Treasured Tributes

To say that the rest of the school day was bad, turned out to be the understatement of the century. I, a girl no one paid particular attention to, unless they wanted to borrow something, was suddenly the only name on everybody’s lips. I cringed, walking through the halls with Maya in tow for recess. When I was told yesterday that Erik was friends with Aubrey, I didn't doubt that he was not a part of the popular group. But I didn't expect to receive so much attention just for being associated with him. Or maybe it really was because our exchange in history class had spread like an epidemic across the grade. I didn’t want to think about that, it was pretty pointless to have become such a big issue. But it had, and I was confused.

I tried to ignore the whispers as Maya tugged me back towards the library. I was hungry, and we didn't get to eat at lunch. I wasn't even sure why we were heading to the library again.

Someone snickered behind me, “I didn’t think she was like Lena. But her and the new kid—" I whirled around, ready to stand my ground and reject the absurd assumptions. Maya grabbed my hand tightly and dragged me away before I could even manage to open my mouth. I was bemused why someone was comparing me to Lena Dunham, we were nothing alike. She had a reputation for hooking up, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Just that it made for needless high school scandals. The most scandalous thing about me was probably that I had a crush on Aubrey — the one boy so out of my league, it made more sense for me to date King Arthur, or someone equally dead and legendary. But I don’t think anyone besides Maya knew about it, so I guess it isn’t really that scandalous after all.

The library was fairly quiet when we sat down around a table hidden among the bookshelves, away from the watchful eyes of Mrs Heimler, the librarian. We could see most of the other tables from here, but I knew no one could really see us.

“Explain, Krys.” Maya huffed, throwing me a strained look as she pulled out her books. “You're an overnight sensation except it's only been an hour.”

I buried my head in my hands, leaning on the table. “He's stupid. This is stupid.” I groaned, wanting nothing more than to slam my head against the desk repetitively. Mrs Heimler might kick me out though, and it would earn me strange looks. I’ve already received a lot more attention than the president would if he was found high on ice.

I didn't bother looking up, but I could almost imagine Maya shaking her head. “There are already rumours about you and Erik.” She made it sound like I had anything to do with that. No, it was all him. Stupid, stupid pretty boy.

“High school sucks.” I mumbled, leaning back in my chair and shooting Maya an annoyed glance. “There’s nothing to make a song and dance about. I barely even know pr—” I cleared my throat. “Erik. I hardly know him. He came by the diner last night, and we were really busy, so he helped. And then Mark and Amina hired him.” I explained.

Maya glared, urging me to spill what she really wanted. I sighed. “I was stupid enough to wear a black bra under my work shirt. I spilled soda on it, and he saw my bra. It was nothing except a little embarrassing. But he's making it a big deal and now everyone's got all these stupid ideas about us.” I grumbled, absentmindedly cracking my knuckles.

“So nothing actually happened between you two?” I shot her an incredulous look.

I scoffed, "Of course not! I didn't even know he was Erik until today."

Maya nodded, laughing slightly, "Everyone is probably just looking for gossip. Don't worry about it Krys, they'll forget by tomorrow." She patted my shoulder and I nodded thoughtfully.

Maya took out her homework and began working on it, while I sat there wondering if the gossip was really as bad as I had thought. Sure, now that I think back on it, his teasing really wasn't that awful. I would even go as far as to assume he probably just wanted to annoy me, so I couldn't understand why it was a big deal to everyone else. I mean, when Chris Muller boasted about going to third base with Kimmy Simmons last year, it didn't turn into that grand of an issue as this. Granted, we all knew he was lying since Kimmy came out with her girlfriend the next day, it still seemed worse than some random boy seeing some random girl’s bra. Why was this pointless event such an issue? Who hasn’t seen a bra before? High school students were weird.

I was distracted by my thoughts by a raking sound. I looked around the library in confusion, nothing. I watched Maya deep in thought unaware, reading her textbook when I heard it again. It was coming from the shelves to our right. I leaned back on my chair, craning my neck around the aisle to see pretty boy frantically rubbing his shoes on the pale blue carpet. He smiled as my lips curled in irritation.

Ignoring him, I pulled myself forward towards the table, my chair dropping suddenly as I slammed into the table with a loud gasp. Maya merely raised a brow, shaking her head and returning to her work. But I swear I heard an almost audible laugh from between the shelves.

Maya stood up suddenly, "I'll be right back, I need to renew a book for English class." I nodded, watching her swiftly power walk towards Mrs Heimler.

Even before she was out of sight, her seat next to me was quickly occupied. I glared, not bothering to honour his presence by looking at him, "What do you want?"

"Here I thought, you would be dying to thank me." I saw him shake his head, his voice light with a smile.

"Leave me alone. I can't be seen with you."

In my peripheral vision I could see him furrow his brows, "Excuse me?"

I sighed, finally looking up at him "Your stupid comments about my bra. Everyone's talking about me now." I muttered, glancing down and finding interest in my fingers.

