Wednesday in Paris

"We were sitting there by the water..."

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"So are you two exclusive yet?" Alexis whispered as she flipped through a lesson plan.

I shook my head and took a sip of my water. It was unusually hot in the library. "No, not at the moment. It's only been a week, nothing serious for now."

She smiled. "You think it's going to get serious?"

I didn't have an answer. "It's only June and you're already making lesson plans?" I asked, changing the subject and looking down at my textbook.

Alexis closed her book. "Well, I'm just excited that I was hired as a full-time teacher. And you are not going to change the subject on me, young man."

"I'm not changing the subject, I just want to know," I told her.

"Michael Lilo," she said, "I've known you all my life. Do you really think I don't know when you're changing the subject?"

"It's kind of weird how Harper is your roommate and I never knew."

"I pretended not to know you that day at Paris because she thought you were cute."

I blushed just a bit. "Really?"

Alexis smiled. "I can see you blushing. It's cute."

I was interrupted by her phone ringing. She excused herself, and answered her phone, attracting menacing glares from the librarian. She rolled her eyes, muttered something to the librarian, and went into the bathroom.

I pulled out my phone and opened my messages from Harper.

'Meet me at The Cliff when school gets out.' I sent. Moments later, she sent back, 'I'll be there in about a half hour.'

Alexis returned. She sat back down and I closed all my books. I put them in my backpack and zipped it up.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"I'm meeting Harper."

She sighed. "Okay. See you later."

I walked out of the library and to my car. I put my stuff in the back seat and drove thirteen miles to The Cliff. When I got there, she wasn't there yet, so I sat on the hood and looked out at the ocean.

Harper arrived about ten minutes later. I smiled and waved as she got out of her car and walked over to me.