Rejection Causes Love?

Chapter 3: Is He Changing?

When I made my way to fifth period after lunch, my mood was actually happy for once. I expected that Chris wouldn't be as mean to me in gym class, but I was sadly mistaken. He was the same as usual, if not worse. I was confused and hurt. He had just been helping me out and giving suggestions less than twenty minutes ago, and now he was pretending like it never even happened! Why was he doing this? 

Geography and math were even worse than gym, and I found myself desperately wanting to go home. When the bell finally rang, I was the first out of my seat, and I managed to get on the bus without seeing Chris again. I thought I would be done with him for the weekend, but then I groaned when I realized that Maya's birthday party was tomorrow. Now that I knew he was going to be horrible to me, I really didn't want to go. But I was still going to. 

***

On Saturday afternoon, I was trying to prepare myself to face Chris again. I vowed that I wouldn't let his words affect me, but I knew it wouldn't work. Everything he said cut deep, and I hated it. A couple minutes later, I was in my car and driving to the mall. When I got there, I walked over to the movie theater and saw Maya surounded by some of her friends. My eyes flickered over to the corner and I saw Chris, along with three of his friends from school. He must have felt me staring at him, because his eyes flickered up to meet mine, and he smirked. I quickly walked over to Maya and tried to stay out of Chris' sight. I felt cowardly, but oh well. 

I didn't know what we were seeing, and I was too lazy to ask. We all handed our money to Maya and she paid for our tickets. I didn't buy popcorn, but most of the others did. I followed everyone into the theater, and I turned to see Chris in the back of our group, talking to who I guessed was Nathan. 

It turned out that we were kind of late and the movie was about to start, so most of the seats were taken. I saw two vacant seats at the top, and I hurried to one of them and sat down. I saw everyone else sit down in empty seats they found, but no one was near each other. I saw Chris arguing with Carter, and then Carter took a seat and Chris looked around for another one. Maya pointed out the seat next to me, and I shook my head vigorously, trying to tell her I didn't want Chris sitting next to me. She didn't seem to get my message, because a couple minutes later Chris was sitting next to me. I froze, but he didn't do anything. Then he turned to me, and I knew he was about to say something. 

"Hey." he said. I turned to him and blinked. He was saying hi to me...? This was all so confusing!

"Um, hey." I said nervously. 

"I didn't wanna be here, but I came to be nice." he said with a shrug. Did he mean the party, or the seat he was currently sitting in? 

"The party?" I asked, feeling stupid. 

"Yeah." he replied. I was stunned at how attractive his voice was when he wasn't being mean to me. I guess he noticed that I was uncomfortable around him. 

"What's wrong?" he asked. 

"N-nothing." I said. 

"Are you sure?" he asked. Since when do you care? 

"Yeah." I replied. He shrugged and turned to the screen as the movie came on. To my horror, it was some romance film, and I was sitting next to...Chris. And no one else from our group was near us... We were all alone. Again. And the last time we had been alone, he was nice to me. He was being nice to me right now. Maybe being alone with him was the key! With this thought, I smiled, but then I became self-conscious of how close Chris was when the couple on the screen started kissing. I started imagining things I had no business imagining, and I nearly jumped out of my skin when I felt Chris' shoulder brush against me. 

"This movie sucks." he whispered. My hand was gripping the arm rest tightly, and I just nodded, unable to speak with his lips that close to my ear. About halfway through the movie, Chris unconciously draped his arm over the back of my seat, and my heart sped up. If only I leaned into him, would he push me away? I wanted to try it, but I was afraid of what would happen. His arm slid from the chair to my shoulders, and it gave me all the courage I needed to lean against his shoulder. He froze, but he didn't pull away. My heart was beating fast, expecting him to do something, but he didn't. Why was he doing this? What was the point if he was just going to be mean to me again on Monday? He was warm, and he smelled nice. I wished the movie would never end so I could stay here forever. In the darkness with Chris, where no one could see us. When the credits started rolling across the screen, my heart dropped. Chris stood up and looked back at me, and I got up and followed him down to the rest of the group. Once his friends appeared, I looked down at the ground, knowing he wasn't going to be nice to me anymore. 

No one really liked the movie, and we were all puzzled as to why Maya picked it in the first place. Everyone left the theater and we walked over to the mall. Chris wasn't being mean to me, but he wasn't exactly talking to me either. I could practically still feel his warm arm resting on my shoulders. I began daydreaming again, but I snapped out of it quickly when we entered the mall. Everyone began bickering on where they wanted to go, and I just rolled my eyes and stood there. I looked over to see Chris standing a couple feet away from me, and he wasn't involved in the conversation either. He noticed me looking at him and he walked over to me. 

"You wanna get out of here?" he asked. I nodded, and he took my hand and led me through the crowds, away from our crazy group of friends. I didn't know where we were going or  why he was acting like this, but I would gladly accept it.