We the Running

Chapter 12 (POV Quinn)

"Hey pretty girl," Bentley tells me. I cringe when he calls me that. I hate being called pretty.

"Hi Bentley," I say irritated, hoping he would get a clue. Bentley was cool for the first couple days I was here, but now he's clingy and, well, irritating.

"What's wrong princess? Got a big test? Oh wait no we have most of our classes together. Umm, you hungry? . . ." Bentley goes on and on with questions until I snap.

"No Bentley, my problem is you now leave me alone," I yell as the bell rings. I stomp to my locker, thankfully that was far away from him.

When I get to my locker Leon is already there. He looks at me and tries to hide that he knows I'm upset. He leans closer to me and whispers, "Hey, Q, you okay?"

I get surprised because he never calls me by real name here. Well, my real middle name. I hate my real real name. I take a deep breath and turn to him. "Yeah I'm fine, just ya know, yelled at Bentley in the school yard."

"Finally made you snap?" he asks me as he shuts his locker. 

"Yes and now I feel kind of bad for yelling at him. Maybe I should apologize," I say as I shut my locker too. Leon walks with me to my first class.  He leans into me and I almost feel he was going to kiss me. I'd much rather kiss Leon than apologize to Bentley for making me snap. Leon wraps an arm around me. I'm shocked that he didn't kiss me, but I would have rather him not do it in front of everybody in my class. Including Bentley.

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"Hey, you better now? You were fairly angry and my hug was kind of weird earlier. . ." Leon says to me at our lockers before lunch. I nod my head and shut my locker. "Oh good you seemed pretty upset even after the hug, I- I don't know why I hugged you, it was kinda stupid."

"I liked it actually. It was sweet," I tell him as we walk to the cafeteria. When we get close enough to our table I see that Bentley wasn't there. I look at Leon who is looking at the table the same way I was. I look back to see if he saw something I didn't. Sure enough he did because when I look back at the table and notice someone in Bentley's usual place wearing a hoodie over it's head. 

"I so hope that you didn't cause Bentley to shove himself into that hoodie," Leon whispers to me before we sit down. Him and I trade places at the table so that I'm next to Amanda and he's next to the hooded Bentley.

"Bentley are you sick? Are you sad? Are you hungry? Wait if you were hungry you'd be eating right now," Tatyana says to Bentley who just continues to stare at the table.

"Britney yelled at him this morning before the school bell," Amanda coos. 

"Britney! Why'd you do that? I thought you two were dating! Couples are supposed to be happy," Zach says. As soon as that comes out of his mouth he clasps his hand over it. 

"Wait, where did you get that we were dating? I'm not really looking to be in a relationship so I just, ugh," I rant a little. I hold back the screaming in French so I go to the bathroom and say it all there. I get some stares by girls in the bathroom, but it's better than stares from my friends.

"The hell was that for?" Bailey says to me when I come back.

"You didn't like the last French rant I had so I French ranted to myself in the bathroom. I was being considerate," I tell them as I sat down.

"Ha you owe me ten bucks Tyler," Taylor whisper shouts. I assume they bet whether or not I went to yell or cry or something.

After a couple minutes of us discussing the junior science test that was today I notice that Bentley was gone. 

I wonder what drove him off.