Imperfect Pieces

28. apples

Robyn groaned when she saw Lance trailing behind her again. She turned around abruptly, making Lance jump back in surprise.

"Can you please stop following me? It's starting to feel very stalker-ish."

Lance recovered with ease and a confident smile appeared on his face.

"You're like a blinding light that I just can't resist following."

Robyn huffed, realizing that getting rid of this guy and his incredibly cheesy pick up lines would take some effort. He had spent the entire Chemistry class throwing paper airplanes at her with little hearts doodled on them. He even approached her during lunch, but thankfully she managed to pull him away from her table before he could embarrass her. Now it seemed like he was intent on walking her home and there was no way she was showing him where she lived. She definitely didn't need anyone to be throwing pebbles at her window late at night or climbing up the trellis.

Robyn reached into her backpack for the apple she saved from lunch and continued to walk the longest route back home, savoring the sweet crunch. Lance was never very far behind. He tried multiple times to engage her in conversation, but when that failed he decided that singing to her would be a better idea. Robyn's calm facade was crumbling and finally she couldn't take his off-key singing anymore. Before Lance could react, she whirled around and threw the half-eaten apple at him. It hit right in the eye, making him stumble and fall to the ground.

She felt a bit bad for injuring him, so she walked over to examine the damage. Lance was still covering his eye, but he turned to her unphased and delivered the punchline proudly.

"You're the apple of my eye. You hit me so hard that before I knew it, I was falling for you."

Robyn sighed loudly and rolled her eyes. She was about to reluctantly admit that his pickup line was actually clever for once, but then Lance just had to speak again.

"So... do you want to go get coffee sometimes?"

Robyn shook her head, and for the first time her smile was directed towards Lance.

"You'll find a girl that'll love you and your pickup lines eventually... someday..."

He looked like he was about to protest, but he must have seen the resolve in her face. He clambered back onto his feet and dusted off his pants. His eye looked a bit swollen and purple, but nothing an ice pack and a few days of rest couldn't fix. After picking up the apple core, he looked at Robyn one last time and walked away, probably off to go impress some other girl.

A few days later before school started he was waiting at her locker with an apple pie.

"You think you might change your mind?"

This time, Robyn couldn't help it and burst out laughing. It turned out that apples went quite well with coffee.