Our Love

Chapter 3: Annika

Sitting in class, I try to focus on the teacher but my mind keeps going to that moment in the hallway. Why the fuck did he look at me like that? Usually Levi always looks at me with a mocking expression, but this time he looked at me differently, it was only for a second before I broke eye contact but I saw it. I don't know what the look was or meant, but I know it was different.

I'm probably overthinking things, Levi and I have never gotten along or have been nice to each other. Mostly because he doesn't know the meaning of the word 'nice' which is exactly why I'm not nice to him either.

"Ann, are you okay?" I snap out of my thoughts and quickly look at Reina. "Yeah I'm fine, just a bit out of it today." I say giving her what I hope was a reassuring smile. "Alright, anyways, class is over. Are you coming or what?" She says, that's when I realise the whole class was walking out the door and Reina's stuff was all packed up and she had her bag in her hand. I was the only one with all my stuff left on my desk. Jeez, how long was I out of it? "Oh right, yeah. Sorry." I say quickly shoving everything in my bag and getting up.

"Alright come on let's go, Kim's probably waiting for us and I'm starving! You know I think they're serving Mac and Cheese today." She says as we link arms and walk to the cafeteria.

As we walk into the cafeteria, I immediately spot Levi and his team sitting in the middle of the room, with the biggest table. Luckily, I always sit far away from him, the last time I sat near him in the cafeteria he kept annoying me the entire time with his stupid questions.

I look to my right and see Kim sitting by herself at our table looking at her phone looking annoyed. Me and Reina approach her and she looks up from her phone the moment we reach her. "Hey Kim, you alright?" I ask.

"Yeah I'm fine, just that dumbass over there is annoying me." She nods at Ronan who is sitting next to Levi and rolls her eyes. "Why? What did he do this time?" Reina asks as we both sit down.
"He kept annoying me throughout all of business and right after class he went to stalk my fucking socials." She says stabbing her fork into her Mac and Cheese before taking a bite. "What did he do in class to annoy you?" I ask, curious to see what desperate thing he did this time. "He just kept congratulating me on every. single. question that I answered correctly, it was so embarrassing and I kept telling him to stop but he didn't listen and only decided to stop 10 minutes before the class ended." She says, rolling her eyes and huffing.

"Damn, that's annoying, anyways, I'm gonna go get food, Ann, you gonna come?" Reina asks, standing up and looking at me. "Sure, we'll be right back." I say smiling at Kim which she returns. We start walking to the line to get in the que when all of a sudden, I hear his stupid, annoying voice right behind us.

"And then I told him- oh, hey Anni, hey Reina" He says, looking at the both of us. Ofcourse, he's looking at me with that mocking look. I'm starting to think that look in the hallway was just my imagination. "Hey." Reina says, smiling at him and his friend.

"Are you guys getting food?" He asks, looking at me. "Well yeah, why else would we be in the que?" I say looking straight ahead and ignoring him.
"Why wait in the que when you could just walk ahead?" He says in an abnormally friendly tone. "Because there is a que for a reason." I say rolling my eyes.

"Nonsense, come on." He says grabbing my hand and his friend grabs Reina's as they start dragging us to the front of the line. "Levi, what do you think you're doing? It's rude to cut in line!" I say trying to free myself from his grip but it's too strong. "Anni, you're a Lord's daughter, no one here cares if what you do is rude. They'll all still be nice to you considering your status, so why care what others think when it won't affect their actions towards you?" He says, rolling his eyes and giving me a 'are you an idiot' look.

"Because I find it rude." I say, still tugging on my arm but he just tightens his grip. "Whatever, what do you want to eat?" He asks as we get to the front. When he sees that I won't answer, he looks at Reina who is actually smiling. "Reina, what would she order?" He asks as she looks at him, then looks at me for a split second. I must look pissed cause she quickly avoids my gaze and smiles at Levi. "Umm, Mac and Cheese with curry fries." She says before looking at me again and mouths 'I'm sorry' to me.

I roll my eyes and just turn around. "Alright, Mary, can I have Mac and Cheese with curry fries and a bottle of water." He says looking at the lunch lady.
"Sure thing Levi." She says smiling at him before getting it all ready. He goes to reach into his pocket to give her a tenner but I quickly take my money out and put it on the counter and nudge him. "I don't like people paying for me or me owing them." I say as he slowly puts his money back in his pocket.

"Alright, I'm sorry." He says, putting his arms up in surrender. I look at him suspiciously. Why on earth is he acting nice to me? "Why are you acting like this?" I say out loud, not realising I said that till the words were already out and it was too late to stop myself. "Acting like what?" He asks, leaning closer to me.
"You're being nice to me, usually you're always mocking me and right now you're offering to buy me lunch?" I blurt out, stepping backwards.

"You think I was mocking you?" He says, sounding almost shocked and offended. "Sorry doll, didn't mean to, that's not what I was trying to do." He says. Yeah, he's definitely joking.
"Don't call me that." I say smiling at the lunch lady as she gives me my food.
"I'll call you whatever I want, doll." He says as he winks at me and walks away with his friend. Reina approaches me and I realise that she's also got her food.
"Well that was unusual." She says, handing me a fork as we start walking towards Kim. "Tell me about it, did his friend buy you lunch too?" I ask, motioning towards the tray in her hand. "He offered but I didn't let him, but he did order for me." She says as we reach our table. "Same." I say before we sit down.

"Okay, why did Levi and Nathaniel walk with you guys in the que?" Kim says with a shocked look on her face. "More like pushing in the que." I say, annoyed and confused on why he was so nice to me. "They offered to buy us our lunch, we refused but still. I thought the whole team disliked us, well, besides Ronan who's always around you." Reina says, looking just as confused as I am.
"Whatever, it was probably just a joke or something.  I doubt that they had a change of heart out of nowhere." I remind them and take a bite from my Mac and Cheese.
"Yeah, I guess." Reina says in a disappointed tone as she goes to eat her food.

Once we are done eating, we get our stuff and start to walk out of the cafeteria. Once we are out the door, Kim immediately grabs my arm and gets closer to me. "Ann, I didn't want to say anything before but the whole of lunch Levi was staring at you." She says whispering, sort of. "Haha, very funny Kim. What perfect time for him to do that after getting me my lunch." I say sarcastically.
"No I'm serious Ann, like he was properly staring at you, he wouldn't take his eyes off you the ENTIRE lunch." She says enthusiastically.
"Well maybe he was just looking out the window." I say, trying to come up with a reasonable explanation as to why there was no way that he was staring at me.

"No, I'm sure, he was staring at you." She says, sounding genuine.
"Whatever, it doesn't matter anyways cause I don't care." I say as we keep walking.
"You sure you don't care? Because it looks like you kinda do." Reina chimes in, looking at me with a  smirk on her face. "Yeah look at her, she's even blushing!" Kim says, pointing at my cheeks. "I am not blushing!" I say, looking away from both of them. "Sure, whatever you say Anni." They both laugh as we walk outside onto the school field.