You don't even want me

53.

[Camille]

"Have you been sleeping any better this week?" James asked me with genuine concern in his eyes, and I nodded.

We were biking to school on a Friday, and I hadn't had any nightmares in the past week; that was good as the exams were coming up and I needed my concentration, and most of all, my sleep.

James nodded and looked back in front of him, the cold wind making a red blush appear on his cheeks. His hair was softly blown out of his face, and his eyebrows were furrowed in a concentrated frown. If I was honest, he looked really tired. Almost like he'd been up every night all week, waiting for me to call him, to tell him I needed him.

He turned his head back to me before speaking again. "Are you sure?" he asked me, and I nodded determined.

"You really don't have to worry so much" I almost whispered, making him sigh. "It's been a week, I'm fine" I assured him, and his eyes scanned my face for a few seconds with concern.

"You know you can always call me when something's wrong, right?" he asked again, raising his eyebrows; I nodded with a weak smile.

His eyes stared into mine for a few more seconds before he broke our eye contact by looking away, biting his lip.

It was really sweet of him to worry about me, but I was really okay and it was just unnecessary. I could see it even affected his sleep. He'd been very sweet and gentle to me the past week at school, and it warmed my heart that he cared so much, but I wouldn't have wanted it if I knew that he'd be sleeping less because he couldn't stop thinking about me and my problems.

That had been the main reason why I originally didn't want to tell him things in the first place, so he wouldn't worry too much. But I did realise that it was better if he found out about my problems by me telling him myself, and not by some gossip behind my back.

Jasmine looked over her shoulder and her eyes shifted between me and James; she was barely able to hold herself back from rolling her eyes at us.

When she was looking back in front of her, I sent James a side-glance, to see he was frowning at her. He must've noticed Jasmine's reaction and, just like I, didn't understand where it was coming from.

I simply sighed, deciding not to give it too much attention.

We arrived at school and locked our bikes before going to the playground, where James and I talked a bit with Tim, about 5 minutes before the bell rang and everyone to the entrance of the school building stumbled.

Me and James made ourselves comfortable in the back of the classroom and when everyone was settled down, the teacher walked in and started her lesson.

When we had to make a maths excercise everyone started to work in pairs, and James helped me a lot.

We were both leaning to the middle of our desk, sitting a bit closer to each other and when we looked at each other, I quickly stared down at my lap with red cheeks. I heard him chuckle and his low voice was closer to my ear than I thought, making shivers run down my spine.

From the corner of my eye, I noticed he was staring at my neck; he was still close enough for me to feel his breath on my skin.

I looked up and saw Jasmine staring at us from the front of the class, looking over her shoulder with her squeezed eyes in irritation.

I really didn't know what her problem was but I was getting sick of it, she'd made it more than clear to me multiple times she didn't approve me and James but she'd never given me a real reason. If it'd be jealousy, it wouldn't be a good one as she was close to Max herself; it made no sense to me.