Lessons Learned I

Alex and I were at the Bean Scene, studying. We both had a test coming up in Algebra, and even though I was a year behind him, we were pretty much covering the same areas in this gay subject.

"Um...what was the formula thing for slope-intercept form again?" I questioned.

"It's y equals m x plus b," he said.

"Well, what does that mean?!" I exclaimed, really frustrated.

"I don't know, I just memorize..."

I gave him a really dull look. "You're a grade ahead of me."

He looked embarrassed. "Sorry."

I sighed. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be so rude. I'm just stressed out. I want to be a writer, and the ding dongs make me take Algebra. Yeah, I'm gonna be writing about quadric equations every single day of my life," I mumbled sarcastically.

"It's okay...we're all at our all time highs right now. New school year and all..."

A familiar face wandered over to our table. It looked like the guy goofing off with Jason at the party Lee and I had attended -- the Andrew guy. He walked over holding a mocha latte, but he stopped at our table and smirked at me.

"Sup, baby?" he asked.

I raised my eyebrows at the table, then looked up at him. Alex wasn't paying any attention.

"Um...excuse me?" I said.

"You're hot. Wanna go out sometime?" he asked.

I raised my eyebrow at him. "Thanks, but no thanks," I said.

"Come on, baby, let's go."

Alex looked up at him and glared.

"Uh, no," I said sternly.

"Come on, baby, lemme shack yo tambourine," Andrew said.

"She said no. Get lost, you jackass," Alex said.

Thank God Alex is here, I thought.

Unfortunately, Andrew ignored him. "Come on, my sausage is waiting for you to smear some ketchup on it and have a hot dog eating contest!"

My eyes widened. "Go hit on someone else. I'm not interested," I said in a mean, stern voice.

"Come on, baby," Andrew said, grabbing a certain part of my body that should not be grabbed.

Alex stood up and punched him in the face before I could say or do anything. Andrew fell to the floor with a loud thud. Alex then grabbed his latte and dumped it on Andrew's head.

My eyes widened as I was trying to process what had just happened.

The waiter walked over and said, "Sir, you need to leave."

Alex glared at the waiter, then looked down at Andrew. The stupid waiter literally pushed him out of the place. Everyone in the cafe was staring at us.

I tried to get my eyes to...un-widen. I immediately grabbed my Math book and ran outside to catch up with Alex.

He was already walking down the sidewalk. Some ding dong drove by in a car and splashed poor Alex with a bunch of mud. It completely covered his cool-looking brown corduroy jacket.

"Ugh! Thanks, asshole!" Alex exclaimed, brushing the mud off of himself.

I ran down the sidewalk and tried to catch up with him. "Alex, wait," I said, finally catching up to him.

He stopped walking, but his facial expression told me he was really humiliated. He slowly turned around and looked at my feet. "Hey," he said.

I stared at him, then dropped my book and hugged the crap out of him. "Thank you," I whispered in his ear.

So what if I'm gonna be covered in mud now? He deserves a thank you, I thought.

He wrapped his arms around me. "Any time, Rachel."

I pulled away from him and smiled a little at him. I pecked his cheek quickly, then gave him a full smile.

He turned bright red and looked away. A small smile formed across his face.

Aw, he's shy.

"Oh, um...here," I said, handing him his Math book.

He took it. "Thank you."

"Thank you," I said, smiling at him again. "I better get back to my dorm room. I'll catch you later. Thanks again, Alex." I grinned at him before taking off.