Sucks to be You.

I let the ancient edition of CosmoGirl flip shut. I tossed it on the coffee table and then put my hands on my thighs. I wasn't sure, but I think the air conditioner in the school had been shut off. Because it was about three times hotter in this library courtesy of the heavy June evening outside.

I glanced out of the corner of my eyes over at emo guy. He hadn't moved a muscle and was still dressed in all his dark layers, his huge headphones obscuring his ears. I watched him for a moment, making sure he wasn't secretly watching me or something, and then quickly peeled off my blouse, revealing my little white under-tank.

I folded my blouse up quickly and stuffed it into my purse. I glanced suspiciously over at Emo guy again (and, yes, it was starting to bother me that I didn't know his name) in time to see him swiftly shift his eyes back to his binder. I looked away and bent my legs up on the couch, planting my feet on the edge of the cushions and folding my hands in my lap. I had no way of knowing if he'd perved out and watched me take off my shirt.

I glanced at him again, but he wasn't paying attention to me. He was reading or writing something in his binder. I sighed and rolled my eyes around the library. But I'd already looked at all the art on the walls and failed at counting the tiles on the ceiling. I looked out the glass windows into the barely lit school hallway and sighed, restless. I worried for a minute about my parents and whether or not they were worried about me yet. Probably not, they probably were wondering where I was, but wouldn't worry about me until about nine o'clock.

I bit my lip. I wished there was a way to tell them I was alright. Or, better yet, tell them I was imprisoned in the library. For a minute, I tried to send them good mental vibes. "I'm at school! I'm ok for now... but get me out of here!"

Of course, nothing happened. I sighed and glanced over at Emo guy. I knew it was stupid for us to sit apart and ignore each other. Especially if we actually were going to be stuck here all night. I mean, I could just read fashion magazines until my brain melted. But I was already completely sick of that.

Suddenly unable to sit on the couch alone a moment longer, I stood up and started to walk over to emo guy. He wasn't watching me and was pulling his black hoodie off his shoulders. Hm. Nice arms. If a little pale. He looked up at me, surprised, when I was in front of him. He draped his sweater over his backpack and then pulled off his headphones to show he was listening.

"So it's pretty stupid for us to just ignore each other," I informed him.

Those makeup lined eyes blinked at me. "It was working out ok for me," he said.

I ignored the comment and turned to sit down on the ground next to him. He fidgeted, shocked and uncomfortable by my action and sudden proximity. I crossed my legs in front of me and then looked at him. He was staring at me, bewildered and suspicious. I wondered if anyone had ever sat down right next to him before.

"So what's your name?" I asked him, business-like.

He blinked and then the corner of his mouth twitched into a bemused smile. "You don't know my name, huh?" he chuckled to himself, glancing out at the bookshelf end in front of us.

"Should I?" I replied.

"I know your name, Louisa Bateman," He said pointedly.

I adjusted my shoulders, not surprised he knew my name, but feeling embarrassed. It made me seem snobbish that I didn't know his name.

"Well do you play any sports? Are you in a club? Play in the school band? Do you do anything social where I might have heard your name or do you just sit alone and keep your name to yourself?" I asked rhetorically.

He smirked a little and then shifted his eyes to look at me. I blinked when I saw, close up to him now, that emo guy had very pretty light brown eyes.

"... point taken," he allowed. "I'm Sky Aps," he said.

I snorted before I could stop myself and looked away from emo gu- Sky's brown eyes. "For real?" I had to ask and glanced at him.

He nodded.

"... yeah right. Are you an iTouch application?" I asked sarcastically. Since, you know, he'd said his last name was 'Aps'.

"No. Are you?" He asked me back.

I looked at him, frowning. I have no idea what he meant by that. Sky was watching me with that barely interested expression.

"So your parents actually named you Sky?" I asked, disbelieving.

Sky paused and then shrugged the shoulder closest to me a little. "... no," he admitted, his eyes casually checking me out, flicking down to my chest and then back up to my face.

I self-consciously adjusted one of the spaghetti straps of my tank top, tugging the fabric of the little top to cover my breasts a little more. "What's your real name, then?" I insisted, plowing forward

Sky sighed and looked at his binder. He was doing that thing where he seemed to decide that our interaction was utterly pointless. It was kind of frustrating.

"Fine, don't tell me," I said aloofly, pretending it didn't bother me.

Sky was holding his pen against his binder and I could tell from the movement that he was drawing something. Then I watched as he actually pulled his headphones back up over his ears, cutting me off.

Offended, I abruptly snatched his binder from him.

"What are you drawing anyway?" I demanded lightly.

"Hey!" He barked and surprised me by leaning over to try and snatch it back.

