Flames

eighteen

I may or may not have taken three days off school for personal reasons. Well okay, yes, I skipped school for three days in order to avoid facing both Louis and Zayn after that very, very awkward encounter between us the other day. All those situations I was put in were very overwhelming. I mean, kissing your ex-boyfriend, whom you're suppose to hate for no reason, just for the sake of your grandmother? Then having you friend (or whatever he was) show up right after he left you in the middle of nowhere for you to walk miles home was, too much for one day. They were weird and bizarre situations.

The mere thought of it made me want to stay in bed one more day and watch all seasons of Project Runway for the third time.

Except I didn't.

I spent three days wearing the same pajamas and watching five different shows with Gordon Ramsay in them, as well as surviving on delivery and scraps from our nearly empty fridge.

The only reason I was even going to school was because I wanted to graduate with passable grades. They might not have been my main priority at that moment, but I had some life goals in the back of my mind, and they all started with graduating high school.

I put on ripped jeans, my dirty black converse, a white t-shirt with a university that I had no idea about, then placed a black cap on my semi-greasy hair and headed out. I really should have showered beforehand, but I woke up late and I was too lazy to care, so I went with the apathetic look.

I called it; the greasy-hair-don't-care-but-I-secretly-do-yet-too-lazy-to-act-on-it style.

It was very in in my book.

When I parked the car on the school lot, I was already a couple minutes late to class.

Once I got there, I opened the door and quickly walked in, ignoring the pairs of eyes that more than likely wandered to me, except I couldn't really tell because my cap shielded their faces.

Cap – 1

World – 0

I shuffled to my seat after getting an annoyed look from Madame Webber and sat down. I took out my belongings and looked straight at the door, gladly enjoying the fact that my cap also shielded me from seeing Louis. But without even looking, I could feel his stern stare from beside me, and as much as I wanted to turn and see it for myself, I didn't.

Today was different.

Just a couple weeks ago, Louis would have probably made a witty, mean remark about my cap or about me in general then we would go back and forth for a bit until Madame Webber would tell us to be quiet, but in a matter of weeks everything had shifted. Now, I just felt weird and a bit uncomfortable as I sat next to him. The kiss was a broken record that played over and over in my head, reminding me of what happened that day and many other memories that I had tried to suppress.

That was not my only distraction. I also noticed just how close Louis and I were sitting and it almost made me blush. As soon as I sat down, I noticed how I unconsciously placed my chair closer to his. Yet even then, it wouldn't have been in such a close proximity if he hadn't sat very close to the middle, thus making our thighs be only inches apart. I know it's quite impossible, but I seriously felt like I could sense a bit of heat coming from him, which made me even more nervous.

The mere thought made my cheeks flash with heat, showing what I assumed to be a visible blush. I mentally thanked myself for the third time in the same day for choosing to wear a cap.

Cap- 2

World- 0

                First class of the day had turned into the slowest, most awkward class ever. I had told myself that I would ignore the kiss and pretend it never happened so Louis and I could go back to the way it used to be with dumb pranks and silly remarks. Instead, I kept thinking that maybe I could try and talk with Louis, about what I wasn't sure about, but if we could just have a sincere talk, then maybe we could understand each other better.