The Windowpane

Chapter twelve

Tuesday continued
Ned

We sat in silence for a while till I just asked her.
"Did you tell anyone that you saw me smoking yesterday?" Jeez why did I say it like that, I couldn't even make some conversation before.
" No..." she said in reply with a confused look on her face.
"No, I didn't tell anyone" she said,
" Ok" I said as calmly as I could. I was relieved, the thought of everyone finding out; especially my parents, frightened me. If they found out I'd have to go back to regular therapy sessions and more.
" Are you ok?" She then said. I looked at her confused at first then calmly,
" Yeah," I said
"Why?"
" Oh, it's just the accident that happened three weeks ago?" She said with an unreadable expression on her face.
" Ohh, yeah, no I'm fine thanks" I said in reply. She then looked away for a while facing straight ahead and so did I. We sat there in silence,
" You don't have to worry about me telling anyone that you smoke" she suddenly said breaking the silence,
" I wouldn't really have anyone to tell anyways" she said
" ok, thanks" I replied. She then looked away again this time with an almost embarrassed expression.
" I'm Astra by the way" she then said,
" I'm Ned" I said in response to her introduction. Not knowing what to say next I then said
" Nice to meet you Astra, what grade are you in?"
" Same as yours, we're in Art together" she said with slightly furrowed eyebrows and a questioning tone.
" Oh, yeah, sorry" I said mentally scolding myself.

The bell rang and I got up and so did Astra, I then realised that first period was Art and I asked  her if she would like to walk with me to class as we were going the same way. Now I don't know why I would do that, I don't really want to talk to her know that I know she didn't tell anyone, none the less walk with her but I did anyway.
Art is the west wing of the school and it wasn't till we got to art till I noticed what Astra had been wearing. She wore a pair of white and green Stan Smiths; straight cut dark blue jeans; a plain white t shirt with a grey sweater and two necklaces- one white gold and another silver, she wore her hair in a slick back with a few curls sticking out and she had a dark green scarf on and  she had black woolly gloves on as well as a black winter coat. She put her coat on a the rack in the classroom and stuffed her globes in one of its pockets. On her hands she had three rings, one on her right middle finger and Theo on her left hand- index and thumb and she had 10 piercings on her ears but had 7 in,All white gold earrings. There was one helix on her right and three lobes as well as an inner conch and on her left two helixs and two lobes with a tragus. I realised I had been staring at her for too long because she gave me a funny look and went to sit down. After I took of my puffer jacket and gloves and went to sit down in my seat.

After Art I continued on with my classes, school dragged as I waited for the end of the day and after a long day the bell rung at 14:05 indicating the end of the day. After the bell I went to the library to do my homework and charge my phone, Mom and Emma where gonna arrive at home at 18:00 and Dad was gonna be home round 19:30 so I decided to just stay in the library till everyone got home, plus the house is cold and library's warm.
I got to all my homework which wasn't much, I finished at 15:00 and decided to watch Netflix after but halfway through the episode of TEOTFW I noticed that there was someone outside that's been standing there for a while and when the person turned around I saw it was Astra. I stopped watching Netflix and turned off my phone, I then took my bag and went outside, why? You may ask I don't know, I don't usually go up and talk to people.

"Hi" I said
" Oh, hi" Astra said turning towards me,
" You've been standing here for a while"
" Yeah, I'm just waiting for my brother to come pick me up but it seems he may not be cause he was supposed to like an hour ago" she said
*she has a brother?*
" Oh, well I'm sorry" I said
*why did I just apologise*
" No, it's fine" she said in response
" How'd you know I've been out here a while?" she said turning to me in question.
" Oh, I was in the library and saw you" I said,
" Ok" she said back. Astra's phone then buzzed, she had gotten a text message. She looked at her phone for a while and then turned it off a sighed.
"Everything ok?" I said
" Yeah, it's just my brother, he's not coming to pick me up" she said in a monotone. I opened my mouth and closed it again, I wanted to apologise but I didn't and then I opened my mouth again and before I could say something Astra spoke.
" You wanna go eat" she said,
" What?" I said
" Do you wanna go eat something..."
" Assuming you aren't going home anytime soon?" she said,
" Sure" I said not quite sure why.

There're only a few places to eat in Harsllow; there's the diner at the corner of Marsh and Nells; the café not to far from school on Cherry and the restaurant on Maine but that's
too far from school, it's situated at the mouth of Harsllow. So we walked all the way to the coffee shop as it was the nearest and luckily the weather wasn't too bad today with a soft shower of snow and light grey skies.

We got in the café and put our bags down grabbing an open table and then we sat down.
" You come here often?" I asked not knowing what to say but breaking the silence,
" Yeah" she said,
" What were you doing in the library?" she asked
" I was finishing homework and charging my phone" I replied
" That's all?" She asked
" Well, yeah, I mean after I was done with my homework I watched some Netflix." I said
" In a library?" she asked with a questioning expression,
" Yeah"
" Ok" she concluded and with that a waiter came over to our table and took our orders. I had only now realised that we were the only ones in the cafe, it was awfully quiet. The cafe isn't big, it has a max of four tables inside it and two more outside under a covering. The cafe only has like two waiters if I'm not mistaken, no more than one table of people actually ever comes here at once. The food took a while in the back and in the meanwhile dead silence occupied the room.

" So, is it only your brother around to pick you up or.." I asked, I should really stop trying to fill the silence,
" Yeah," she said looking up at me
" My parents aren't home so.."
" Oh, how come?" I asked
" Business trip, they're on a business trip for the next two months" she said lowering her voice as she said two months.
" So it's me and my brother but he's never around, always either with his girlfriend or friends or something" she said
" What about you?" she asked
" Well my mom's a doctor and my dad's a cop, so they both get home pretty late like round 18:00 or later" I said
" Oh"
" Yeah and my younger sister has skating today so she's gonna come back with my mom" I said as the waiter came over with our food, I had ordered a croissant stuffed with egg, cheese, lettuce and avocado with tea and Astra got a toasted cheese and ham sandwich with a cup of black coffee.
" You don't add milk?" I said surprised and kinda disgusted
"No" she said plainly
"And just two sugars, that s kinda gross" I said
" Hey well I'm not here questioning how you take your tea, so leave me and my coffee"
" Sorry but it's just why would you drink it like that, black coffee's bitter, I feel like the only acceptable way to drink it is when you're eating something sweet" I said
"Well yeah it is bitter but after a while it gets sweet" she said blowing on her coffee
"Nah, that just you, it's your brain trying to convince you it's good." I concluded
" whatever" she concluded. We both finished our food after a while and the waiter came to get our dishes, thanking him for 'waiting' our food we paid for our food separately.
" So where to now" she said
" What?" I said in confusion
" Where to now?" She repeated in the same tone as before. It was 15:37 now and I had like three hours left till I was going home.
" Could we go to the petrol station, I have to buy something there"
" Yeah, sure ok" she said and with that we left the café.