On Monday, Mr. Darcy decided to give the class time to work on their project during class since many people complained that some of their partners were not attempting to help.
“And what about you two Ethan and Allison, how are you two doing?” He asks but surprised at the answer.
“Oh we’re doing fine Mr. Darcy, almost done” Wow, almost done? He was right, pairing them together was a good thing. But the class starts to ‘ooh, and ah’ indicating that something more is happening between the two of them. Ethan gives them a scowl.
“Shut up!” he growls. But Josh, still sour over the fights burst out.
“Hey! That’s not fair, none of us got paired with our girlfriends!” he yells to Mr. Darcy. Before Allison could defend herself, Ethan already stands up and bellows back at Josh.
“She’s not my girlfriend. Are you fucking stupid, I don’t like her; the only reason we talk is for the stupid project!” Ethan did not believe what is coming out his own mouth, but Allison is a nobody. After this he won’t have to deal with her. He knows that she is staring at him, but he couldn’t face her as he seats back down in his seat.
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Ethan throws the football at his best friend Matthew as they practice on the big grassy field of the school. Practice was hard but his whole stays on what happened in Mr. Darcy’s class. “Dude that was harsh” Matthew comments on the subject. “I mean, it’s not like she’s ugly, if it wasn’t because she’s so damn aggressive and most of us are scared of her, we would totally tap that” Ethan stomach clenches. Why the hell is Mat calling Allison hot?
“She not for the ‘tapping’ Mat!” his face warns.
“Oh yes, you totally don’t like her” Mat says sarcastically throwing the ball at Ethan to make him realize his blindness.
“Just because I’m doing a project with the stupid girl doesn’t mean I like her ok!”
“No, the way you look at her makes it that you like her” Matthew explains. He had seen how Ethan looked at the girl when they talk, when she stood in line at the cafeteria. How he had completely ignored his conversion because of his unwanted gazes at Allison. Damn that boy is blind. Matthew did not care for popularity, but it always found him and he rolled with the flow. It wasn’t so bad, the social events, the privileges that it can bring, but he had also seen and roll with negative side, the teasing of others, the exclusion of former friends, the insecurities in friends, the deceiving girlfriends. In fact, Matthew’s only true friend he had told himself is Ethan McKnight, but now he is truly seeing what popularity is doing to him. Granted like all of them Ethan had to give up some stuff to get some; but now he is denying something that has the potential to make him happy. Matthew had accidentally came to Ethan’s house on one of the days he was doing the project with Allison and he saw it, the spark between them, the way they look at each other. One would think they were a couple. But both of them refused to see it.
“I don’t look at her any other way that I look at other people. Maybe it’s because I don’t pass my time calling her a loser” Ethan says in a laugh “But don’t worry, once the project is done, she’s up for the taking. I can’t make fun of her now, that’s my grade.”
“Dude… You like her”
“Matt…Stop saying that”
“Whatever, but I’m going to be the first one to say ‘I told you so’.”
Allison laid on the bed, her mind preoccupied with what happened today. But damn it; why did it bother her so much? He was right, if it wasn’t for this project, Ethan and she would have never talk. But he had denied any claim with like she was a Herpes virus. She keeps playing Ethan’s words in mind over and over again. At this instant, she hears the doorbell ring, and Allison wonders who it could be, but it was probably not for her so she didn’t bother to get up. Her mother would get it. “Ally!” he mother calls. “Ally!” she bellows again at the bottom of the stairs. Allison groans what the hell?
“What?” she bellows back to her mother at the top of the stairs.
“Your boyfriend is here” she simply sinks with a wink.
“He’s not my boyfriend; tell him I’m not here.”
“I heard that!” Ethan comes by the stairs and stands next to her mother. Oh just fucking great. Allison thinks to herself.