I hastily hugged the binder to my chest and leaned further away from him. Shockingly, we struggled for a minute, Sky leaning over me and wrestling me for the binder. It was out of this world weird to have him, like, all over me and touching me and stuff. The boy-girl tension of it was crazy. After a moment of bewildering wrestling, I stood up to get away from him. Sky leaned away sharply, consciously not touching any of me anymore. He ran his tongue over his lips tensely and folded his arms across his chest, not looking at me.

I took the binder away from my chest, looking at him suspiciously, and then looked down at what he had been drawing.

At first, I couldn't make sense of the page. It was crammed full of deep-set pen marks. Shapes and intricate doodling cluttered the page in an arts-y way that impressed me (since I'm not remotely creative at anything other than cheer routines). After a moment my eyes were drawn to the patch of lighter sketching in the middle of the page. I blinked. It was a pair of carefully drawn legs.

Those were my legs! I could tell because he'd drawn the flats I was wearing on my feet. Plus, you know, I know my own legs. And apparently he knew them too.

"... you drew my legs?" I asked, bewildered.

Sky rolled his eyes. "I know. I'm creepy," he said, assuming that's what I thought, reaching up for his binder.

I instinctively twisted it out of his reach. "No I like it!" I defended.

Sky blinked, surprised.

"I mean... it looks pretty good," I corrected, lying a little, and glancing down at the drawing of my legs. It was careful and precise. He'd made my legs look great.

"Can I have my binder back, please?" Sky asked awkwardly after a pause, still surprised that I'd said I had liked his drawing.

I handed him back his binder and then cleared my throat. I watched him as he pointedly avoided my eyes and looked down at his binder. I continued to just watch him for a minute, wondering what part of my anatomy he was drawing now-

I mean. Gross. What? Like... I'm sure he wasn't doing that. Especially with me, um, freaking standing there right in front of him.

"So that's your thing, huh? Drawing?" I asked.

"Sure," Sky grunted quietly, still not looking at me. He was obviously embarrassed that I'd caught him drawing me.

"... you're good, you know," I told him.

"... whatever," He muttered. He seemed to want me to go away.

So I planted myself next to him again. But I left a careful space between us this time, so that it was obvious I couldn't see what he was drawing over his shoulder.

"You are," I insisted.

Sky suddenly rolled his eyes and glanced at me before looking back at his binder. "Thanks for the vote," He said darkly.

His attitude didn't put me off. I'll admit I was a lot more intrigued with him now that I'd seen the drawing. It made me wonder why he was drawing my legs at all.

"... how come you decided to draw me?" I asked.

Sky suddenly groaned a little, impatiently, and looked at me. "I didn't. It just happened. Don't read too much into it," he said.

"I wasn't!" I defended. I wasn't reading anything into it! Well... ok, maybe I was a little.

We looked at each other for a minute, trying to figure out what the other was thinking. I was trying to figure out if he'd really meant to draw my legs or not, and why; and he was trying to figure out if what I was thinking about his drawing my legs.

"... you have nice legs," Sky finally informed me cryptically.

I felt so flattered by his compliment, it was silly. I've been given better compliments by handsomer boys, but I guess it was because Sky didn't seem like the type who gave out compliments very often. So I was pleased with myself for dragging one out of him.

"Thank you," I said, smiling a little.

Sky rolled his eyes, making me smile more, and he looked down at his binder. He adjusted his bent legs and started sketching again. We sat in silence for a few minutes: Sky sketching and pointedly not looking at me while I lightly tapped my fingers against apparently nice legs.

"Hey I have an idea for something we could do," I suddenly said, brightening up.

"Who said I wanted to do something with you?" he asked me unkindly, still sore, I think, that I'd invaded his privacy.

I stood up. "I'll teach you something I'm good at," I said.

Sky looked at me and raised an eyebrow. I'm sure the little prick was thinking of something dirty.

"Sis boom bah?" I reminded him, clapping my hands together and pumping one fist in the air.

"Pass," he actually laughed at me.

"Oh come on. I'm bored out of my freakin' mind," I complained.

"Not my problem," Sky said simply, looking at his binder.

"Come on. Please? You can teach me something after," I bartered.

"No," Sky said simply.

"Please?? Please, please, please?? Puh-lease, Sky??" I complained, making Sky blink at me.

"You're not going to shut up until I agree to this, are you?" he huffed angrily at me.

I smiled and shook my head. Sky stared at me for a minute and then rolled his eyes.

"Christ," he muttered crabbily, sharply shoving his binder off his lap and getting to his feet.

He followed me into the middle of the library and I began shoving the study desks off to one side, giving me room. Sky swore quietly and immaturely kicked another desk out of the way too.

"Ok," I said, pumped, and tugged my top down to smooth it out and walked back to the middle of our clearing.

"Oh music," I realized.

Sky rolled his eyes and went back over to the fiction nook.

"Hey! I wasn't giving up-" I called after him, but stopped when he picked up his backpack and walked back over to me.

