𝗔𝗟𝗟 𝗜 𝗪𝗔𝗡𝗧. a true story

⁀➷ 53- IGNORE IT

-𝐌𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐝𝐲-

The next day, I arrived at school still in a daze.

Why had Charlie kissed me? I mean it was because he liked me, obviously- but why?

I sighed, organizing my thoughts before heading into class.

"Sooo, how was the party?" Maddie asked.

I slumped into my seat with a blanked out expression on my face.

"That bad?"

I groaned and buried my head in my arms. "He kissed me."

"What?!" she shrieked, turning several heads to us. Madelyn quickly apologized before swatting my arm.

"Spill the tea," she demanded in a whisper.

---

11 / 5 / 22 — SATURDAY

"Whatcha doing?"

"Washing dishes."

"You busy?"

"Not really."

"Want to come over?"

"Sure."

I could hear Charlie sigh on the other end of the phone.

"How come you keep answering me with 1-2 word sentences?"

"I don't know."

He groaned. "Forget it. I thought maybe you'd want to spend some time together since we haven't seen each other since Monday, but I guess not."

"Charlie- okay, I'm sorry. I'll be there around five, alright?"

"Alright," he said before hanging up.

Truth was, I really was trying not to say much. How was Charlie acting like nothing had happened? My brain was all jumbled trying to make sense of everything...

---

"Char."

"Yeah?"

"Can I ask you something?"

He chuckled. "I think you just did, but yeah, go ahead."

I paused the movie we were watching. "Why did you kiss me?"

Charlie's hand stopped playing with my hair. "Because I like you," he replied bluntly.

I rubbed my knuckles anxiously. "But... I don't know if I feel that way for you."

"I know," he replied with a sigh. "We don't have to think about that right now though, do we?"

I shook my head and pressed play.

Even as the movie began playing again, I couldn't concentrate. How was I supposed to act normal and forget the fact that one of my boy best friends liked me?

Whatever. Let's just try to ignore it.

---

11 / 7 / 22 — MONDAY

"Alright, I've arranged you into random groups of four. You'll have most of this week to finish this project, so just make sure that you have a rough draft for the sketch planned out by the end of class today."

Glad we were taking a break from math, I sat straight up in my seat as the teacher explained our STEM day assignment, which was to create a model bridge that could support weight.

"Group one is Ella, Max, Aliyah, and Evan."

I frowned and waved goodbye to Evan as he got up to gather with his group.

"Second group, we have Tristan, Melody, Jenna, and Joshua."

Jen and I high fived each other, relieved that we were in the same group. Our teacher announced the others and we were left to work.

I'd seen Tristan and Joshua around, but I barely knew them. All I knew was that I also had first period with Tristan, Joshua was good at math, and that the two were pretty close friends.

"So... who's artistic?" Tristan questioned as we sat down in the hall with a huge piece of poster board for our sketch.

Nobody replied.

"Okay then, who has the best handwriting?"

We all wrote "math sucks" on a piece of scratch paper, and Tristan pointed at me. "You cool with doing the drawing?"

I shrugged. "Sure. I had some ideas for the sketch anyways."

I drew a quick arch-shaped bridge on the paper and added a few lines to make it seem like a modern design.

"That's pretty good," Joshua complimented.

"Thanks."

mhm , it started with a project . . . yk what i mean if you've read my rant book ;)

-emms