Unbroken

The next morning, I woke up to Lexie barking really loudly in the next room. I groaned and sat up on my bed, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. Instinctively, I looked at my alarm clock.

"Shit!" I jumped out of bed and rushed to my closet. School started in fifteen minutes and—depending on the traffic—it took me ten minutes to get there. I usually set my alarm the night before, but for some reason, I forgot. "Andy, you are so stupid!"

I gotten dressed very quickly, brushed my teeth, and brushed my hair. I didn't have enough time to do my makeup, so I skipped it altogether—along with breakfast—and grabbed my keys and my book-bag before I ran out of the apartment. I did all of that in a total of four minutes. I really did not want to be tardy for school.

After I parked my car, I ran up to the school building as fast as I could. I needed to get to my first period, which was PE. I had less than a minute to make it. I rushed down the halls, past the assistant principle—whom yelled after me to slow down, ran past the trophy case, and shoved the girls' locker room door open. I ran in as soon as the tardy bell rang. I collapsed on the mats that were stacked next to the small lockers.

"Made it," I sighed in victory. I could hear my heart beat inside my ears while my legs ached.

"Wow, Andy," Nina said from next to me. "Woke up late?"

I lifted my head off of the mat to look at her. I wanted to say something sarcastically, but I was still panting from the run. I didn't need to answer her anyway. She could tell just by looking at me. I rolled over on my stomach and rested my head on the mat.

"Does this mean you're not dressing out?"

I didn't have time to answer her question. Emily Rogers walked by me and smirked.

"Wow, you look like shit." she pointed out, looking at me with pure amusement. "What's wrong, Andrea? Woke up in someone else's bed this morning?"

I wasn't surprised Emily didn't have anything nice to say to me, especially after what had happened at that party. She would go out of her way to make me miserable. She didn't even know me and she hated me. I've never had the courage to actually stand up to her and tell her off, even though I have always wanted to. Every time she said something nasty to me, I either shrugged it off or falsely agreed with her.

"You know it," I agreed and mockingly smiled at her. I thought agreeing with her was more fun than ignoring her completely.

She glared at me and opened her mouth to say something else, but one of the female coaches shouted out what we were going to do today. The ones that were dressing out were going to do push ups and long jumps inside the gym, while the ones that weren't changing into their PE uniforms were going to sit on the bleachers and do absolutely nothing. Emily rolled her eyes, muttering "whatever", and made her way to her locker to take out her uniform. I groaned as I sat up and looked at Nina.

"The guidance counselor must really hate me," I murmured.

"Why do you say that?" She asked as she sat down on the mat next to me.

"She put me in PE in the beginning of the day and put Emily in my class." I said her name sourly.

She sighed and turned her head to look at me. "Andy, she's shallow. Don't let her get to you."

I didn't say anything back, because it didn't even matter. Whatever I would have said wouldn't make sense to anyone but me. Honestly, I didn't hate Emily; I didn't know her well enough to hate her. I hated her attitude towards me and how she always rubbed me the wrong way. Nina gets along with just about everybody, and even she disliked Emily.

---

"Look!" Nina pointed out across the gym. "There's Matt!"

I looked over and saw Matt doing push-ups on the exercise mat with some of the coaches watching him, counting how many he can do in a certain amount of time. He looked like he knew what he was doing, while other students around him were struggling to even do one. We watched him in silence until one of the coaches told him to stop. He stood up and walked past us up the bleachers.

"Hi, Matty!" Nina shouted towards him in her teasing tone. Matt froze for a moment, before turning slightly to look at her. "Did you have fun doing those push-ups?"

"Fun?" He didn't even sound like he was out of breath, like I would have if I did as many push-ups as he did. "I guess you can say that."

"I thought you were going to pass out," Nina lied. To me, it sounded like she was challenging him to do more for her. It was things like that that made me think she had a crush on him. I wasn't sure if Matt saw it the same way I did, but I knew time would tell.

"Yeah, right," he replied. He had a cocky smirk on his face. "I didn't even break a sweat."

"You were about to."

"No, I wasn't," he crossed his huge arms over his broad chest. "I would have done a lot more if Coach Wilson didn't tell me to stop."

"Really?" Nina raised her eyebrows at him questionably. I had to hand it to her—she was an excellent liar. All those years of taking Drama really paid off. "I don't believe you. You were struggling to do—"

"Struggling?" He took a few steps down the bleachers so he was standing next to her. She looked so tiny compared to him. "You thought I was struggling to do simple push-ups?"

"Yes," she lied again. I shook my head, watching the scene play out in front of me. I knew Matt was about to do something that would expose my best friend.

Matt and Nina locked eyes for a moment. He was trying to see if she was lying or if she actually was calling him out, but Nina remained composed. "All right," he said. "Does this"—he lifted his shirt up to expose his abs—"look like someone who struggled?"

My eyes widened with shock at his sudden movement. Nina's expression didn't change, but there was a faint blush on her cheeks. She didn't answer his question in time, because Coach Wilson looked in our direction and told Matt to stop flashing the girls. He let his shirt down and smiled at Nina, showing his dimples.

"See you in English, partner." He climbed back up the bleachers.