He plunked it down on the desk and turned it around. I watched as he tanked a beat-up portable iDock out of his backpack.

"No way. You just keep that with you?" I giggled and walked over to him, my hands on my waist.

Sky shrugged. "Keeps up with the image," he said crisply.

"What image is that?" I raised my eyebrows and took his iPod from him. I'd left mine in my gym bag.

I watched out of the corner of my eyes as Sky gestured at his torso sharply.

"You subscribe to an image?" I asked of his 'fuck it and do whatever I want' attitude as I scrolled through his iPod for a danceable song I knew. So far, I didn't recognize any of the wealth of music he had in his iPod.

"No," he said. "But it makes it easier for you, right?" he asked sarcastically.

I rolled my eyes. Oh, yes, of course. Because I'm a blonde bimbo cheerleader who enjoys plastering labels on people. Whatever.

I finally saw a song I recognized. "Sour Cherry! This was on a Gossip Girl commercial-" I said, pleased I'd found something.

Sky snatched the iPod from me, offended that I'd said some of his music was on a Gossip Girl commercial. He shoved the iPod into the iDock and pressed play. He sharply turned up the volume.

"K. You just sit and watch first," I instructed.

Sky rolled his eyes but didn't protest. He yanked out a chair from under the table and sat down it.

I went back to the center of the clearing and shook my hip to the opening beat of the song. When the verse kicked in, I turned off my mind and let my body go through a simple cheer routine, enjoying the feeling of sure movement. I love dancing. Plain and simple. I love knowing that I look good when I move and that my dancing makes people get up and cheer. Most of all, though, I love the awesome feeling of nailing a routine after all the hard work of practice. It feels incredible.

When the song was over, I was taking deep, healthy breaths and still had a grin on my face. I looked at Sky and then stood out of my end pose (down on one knee, fist in the air). I smiled encouragingly at him. His face was priceless. He looked apprehensive and bewildered.

"... there's no way I'm doing that," he finally spoke up.

I rolled my eyes. "It's customary to applaud after someone dances for you," I said sarcastically.

Sky tucked his bottom lip under his top one and let out a shrill, loud whistle of approval. I tilted my head at him and his attitude.

"Come on. Get up. It's easy," I said, walking over to the iPod and hitting the 'back' button to start the song over.

"No way. First of all, you looked like you were doing a routine for Miss America-"

"How would you know?" I asked.

"-and second of all, I am physically unable to do what you did," he went on like I hadn't said anything.

"Oh come on. What have you got to lose? Seriously?" I asked him rhetorically. I mean, this was the most surreal situation to be in. He might as well embrace it, you know?

Sky stood up and slumped over to stand next to me.

"Start the song over," I commanded. "Uhm, please," I added.

Sky theatrically pressed the back button again.

"Ok. So. Hip, hip, hip..." I started out, watching him.

It was ridiculous how bad he was. At first I thought it was because of an unwillingness to try, or stubbornness to fail, but I figured out that he was just legitimately bad. Like, Sky picked up the routine quick enough (impressively quick, actually) but it just wasn't smooth. He danced like he'd never danced before and was bewildered at the whole exercise. Eventually (when I realized he just wasn't going to get any better), I sat down in his chair.

"Ok. Your turn," I said brightly and leaned over to press the 'play' button on his iDock.

"No way, come on-" he started to protest, but when the music started to play he hastily got into the routine.

With a panicked and slightly pained in look on his face, Sky danced out the entire routine jerkily, but didn't miss a beat. When it was over, he looked relieved. I broke into a round of applause.

"Yaaah! Go Sky," I cheered with a big smile.

He sneered a little at my overly up-beat attitude. "So would I make the cut?" Sky asked with a huff and put his hands on his hips.

"Ha!" I laughed evilly. "Good one, honey. Not by a long shot," I giggled.

Sky blinked when I called him 'honey' and after I'd said it, I realized that it sounded a little odd. But I call people 'honey' all the time so... I dunno it just came out-

"Ok. My turn," Sky said abruptly and marched over to his iDock to stop the next song (some angry, but almost pop-like melodic rock piece).

It was my turn to blink in surprise. "... your turn for what?" I asked.

"To teach you something," Sky said and walked to the nearest aisle of books, selecting several hard covers at random.

"I already know how to read," I said, flopping my tongue out of my mouth at him. The 'bimbo cheerleader' digs were getting old.

"This has nothing to do with reading," Sky said aloofly, focused on handling all the books in his arms.

"Sky-" I began to complain about his mysteriousness.

He fixed his pretty auburn eyes on me fiercely. "You made me do a cheerleading routine. You owe me," he threatened darkly.

I pressed my lips together to hold back my smile but failed and grinned at him.

"Come on, cheerleader," he said and jerked his head for me to sit at another table.