Next to Each Other

Finishing the Assignment/ Thoughts of You

The rest of the project went much smoother, with the two teens having a conversation and genuinely enjoying each other's company. They talked about all sorts of things, from ancient mythos to traveling to food. And before they knew it, the assignment had been done. 

"What do you think?" Rei asked, handing her laptop with the script open to Ethan. He started skimming over it but then started to actually start reading Persephone's story.

"I forgot how good you were at writing formally." He casually praised. "Hey, quick question, are you interested in anyone at the moment?" That caught Rei off guard. The fuck does he care? 

"No, not at the moment, why?" Ethan's cheeks started to get a rosy hue to them. He started to slightly panic. "Uhh, just wondering." Whatever, he's probably just fishing for gossip already. 

"So, are we done here?" She asked, clearly put off by his previous question.

"Yeah. Do you want me to take you home? It's already 5:30, so." He suggested, trying to salvage the wreckage he just caused to their vibes.

"Sure, I do live a little bit from here, so if you don't want to, it's completely fine."

"Nah, I don't mind." He was relieved to be able to continue their conversation from earlier. 

It took the pair about 20 minutes to make it to Rei's driveway, almost the entire time having enthusiastic conversations about anything that came to either mind, each discussion surrounded by comfortable silence.

"So, this is your house?" He asked with a not-so-well-hidden smug look on his face.

"Yeah? What about it?" She questioned, confused by his expression.

"It's a fair bit smaller than mine, don't you think?" What an asshole, can't do one nice thing without making some comment on how he's better.

"Oh, shut up." The poorer of the two said, throwing a fake slap at his face.

"So mean, anyway, see you at school tomorrow."

"Yeah, see you tomorrow. Thanks for walking me home by the way."

"No problem, bye!"

"Bye!" Now that he's gone, I can relax, finally. Rei had dinner with her mum and brother and talked about her day at school and the assignment she finished before coming home, conveniently leaving out the part where Ethan landed in her lap. That's between her, him, and maybe a few of her friends. She then went to sit in her room, scrolled on her phone and laptop before having an unsuccessful attempt to fall asleep and instead thinking about her afternoon with Ethan. She thought about his smile, his laugh, his smirk, his humour, when he landed face first in her lap, the way hid hand was dangerously close to- no. Stop thinking about it, he's just a selfish idiot, that's it. 

While Ethan was sitting in his (much more expensively decorated) bedroom, thinking similar thoughts. Her smile today was so pretty, so was her laugh and her giggle, not to mention the way she sucked in a breath when I landed in her lap- God I need to stop thinking about that, she's just a stuck-up nerd, that's all. They both eventually fell asleep to the thought of each other. 

______________________The next morning______________________

Rei woke up at 6:30 am the next morning, immediately getting dressed and packing her school bag. She finished all of this relatively quickly, then going to grab her phone to see 14 unread messages from 'Gossip queen <3' asking how her day was, when she was planning on replying and what the fuck she was doing. Rei decided to call her, Eva picked up immediately.

"Where have you been?!?!" She exclaimed in a fake exasperated voice. "I was worried sick!"

"Sorry mother, I was doing a group assignment yesterday and then didn't really bother to check my texts afterwards." The smarter of the two then proceeded to explain everything that had happened the previous afternoon. Leaving the house right before the end of the story to make sure she wasn't going to be late to catch her bus. 

"Wow, only been one day of this new school and you've already had something interesting happen. Regular high school is so boring." Eva complained after she had heard the full story.

"Not my problem our intelligence separates us." Rei said in a fake mocking tone. "I've got to catch my bus now, talk to this afternoon, okay?"

"Sure." Then she hung up. She just looked out of the bus window and listened to some music through her air pods on the way to school.

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Sorry, this is a bit short lol, I'm too tired to write the rest of my ideas right now, I also barely ever write in 3rd person so sorry if it doesn't make that much sense. Hope you enjoyed!