Nina sighed, running her fingers through her long brown hair. She looked so embarrassed. She was exposed. She looked at me, noticing I was staring at her, and raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

I stared into her green eyes. I could see one particular emotion in them that I haven't seen in a long time. My eyes flickered to Matt at the top of the bleachers—who was drinking from his water bottle—and back to my best friend. I gave her a huge grin and shook my head. "It's nothing."

She didn't buy it. "What are you smiling about?"

I bit my lip, shaking my head again.

She sighed heavily. "You know I hate it when you don't tell me something."

I couldn't hold it in any longer. I felt like I was ready to burst with joy. "You like him!"

Her eyes widened. "What? You think I like..." Her voice trailed off as she turned her head to look at Matt. She shook her head and turned back to me. "No. Not in a million years."

I smiled even bigger. "Deny it all you want, Nina. You can lie to Matt, but you can't lie to me."

"Andy," she gave me a serious look. "You really think I have a crush on Matt Sanders? He isn't even my type."

"Not your type?" I repeated. I took another glance at Matt. "I guess that's true. I mean, what girl doesn't like a tall, good looking, talented, funny guy anyway?" I turned back to her. "Definitely not you."

Her face was beet red. "Andy, I'm serious. I don't like Matt like that. He's just...fun to mess with."

"Right," I stared at her, not believing a word she was saying. "If that's true, then why are you blushing?"

Nina turned away and stared at the wall on the other side of the gym. She didn't answer me right away. She took a few deep breaths, closed her eyes for a moment, before looking back at me. "Fine. I like him."

"I knew it!" I shouted. I felt like a little kid on Christmas morning. "I knew it! I knew—"

"Shh!" She cut me off by covering my mouth with her hand. "Not here." She uncovered my mouth and grabbed my hand. She stood up and pulled me with her. We went out one of the side doors and down to the girls restroom. As soon as the door was closed, she let go of my hand and turned to me.

"I knew it," I finished. "I knew it all along, but I wasn't entirely sure until just now."

Nina leaned against the wall and looked at her reflection in one of the mirrors. "I know," she whispered. "He's just so..."

"Sexy?" I finished for her, smiling.

"Um...I was going to say sweet, but I guess sexy works, too." She smiled, biting her lip.

I leaned against the wall beside her and looked down at her. "Didn't you just love it when he lifted his shirt up for you?"

"Oh, shut up," she nudged me, blushing again.

"I bet you wanted to rip it off completely and caress his rock hard—"

"Andy!"

"—abs." I couldn't resist teasing her with this information. I wanted her to admit her fondness for Matt for so long. Hell, I was excited that she finally told me.

"Andy," she shook her head. "You are unbelievable."

"And that's why you love me." I winked at her. After a moment of silence between us, I sighed. "Okay, all joking aside, why didn't you tell me before?"

"Because I knew you were going to rub my face in it." She looked up at me. "Just promise me you won't tell him."

"I'm not going to tell him." I promised. I didn't even talk to him that much, anyway.

"Good,"

"So, how are you going to mess with him today in English after...that?" I asked. "How are you going to be his partner for the project?"

She giggled and gave me a confident smile. "I'm Nina Shearon," she answered. "I'll find a way."

---

I took my science text book out of my locker, along with one of my notebooks. I was humming happily to one of the songs I've had in my head all day before closing my locker and turning around. I gasped when I saw the one person whom I thought I wouldn't be seeing until English.

James Sullivan.

"H-hi," I stuttered, taking a step back. I wasn't expecting him to be standing behind me. I almost walked right into him.

"Did I scare you?" he asked sincerely. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," I muttered softly. I could feel my heart race by his presence and my stomach turning into knots. I looked up at his tall frame. He wasn't wearing any sunglasses, so I could see his eyes looking right at me. His eyes are blue?

"You sure?" He cocked an eyebrow. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"I'm fine," I replied. I couldn't tear my eyes away from his. They were almost hypnotizing.

He stared at me for a moment, then shrugged. "Okay, well," he cleared his throat. "Did you talk to your parents?"

"Um..." I tried to think back to last night. It was very difficult to do while I was looking into his blue eyes. Why was it that I just noticed what color they were? Was I really that intimidated by his presence to pick out small details about him?

"About inviting me over to your house to do our project?" He seemed to be very weirded out by me. Who could blame him?

"Oh," I blinked, trying to clear my head. "Um...my mom said it was fine."

"Cool," he smiled brightly. "So, do you want me to come over tomorrow or..."

"Tomorrow is good," I nodded. My eyes were locked with his.

"All right, you can give me your address in class, if you want." He looked at me for a moment. "Does your dog bite?"

"What?" I asked, confused by the sudden subject change.

"Zacky told me he delivered to your place last night." He said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Does it bite strangers?"

The thought of Lexie made me smile a little. "No," I answered, shaking my head back and forth. "She wouldn't hurt a fly." Unless if that fly was violent to her owner.

"Good," he smiled. "Well, I'll see you in English." He turned around and ran down the hall, jumping over a fallen garbage can and turning around the corner, out of sight.

Once he was gone, I just sighed. I didn't know what was wrong with me. How could I be so intimidated by a guy like him? I walked to my class, that question repeating itself over and over inside my head. That boy was, without a doubt, a mystery.