Finding Claire

Chapter 13

"Hi," he finally said after a few minutes of silence. I rolled my eyes, turned around and started to play random keys. Now he started to speak to me. "Claire I'm-"

"Don't you dare speak to me," I hissed, slamming my fists down on the keys, making a horrible noise. "After a week of avoiding me, now you deem yourself high enough to speak to me?"

It was quiet for a couple of seconds before I felt his hand on my shoulder. I sprang up and moved away, not wasting another second with him. I had my sweater back on in seconds and I was walking away when I felt him grab my wrist. "Please. Let me explain!"

"Explain what?" I whispered, not looking at him. "Explain how you made me trust you and then you stomped that trust away? I told you my life story and you ran away like I had a disease. You didn't explain why and you just stopped speaking to me. So why should I let you talk now?"

The hand that was wrapped around my wrist tightened and I flinched. I turned my head to stare at our hands, but when he didn't let go, I finally met his eyes.

He seemed angry..... Sad..... And another emotion I couldn't point out yet all at the same time. When I met his eyes, his grip slightly released and his lips turned up into a small smile. "Will you please let me explain?" He managed to whisper.

"Explain what?"

"Why I.... You know."

I changed the subject. He had his time to explain. I think it was a little too late for that. "How did you find me? It's not like you were too busy looking for me before."

He flinched, releasing my hand finally and I took a step back. He looked down for a second and then he shrugged. "It was kind of easy actually. I heard what you said to Gabby and I wanted to come and talk to you. This is the first place I thought to come to and when I heard someone playing, I immediately knew you were here. No one can play like you Claire."

I rolled my eyes and stayed silent. I had nothing to say at that moment. The silence was awkward but strong at the same time and he broke it first. "Will you let me explain?"

"No. You had your chance. It's gone now."

"Please Claire! I didn't want to, but I had to! It's hard to explain if you won't let me!"

"I. Don't. Care. You. Don't. Owe. Me. An. Explanation." He flinched again at my words and I sighed quietly. "Do you really think I would let you explain yourself? Why now Nate? Why? After a week you come to me and say you want to explain? How can I trust you? Apparently you didn't trust me so why should I trust you?"

His eyes went wide when I said his nickname and by the time I finished, they were almost popping out. His mouth was slightly open and I had to hold the small giggle that was threatening to come out. He looked so funny! I fixed my hair before it completely fell off the ponytail I had it on and without a second look, I walked away.

I knew he would not give up and deep inside me, I didn't want him to give up. I missed my friend and all his stupid remarks, but how could I trust him? If he wanted my trust back, well he was going to have to work hard for it.

*

*

*

I almost -key word almost- gave in during English. I had my head down, looking at the assignment we were working on when out of the corner of my eyes, I saw a red string.

Is that......

I tilted my head up a little and smiled a little. Yes. It was what I thought it was. A Twizzler. I took a quick peek at him from the corner of my eye -yeah, he surprised me when he came and sat down by me again- and gladly noticed he was looking down at his sheet. He didn't turn or begin to say anything to me and I stared at him longer than I wanted to. I saw a smile forming on his face and I quickly looked away, blushing at getting caught.

I finished my sheet and when the bell rang, I packed all my things and like last time, I took the candy at the last second.

I swear I heard him laugh.

*

*

The rest of the day rolled by fast and the weekend rolled by faster. When Monday came by again, I woke up at my usual time like always. Since today was the first day of midterms though, students who had off periods either had to stay in the library or come for their classes only. No one was allowed in the hallways without a pass, so that meant I had to go to school later than I usually did.

It felt weird when I looked up at the clock an hour later and saw that by that time, I would be sitting down in my corner, talking to Mr. Zee and laughing at his attempts of making me play for him. Just thinking of playing the piano brought back the memory of hearing Nathan play the guitar and I found myself smiling.

Those days were nice. It seemed like it had happened years ago, but I knew it had only been weeks ago. "Time and people do change," I muttered to myself before getting out of bed and decided to get ready. Yeah call me a nerd, but when you change your schedule out of nowhere, you find yourself twitching to fix it and that was what I was trying to do.

"Off to school?" My mom sighed two hours later, not even attempting to look up from her book. I nodded and then quickly voiced out my answer.

"Yes. Schedule is weird because of midterms. Got to make sure I'm not late."

"Good luck." And with that, I headed off to school.

*

Oh yeah I was right about leaving at the time I left. Apparently, today was the day students took midterms for their first and last periods. Those two periods were two hours and the other six were cut short to accommodate the change. So when I stepped in the school, teachers were yelling "Third period!" as the bells rang.

I made my way to English and sat down on my spot, sighing. Since my day was going to be cut short, I couldn't wait to get out of there. Why was school wasting my time with even shorter classes?

My answer was given minutes after the bell rang when Ms. Hoff passed out some papers and Nathan next to me handed me mine. "Just in case you didn't get one on your last class." She announced.

MIDTERM SCHEDULE

Monday:
1st period- 9:10- 11:10
2nd period- 11:15- 11:40
3rd period- 11:45- 12:10
4th period- 12:15- 12:40
5th period- 12:45- 1:10
6th period- 1:15- 1:40
7th period- 1:45- 2:10
8th period- 2:15- 4:15

NO LUNCH. TEACHERS WILL GIVE OUT SNACKS DURING 4th & 5th.

Tuesday (half day)
2nd period 9:10- 11:10
7th period 11:20- 1:20

Wednesday (half day)
3rd period 9:10- 11:10
6th period 11:20- 1:20

Thursday (half day)
4th period 9:10- 11:10
5th period 11:20- 1:20

"So today is the only day we have to go to all our classes? Sweet!" Nathan said, speaking for the first time. I shrugged, not even bothering to look at him. Not even a couple minutes later, he cursed and plopped his bag on the table.

"Today is the only day for you to study for the remaining tests you haven't taken yet. I would use my time wisely," Ms. Hoff yelled over the noise. No one bothered to pay attention to her and she just sighed and gave her attention to those who were actually studying. I looked back down at the sheet as if it had the answers to how to win the lottery and did a double take when I saw something different.

On the top right corner of the sheet sat two caramel Hershey kisses right above a single Recess cup. I stared at the candy for a couple of minutes before finally looking up with wide eyes. He wasn't looking at me, but once he felt my stare, he turned and gave me a small smile.

It took me a moment to respond, but at the last second, I smiled back and stood up with the rest of the students as the bell rang.