Underlying Hunger ✓

Chapter 10

"I'm so excited!" I yell at Grayson, while walking to my last class of the day; this is the class I have with Lainey.
It's been a couple of days and Grayson and I decided to talk to Lainey about going out with Blake. Well, I'll talk to Lainey and Grayson will talk to Blake. Good luck to him.

"I hope he doesn't hate me after this," Grayson mumbles.

"Why would he?"

"I don't know. He's just been really closed off towards me and I hope that this doesn't do anything that'll worsen that." He shrugs and continues walking with me.

"Well, maybe he'll thank you." I try. He just shrugs.

We get to the door of my classroom. Grayson leans in and gives me a kiss on my cheek. A smile creeps on my face as he winks at me and walks towards his last class.

I find my assigned seat and sit in it. Lainey walks in a couple seconds later, sitting in her seat, which happens to be only a couple desks away from me. The teacher starts her lesson. My mind tries to come up with ways to approach Lainey. You can't just walk up to someone and say, "Hey, go out with my friend this weekend," that's just awkward... and weird.

"Okay, class, find a partner and work on this sheet, if you don't finish, it'll be homework."
My eyes immediately land on Lainey. This is the perfect opportunity. I dart over to her and sit down in the desk in front of hers.

"Hi, Lainey!"

"Oh, um... hi... Genna?" She seems surprised by my company. We've never talked before and this is my only class with her.

I lean my arms on her desk and look her in the eye with a smile. "I was wondering if you wanted to be partners," She doesn't answer and I start to feel slightly embarrassed. "I mean, we've never talked, so I thought this would be a great time to start." My cheeks heat up as I try to not make myself look like a fool in front of someone I just met.
She shrugs. "Sure, why not." Lainey gives a small smile and I send one back to her.

We sit there in silence, studying the sheet that the teacher handed out to us after we all picked our partners. Before I could say anything to break the silence, Lainey does it for me.

"So, are you and Grayson, like, actually going out?" The sound of his name brings a smile to my face. "I'm going to take that as a yes?"

I nod.

"Yeah, we became official almost a month ago." A large smile stretches across my face once this thought courses through my head.

Lainey processes this.

"So, I'm guessing you guys are serious?"

"Yeah, I guess we are," She looks at me and shakes her head. "What?" I suddenly become confused.

"You're so lucky."

"What do you mean?"

Lainey rolls her eyes, as if what she's saying is obvious. "You're dating the quarterback of the football team- for a month," I'm about to correct her and tell her we haven't quite hit the month mark yet, but the look in her eyes tells me to let her continue. "You guys are going strong, and I can tell he makes you really happy. What's not lucky?" My mind thinks this over and my cheeks start to heat up.

"I guess you're right."

"Of course I am," She mumbles. We both laugh and I look up at her.

"Are you in a serious relationship?" It's time I start working on what I should've been doing since I sat down.
Her eyes close and reopen, this time glossy. She looks down and by the time she looks back up, it's as if nothing even happened.