Limitless

Chapter 5

I had never actually watched the whole HP series all at once, but I definitely regretted it, even for as much as I loved Harry Potter.  Harry and I finished the movies in the late afternoon and then slept for a few hours.  We fell asleep on the couch - my feet by his face and his feet by mine – until Emma and Liam found us and woke us up; not before taking a picture though.  Doing nothing all day made me more tired, and waking up for school the next day was hell.  I met Emma and Liam in the parking lot of the school.

“Where’s Harry?”

“Sleeping at home.  Harry Potter knocked him out,” Liam answered.

I tried not to seem too upset as we walked to our first classes.  When lunchtime rolled around, Harry still wasn’t at school, and I assumed that he just wasn’t coming at all that day.  I poked at some slop on my lunch tray and listened to Emma discuss psychology with Finn, the Asian kid I had seen before.  They kept quizzing each other on parts of the brain and what each part did, and I just sat and laughed at the names.

“So… the hippocampus?” Emma guessed.

“Nope.  The basal ganglia,” Finn corrected her.  Emma grunted and slapped her hand down on the table.

“I knew that…” She muttered.

Suddenly someone’s hands blocked my vision. “Guess who?”

I grabbed the hands and gently pushed them away. “Hey Josh.”

“Well gee, don’t sound so excited,” he laughed.  I half-smiled as he pulled the chair out next to me and seated himself.  Following that, he pulled me into an awkward side-hug.  As I straightened up, he grabbed my chair and pulled it closer to him.  He lowered his voice as he spoke to me. “Why didn’t you text me yesterday?”

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Emma lean toward us to listen.  I wanted her to hear.  I had been meaning to talk to her about Josh.

“I was busy.”

“All day?”

I nodded.

“Well what were you doing?”

“I was just busy Josh,” I said, scooting my chair away from him a little bit.

He straightened up and laughed nervously. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean… I just…” He shut up and took a bite of his sandwich. I glanced at Emma who was whispering to Liam.  Liam glimpsed in our direction, shooting me a smile when he saw me looking at him.  No one really talked for the rest of lunch.

When the bell rang, Emma, Liam, and I all stood to leave.  Josh quickly snatched up my bag before I could and smiled at me. 
“Oh, it’s okay. I can take it…” I said, grabbing the strap and pulling on it.  Instead of just pulling the bag forward, I ended up pulling Josh forward as well.  He came close to my face and smiled down at me, the icy stare from his eyes making me uncomfortable.  I let go of the bag and looked away from him.

“Walk with me, Red,” he said, sticking his arm out for me to take.  Reluctantly, I took his arm and let him walk me to my next class, Emma and Liam following behind us.  As Josh spoke to me, I kept glancing back to make sure that Emma and Liam didn’t leave me alone with him.

“Look, I’m sorry that I didn’t get to spend much time with you at the party,” Josh said as we passed people in the hallway.  He seemed to be talking loudly as if he wanted everyone to hear him. “That was kind of a crappy first date.”

I felt sick when I heard him say the word “date.”

“It’s really okay, Josh.  It wasn’t a big deal.”