Hello, Can You Please Stop Haunting Me?

Brea threw her pen on the table. The pen hit the table hard before bouncing off of it and nearly poking Julie’s eye out. “Whoever invented Algebra should die. There is no possible way of subtracting x from y. It’s not freaking possible to subtract alphabets.”

“First of all, Brea,” Zach said, rubbing his temples. “I’m pretty sure the guy is already dead.”

“Then I need to kill him again.”

“Second of all,” he continued, ignoring Brea. “It’s not that hard.”

“Could you guys stop bickering? This is why I don’t want a study group. The only thing we’ve done so far is question one. Oh no, sorry. Half of question one. Do you know how pathetic that is?” Julie scolded.

“Aah, I don’t want to be in a library,” Jeremy whined childishly.

“Shut up!” Both of Eliza and Zach said simultaneously. At the same time, the librarian cleared her throat and the group fell silent.

* * *

“That’s the first time I got kicked out of a library. A library, Ellie.”

“Really?” Eliza said, surprise evident in her voice. Zach looked a bit offended.

“I’m sorry it’s just that…sometimes you look like a troublemaker.”

“Ouch,” he said, smiling a tad.

“Are you?”

“Am I?” Zach replied teasingly as he stopped in his tracks. Eliza stopped too, looking at him curiously.

And suddenly she had a sudden urge to pinch his cheeks.

“You’re too adorable to even kill a widdle ant,” Eliza said in a babying tone of voice and Zach threw his head back and laughed. Eliza smiled triumphantly. She always liked it when she made Zach laugh, for some reason. He came closer to her and took her hands in his.

“So, what’s your next plans, oh wise one?”

“Maybe talk to his parents,” she muttered, feeling the same anxiety that she felt when she decided to talk to Mia. “I’m not sure if it’s a good idea or not.”

“Want me to come with you?” He asked. Out of the corner of Eliza’s eyes, she could see Jeremy rolled his eyes and started to fade.

“I…think this is something that I can manage on my own, for now,” Eliza said, smiling. “Thanks for the offer though, Zach.”

“Well then,” he said. “I’m sure it’ll go awesomely. Let me know in school tomorrow?” He said and she nodded eagerly, welcoming the fact that there was someone out there who she could tell about her currently freaky life.

Someone who was there for her in general, really.

“I’ll see you then,” she said.

“Bye.”

She tiptoed and swung an arm around his shoulder as usual, but once she broke away, something weird happened. It was totally unplanned and unexpected. It was sort of an involuntary thing.

Zach’s lips met hers briefly. But realizing what they both were doing, they broke apart and stared at each other for a while, seemingly speechless.

“Gotta go!” Zach said, almost a bit too merrily.

“Yeah, I think Addie is…um…calling me from inside the…the house,” she replied, an awkward grin plastered on her face, hurting her muscles. “See you tomorrow then!”

“Awesome.”

Zach backed away, waving a little and Eliza smiled her hand on the cold doorknob. When she turned around though, it was as if she didn’t remember that there was a door there. She hit her head on the heavy wooden door while at the same time, Zach yelped as he fell down on the few steps of the porch’s stairs when he backed away.

They looked at each other for a while before laughing awkwardly and saying “bye.”

Eliza leaned against the door once she was inside, feeling her heart thumping rapidly against her chest, almost begging to break her ribcage. Her face felt hot and she felt stupid. So she did something she thought was a good idea as to bring her focus back.

She slapped herself.

“Ow,” she moaned, rubbing her cheeks. “Damn Eliza, you’ve got to focus, damn it! What were you going to do next again…? Oh, Jeremy’s parents. Right. Right, okay,” she nodded vigorously and then stopped as she pushed herself from the door, looking around.

“Wait, where’s Jeremy?” She whispered to herself.

“Here,” a slightly angry voice was heard from the other side of the door.