The Untitled Audrey Project

Untitled Part Six

The next day at school, Connor looked for Audrey. He eventually found her at her locker that was further away from his, a light blue beanie on her head today.

"Hey," he said as he approached her but he was not greeting her. He wanted to know something. "What did Mrs Tinkerbell say? About us doing it individually?"

Audrey stopped fiddling with her lock combination and instead turned to face Connor, her arms across over her chest.

"The answer was no. She said that the whole point of the project is to learn to work and help each other. But I'm not going to bore you with the rest of what she said. It was cheesy." Audrey returned to entering her lock code.

Connor's jaw clenched as he looked around for a few seconds. No one was looking at them.

"Did you still have that camera?" He asked as soon as Audrey pulled down on her lock, unlocking it.

"Of course."

"Then let's get this over and done with."

Audrey scoffed. "We don't even know what we're doing, Connor." It was the first time he had heard her say his name, and it provoked some sort of foreign feeling in him.

"Doesn't matter. The best films are unplanned. We'll just go with the flow. Record anything we see that we think will look good. Think of it as a collection."

A smile sneaked onto Audrey's lips as she listened to the boy.

"Well, alright. If you insist." She said as she pulled her books out.

"Okay. Cool." Connor looked around again, shoving his hands in his pocket. It was suddenly awkward between them, with Connor unsure of what the next step was. "So, when do you wanna start?"

"I don't know. After school? We could meet up or something-"

"I can't tonight. I have a party to go to." Connor said. "What about tomorrow?"

"I can't tomorrow. I have an appointment." Audrey replied and Connor sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth.

"Can't you cancel it? Get your hair done another time-"

"I've told you, it's got nothing to do with beauty." Audrey slammed her locker door shut unintentionally, the sound of the metal hitting against another drawing everyone's attention.

"Okay, okay. It's just that you're not telling me what it is exactly."

Audrey's eyes moved around quickly before landing back onto his bright ones. "It's medical."

"Are you getting that blood you've been coughing up checked out?" He asked and Audrey's face lost it's colour.

"What- How did you-" She cut herself off, her lips unable to form words.

"It's not a big deal. I'm a smoker and I know eventually it'll happen to me-"

"No! I mean, no. I-I've never smoked in my entire life." Audrey walked ahead of Connor.

"Look, I-I got to go. See you around?" She began to walk faster, leaving Connor standing at her locker, just thinking.

At lunch, Connor sat in the same spot he did the day before and so did Audrey. Again, she looked out of place among the nerds but it gave Connor the opportunity to assess her strange behaviour.