Curing His Love Allergy

Chapter 8 - Mr. Persistent

As the resident new girl, everyone was supposed to be oblivious to my existence. At least I hoped they would be, but the one person blocking my idea of a normal life was FRANCE WILLIAMS.

He wanted me to be his friend, he wanted me to sit with him and to hang out with him. But what if I didn't want to hang with him or be his friend? Do you know what he would do? Annoy you into submission.

As I sat in my seat next to the clinger in Biology, I didn't really see why the girls here wanted him. He was very talkative and obsessive. Maybe it's because I want to be left alone that I'm feeling like this, but I really want to be left alone.

I'm not over my mom's death, and the feelings of abandonment haunted me at some peculiar times.

My teacher was talking about the human brain, and I couldn't even focus on school work. What knocked me out of my thoughts was someone gently patting my shoulder. "Tiara, Mr. Holding just asked you a question."

That snapped me out of the trance I was in. "Could you repeat what you said, sir?"

"Am I boring you, Miss Matthews?"

"No, sir."

"I asked, what is the part of the brain that controls memory?"

I didn't know the answer to the question, and he was surely going to put me out of the class if I couldn't answer it.

That's when I looked over at France and saw him scribbling down something in his notebook. It read, "the temporal lobe."

"Sir, the answer is the temporal lobe," I echoed, and he curtly nodded his head then moved on with his lesson.

"Thanks," I whispered to the black-haired boy sitting next to me.

"No problem, but you should really pay attention more often. I wouldn't want you to get in trouble for not paying attention."

"I don't need a lecture from you, dad," I retorted, annoyed.

"You don't like me, do you?" he asked, his face looking droopy.

I felt really bad when he asked that because he didn't deserve all the attitude when he's been nothing but kind to me since the day I arrived in Manhattan.

"No-- uh, no... it's not like that. It's just I have a lot going on in my mind, and I don't need anyone badgering me."

"I understand," he said as the bell rang, almost causing me to go deaf in the process. I packed my bag, then left the classroom to meet up with Collin for French class.

The day went by uninterestingly after that, with my teachers giving me so much homework I could drown in it.

...

Three weeks have passed since I started at Bryan's.

Every day was practically the same. That consisted of people whispering about what I had going on with France. Apparently, he's never been so hung up on a girl before, and they haven't seen him like a girl since some beauty named Brooke. She and he dated for two years, the last year of middle school and almost all of freshman year until she moved away. No one truly knows why or when they broke up or how long they even dated.

France was obviously not interested in me like that, or else he would've said something because let me tell you, he was a pretty straightforward guy. Some time ago, he asked me the answers to the pop quiz we got in Bio, and no one is gonna be so pointed about a test.

He just wanted us to be friends, that much I was sure of. And I know what you all are thinking. I am oblivious to his feelings because I'm on the receiving end of them, but I really don't think so.