The Speed of Sound

I looked up at the clock, and started packing up my things. One of the perks of breaking your leg is leaving early to take the elevator so you didn’t get trampled in the hall. One of the cons of breaking your leg is that all of a sudden, everyone is your friend so they can ‘help carry your things’ and get out of class early with you. I had good friends for that. I glanced over at Janice, who was getting up to grab my books and my back pack. I hobbled to the door with my crutches and waited for Janice to open the door, while the class stared at me.

“How you feelin’ girly?” Janice asked once we left the room.

“Pretty great actually, the pain meds they gave me were a-one.” I laughed.

“Really? Well, I think I might be ready to break my leg.” She laughed.

I rolled my eyes, before hitting the down button on the elevator. “Fuck that. It hurt like a bitch, seriously.”

She laughed at me while I hobbled into the elevator. ¨Oh, who is walking you to your next class after this? I have a huge chem test and I don't think she’ll let me leave early.”

I sighed. ¨Um. I don’t know, I’ll figure something out.”

The doors opened in front of us and Janice helped me drag myself out. I hopped to my next class and stood outside the doors and said goodbye to Janice.

I sighed leaning against the wall, I could feel the dull ache in my leg start to come back. I’d have to go to the nurse later for pain meds. The bell rang and a hoard of people poured into the halls. I waited for the last person to leave the room, luckily they weren’t a douche and held the door open for me.

I walked into my English class and tossed my things on to a desk. ¨Need some help with that, Autumn?” My teacher, Mrs. D’ ulz said to me.

¨Please.” I said. She walked over to me and grabbed my bag and walked it over to my desk.

¨Thanks.” I said. She smiled at me and nodded. Just before the awkward silence started to flood in several kids came in to class, laughing and joking around.

I pulled out my phone and messed around on it until the bell rang. I really didn’t know many people in this class, most of my friends were seniors and not many seniors flunked into a junior class. My teacher stood up and started passing out packets on The Catcher in the Rye. I looked around the room, and accidentally made eye contact with a boy a few chairs away from me. I quickly broke eye contact, but I could still feel his eyes on me.

I knew exactly who he was, he’s name is Chance Kingsman. He was tall with brown hair and emerald green eyes, he always managed to get along with any group of people, whether it was the pretty girls that only care about their looks, the stoner kids, or even the really beefed up guys who were in like every sport. I had no idea why he was just sort of staring at me, but I just brushed it off, maybe he spaced out looking at me on accident.

¨Alright, now for this project you’re going to get in groups of two, to discuss the themes of The Catcher in the Rye so far.¨ I didn’t even have to listen to the rest of the teacher sentence. I hated doing group work, I had no friends in this class who am I supposed to partner with? I sat in my seat, as usual and waited to see who was left over after everyone partner up. Then he walked over to me.

¨Hey, you wanna be partners?” He asked.

I felt my face flush. He was way more attractive up close, his eyes glimmered when he swept his hair to the side. He had the most perfect pearly white smile I’d ever seen, I just couldn’t keep my eyes off of him.

¨Well?” He asked, the corners of his mouth curling up a bit, revealing cute little dimples in his cheeks.

¨Oh, oh my god, I’m sorry I totally space out.” I said. ¨Yeah, yeah, sure.¨

He sat down next to me and smiled again, making my heart do backflips in my chest. I grabbed a pencil out of my bag and started to read the first question.

¨So what happened to your leg?” He asked.

I brushed my hair back out of my face. ¨Freak accident you know, I was walking down the street and I saw this dude beating up this lady, like he was trying to take her purse. So you know, being the awesome super hero that I am, I jumped in and grabbed her purse and she ran away with it, then the dude was all like ‘hey, I needed that purse, it was prada.’ you know, stylish as hell. So, he like gets all pissed and body slams me on the pavement, and squashed my leg.¨

At this point, Chance was crying with laughter. I covered my face and giggled. ¨No seriously, what happened?¨ He said, still laughing a little.

¨I fell down the stairs at my house.” I said meekly. This made him howl with laughter, his face turned blood red, and he laughed until so sound came from his mouth. I’d never talked to this boy once in my life, and he is sitting in front of my, dying with laughter while the other girls in the room glared at me.

I looked down at my feet after accidentally making eye contact with a girl staring at us. ¨So, themes of To Kill a Mockingbird.¨ I said.

¨Are you kidding me, you’re hilarious. I want to talk to you more before we have to do this shit.¨ He said, grinning at me. My face turned red hot and I couldn’t get this goddamn smile off of my face. We talked and talked, pretending to actually do the work. We talked a lot about me, which was surprising. I looked up at the clock and noticed it was almost five minutes to the bell so I started packing my things up.

¨Leaving so soon?¨ He joked. ¨The party just started.¨

I smiled. ¨I’d love to stay and chat but I have to make it to my next class, without being trampled in the hall.¨

I started to grab my bag and throw it over my shoulder but Chance stood up and grabbed it. ¨Here, let me help you.¨ He said looking deep into my eyes. My face flushed this time. I nearly fainted.

I let go of my bag, my eyes still locked on his. He threw it over his shoulder and walked over to the door, holding it opened for me. ¨Thanks.” I said walking past him.

“No problem.” He smiled.

I crutched down the hall, and he walked slowly next to me with my bag across his shoulder. He smiled at me, but not like a grin or a toothy smile. It was warm, and welcoming. I felt my heart doing backflips just looking at him.

“You know,” He started. “I could walk you to all of your classes, if you’d want that.”

“Yeah, I mean who wouldn’t want to get out of class five minutes early and show up five minutes late.” I blurted out, forgetting that what I said could be potentially hurtful.