Pretty boy suddenly laughed. My head shot up to watch him in confusion. "Oh, that." He grinned at me, "Don't worry about it." I huffed, looking away. "Well if it bothers you so much, I'll tell them I was just messing with you,” he promised.

"But you were messing with me." I stated stupidly, glancing back to meet his emerald eyes, and feeling the need to emphasise that it was nothing more than that. He quirked a brow, looking amused. "How are you sure everyone will even listen?"

He shrugged, "They're my friends. I know them.”

"You've only been here a day, you can't possibly be friends with every single person." He was insane.

"I'm not. I'm just friendly with people that are friendly with other people." Of course he was. He was at the top of the high school food chain. And with the way he seemed to pretty much belong at the diner in a matter of hours, it didn’t leave much room to doubt that he was already good friends with everybody at school. He was a natural.

I dropped the issue. I wasn't too worried about the stupid rumours, they would have died out eventually, albeit too slowly for my liking. I still couldn't figure out why it was a big deal. But if he was going to take care of it, I didn't want to waste time thinking about petty gossip. "What did your last note mean?" He looked confused. "The one about us being friends like Leo and Kate." I explained, ready to pull the piece of paper out for proof.

He smirked, "Haven't you watched Titanic?"

This time I was confused, "Yes, so what?"

"So, silly!" He chuckled, "They became good friends by getting all the awkwardness out of the way," he explained. "Kate flashed him," he was smiling.

I was not amused. "Shut up, Erik." I rolled my eyes, and he laughed.

"You didn't really react this time. I thought you might turn beet red again." I threw him a glare.

"You said all that shit just to get a reaction out of me?" I screeched.

He waved his hand, shushing me. "You're cute when you blush." I smacked his shoulder. Pretty boy let out a noise that sounded like a mix between a giggle and a snort, his eyes darting around the library.

I followed his eyes, watching Maya head back towards our table. I jumped up suddenly, grabbing Erik's arm and hauling him out of his chair with minimal effort. I was momentarily surprised, but then I realised he let me drag him up. There was no way I would have even budged him a little. I pushed us further down the aisle between the bookshelves, where Maya wouldn’t see us.

He shot me a crooked smile, comfortably leaning against the algebra section of the shelf. "Eager to get me alone, aren't you?" He folded his arms across his chest and I mentally scoffed, ignoring him.

"I don't want Maya to know about this," I started, slapping his chest when his smile widened. "About the test, I mean."

His smile stayed put, "What about it?"

"Why did you help me?" I asked.

He lazily ran a hand through his bronze hair, "No particular reason. I said I'd make it up to you after you got a little upset by my comments."

I shook my head, "You didn't have to."

"No big deal. You needed it,” he dismissed.

I watched him for a moment, “Are we going to fail?” He tilted his head in puzzlement, “You’re new. You didn’t even learn all the stuff that was in the test.”

He shrugged, “I did, at my old school, that’s why I was allowed to take the test.” I nodded thoughtfully, it made sense.

“Do you write your name on the papers at the end of every exam so you can swap tests,” I began, folding my own arms across my chest, “Or did you make an exception for me?” His amused smile returned.

"Haven't decided yet," he answered simply.

“Excuse me—” my head turned towards the table Maya was at, even though I couldn't see it this far down the aisle. “Have you seen Erik? I saw him coming around here.” I inhaled sharply, startled. Aubrey.

Pretty boy straightened up, quickly walking towards Aubrey. I stayed planted on the spot.

“Hey, sorry man. Kinda got lost looking around.” I heard the friendly smack on the shoulder that boys often do, followed by a dazzling chuckle from Aubrey. "Let's get back to the cafeteria. You found the book you were after?" I peeked around the aisle and saw Aubrey nod as they strode off towards the exit.

I hid in the aisle for a couple more minutes before I finally joined Maya again. “Where were you?” She hissed, excited.

I shrugged casually, pointing to the aisles, “I was looking through some of the books.” I scrunched up my nose, “I didn't realise our school kept some ancient ones too.”

She laughed lightly, “Krys, we don't have any book from before the 19th century, and even then, it's definitely not an original print. That's far from ancient.” How did she even know that? “Did you see Erik?” She looked thrilled again.

I flopped down in my chair, watching her, “What? No. Why would I see him?”

“Aubrey just came by looking for him, and Erik was in the aisles too,” she shrugged.

“Nah.”

“But listen,” she suddenly exclaimed, leaning towards me, her voice dropping to a whisper. “I overheard Darren Smith talking about how Kimmy Simmons found Erik with his hands up Lena Dunham's skirt yesterday.” My jaw dropped. “Before school too! On his first day!” Maya cried, her voice rising several octaves.

It suddenly made sense. So this was the reason our exchange was blown so out of proportion. It was only his second day and he's already built himself a solid reputation. And I almost went down with it. I shook my head in disbelief.

“Now it makes sense why everyone was making a big deal out of it,” Maya continued, “The entire cafeteria was talking about it at lunch.”

Oh pretty boy, I knew you were trouble. And I was going to stay far, far away.