Forbidden

Chapter Six

Olivia sat in study hall tapping her pen against the desk. Mrs. Sheridan looked up at her and cleared her throat as if to say, “Stop it. Now.” Olivia stopped, completely forgetting how annoying the sound could be if you weren’t the one making the sound. She leaned back further into her seat. She had spent the first half hour studying for a test in Chemistry and finishing up her Trig outline. Everything was caught up, as usual. Now she had sixteen minutes to go before she could see him again.

                She thought back to the coffee shop conversation and wondered why he became nervous as they were talking about the mentoring. That was quickly overshadowed by how amazing he looked today. Black slacks, black shiny shoes, white long sleeved button up with a black sweater vest over top of it and a red tie poking out from underneath it all. She wondered if he had any tattoos that he kept hidden. She imagined him without a shirt on, and tried to imagine tattoos on his arm, or his chest, or his back and then she blushed at the thought. Or rather, she got excited over the thought.

                Every time she got close to him, or even if she was just thinking about him, it sent her heart into a frenzy. She felt an electrical occurrence and she often wondered why she felt so unequivocally crazy about him. Nothing had ever happened outside of their awkward stares and silences. And nothing was going to happen so why did she feel this way? She sighed, suddenly tired at the thought of it all.

                Thankfully, the bell, the annoying, deafening bell, rang and she grabbed her bags from the floor and walked up the stairs and to the right, landing right in Mr. Cereno’s lair. She was the first one in, but Mr. Cereno wasn’t in yet. Shrugging inwardly, she took her usual seat, and the room soon filled with loud chatter about nothing in particular. Trevor and Elliot walked in and sat in the surrounding seats next to Olivia.

“So, turns out it’s a good thing ya’ll couldn’t go to Hilton Head this weekend,” Trevor started.

“Why?” Olivia asked.

“Because apparently I have to drive with my dad down to Statesboro to help him move my gramma’s new furniture in.”

“What? Damn! Kenley’s gone for the weekend, Elliot, and now you? What am I supposed to do all weekend?” Olivia whined.

“Dude, you have plenty to do at your house. It’s only for the weekend and we’ll all be right back here before we know it,” Trevor replied.

“Fiiiine,” Olivia droned, thinking of how bored she was about to be.

                Trevor patted her on the back in feign sympathy.

“You’ll survive, I promise,” he said.

                The bell rang and the last of the students shuffled their way inside and the door clicked shut. Olivia looked up, suddenly forgetting about her lack of activities for the weekend, and drew her attention to Mr. Cereno. He was wearing thin black square framed glasses that truly emphasized his already ridiculous good looks.

“So, I’ll pass out everyone’s composition books. I graded everything from the first week. Just go over everything, read my notes and then start on your next entry. You can take it home with you for the weekend, just don’t forget to bring it back,” he said as he lightly kicked the foot of Chris Lammes who was already asleep, face down on his desk. Chris shot his head up and he wiped his mouth.

                She watched as he went from desk to desk, dropping composition book after composition book next to their owners. When he finally made his way to her desk, he laid the book down softly and touched her on her back by her neck and gave it a gentle squeeze.