He stopped dead in his tracks and looked at me, with almost a pained expression on his face. “No, no. I wouldn’t use you for that, Autumn.” My heart skipped a beat. The way he said my name rang in my ears. “You’re hurt. I want to help the best I can.”
“Why are you being so nice to me?” I asked. “We’ve never talked before this day. What’s going on?”

He started walking with me again. “I’ve wanted to talk to you for a while now. You’re cool. I just, never knew how to approach you.”

My face was on fire. Chance Kingsman, the guy who has no problem talking to anyone, the guy who is friends with almost every diverse group of people in our school, didn’t know how to approach me. I tried to keep a straight face to hide my smile but I just couldn’t help myself.

“I didn’t really think about how this would look I guess, I just really don’t want you to think that I’m only talking to you to get out of class.” He said.

I smiled at him. “Yeah, I get it.” I said stopping in front of my next class.

“So, would it be too much to ask if I walked you too you’re classes?” He asked. He face was starting to turn red.

“No. Not at all.” I said chewing on my bottom lip.

He ran a hand through his hair and smiled at me. “Well, I should probably get your number. You know, you can just text me when you get to school and I’ll just meet you wherever works and--”

He was rambling so I interrupted him. “Yeah, sure.” I pulled out my phone and let him put in his number. He gave me his phone and I put my number in right before the bell rang. A bunch of kids poured out of the room and he took my bags into the classroom.

“Where do you sit?” He asked.

“Over there.” I pointed to the desk in the middle of the room. He sat my bag down nicely next to the desk.

“Thanks.” I said as he walked back over to me.

“No problem.” He said, standing in front of me. He looked down at his shoes and then back up to me. “Well, see you after this period.”

I felt as if his eyes told me a story, and I was completely engulfed in the plot. “See ya.”

As soon as he turned around I was met by a pair of pretty blue eyes and big, sharp winged eyeliner. It was Janice. She gave me the most shocked expression.

¨What was that?!¨ She almost yelled.
¨Shh!¨ I said. ¨He’s just walking me to class. He just being nice, calm down.¨

¨A boy that cute just wants to walk you to class? He didn’t try to make not one move on you? At all?¨ She asked. I thought about that moment right before he left. I felt such an energy from him. I shook my head.

¨No.¨ I said. ¨He’s just walking me to class. I broke my leg for fucks sake, Jan.¨

¨Hm.¨ She said sitting down in the desk next to mine. ¨Maybe he’s gay.¨

I reached over and hit her arm. ¨Janice!¨

¨I’m just saying.¨ She said.

The rest of the class flooded in and the teacher started passing out worksheets. I looked at the clock, it was like time was moving at a snails pace. I couldn't wait for class to be over so I could see Chance. I’ve had a crush on him since freshman year, but I never thought anything of it. I mean, he’s totally out of my league.

¨So, what happened last period?” Janice whispered to me.

¨Nothing, we had to partner up for some Catcher in the Rye stuff, and I didn’t have a partner.¨ I said.

¨So, he just came up to you and asked to be your partner?¨ She asked, almost amazed.

¨Yeah, pretty much.” I said.

¨He likes you, oh my god. He wants a little change of season, he’s tired of spring, he wants some Autumn.¨ She teased.

¨You sound ridiculous.¨ I said. ¨Stop it.”

¨You know it’s true!¨ She said. ¨You guys might as well have taken down each others numbers.¨

I pulled out my phone and looked for his contact. It was his name with a bunch of blushy faced smilies by it. ¨He put that in.¨

She looked at me like I was Jesus Christ and this was the first coming. I smiled at her. ¨He wants to date you Aut. You can’t deny that.” She said.

I thought this over for a moment. I didn’t want to get my hopes up. ¨Or he’s just a decent person. He plays sports and skateboards, I’m sure he’s broken a few bones and probably would have loved for someone to show him the kindness he’s shown me.¨ I said.

Her face slowly smoothed. ¨Oh, yeah. Whatever. I still think he likes you.” She said.

I rolled my eyes. ¨You did that problem wrong.¨ I said pointing to her worksheet.

The rest of class almost flew by, and like clockwork, Chance was in my Algebra II class, five minutes before the bell to walk me to my last class. He grabbed my bag and held the door open for me. We walked in silence for a minute until I could properly gain my footing.

¨How was Algebra?” He asked.

¨Just mathtastic.¨ I said. He laughed for a while after that one.

¨You’re hilarious!” He said.

I smiled at him. ¨I try to be.¨

I stopped outside my class and leaned against the wall, we were really early. ¨I forgot how close this class was. We’re early.¨ I said.

¨Thats fine. I want to talk to you.¨ He smiled. ¨How was your day.¨

“Great. For the most part. How was yours?” I asked.

“Fantastic.” He said grinning.

“What made it so fantastic?”

“You did.” He blurted out. His face turned blood red and I could tell he wanted to swallow those words and never let them out but it was too late.

I wanted to dwell on the situation and bask in my glory of everlasting hope that one day we could be a real couple, but I shot myself back to reality. It was obvious that we couldn’t be together, even if we wanted to. We were just not the same kind of people. “Well, I’m glad I could help.” I said.

The bell rang and we waited for the last few kids to come rushing out of my physics class. “So, after this I’ll walk you to your car or bus or whatever you take, if you’d like.” He said after clearing his throat.

“Actually, I walk. It’s a few blocks down, there’s no need to fret about it.” I said.

“You walk? With a broken leg? No way, I’ll drive you.” He said.

“What? no, It’s really no problem-”

“Autumn.” He said, sending a pang in my heart at the sound of my name coming out of his mouth. “I’m going to drive you home.”

I was blushing uncontrollably, there was no way to hide it. “Okay.”

I shuffled over to my desk and and he sat my bag down. “Great. See you soon.”

He turned and walked out of the room, leaving me in a hurricane of my own feelings.