Secrets of a Good(ish) Girl

Chapter 9 - Kira's POV - Study Buddies

The final bell went on Monday afternoon, and I made my way to the library. I wanted to get some homework out of the way, and I knew I'd be too distracted at home. Gabby and I had walked to the car park together and had the same conversation we usually did. "You could come study at mine." She was more worried about me being home alone than ever after what happened on Thursday night.
"Gabby, I can't, you know I'm easily distracted by the dogs." I had been trying to make a joke out of it, but she wasn't having it. I sighed, "I'll be fine, if anything happens or I hear anything I'll call you."
"Call the police first, and then call me." When I had agreed to her terms she finally headed home. Gabby's concern for me had always been appreciated but sometimes I just want to be able to tell her that people I know are far worse than anything she's thinking of.

Dex and the others had looked over as they were getting into their cars. I tried my best to avoid eye contact as I crossed the car park and headed towards the library. I was still kind of mad at them for keeping things from me. Yeah, I would've found out it was Tony eventually, if Gabby had known the name when she told me then I would have known straight away, but that didn't matter, they shouldn't have kept it from me. Things had been awkward at home as I tried to avoid Dex and he tried to talk to me. So the library was a useful excuse to be out of the house for a while.

The library usually filled up pretty quickly at the end of school. You got the people who were doing work, those who needed somewhere to wait for pickups or after-school clubs and then those who, like me, just didn't want to go home. I finally found an empty table right at the back and dropped my bag on one of the seats. Walking through the stacks of books I could hear all the chatter from the other students here. The ones who were actually here to work had their heads down and earphones in, while the others were watching videos at full volume and talking loudly. Librarians here had long given up on trying to keep the place silent. Unsurprisingly the further into the shelves I got, the quieter everything was. Although, I usually didn't need to go this far in.

It was starting to feel like I was on a wild goose chase hunting one specific book. I stopped when I finally found the book I was looking for. It just had to be on the top shelf, didn't it? I rolled my eyes at my luck before looking around to see if there was a stool nearby. The search was fruitless, so I tried jumping up for it. I thought about climbing up the shelves when a voice halted me. "Do you need a hand?" I took a step back and found Sebastian standing a few feet away. Maybe it was a bit judgmental of me to assume people from the 'popular' group didn't know where the library was. But I was still surprised to see him.
"Yes, please. It's that one there." I pointed to the pesky book as he got closer to the stack. He brought the book down and handed it to me.
"That for Mrs Chase's English essay?" Sebastian asked, clearly noticing the title of the book. I nodded. "You know that's not due for like two months, right?"
"Yeah, I wanted to get this part done before everyone is fighting over the few copies of this book," I explained.
"Smart." I thanked him again and started to walk back to my table. "Hey," I stopped again. "Have you finished the stuff for Mr Cameron due next week?"
"Yeah, why?" I hadn't expected Sebastian to even notice I was in that class I don't usually participate much. He took a deep breath before replying as if he was gearing up for something important.
"Would you be able to help me with it? I'm so confused." I smiled slightly, not wanting him to notice and think I was laughing at him.
"Of course."

We walked back over to my table, stopping at his to grab his bag. I thanked any God that was listening that none of his friends had come here with him. If we'd gone to his table and Ashely had been there I think I would have just walked away. Sebastian occupied the seat next to me and took his maths textbook and jotter out. "Thank you again for helping me with this." He sounded slightly embarrassed about asking for help.
"Don't worry about it. The best way to remember something is to teach it to others." I don't know why I said that. Why was I feeling nervous about him sitting next to me? Fuck, what if sitting this close means he recognises me from Fryer's? No, surely he wouldn't have had a good look in that dingy place. "So, what part is it you don't get?" I asked him, hoping to keep the focus on the homework and not my face.

It felt weird, the two of us sitting at the same table, pondering over the same question. Well, he was pondering; I already knew the answer. The library had quietened down as clubs started and people got picked up. Still, I was surprised he was willing to be seen with me. Maybe he wasn't as much of a selfish, narcissistic posh boy as I thought he was. Can't say the same thing about his friends though. The longer we stayed there, the more we got chatting and I had to admit he was so different than I originally thought he was. For starters, he seemed far too nice to be putting up with Ashley and all her bull shit.

"Honestly, how do you understand anything Mr Cameron says, it's all just gibberish to me," Sebastian said as I went over the next question with him. I gave a small laugh; Mr Cameron did have an unfortunately strong accent so it wasn't hard to believe half the class couldn't understand him.
"I don't know, maths has always come naturally to me, so I usually get what he's saying." It wasn't much of an explanation, but it was the only one I had.
"I think you're just secretly some mega genius." He smiled at me, and I understood why everyone at our school loved him. Yeah, he's super good-looking with his dark curls and bright blue eyes, but it's his smile that makes people go weak in the knees.
"Nah, I'm just lucky." I turned away in an attempt to avoid eye contact.
"Thanks for helping me, most people who could've helped were too scared to talk to me." Shit, I suppose my 'geek self' should have been nervous to speak to someone as gorgeous and popular as Sebastian. 
"I guess I just find it easy to talk about maths."  It was true, I could talk about maths for ages, it was why the charade at school worked so well, I had an inner geek anyway, "And you're not that scary." The only thing that scared me about Sebastian was that he would be able to blow my cover. I looked away again as that smile spread across his face once more. This time I glanced down at my phone. The clock became visible as I tapped the screen. "We better hurry up or you won't finish this before the library closes." Time had flown by, and I hadn't realised how long we'd been sitting there. Sebastian went back to his homework and I resumed reading to book he'd gotten down for me.

"Thank you again, I don't think I would have been able to finish that without you." Sebastion and I were packing our stuff into our backpacks. There were only a few students left and the librarian was already starting to usher people out.
"It's fine. Payback for you reaching my book." He laughed slightly.
"I think I lucked out in that exchange." We were beginning to walk to the exit. "Hey, I don't suppose you'll be here again after school tomorrow?"
"Erm, I wasn't planning on," He looked disappointed by my answer. "But I could be, I don't have anything else on." I quickly added the last part.
"Well, I was just wondering if you would want to study together again. Honestly, having you there just made it a lot easier. But only if it's not gonna interrupt the other work you've got to do." He kinda blurted it all out in one go. If I didn't know any better I would have said he was nervous.
"Yeah, of course, I'll study with you." I was trying to convince myself that this was just another reason to not go straight home tomorrow, but in reality, I liked the idea of spending more time with Sebastian. That perfect smile of his appeared on his face again.
"Cool, I'll meet you here after school then?"
"Sounds good." We'd already reached the car park by this point so we said our goodbyes and headed separate ways.

Sebastian just kept surprising me, first, he apologised for Ashley, then he was at Fryer's gym, then he was the only popular kid that had ever seen the inside of a library, and now he wants to keep studying with me. I was beginning to wonder just what his deal was. 

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Hi guys, I hope you enjoyed this chapter 

I hope everyone had a good past few weeks. As usual I'll be publishing every Friday!

let me know what you thought I always look forward to hearing from people. 

Thanks for reading and I'll see you in the next chapter.