Smiles Echo In My Memory

In our school, instead of having a lesson every hour or five lessons a day or whatever, we have three 100 minute lessons with a break in between each one. So it’s like first period, break, second period, lunch, and third period. It’s really not as bad as it sounds.
I quickly explained that to Frank while we walked to our Additional Science room, which was literally like 10 steps away from our form room. He nodded slowly, looking down at the floor. He was nervous, again. I sighed and led him towards the tables and stools at the back of the room, making sure he sat next to me so I wouldn’t have to talk to Yasmin.
“Sazzy!” an extremely feminine voice called out, the owner of the voice running out towards me.
“Kelli!” I called back, receiving a peck on each cheek. Kelli was really tall and thin, and one of my friends. She wasn’t really that close to me, but we’d tell each other stuff and were just casual friends.
“Kelli, this is Frank, he’s new here,” I said, introducing them. They both kind of smiled at each other and stuff and Kelli rushed off stating that she was late for her Music lesson.

“Hey, Frank?” I questioned halfway through the lesson, looking over at him. “Hmmh?” he mumbled, looking up at me. The light hit his face, making it glow and bounce off the bottom left hand side of his lip.
“You have your lip pierced?” stupid thing to say, but what I was gonna ask him just flew out of my mind. And I was pretty much in shock for not realizing sooner. He nodded, smirking at me. “You didn’t know…?”
“I… No,” I mumbled, grinning idiotically. He leaned back in his chair, still facing me. “You smoke?”
“…I used to,” I mumbled again. Smoking was a little bit of a touchy subject. Nicotine was my weak spot, and I wasn’t really proud of it.
“Oh right…” he said, looking back towards his textbook.
“And I’m guessing you do,” I didn’t really put it past him. He looked like a smoker.
“Yeah, and I’m fucking dying for one. I don’t have any,” he said, smiling weakly.
“I could get you one…” I trailed off, wondering if one of Kelli’s friends would let me bum one off them.
“Thanks. My Mom was meant to have dropped mine off but she’s bloody late, so I don’t th-” he got cut off by Lamb slamming a blue cigarette packet in front of him, a silver lighter resting on top. “It’s bad for you! QUIT! Massacre knows it all, she’ll help you,” he cried dramatically, walking off. Like I said, he was always enthusiastic in his speech. Frank laughed quietly, pushing the lighter into the packet and putting it in his pocket.

The bell rang shrilly, indicating the start of break. Me and Frank were the first ones out, and I led him out of the school towards the bus stop were he can enjoy his cancer stick. “So, yeah,” I said, striking up a conversation. We were really quite relaxed with each other, which was pretty cool. “How long have you been in Brighton for?” I asked, sitting down on the red bench. He sat down next to me and pulled out the blue packet. “Umm… About 2 months now,” he muttered, his speech muffled due to the cigarette hanging out of the corner of his mouth. He lit it and exhaled slowly, his eyes closed. “Drag?” he offered, turning towards me and holding the cig up to my lips. I took up his offer, two of his fingers pressed to my lips with the cigarette in between them. God, it felt good to have a drag after so long. He smiled at me as I pulled away, exhaling.
“You know,” I said, burying my hands in my pockets. “You love smiling.”
“Like you don’t,” he stated, laughing softly, and blowing out smoke at the same time. It started raining lightly, then got heavier very quickly, the drops falling thick and fast on the pavement and the bus shelter we were under.
“Your fucking joking me,” I moaned, looking at the rain fall. Frank just laughed at me again. “Oh, shit. We’d better go, it’s pissing it!” he said, looking over at me. “Sazzy, you don’t have a jacket…”
“It’s okay, I’m used to it. It’s England,” I stated, shrugging. He furrowed his eyebrows together, which was adorable. “Still…” he removed his denim jacket and placed it around my shoulders, cig hanging out of his mouth.
“Frank! Now you’ll freeze!” I said worriedly. He smiled at me again. “No I won’t, I have a hoodie,” he said smartly, pulling the hood over his head.
“Thanks,” I whispered, enveloping him into a hug. I felt him smile against my hair as he wrapped his arms around my waist. We stayed like that for a while, and I pulled away, looking up at him. “We’d better go,” he said, stubbing out his cigarette after a last drag.
We walked together to out next lesson, which was Maths. I hated this lesson with a passion, but Sal was there to keep me sane. And Frank was there now, too.

When we got there, we were about 10 minutes late. And Mr. Blair, our Maths teacher, is very strict with tardiness. He didn’t really seem to mind, but gave Frank a funny look.
“Sazzy! Finally joining us? And who is this?” he asked, nodding towards Frank.
“Umm, Blair, this is Frank. You probably agreed to teach him for this year,” I sighed. This guy always forgot stuff.
“Oh, yes! Of course! American boy! Take a seat, take a seat,” Blair beckoned, pushing us both towards the back were Sal and Cally, another one of my friends, sat. I know, Sally and Cally, it gets pretty confusing. So I call Sally Sal. We sat opposite them so I could copy their unbelievably amazing and accurate work. I told this to Frank and he giggled a little. “That’s so… Sazzy,”
I smiled, laughing softly. “And you giggle like a girl.”