Oh, It's On

Chapter 14

Little note at the end. Happy reading! x

I wander down the hallway towards my locker. It’s nearly empty because class hasn’t technically ended yet. Bless Mr. McAllister and his early dismissals. My fingers run over the surface of the wall and skim over the edge as I turn the corner.

“Stella.”

I stop in my tracks and look up at Josh who is watching me expectantly. My eyes widen in surprise.

“Oh,” I say dumbly. “Hi.”

I haven’t seen him since our “talk” yesterday and I wasn’t really looking forward to it. Last night when I checked my phone before going to bed, I have 6 missed calls from him. Really, if I don’t pick up the first 5 times, why would I the 6th time? Obviously I didn’t return the call and shut off my phone right away. I had been avoiding him all and managed it until now, which is hardly a long time. Great powers in the universe are working against me.

He cracks a lopsided grin. “Hi.”

I give a slight nod then take a step to the side to walk around when he grabs my arm. So much for avoiding.

I sigh and turn to face him.

“Stella.”

His eyes flicker over my face and I arch my eyebrow, waiting.

“Can we…talk?” he asks slowly, watching me very carefully.

“Talk.” I repeat, staring at him.

“Yeah, talk.” He cringes at his own words but gives me a hopeful expression.

A few seconds pass with us just staring at each other. I feel tempted to just walk away but I know I don’t have the heart for that. Even if it is to Josh. Even if it is to Josh, the undeniably annoying jerk. Then, the bell for lunch rings and students file out into the hallway. There goes my early dismissal.

Josh looks around the crowd forming around us and curses under his breath.

“I, uh, gotta get back to class but can we, you know, talk later?” he says, scratching the back of his head.

I nod reluctantly. “Yeah, later.”

Or never.

He gives me a hopeful smile then turns around and disappears through the crowd. I stand staring at his direction for a while longer before turning around and heading towards the cafeteria. There isn’t even a point in pretending that I can avoid him anymore. I can only accept that he’s here and deal with that fact. But only after I eat.

The cafeteria is relatively empty. It’s a nice day outside and I’m guessing everyone wants to savour the beautiful weather before winter hits. When I find the usual table that I sit at, I drop my bag and pull out a chair. There’s no one here yet and I'm hoping that won’t be the case for much longer because I really don’t want to sit here by myself. Sure enough, a tray of food sets onto the table just as I’m pulling out my sandwich. When I look up though, it’s not the face that I had been waiting for.

“That was fast,” I say as Josh sits on the chair across from mine.

He shrugs and dips a fry into ketchup. “I had important stuff to do.”

“Right,” I reply. I sincerely hope that “important stuff” didn’t including talking to me.

“Like talking to you.”

Well then. He couldn’t even have given it a few days, could he? Like, does he just think that a day—or more like 20 hours—is enough to calm me down? I may be nice, but I’m not that nice. Who’s dumb enough to be that nice anyways?