Always

Chapter 6

When my alarm went off in the morning, I shot out of bed, more ready to get up than I could ever remember being.  I took extra time to get ready, smoothing my long, brown hair in frustration as it seemed to rebel against my every move.  Once I was finally satisfied with my appearance, I headed downstairs for breakfast, which I inhaled quickly, in a rush to get to school. 

When I arrived at school, I headed to my locker in hopes of spotting Harry before class.  He was nowhere to be found, however.  Trying to hide my disappointment, I found my friends gathered around Will’s locker.  Much of our conversation was the same as it was everyday: complaining about homework, parents, talk of parties coming up for the weekend.  Everyone’s attention was grabbed by a loud bang coming from down the hallways. 

It was a sound I had heard before, just yesterday morning in fact.  It was the sound of a body slamming into a locker.  My breath caught as I searched down the hall, not surprised to see Colt’s smirking face coming towards us, clearly the cause of the loud sound.  Past Colt, I was also not surprised to see Harry rubbing his shoulder again as he stumbled away from the wall. 

A surge of anger flooded through me.  I had seen this too many times, and wasn’t going to stand for it anymore.  I marched down the hall toward Colt, who upon seeing me approach, stopped smirking and started dragging his eyes up my body with a lustful look on his face. 

“Don’t do that ever again,” I said firmly, stopping abruptly in front of him.  He continued his disgusting inspection of my body before finally looking up at my face.

“Why?  He’s always in my way,” he sneered.

“In your way?  It’s not just your hallway,” I retorted.

“Well as long as that fag is in my way, I’m going to shove him.”

“You’re such a fucking prick, don’t touch him again.  I mean it,” I spit out, shoving him slightly in the chest.  He didn’t move.  He simply laughed at me before winking and walking around me to continue his path, leaving me seething. 

I glanced back down the hallway further to see Harry standing against the wall, watching me, cheeks red.  Once I made eye contact with him, he hitched up his backpack and quickly turned to walk the opposite direction.  Before I could follow him, I was intercepted by my friends.

“What the hell was that?” Haley questioned.

“I’m just sick of Colt thinking he can do whatever the fuck he wants and get away with it.”

“Yeah but sticking up for that kid?  He’s just some random guy,” Lydia commented.  Never in my life had I wanted to hit someone, but this was the second time in one day.

“He’s not,” I all but spit.

                  “Oh I forgot, you guys are partners now aren’t you.  What, did he seduce you with his calculator skills?” she continued.  I just scoffed and rolled my eyes before turning around and heading to Biology.  No way was I walking there with Lydia now, much less sitting with her. 

When I got to the classroom, there was hardly anybody there.  Harry wasn’t even there yet.  Instead of heading to my usual spot in the back of the room, I sat where I had been yesterday, next to Harry’s normal seat.  I leaned back in my chair and folded my arms, a scowl pressed on my face.  I had known my friends weren’t the nicest, but to hear them talk that way about a boy they knew nothing about who was actually really sweet pissed me off.  I was so wrapped up in my thoughts of how much I currently despised my friends that I didn’t even notice when he walked up and stopped in front of the desk.

“Um, hey,” he said, unsure of why I was sitting there.

“I’m sitting by you today, hope you don’t mind,” I said, trying to hide my anger and smiling at him.  He looked down at me, eyes slightly sad behind his glasses.  His hair was slightly messed up from the contact with the locker.  I found myself wanting to reach up and smooth it for him.

“I don’t mind,” was all he said before sitting down in his seat.  His posture was tense, just as it had been yesterday at school.  It was nothing like how he had been at dinner with my mom- relaxed, smiling, and enjoying himself.  This observation made me sad.  “Thank you. For um, saying what you did.”  Red tinted his cheeks as he stared at his desk, too embarrassed to look at me.

I turned and smiled sadly at him.  “Of course, Harry.”

At that point, our teacher got up to begin class.  Today was pretty basic lecture, so all we did was take notes.  Halfway through class I got bored and began my inspection of Harry again, something that was quickly becoming one of my favorite past times.  It was slightly more difficult with him seated directly next to me, but that didn’t stop me.  I looked at his hands once again, grasping a pencil and jotting down notes.  I was surprised to see a few doodles on his page: little trees, houses, and what appeared to be lyrics were smudged into the edges of his paper.  Huh.  I didn’t take him for a doodler. 

As I watched him write things down, he shifted his hand to the other side of his notebook, the one closest to me.  He started to write something down, but I couldn’t see because of his left hand.  Once he finished, he moved his hand so I could read it. 

You’re not taking very detailed notes. 

That was what he had written.  It was a note to me.  A grin spread across my face as I grabbed for my pencil to write back.  I pulled my notebook toward me, shifting forward so my long hair fell across the page. 

With a smile on my face, I wrote back, That’s because I obviously remember everything I ever hear. I flipped my hair back over my shoulder and leaned back so he could read it.  A slight smirk appeared on his lips, dimples deepening in his cheeks.  He moved to write again, once again obscuring my view with his large hand. 

Once he was finished, I was able to read, So basically, you’re a superhero.  This time the grin that spread across my face was met from one of his as he tilted his face towards mine, his green eyes meeting my blue ones.  I just shrugged as if in a nonchalant way and winked, pressing my index finger to my lips as if to shush him. 

He smiled at me, revealing his white teeth and dimples before returning his focus on the lecture.  After a few more minutes of failing to pay attention, the bell rang signaling the end of class.  As we gathered our things, I stopped him once again before he could scurry off.

“Hey, Harry, you should give me your number so we can figure out stuff easier.  For the project.”

“O-okay.  Um, hang on a second,” he said, nerves creeping back into his features.  He dug around to his pocket to pull out his phone, seeing that I had mine in my hand.  I held mine out to him, which he took and started adding his information to.  I thought he would hand me his, but he still held it in his own as he also held mine while he typed.  I giggled as I reached forward to just grab it.  My fingers brushed his and he sucked in a breath, eyes darting up to mine quickly before focusing again on my phone.  A small smile grew on my face at his reaction. 

The small smile turned into a full blown smile as I clicked his phone and saw that his lock screen was a photo of him and a woman who appeared to be his mom, smiling at the camera on a beach somewhere.  I had never seen a boy who had a picture of them with their mother as their lock screen.  Of course he would be the one to do so.  After putting my contact information into his phone, I slid it back into his palm as I took my own, still smiling.  “Perfect.”

“Um, yeah.  I’ll see you later, Joey,” he said, glancing at me one last time before hurrying out the door.  I watched his back as he blended into the crowd, head slightly higher than most of the students around him.  He turned a corner down a different hallway and I lost sight of him.  In the back of my mind, I heard Lydia saying something to another girl in our class. 

After my interaction with Harry, I had almost forgotten how pissed I was at her.  Now that he was gone, I didn’t want to get stuck walking out of class with her.  I grabbed by bag quickly and hurried out the door before she got the chance to catch up to me.