MEDICINE | alex rider

seventeen

"How is Zalex?" Alex sat down next to Tom, who was currently sitting across from Zarah, it was lunch and Alex was just now arriving at school. She had to resist the urge to ask where he was, she knew he wouldn't tell her the truth, and she wasn't quite sure if she even wanted to know.

Zarah rolled her eyes "Who's Zalex?" Tom asked, leaning toward his tray.

"A stupid fish." She answered for him.

"Hey, Zalex isn't stupid." Alex half-heartedly protested but had a smile on his face nonetheless.

She didn't answer verbally but instead took a passive-aggressive bite of her chicken nugget. Days had passed since the night of the carnival, yet it still played over and over again in her head, every single detail. She played it off as it being her first time at a carnival, but he never seemed to stray too far from her thoughts, and the more she thought of him the more he seemed to randomly pop up.

She ran into him at the grocery store, at her job, and she's even run into him going on a run near her house. If she didn't know any better she would say he was spying on her, but if he was spying on her he was doing a pretty terrible job. Every time they'd bump into one another he would always send her a smile and a small wave which she would never return. She didn't want the poor boy to get the wrong idea and think they were friends.

"Zarah?" Both boys were looking at her expectantly "What do you think?" Alex asked.

"I don't know what you guys are talking about and yet I can't find myself to care either." The two boys would often pull her in between their petty little arguments even after the number of times she insured them that she doesn't care.

Alex ignored her obvious disinterest and spoke anyway "Isn't gold a bad color for a prom suit?"

"No color is a bad color for a prom suit," Tom argued "Plus, I don't have time to return it."

"Prom is still a month away, you have plenty of time to return it."

Tom crossed his arms "Well my date said she liked it."

Zarah nearly laughed "You have a date?"

"Yes, why is it so surprising?" Tom looked between Alex and Zarah, his confusion written on his face.

She raised an eyebrow "I would think it's self-explanatory."

He sent her a quick glare but then a smile quickly took over his face and he wrapped one of his arms around Alex's shoulder "Alex here might be able to still score himself a date with Aisha."

At the sound of his name, Alex looked up from his food, clearly not expecting to be mentioned in the conversation "What?"

"Aisha mate, you might be able make up with her and ask her to the prom," Tom informed him.

"Oh, yeah." Alex shrugged.

Zarah didn't know what it was, but she found herself grinding her teeth at the thought of Alex asking Aisha to be his prom date. She was a nice girl and he was a sweet boy and in theory, they would make a great couple but by the next year, Aisha will be at some top-notch university and Alex will be... Well, dead.

Plus they're way too similar and probably would be often at conflict with one another so they would never work. No other reason.

"What about you, are you bringing anyone to prom?" Alex asked Zarah, there was an edge to his voice she couldn't decipher but she didn't linger on it.

"No." Of course, she wasn't, it's not like she popular amongst her peers "I'm not going."

"You're still on about that?" Alex groaned, recalling their conversation from a few months ago "You have to go. Would it kill you to live a little?"