Second Sucks

The next morning, Jeremy wasn't sitting in my seat, but he had pulled up a desk right next to it. I frowned at him, but still took my seat without saying anything. His eyes were locked onto me the entire time, making me feel slightly self-conscious.

"Can I help you?" I snapped, giving him a glare.

He chuckled and said, "Always so polite."

I scoffed and said, "If you expect me to be polite, just quit now."

---

As I was heading to the front of the school to meet Audrey for lunch, I heard someone running behind me, calling my name. I turned around and groaned; of course, it was Jeremy.

"Where are you going?" he asked, his breath short.

"To lunch." I said shortly.

"Can I come with you?" he asked. Suddenly, his brown eyes widened in a pathetic puppy dog pout, which I didn't want to admit that I immediately fell prey to.

I rolled my eyes and shook my head, then turned around and started to walk away. Before I took two steps, Jeremy grabbed my arm and said, "Please? I... I'm all alone in the cafeteria."

"In case you hadn't noticed, I'm not very nice to you." I said, wrenching my arm out of his grip. "Why would you want to go with me anywhere?"

He sighed and said, "Because you talk to me. Nobody else does."

I pursed my lips, then nodded.

"Fine. Come with me, but don't complain if you don't have a good time."

He smiled, lighting up the butterflies in my stomach. I shook my head- he couldn't be affecting me like that- and stormed out of the school. As I passed Audrey, I grabbed her arm and pulled her along with me, offering no explanation as to why Jeremy was trailing along behind us. As we sat down at our picnic table, Audrey stared at Jeremy in silence, until he decided to speak.

"I-I'm Jeremy." he said, offering a shy smile.

Audrey gave me a slightly confused look as she said, "I'm Audrey. Nice to meet you."

His attention focused on his book bag as he pulled out a Batman lunchbox... that was exactly like the one sitting on my lap. I stared at him for a moment, until he looked up and grinned.

"We match." he said, bringing an annoyed frown out of me. I went about eating my PB&J, trying to ignore the feel of his eyes burning into me. After a few minutes, I got fed up and finally snapped.

"Can I help you?" I said, glaring at him.

"You have really nice eyes." he said with an absentminded grin. I blushed bright red; not many people gave me compliments. I wasn't ugly, but still, few people seemed to take note of it.

"I'm not going back to school." I said suddenly. I wasn't sure that I could take much more of Jeremy and his snark and his little comments that for some reason made me blush.

"I have a car." Jeremy said, earning a blank stare from both Audrey and I. "We can go do something, if you want."

"Actually, I think I have a test in fourth block, but you two can go." Audrey said with a devilish grin. She was up to something, I could tell, and I wanted no part in it.

I shook my head and jumped up out of my seat, trying to get away before any more weird things happened. Both Audrey and Jeremy stood up after me and walked around the table.

"C'mon, Ceci, go have a little fun!" Audrey insisted, giving me a little nudge in Jeremy's direction. It wasn't enough to really push me over, but because I was a little shaky, and already extremely uncoordinated, it was more than enough to knock me right into Jeremy. His arms wrapped tightly around me, keeping us both from falling.

As soon as I regained my balance, I pulled away from him, blushing as I muttered, "I-I really can't."

Almost instantly, Jeremy's face fell.

"Whatever." he said, looking slightly angry. "I'm just gonna go."

As he started to walk away, guilt started to gnaw away at my stomach. I rarely ever felt guilty about anything, even when I knew I had probably destroyed someone's life, but here I was feeling awful about upsetting Jeremy. I had no idea why he was suddenly making me feel that way, but I knew I wanted the feeling to be gone.

"Jeremy, wait!" I called, smiling a bit when he turned around. "I'll go with you!"

The walk back to his car was dead silent, the tension between us so thick that, if I had had a knife, I probably could've sliced through it. Every step of the way, I told myself that it wasn't too late to back out and go back to class, but the thought of disappointing him again kept me from it. When we got to his car, he held the door open for me, then waited until I was seated to close it and climb into the driver's seat. As soon as the car started, he sped out of the parking lot and started cruising down the road.

"Anywhere you wanna go?" he asked, combing a hand through his hair. "We can get coffee, if you like coffee. Or we can go to the mall?"

I glanced over at him and was surprised to find that he looked more nervous than I felt. His hands shook when they weren't clutching the wheel, and he kept biting his lip.

"I like coffee." I mumbled.

He smiled back at me and said, "Coffee it is."

---

A few hours later, we were still sitting at Starbucks, slowly sipping on our drinks. We had spent much of the time talking, sharing memories and tiny details that only made the butterflies in my stomach worse. As much as I hated to admit it, he was nowhere near as bad as I though he would be. By the time we were finished with our drinks, I didn't want to leave.

"Thanks for hanging out with me." he said with a dazzling smile as he pulled up in front of my house. "I've been having trouble getting anyone around here to even talk to me."

"No problem," I said, trying to force a grin to distract him from my shaking hands. I wanted more than anything to invite him inside, but I knew that would only make whatever was going on with me worse, so I left it at a handshake and rushed inside.

As soon as the door closed behind me, I ran up to my room and slammed my door shut. I laid back on my bed and took a deep breath, my head spinning. As I laid with my eyes closed and hands clenched, I finally admitted it to myself- I was falling for Jeremy.