Unlikely

Chapter Three: After School

The last two periods of the day I had to myself—I had never been so thankful. To end my days, I had photography and art, respectively. Shawn had been in four of my classes and I was desperately hoping to myself that along with his try-hard, bad boy attitude didn't come a delicate, artsy side. If I had seen him in either of those classes I would have contemplated dropping them for something else, anything else.

I thought that with these two periods away from him, I could focus on the things that I loved. But I still found myself unable to fully focus, all I could think about was him asking me out. What signals could I possibly have given him to make him think I would want to go out with him? I ignored him when he stared, I glared when he smirked at me, I barely talked to him during lunch, and I only escorted him to class because Abby asked me to, and because Jesse had tied in a point made earlier. 'Time to talk boundaries', he said.

"Why would you bring him to sit with us?" Jesse asked when we turned the corner away from Shawn.

"I talked to Olivia yesterday about it. He's new, we should be his friends."

"You didn't tell her about this morning?" He turned to me unbelievingly.

"I didn't have a chance to! I only have second period with her and she showed up late, I couldn't tell her in the middle of the lecture."

They simultaneously spoke over each other "Tell me what?" From her to me, and a "Why'd you show up late?" From him to her.

"Had to pee." She quickly stated to him before turning to me and repeating her question.

I internally remarked about her squirrel bladder before responding to her verbally. "He flashed me this morning while I was filling up my water bottle."

She gasped, "You mean you saw his d-"

"No!" I cut her off, not even wanting to put that image in my head. "I mean, I glanced in his window, the one directly next to my kitchen window, and knowing I was watching he smirked at me and lifted up his shirt."

She stared at me blankly then let out the most exaggerated 'pft' of her life before laughing. "That's it?" I glanced at Jesse and he shrugged. The hell? I thought he agreed with me. "Girl it's not that big a deal."

I was heated. "Ok, so if some girl moved in next to Jesse and flashed her tits at him you wouldn't be upset?" He laughed at the absurdity of my statement and her smile fell.

"That's WAY different."

"No it's not. Guy or girl, you keep your shirt ON until otherwise prompted to do so."

"Okay, this is stupid. If you think it's a big deal, just tell him about it. Tell him to get curtains or something."

"Yeah, a boundaries talk doesn't sound like a bad idea. Especially if you guys are neighbors now." Jesse added and I rolled my eyes at him. He always took Abby's side, there was really no arguing with them both.

"Fine. Fine. I'll talk to him." She smiled at me and Jesse patted my shoulder reassuringly. "But does he have to sit with us for lunch?"

"Yes, Olivia. It'll be fine. He didn't seem that bad. Let's go, he's probably wondering where we went."

The rest of the school day passed by in a blur and I made quick efforts to go home as fast as possible. I wasn't entertaining conversations today, and I wasn't driving Abby or Jesse today, so going straight there shouldn't be a problem. I was only hoping I wouldn't run into him again.

Driving home I blasted my music in the car, hoping to drown out the bad day I'd been having. But what usually made me start singing loudly, didn't have its usual effect on me. I stayed silent and stared blankly out of the windshield, feeling more elated as I made my way closer and closer to home.