Three weeks and a rose

Comforting grip

Jack
Jack sat in Classics. He was looking at the Greek goddesses when he saw Persephone. 'Looks like Akilah,' he thought. He mentally kicked himself. After his discussion with Fred he could not stop thinking of Akilah. He was thinking of backing out of the challenge, that morning, when Jamal came up to him. "Hey brother from another mother! You took biology for this? Damn you're committed." He said before running off. What could he do?

After a good two hours, it was lunch. Jack walked his way down to the field excited to see what Akilah would do. For the bet of course. Once he was there, Jack gazed on in anticipation. For the bet. She wasn't here yet. 'Oh, well,' he thought 'maybe she's late.' He pulled a rose out of his pocket and held it in both hands, being mindful of the thorns. He kept imagining the look on her face, or the words she would say. Jack made sure he smelled nice by putting on some cologne.

Two minutes passed but Jack could wait. Three more minutes passed. Then four, then five. Where was she? Surly Akilah wouldn't forget? Surly Akilah the smartest, funniest and- most gullible girl he knew would show up, right?

Akilah
Akilah made up her mind. She wouldn't go. Akilah felt that she didn't know this "mystery" person well enough to meet up. If they left more notes then maybe she would consider a meet up. Whatever it was. Whoever it was. It was not a 'never'. Just a 'not now'. "Here is an easy question. What is the square root of sixty four. Akilah." Asked the teacher while Akilah was thinking.

"Eight, duh!" Akilah said without thinking. The teacher raised his eyebrows but ultimately couldn't be bothered to deal with a sassy teenager. Akilah rolled her eyes. Why were the questions so easy?

After the lesson it was finally time for Akilah to go home. She rammed her notebook into her bag, and entered the crowd of busy teens, all trying to get out a narrow door. Once she got to the door (and the crowd dispersed) she saw Jack. Following an unusual sense of trust Akilah found her feet moving towards him. Jack scratched his neck before finally asking.

"Do you wanna lift home?" He avoided her eyes but Akilah could tell tears has recently stained his face. She felt bad. Why was Jack avoiding her eyes? To cover it up? To seem strong? All these questions darted around her mind like a ping pong ball. 'Why not?' She thought. 'He looks sad. That could be dangerous.'

"Sure, but go slow." Her mouth said while her brain protested. Jack signed for her to follow and she did. Many words were exchanged between the two on the way out of school. Mainly about school; figuring out what classes they had together. Surprisingly they had almost half the classes they took together. Wednesday they only had one. They reached the motorcycle sooner than Akilah would've liked.

Jack unclipped the spare helmet and passed it to Akilah. She strapped it on uncomfortably tight. "Are you sure this is safe?" Akilah asked, shuddering at the thought of crashing.

"Are you going to steal another one of my jackets?" Jack joked. Akilah blushed and got on behind him. Gripping as tight as she could.

Jack
Jack could feel how Akilah held him, struggling to reach her arms fully around his broad shoulders. He felt strangely comfortable in her arms (even though she was squeezing the life out of him). He realised in that moment how much Akilah meant to him. He would still have to break her heart. He couldn't go through the same thing he did in his old school. He started to drive, dreading the moment Akilah would let go.

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