Wishful Thinking

Chapter Twenty - Time To Think

Gwen being back made Arthurs life a whole lot harder. He didn’t like her being here again, it made things complicated. He walked towards his detention in the English block and collided with someone, it was his fault he wasn’t watching where he was walking. “Sorry!” Arthur apologised. The girl he bumped into had dropped something so he bent down to pick it up, then he noticed what it was.

Arthur looked up and straight into the face of someone he really didn’t want to. Speak of the devil didn’t even begin to explain it. Gwen looked back at Arthur with the same expression he wore, shock. His apologetic smile had dropped and was replaced by shock, the same shock she wore. “Oh Gwen.” Arthur blurted, then mentally slapped himself for sounding rude.

“Arthur.” She replied, a little more surprised than his rude blurt. She took her script back and their hands brushed lightly against each other for a few seconds. Arthur relished the gentle and quick touch but knew it meant nothing. Fran looked at the pair smugly and muffled giggles, she was a great help.

“That’s a, er, big, um, script. For Ripped Apart?” Arthur asked awkwardly, he didn’t know why he was trying to make conversation. He just was.

“Yeah.” Gwen replied just as awkwardly, “Still got some lines to learn.” She tucked a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear and in that moment she had never looked so adorable. You could tell she was embarrassed because a little blot of red appeared on both of her cheeks.

“Well, good to see you.” Arthur smiled slightly, realising he too was going a little red.

“Yeah.” Gwen replied moving to walk past him.

But Arthur moved the same way and they ended up bumping into each other again, just like Arthur planned. As much as he denied it Arthur still liked Gwen, more than liked, and he took every chance he could get to see her. But also didn’t like seeing her because it rekindled the feelings he had for her, and that made him do weird things. “Sorry.” Arthur said again.

But knowing his luck they did exactly the same thing and bumped into each other again, he laughed slightly relaxed. Arthur took her shoulders and moved her to the side so he could walk past, and that he did. Arthur felt her eyes burning into his back, did she want him to turn around? Arthur knew she did but also couldn’t bring himself to do so. Then he realised how far he walked and knew Gwen wouldn’t be looking, so he stole a glance and saw her back instead. But Fran still had an eye on him and smiled mischievously, that made him swivel back around and focus on the English block. He had one whole detention to think about it, to think about her.

“Just write it out like you were supposed to, Arthur.” Arthurs English teacher plopped some paper down in front of him and he opened my book to the right page.

He hadn’t done the homework so he’d gotten a detention, top set English was hard work. But it wasn’t his fault his teacher gave homework practically every lesson. Arthur sighed, he should’ve just done the homework in the first place. Nevertheless Arthur put his pen to the paper and started copying out of his book, improving what could be improved but otherwise not paying much attention. When reading this the teacher would probably find numerous mistakes but it was worth it, it’s just homework. Arthur had other things on his mind, things which his teacher probably knew about. The people in his class never stopped going on about it. Arthur and Gwen this, Arthur and Gwen that. It was the only piece of gossip they found worth it. Although, the girls became quite quiet whenever Gwen was brought up, most of the girls in his class were friends of hers, like Kassandra and Steve. Arthur glanced out the window as rain started to hammer against the glass and wondered where she was, the art room was his best guess. It was a Friday and that was where she usually went, he should know. He’d looked for her in there god knows how many times, he should be looking for her right now. Arthur had so many things to say to her, like an apology. Arthur scribbled out a word he hadn’t meant to write and wrote the correct one. The teacher gave him a look and he smiled at her, no use in being hostile. Arthur propped his head on his hand and doodled at the bottom corner of my book, “Arthur.”

He dropped his pen and looked around shocked, the teacher had made him jump out of his skin. “What are you doing?” she asked sternly.

“Pretend I’m saying whatever you want me to say.” I replied. The teacher didn’t seem amused though.

“Have you finished?”

Arthur looked down at his pathetic copy and sighed, “Not even close.”

“Get on with it then, or you’ll be coming here again tomorrow.”

“Ouch, I think I need some ice for that burn.” Arthur whispered, copying down some more words.

Luckily his teacher hadn’t heard him, else there would be another detention whether he’d finished it or not.

“Right.” Arthur shut his book and shuffled his papers, making them straight and lined up. “I am done.” He passed the paper over to the teacher and started packing  his stuff up.

Arthur still had at least ten minutes left before the bell went. “That seems in order,” the teacher said.

She waved him off and he calmly rushed out the room, good riddance. Detentions, as fun as they were, did not go well with him. As hard as he tried Arthur could never really stay on the good side of any of his teachers for long, I suppose he just had an irritating air about him. No wonder they broke up. But no, he was certain that Gwen still liked him and if Gwen still liked him then there was a chance to get her back, for sure. Except, there was a part of Arthurs head that doubted he would ever get her back, Arthur wasn’t even sure if he wanted to be with her again. More fish in the sea right? But Arthur just had to ignore these niggling doubts and get her back, once he had her then he could decide. But surely that wouldn’t be fair on Gwen? If he decided a relationship wasn’t right for him then he would have to break up with her, and that definitely wouldn’t be fair. Maybe he would leave it up to her, but surely that would take forever. As lovely as Gwen was she could be as stubborn as a mule, sometimes it was a good thing. But in this case it wasn’t, Gwen was a proud girl and she wouldn’t just come back to him with open arms, it would take some work. So all he had to do was win her over, just like he did before. And in the next week or so because she returned to America after that. Why did this have to be so difficult? Arthur just wanted to have Gwen back, he didn’t want all this hullabaloo. He couldn’t just ask her, she would most likely slap him and walk off in a huff. What in the world was he going to do?

--

Alex looked at me smugly, like she knew something I didn’t. “Alright.” I gave up, curiosity winning, “What’s up?”

She shrugged innocently, “Nothing.”

I gave her a shove, “Yeah, right. Nothing huh?”

Alex sighed, obviously thinking about what to say, “Well, I was just wondering.”

“Wondering about what?”

“About you and Arthur.”

That I was not expecting. I looked at her blankly, there was obviously more, you could tell from her face. “If you two will ever get back together.”

There it is. I groaned loudly and rubbed my face with both hands, not again. So many people had already asked me questions like this that I was actually fed up with it. At first, the questions were slightly humorous. But now they were just irritating. “I don’t know.” I answered truthfully.

“Don’t know what?” Alex asked.

“If ‘us’ is possible again.”

“But your Gwen and Arthur. Like Queen Guinevere and King Arthur, from Arthurian Legend.” Alex argued. I had heard that one before.

Nevertheless I laughed and shook my head, “That doesn’t matter, the Arthurian Legend is exactly that, a legend.”

“So what’re you saying?”

“That it might not be real.”

“Which one?” Alex raised an eyebrow and waited for me to reply.

“Both.”

I'm sorry guys, this is pathetic. The only thing I seem to be able to write at the moment is shopping lists, yeah I've got writers block. So sorry this is such a pathetic filler chapter. Keep reading/voting, thanks.

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