A Day in the Life of Fiction (part 1)

The New Kid is Small and I Hate That

Definitely the worst day of my life.

Since I had shown up late to class, the teacher had assigned me after school detention cleaning the student lounge. And, of fucking course, there was a certain pink haired guy who was also late and was also assigned after school detention that was also cleaning the student lounge.

If my life were some sort of romance drama, which it is not, this would've been the moment one of us breaks the ice by making a comment on the weather. The other would reply shortly. We would both start talking at the same time, laughing and very cutely insisting the other speaks first.

But this wasn't that.

We stood at opposite ends of the room, me with broom in hand and him wiping the chalkboard clean. Whenever he happened to drift closer to me while cleaning around the room, I would cleverly move to the opposite end, like a well-oiled machine.

If he spoke a single word, a curt 'no' was all I needed to say to cut any icebreakers he might have up his sleeve right then and there.

I thought all that but, surprisingly, it had been twenty or so minutes since we arrived here. Not a single word or glance from him in that time.

That was what unnerved me the most. It was like the calm before the storm. Something had to be happening soon. He would faint from some unexpected illness and I would have to carry him to the infirmary, the school could go into lockdown from a threat outside and we'd be locked in this room together huddled in fear, or a freak storm rolls in and the buses or our parents couldn't get us due to the roads so we have to stay the night here. My pulse quickened at these thoughts and I had to take a slow and deep breath.

"Jaden?"

"SHIT."

I spun around, wielding the broom as a weapon, to see Benny standing across the room, but now facing me. He had a pensive look on his face. I hated when he made dumb faces like that. As expected, my cheeks and ears flared up.

He looked to the floor. "I was wondering—"

"Wait wait wait," I interrupted, waving a hand frantically. We couldn't talk. Talking meant resolution. Resolution meant friendship. Friendship meant other feelings and shit.

"Yeah?" he looked up, his eyes filled with something that was the last thing thing I wanted to see.

This cute little shit was pushing my buttons and I hated it, how dare he come up in my house being like this? I never asked for him to come up with his stupid pink hair being all cute and with those stupid bright eyes.

"Fuck you," I said curtly, turning away swiftly.

It was quiet; the only sound was my broom swiping across the floor. Then the room was filled with that bubbly laughter. I froze as a shiver went up my spine, not for the first time that day unfortunately. 

"Is that all?" he asked brightly when he finally caught his breath.

"Yes." I answered, continuing my sweeping.

"Are you sure?" he teased.

I tilted my head back in exasperation. He was not going to get me to talk about my feelings; I knew where the conversation was going.

"Yes. End of discussion."

"Alright."

Silence.

I swept.

Silence.

He straightened the desks.

Silence.

I swept.

Silence.

He went to washing the windows.

Silence.

Honestly, the floor had been done for the past ten minutes. But it was the best job to easily carry out my evasion tactics. Benny was doing most of the work. Wasn't he annoyed that I was slacking?

I stood still and stared at the back of his head. He was reaching for the higher parts of the windows, a bit short to reach the very top of it. He was about seven inches shorter than me if I had to guess. He was never going to reach that spot.

A familiar feeling came over me and I rolled my eyes as I walked over to him. Before he could turn around, I knelt down behind him a bit, locking my arms around his thighs. In one swift motion, I stood back up.

"AH—what are you—?"

"Clean."

"Oh, uh. Okay."

As he went back to wiping the window I was mentally flipping tables at my absolute stupidity. I fell right into the trap! Of course, I hadn't even thought of our height differences playing into this scene and before I knew what I was doing, I was hugging his legs to my chest.

How stupid could I be? It was such an obvious set up.

"Could you move to the left?" he asked from above. I obliged.

Dumb pink haired little shit, why did he have to be born so small? This whole situation wouldn't have been happening if he were just taller.

Yeah, but who was the one who picked him up, dumbass? I groaned and let my head drop forward, letting my eyes close. Everything was so exhausting. Things were getting worse and worse. At this rate, we'd be married before graduation.

"U-um... Jaden?"

I opened my eyes, meeting the dark blue color of our school uniforms. The realization of what I had been resting my head on came quickly and as soon as it did I threw my head back so fast I'm surprised it actually stayed connected to my neck. In the next moment, I was stumbling backward, still clutching to Benny. He let out a frightened cry and it was as if some sort of animalistic instinct kicked in.

I concentrated on sliding my hold from Benny's legs to his torso so he wasn't towering above me, trying to regain my balance with his shifting weight. Maybe I hadn't done it fast enough because I found myself still stumbling backwards.

My butt landed firmly atop a desk, the legs of it squeaking as it was pushed with our momentum.

Yet again, I found myself in a sticky situation. I was sitting on top of the desk and, having been gripping onto Benny the whole time, he was sitting right on my lap. He must've twisted his body at some point during my stumbling because now his face was inches from mine.

Worst day of my life?

No.

This was some next level shit, I don't know what you would call it but what it was, I was there. And this dangerously cute little shit was with me.