Chapter 6: Denial

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I walked out of the bathroom and was met with a worried looking Conner. As soon as he saw me, he came up to me and kept asking if I was ok and saying how sorry he was for intervening.

     "Conner, really it's fine. I'm fine. To be honest, I'm glad that you intervened. No one's really stood up for me like that before so thank you." I said smiling.

     He looked up at me and gave me his stupidly cute goofy grin of his and we made eye contact. My breath caught and I looked away, my cheeks pink.

     Izzy what are you thinking? It's literally the first day of school and you've known this boy for like 4 or 5 hours. You can't like him like that yet!

     I shook my head, trying to get rid of my thoughts of possibly liking him.

      Nope, nope, nope. Just give it a week or so. You're probably just running on first day adrenaline and want to like someone like that.

     I came out of my thoughts to find Conner looking at me weirdly.

     "Are you ok?" He asked.

     "Yeah. Why?" I replied. Then I realized that while I'd been lost in thought, I'd been staring at him and I turned red with embarrassment.

     "Why don't we go find somewhere to eat." I said, changing the subject.

     I hadn't even realized that Dorothy had followed me out of the bathroom, and she started walking with us back to the lunchroom. We found a table near one of the staircases and sat down and ate. After we threw away our garbage we sat back down and chatted for a little bit. Dorothy kept giving me weird looks that read that she wanted me to explain what had been happening today, though I think she was sort of catching on to what it was.

     When Conner wasn't looking, I took out my phone and quickly typed a message on the screen and showed it to Dorothy. It read: Boy trouble. Alex and Conner.

     Dorothy nodded and we went back to talking with Conner. The bell rang and we got up to go back to class. Conner stopped me and looked at my eyes closely.

     "You've been crying." He said, anger flashing through his eyes.

     "No I haven't." I lied.

     "You're lying. Your eyes are red like you have been. Did he make you cry?" His voice was raising a little bit and he sounded defensive.

     "A little bit." I relented. "But I've also been having a long day so it's not completely his fault and I'm sure he didn't mean it."

     He looked up and muttered. "I'm gonna kill him."

     "Nope." I said sternly. "I'm fine. You need to get to class ok."

     He looked at me, annoyed, and sighed. "Oh alright. But I'm not letting this go." He pointed a finger at me and then turned and walked to his class. I went and walked to mine.

~~~~

     That night, I had dance. To be specific, ballet and pointe. I was excited because I'd finally convinced Dorothy to take some classes with me and she would start tonight! She'd danced a little bit when she was younger but she quit in 6th grade but she never got her pointe shoes so she couldn't stay for that part of class.

When I got there, Dorothy was waiting for me up in the loft where we got ready by putting on our ballet shoes. As we were putting our shoes on, I explained everything that happened that day with Alex and Conner and how absurd it was.

Dorothy nodded her head once I was done. It was weird seeing her with her hair pulled back in a bun. She looked more regal I guess and more adultish, unlike me who looked more like a goofy middle schooler. My hair never went back the right way and it always looked weird because my baby hairs would stick up. One thing about Dorothy though that I loved was that she's a really good listener. Once you start talking, she hears everything you say and actually pays attention and responds.

"That sounds like a crazy day." Dorothy said.

"I know right."

"You and Conner though." She said smirking. "The way he defended you and the way you two get along, suggests something more then just friendship." There was a teasing twinkle in her eyes that made me a little nervous. I'd never seen her like this before. It was kind of unsettling.

"Dorothy!" I laughed and rolled my eyes at her. "We've literally known each other for not even 24 hours yet! There's no way two people could like each other like that so soon after meeting!"

Dorothy just looked at me and said: "Ok then." But I could tell that she wasn't going let this go.

Then we had to go down for ballet. It was nice to be back to dancing and especially with Dorothy too!

That evening during class, I danced all my worries away and I almost forgot about all the craziness of today. Almost.

~~~~

That night I was laying in bed trying to sleep, but my mind kept circling back to Conner and how weird it felt when he touched me. It didn't feel bad at all, just warm and inviting and to be honest... it felt... good.

I shook my head, trying to clear those thoughts from my head. No sooner had I done that, when my mind wandered to Alex. Sure he was really good looking in my opinion, but he's been a real jerk to me with every encounter we've had!!

So why does a part of you get excited when you see him? A small part of me whispered.

I turned my face into my pillow and said: "Gah!! Why do I keep having these thoughts!!" I flipped on my back so I was facing the ceiling. "It's been ONE day." I groaned. "I DO NOT have a crush on either of them! Nope nope nope!"

I kept repeating it to myself, hoping to make myself believe it but it didn't really help.

Eventually, I got tired and fell asleep, and my dreams were filled with flying food and endless hallways that lead to random bathrooms and talking shoes.

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A/N

Wow Izzy's really conflicted right now. What's Conner gonna do when he sees Alex next? Is Alex ever going to apologize?

Find out soon in Fate!

-leokitti

P.S. the picture at the top is some pointe shoes if you didn't know what they were

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