Unbound

     "Come on, the movie put that book to shame. In fact, the book wasn't bad at all. Just had a suck-ish ending. Hollywood actually has sense, who would've thought?"

     "You have no idea what you are talking about Q, I swear! Everything that comes out of your mouth seems to be pig latin. Besides, the Insurgent movie went completely off the rails with the whole 'box' revision. You have forgotten once again that I've read this series countless times, it's like my bible."

     "Trust me, no one has forgotten, Emily. We simply just don't care."

     I gave Q a smirk, sat down beside her, and pulled out my notes journal. We were learning about heart disease, physiology, things I'd probably never refer to after my final exam of this course. Dr. Norman started attendance, an automatic cue for silence among us. I was about to whisper something regarding our previous conversation to Q, when Dr. Norman yelled my name louder than normal, stopping me in my tracks. I didn't hear the first time she called my name.

     "Here." I gave her a small grin. She stared at me for another solid four seconds, then finally returned to her roster. Q and I exchanged looks of relief, quickly returning our gazes to the front of the room when Dr. Norman glanced in our direction. I normally never paid attention to anyone else's name on the roll after my own, but when the Doc (Dr. Norman) called on Lucas, he didn't answer, earning my interest. He'd been tardy only once before, but had a note excusing his absence. I wasn't the only one to notice the strange situation. Doc looked around one last time, then moved on. I gave Q a look of confusion, and she unwillingly fiddled with her fingers, indicating that something was going on. I decided that it was no big deal when Q made no attempt to write it down. We were allowed about forty-five seconds to talk before the lesson started, so Q and I finished up our debate about Divergent.

     Around thirty minutes has passed before we all heard struggling at the door knob. The door finally swung open with much effort, and in stumbled a ruffled-up Lucas with papers cascading out of his backpack, binders sliding out of his grip, and tears fighting to escape his eyes. My immediate response as a partially abnegation-minded person was to rush over to him and help, but Q grabbed my hand and told me to sit back down.

     "Why? Let me go." I tried pulling myself free, but Q's grip got tighter.

     "Trust me, please. Okay? I'll explain after school." She let go, and it took every ounce of me to not rush in Lucas' direction.

     Doc let Lucas put his things down in his seat, and Oliva, one of my friends, picked up the papers that fell on the floor. Part of me felt jealous. To some degree, I wanted everyone, including Lucas, to see me helping. They both set his things on the desk, got situated, and class started up once more. I couldn't help looking in his direction, but when I did his eyes were already wandering in my general vicinity. I studied his face longer than I probably should have, not noticing that his gaze fell upon me. I gave him a swift smile and returned my attention to the board, not wanted to miss any more of the notes I had ignored.

     The bell rang a few seconds before three, so Doc ordered us to stay in our seats until her phone changed.

     "Hey, I'm gonna go to the bathroom first. Wait for me by band," I told Q.

     "Sure, I'll probably go to my locker first so you may get there before me." We both gathered our things and slung our backpacks over our shoulders. I let everyone else file out of the room before I spoke up.

     "Hey, so are you, I don't know, okay?" I don't know why, but my heart started beating out of my chest. He continued to put away his papers. I at first thought that he was being rude by not answering. Then I noticed that he had slipped on his earbuds at some point. Lucas looked up to find that he accidentally positioned himself inches away from my face. He instinctively pedaled back until we had both regained personal space, and removed his headphones. I giggled and he shot me an apologetic sigh.

     "I asked if you were okay. Are you?"

     It took him a couple seconds to reply, but he finally responded.

     "Okay. I-I, um..." he stuttered. Another apologetic sigh. What's going on with this dude?

     "Well, if you need anything, I'm sure you can figure out where to find me." I started to walk out when I heard him speak.

     "Thank you, for almost helping. I saw that you were coming over, but your friend stopped you. I'm okay with her stopping you from doing something simple like picking up a troubled guy's papers, but don't make the mistake of letting her hold you back from the big stuff." He waltzed past my motionless body.

     At a loss for what to say, I blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

     "You're not troubled," I called out to him.

     "Says who? And so not the point." He managed to pull off the tiniest, yet effective smile that I've ever seen, before disappearing around the corner.

     Q came and stood in the door way giving me a disapproving look.

     "Bathroom, huh?"

     "I changed my mind! Let's get out of here, we've got some movies to watch."

     On the way to our hangout, I spotted an elderly couple across the street trying to lift up their fallen trashcan. I made my way over to help, but Q brought me in by mildly yanking by arm back.

     "No time for old folks, I've got a theory to disprove!" She laughed as the woman fell right on her back, and a part of me sank to the ground with her. Suddenly, Lucas' words came into my mind, "...don't make the mistake of letting her hold you back from the big stuff." I jerked my arm back only to find Lucas helping the woman up off of the ground, and I looked away before he could see the guilt and shame in my eyes.

------------------------------------------

Hey guys! I've written part of another story on Wattpad that I never finished, but I'm trying to continue with this one. Thanks for reading! Feel free to like, vote, and/or leave comments.