Veni, Vidi, Vici

It was her.

He’d recognise that voice anywhere. The soft melodious lilt was unmistakeable and the exact same as the one he’d heard on the phone less than 24 hours ago. She both was and wasn’t what he’d imagined her to be. He could just tell that her eyes, half obscured by the angle of her head, were a murky light brown, her hair was a long mane of unkempt dark blond hair and her features were unremarkable, plain even. But because she was just so fucking awesome and hadn’t laughed at his mental obsession with Vera, this Grace Lennon chic was beautiful, an adjective that he often abused but in this current situation seemed oddly appropriate.

Grace was beginning to feel uneasy as she silently observed the different emotions flicker over Marc’s face. It seemed like it had been over ten minutes since she’d greeted him back and she almost doubted whether he’d actually said hi or not, maybe it was her imagination, or maybe that was actually the end of the conversation, if so then why was he still there? Grace apprehensively shifted her body weight to one side and then the other, waiting for a response from the still statue before her.

The sudden movement in Marc’s peripherals snapped him out of his daze and he realized that he’d been staring at her like an idiot, shit; he might as well have been drooling and going cross eyed.

“So why you out of class?” asked Marc regaining his composure.

Funny he should ask her that, Grace thought. Because the main reason was, well, basically to avoid him. She knew that it was stupid and selfish of her, but lying in bed last night mulling over his last words “...guess we’ll see each other at school” her agitation had began to grow. She didn’t even know why she was so against seeing and talking to him, but just something about confronting the school’s biggest sex object when she could hardly talk to normal people seemed to be so daunting that it gnawed at her stomach in pain. So knowing that her first period civics class was to be with Marc Winston, she had for the first time in her entire squeaky-clean-record life, skipped class. And it wasn’t even for a good reason she thought, sighing as she imagined skipping class for something cool like to hang out with her boyfriend or to go out to the mall, which were both ridiculous ideas on her part but much more desirable. But it didn’t really make a difference now, because Murphy’s Law seemed to be in action and talking to Marc was inevitable.

Grace suddenly realized that now she was the one drifting off into thought and judging by the expression on Marc’s face, it’d been for quite a long time.

“I just didn’t want to um... go to civics... because I’d learnt it already and uh, I guess I thought I’d take a period off.” she said meekly, hoping he would take the bait and ignore how unconvincing she really sounded.

“You sure you aren’t here to meet a special someone for some fun?” asked Marc with a raised eyebrow and a cheeky grin playing across his face.

Grace’s brows furrowed in confusion for just a fraction of a second but then shot straight up, cheeks stained pink with embarrassment.

“N-no!” she squeaked, blushing even harder.

Marc knew that she wasn’t that kind of girl, but seeing the rosy colour spread across her cheek was such a novelty that he just had to see it again. But judging by her awkward fidgeting and the tension seeping into the air, it was probably the wrong thing to say. So trying to redeem himself from his careless blunder, he sat himself down next to her and decided to change the topic.

“Well, I’m Marc Winston and I’ll be here to keep you company then, Grace.”He introduced, leaning his body towards her.

Grace was speechless. Had he really remembered her name? How, why? All she could do was stare in shock at Marc.

Deciding that Grace needed some help in the conversation, Marc spoke up again “Yup, I remember you. C’mon it was like what, twelve hours ago? I’m not stupid you know.”

“Oh, sorry, it’s just that, well I just didn’t think you’d recognise my voice, that’s all.” She said apologetically, lowering her eyes.

“Shit, um, I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just that yeah... I didn’t mean it like that.” Marc stumbled in surprise. Talking to this girl really was difficult, but something about her just made him want to try harder. She really was something he’d never come across before, unique, different from any other girl he’d ever talked to, which made him kind of speechless in front of her.

“Oh,” she replied, recovering from her previous state “Okay then. So um, how did things go with Vera?”

Marc’s blood ran cold at the mention of Vera, fuck, he’d totally forgotten that their conversation had basically stemmed from the fact that he was madly in love with Vera Vermont and well, Vera Vermont not thirty minutes ago had pretty much spurned his confession of love and left him dying in a pit of rejection.

“Well...” he began rubbing the back of his neck again “Well. Okay, well basically things are pretty much fucked with Vera. So I didn’t call her last night because I had this stupidly brilliant plan where I would lead her on heaps and the she’d be the one to fall in love with me, so it was all planned out and shit and I thought that it was just gonna be absolutely amazing and then this morning like thirty minutes ago, I walked up to her to put my brilliant plan into action and then bam! She just fucking rejected me. Like she didn’t even show any sign of interest and like walked away. So that brings me back to the topic to why I’m outta class – because I’m pretty much fucking heartbroken.”

“Oh... Well um, I really don’t know what to say to that. I’m really sorry, at least you’re over her now, right?” whispered Grace trying to comfort him.

“Oh no, seriously, it gets worse, now for some stupid fucking reason, I still have feelings for her and I think I like her even more now.”

“Hey, it’s alright, its normal to feel like this, you’ll get over her soon, or maybe she’ll um... come to her senses and realise how much she actually likes you.” Said Grace trying her best to comfort him who was now sitting hunched over with his face buried in his palms.
Feeling even more worried with the lack of reply from Marc, she did her best to put her arm around his broad shoulders and squeeze him in an awkward half hug.

Marc suddenly looked in astonishment, and she quickly retracted.

A sharp beeping noise suddenly interrupted the delicate moment. And Grace watched as Marc dug inside his jeans for his phone.

“Ah, Shit. Its Johnny D, man I gotta go okay?” said Marc scrolling through the phone in his hands.

“Okay” Grace said quietly with a soft smile.

“You a senior right?” he asked, halfway down the rows of seats.

“Yes”

“Cool, I’ll talk to you later.” He yelled from the field.

Grace stayed silent as she watched his figure disappear into a tiny dot in the distance.

Maybe talking to Marc wasn’t that bad she thought smiling to herself.