Codes

Chapter 5- Avoiding all Contact

I have spent most of my day since this morning avoiding my brother and his friend. It was hard to focus on history in class today even though on most days history is my favorite subject. At lunch, my friend Lia confronted me about it.

She sat down next to me at lunch were I was happily daydreaming about stupid things.

"What's up with you today?" she asked.

"Nothing I'm completely fine" I lied.

"No you're not" She saw right through me.

I knew I could trust Lia so I told her.

"I ran into Oliver this morning," I told her

"Oh no, Did he try anything?" She asked me.

"Oh, he tried alright," I said

"Did you give him a good shove?" She asked.

"No, Jackson Hane did," I told her.

"What? I didn't know you knew him!" She said. "He's cute isn't he."

"Yeah, I know him he's my brother's friend, And I guess you could say he's pretty cute," I say

"Gurl he is more than cute, Jackson Hane is straight gorgeous!" I heard a voice from behind me say.

I spun around to see my other best friend, Sasha standing behind me.

"Omg Sasha you scared me!" Lia yelled.

"Good," She said, "Anyway I need you guys' help with something."

"Ok, what?" I ask hoping that whatever she needed would distract me from thinking about what happened this morning and what I would say to my brother as well as give me a reason not to talk to him.

"Ok, so you see that guy over there?" She said pointing to I boy with light brown skin and light brown eyes wearing a grey sweatshirt.

"Yes," Lia and I say.

"His name is Jay Carter and I need you to go talk to him for me." She smiles.

"WHAT!" Lia yelled

"SHHHH," Sasha said silencing her.

I look around and I see Jackson on the other side of the room with my brother. I would have to pass him to get to Jay.

"Ummm.... I don't know" I say unsure that it would be the best idea to walk past them when I was purposely avoiding all contact with them.

"Pleeeeaassssee" She begged.

"Fine," I say "What do you want me to say to him?"

"Just tell him that I think he's cute and that he should totally ask me out." She says.

"Ok..." I tell her. Getting up. I walk over to the boy she was referring to. I was feeling reckless today. I walked past Jackson. I heard him fall into place behind me, he was probably calculating how to bring up what happened this morning. I kept walking towards Jay. When I get there I stop and tap him on the shoulder I hear Jackson's footsteps stop.

"Can I help you?" Jay says when he sees me.

"Yeah. My friend Over there thinks you're cute" I say pointing to where Sasha was sitting with Lia. When she saw me pointing to her she pretended to be engaged in a deep conversation with Lia.

"Yeah," He said "I'll defiantly think about it"

"Great!" I start to walk away.

"Wait." He a said. I turn back to him. "I just thought you should know that your boyfriend looks like he wants to talk to you."

"Wha-" It takes me a second to realize that he's talking about Jackson

"Oh he isn't my boyfriend," I tell Jay.

"Oh sorry, I thought he was. You guys look like you could be a cute couple. Anyway, bye!" Jay turned back around and resumed his conversation with his friends.

I turn to walk back to where I was previously sitting with My friends to tell them what Jay had said when I ran smack into Jackson who was standing right behind me while I was talking to Jay. He must have heard what Jay said because he seemed as flustered as I felt.

"Sorry," He said "Cora I-"

"Jackson" I cut him off "I know what you are going to say so you might as well save your breath"

"Cora, I don't think you do"

"Fine then what do you have to say?" I cross my arms.

"About what happened this morning-" He started.

"I knew it" I cut him off again. I started to walk away but he blocked my path.

"No, just listen to me." he tried again. "I respect your decision to keep it a secret but I don't understand why."

"I want to keep it a secret because I don't want it to be such a big deal, he does this all the time and the punishments he gets don't work. Oliver didn't get very far because you stopped him, and I am grateful for that. Just please don't tell anyone!" I was getting pretty annoyed now.

"Ok!" he said softly. "I won't tell anyone"

"Good, thank you," I say.

I pushed past him and made my way back to Sasha and Lia, only to find that Evan was sitting with them too.

"Hey little sis" He greeted me.

"Hey," I respond sitting down.

"So Cora what did Jay say?" Sasha asked.

"He said he would think about it," I tell her. She looks in Jay's direction and he just happens to be looking back at her. He winks.

"Think about what?" Evan said.

"Sasha asked Cora to talk to Jay for her so she did and Jay said he would think about dating her," Lia said.

"Oh cool. Playing matchmaker now Cora?" Evan teases "If so, I would like to be set up with a girl."

"Evan, really?" I ask flatly.

"Just tell me when you find a match k?"

"Lol k" I respond "now go away!"

"Wow, harsh." He said getting up and walking away. "Bye"

"I turned to Lia who was blushing like mad" did she like my brother?

"Sooooo, How was your conversation with Mr. Sexy over there?" Sasha asked.

"What? Oh, you mean Jackson?"

"Duh, who else" She answered.

"Oh we just talked about this morning," I said

"Oh about Oliver and how Jackson saved you from his pervy hands?" Sasha asked.

"Yeah, how did you know?" I ask.

"Lia told me." She said.

"Oh"

"Well, I ship you and Jackson. I ship myself with Jay, and I ship Lia with Evan." Sasha told us.

"WHAT!!" Lia and I say in sync.

"Oh come on, Cora it's obvious he's into you, And Lia you suck at hiding the fact that you have a crush on Evan," she said. "Now I have to go TTYL friends" she got up and left.

"Well I need to get going too," Lia said "I promised Amy that I would help her study in the library" She got up to leave.

"I'll talk to Evan about you k? See If I can set you two up." I call out to her.

She rolled her eyes but didn't object. She left and I was alone again.