supposed to be used in school were used, and Croy sat in his seat, two rows from the back, six seats to the left, taking it all in with a straight face.

They poked and prodded at him.

Lexis wondered how long he could take the teasing before he snapped; it was either break out in tears or walk out.

She didn't expect him to throw a chair.

Before anybody realized what had happened, Croy had stood up and punched the closest person to him in the mouth. The rest of the boys were shocked to unmoving, and in that short span of space, Croy had yanked his hat back on his head and knocked aside his table.

The English teacher started to stand, her face furious before Croy strode past the rows of desks. He paused just for less than a second at an empty one and gripped the back of the chair tightly.

He back-hand tossed it at the group of boys that had surrounded his desk.

The chair flew, quickly and accurately.

Then he was out of the classroom.

-

After class, Lexis hesitated at Croy's desk. His bag and jacket were still there. She picked them up and took a deep breath.

She had a hunch about where he would be.

She exited the school, knowing that what her instincts were telling her to do was entirely the right thing.

She trekked through the grass of the school grounds, her eyes focused on one point in the distance: the apple tree.

Peeking tentatively into the bushes that surrounded the base, she bit her lip. Croy was sitting there with his head in his hands, his back against the trunk of the tree.

"Hey."

Croy looked up, saw Lexis, and looked away, struggling to hide his expressions.

Lexis trundled through the bushes and sat down in front of him. His face started to turn a light shade of pink, and Lexis sighed.

"I brought you your stuff. You left without taking any of it." She set down his backpack and jacket.

Croy reached for it and moved it to his side.

Lexis couldn't help but stare at the heart containing both their initials.

"They're jerks."

There was no reply from Croy.

"Don't listen to them; they have no idea what it means to do something like a fundraiser."

Croy shifted his position slightly, and returned his face to his hands.

Lexis watched him intently, how his hair tousled at the back, and how a light brown tinged the blonde. She sucked in a deep breath, as if doing that would send her a gust of the courage that she didn't have.

She shuffled forward and tugged on his arms. He let them slide away. She lifted his face gently so he was looking at her.

Though his face still remained stony, his eyes betrayed him. The chocolate orbs were wide, scared, worried, embarrassed, and twelve other emotions that Lexis could not possibly pinpoint.

But she recognized one of them.

Hopefulness, the same kind of emotion that a child has when he is lining up to sit on Santa's lap and wish for a Christmas present.

She smiled and gently pushed the hat back from his head, just enough so his eyebrows were exposed.

Lexis leaned forward and pressed a kiss against his forehead. She couldn't help but smile when Croy inched closer.

She didn't need to say anything when she pulled away; she needed no 'thank you', and Croy needed no 'you're welcome.'

Lexis took his hand and reached up over their heads. She placed his hand on the heart that he had carved, and traced their initials with her own.