Just A Crush (BWWM)✅

twelve

I couldn't believe it. We had a presentation due today and instead of answering my frantic texts, Kit is laughing and joking around with the baseball team. He promised this time he would take our grade seriously but he lied to me... again. We didn't get a single thing done at Harvey's house because after the emotional rollercoaster the two of them put me through, they both decided to play video games on his theater-sized flatscreen TV. I don't know what he is trying to do but I don't think I can keep up with it.

"Mrs. May!" I flagged her down before she could enter her classroom. "I've been looking for you everywhere. I even thought about sending an email but I was scared you wouldn't see it in time." All my rambling made her sigh and I knew that she knew this wouldn't be good. "I actually have some bad news."

Her frown scared me worse than the time I lost my brother in the mall when he was only seven. "It's Friday. You're giving me bad news on a Friday. Which is also the day you and Kit have to give your reproduction presentation."

"I know but I just want to say that it's not my fault that I keep getting paired up with a-"

"Can't wait for our fire ass presentation this afternoon!" All heads turned to Kit who was tossing his baseball glove in the air as he walked down the hall. "Mrs. May, I'm loving the hair color! Auburn never looked so good."

My mouth fell open at how he was basically flirting with her while also going behind my back and making me look like the fool. "Oh, thank you, Kit. Nova here was just telling me that she had some bad news to deliver about the presentation." All eyes landed on me at this moment. "What was it?"

"I hope you mean bad as in badass news like Queen is going to be presenting with us." He chuckled and so did Mrs. May. "If not then I guess there really isn't any bad news, right?"

I nodded slowly while dumbfounded. "The bad news wasn't about the presentation at all. I actually was going to say that I lost my textbook in your class." Mrs. May furrowed her eyebrows. "It's not bad for you but for me, it's detrimental that I find it."

"Well, I clean my class after school every day and I never see any textbooks. Maybe you lost it in a different class." She sent me a faint smile. "Now you two go on and get somewhere. I better see you early to set up."

Kit waved at her. "No, problem, Mrs." Once she left our sight, I didn't waste a second to unleash on him. "Before you say all that you have been dying to say, I wanted to let you know that I did the entire project last night. I owe it to you for how goofy I was last time and for putting you through the presence of Harvey. I know I can be a bit of a slack off and he can be just... overbearing."

My body softened as I saw how genuine he was being. "You did the project last night? That takes hours to do."

"Yeah. All you have to do is control the slideshow and I'll do all the talking. Unless you have something to add that is."

"No, no. You have full control, Kit." I couldn't help but smile at how proud of himself he was. Kit looked very different when he owned up to his mistakes and actually fixed them. "And what about not responding to my texts?"

He groaned while rolling his eyes. "I don't even want to talk about it but just know that three hours of sleep makes a very forgetful person. I left my phone charging at home." He pouted. "I also have baseball practice after school today and would love some support from my good friend."

"Wow! I would love to come watch you practice. I'll even make a sign as a thank you for taking over this time. I honestly was so scared that we would fail."

"I can't let that happen again."

I almost froze in my spot when I saw Harvey meeting up with us from down the hall. I haven't been able to look at him the same since he told me a few things at his house. But as always, his smile and the way he walked made it impossible for one to take eyes off him. Today he had on a jean jacket with pants to match and a graphic tee. Kit only had on a baby blue tee with someone's last name on the back and ripped jeans. Both looked amazing in such simple clothing.

"Baseball season is starting and Edith is talking about getting shirts made with our numbers and names on the back for the girls." He looked over at me and smiled. "What number are you wearing?"

Both the boys looked at me and I couldn't believe Harvey would ask such a question. "I-"

"O- Obviously she's wearing y- yours." Kit looked at Harvey as if he was scared and unsure of his answer. "Right?" This made Harvey smile while I was hurting inside yet I remember what I told him. How I would give Harvey a chance. I didn't remember agreeing to be forced on him though.

"Good. I'll let her know." He then walked right in between us while making sure to look at me as he squeezed by.

Kit sent me a weak smile before walking away to his class. He didn't bother to say bye and I was too confused to even say it either. Did he seriously want me to wear Harvey's jersey?

If him doing the project by himself wasn't enough, he showed up to class fifteen minutes earlier and I would know because I showed up ten minutes early. Kit was already setting up while chatting Mrs. May's ears off. I snuck in to put my things in my seat and join in on the discussion.

"Perfect! Nova is here to confirm my whereabouts of the past weekend."

I looked at Kit crazy because not once did I think he'd be talking to a teacher about his party-filled weekends. "Oh ~ yeah! It's always a fun time with Kit. Outside of this project, he was no inconvenience."

She rolled her eyes before pulling out a clipboard and turning on the projector. "Let's just get this over with."

Students began to fill the class and the moment the last bell rung, Mrs. May was already passing the class's attention to us. "You all know I'm lenient with second chances so please show your peers, Nova and Kit, some respect as they show you their revised presentation."

Kit rushed to dim the lights just as I turned to the first slide. "I'm Kit Richardson and this is my partner, Nova Homes. Speaking of partner, you're going to need one to successfully accomplish what's written in our project." The class chuckled and giggled as we moved to the next slideshow page. "Now let's start off by saying what reproduction is."

I watched diligently as Kit explained in thorough detail everything that was meant to be discussed. He even asked the class if they had any questions which was weird because he usually did his presentations and didn't care what anyone thought of it.

"I have a question!" Rudy smirked with her hand straight up in the air. The fact that she already looked devious made me want to sit down and wish that I never accepted this project. "How much research did you do on this project to get the facts so correct? I heard when you are presenting your findings, the scientist has to either test the hypothesis on others or... themselves." Her comment caused the class to snicker and whisper while some of the girls even looked at Kit like he was the last meal on earth. "Which one did you two do?"

Mrs. May got up from her seat which caused the class to quiet down. "I don't know where you heard that from but that is incorrect and most of this information is on the internet, Miss Doyle." Rudy rolled her eyes when the fun died down. "Thank you, Kit and Nova. I will update your grades before the end of the day. I appreciate the effort this time."

We both went over to take our seats even though I wanted to be as far away from Rudy as possible. "That wasn't cool," I commented the moment I sat down. Kit took his seat next to her and turned around to see what I was going on about. "That's inappropriate and especially a girl saying that to another girl-"

"Oh, don't start your women empowerment bullshit on me. I don't care if it was two dudes up there doing this exact topic. It was a joke and instead of bitching about it, you should have just laughed." She looked at Kit and chuckled. "Right, Christopher?"

He glanced at me then back to her and disagreed. "Rudy, that wasn't funny. It was... inappropriate." He quickly looked back to the front where Mrs. May went on about the next unit information. Rudy, on the other hand, stared daggers into me while all I could do was stare ahead with shaky eyes.