The Stake of Us

Ch 7: By the Locker

Suzy walks alone to class in the middle of a crowded high school hallway, a red backpack over her shoulders. A student bumps into her shoulder while talking to his friends, he says nothing and keeps walking, too preoccupied with his friends. It's her least favorite part of the day, pushing through crowds of bodies.

A group of girls giggling by their locker, one talking to a boy leaning into her while her friends look at him, playfulness in his eyes as he speaks.

Suzy's goal is to get to her locker and put her books away, they're getting heavy in her arms. She hoped no one was blocking her locker this time, because last time, a couple had been kissing so intimately against her locker they ignored everything else around them forgetting they were in public.

She did not know whether to interrupt or wait. It's awkward to interrupt and it's weird to stand and wait. These are the scenarios they don't teach you how to deal with in the classroom.

She reached her locker, luckily for her, the handsy couple normally pressing up against it was absent, and instead stood a tall, broad shoulders boy in a white shirt expanded across his wide chest, dark blue jeans hugging his lean waist.

His dark brown hair was styled in a causal jumble shortcut framing a marble jaw, refined and unyielding, half-moon cheekbones encapsulated his imperial nose paired perfectly with the almond shape of his light brown eyes. Two orbs that reflect his mood, sometimes they shine brightly like joyful evening stars and other times like two pools of flashing fire when he was in a mood. By how his eyes sparked she could tell it was the former.

"Hey, Suz" greets Tristan as he pushes his tall body from her locker, smiling as his eyes lock onto hers.

"I would go to the bathroom and check your back, that locker gets a lot of action between classes, most of it questionable," Suzy responds.

He arches his left brow in amusement before turning his neck and attempting to look over his shoulder "Aww I just showered two days ago." He joked.

"There's a shower here, and by the smell of it you could use another one," Suzy responds. He makes room for her as she squeezes to the front of her locker. He grazes a girl's shoulder with his arm, she looks up at him "Sorry, tight space here." He apologies.

"It's alright, Tristan." The girl responds before quickly turning toward her friend with a wide-eyed grin, mouthing "Omg".

Tristan turns his body sideways completely with his right arm propped against the locker above Suzy's head shielding her from the wave of other students hastily and clumsily making their way through the hall.

He peeks over her head and into her locker "Let me borrow your calculus textbook, l forgot mine at the house."

Suzy looks up at him hovering right above her head, close enough that she can see the golden brown in his iris. They really need to widen this hallway, she thinks.

Her shoulder brushes against his chest as she tries to retrieve the item, it's dog-piled at the very bottom of her many other textbooks.

Tristan leans in, his left arm reaches around her body, and his chest presses into her side in the already confined space. At least Tristan has great hygiene thinks Suzy.

He easily pulls her book out as he angles his body behind hers inspecting it. "How did you get a brand new book while mine looks like the dead sea scrolls?" He commented over her head. Even standing at her full height she just barely reaches his chin.

"What can I say, luck is my lady friend," Suzy responds tilting her head to the side and looking up at him with a smug grin.

His lips twitch confining a smile while meeting her eyes "I'll let you borrow it for five dollars, you can have it until 4th period" says Suzy trying to keep her other books from spilling out.