It's Complicated (ON HOLD)

Chapter 3- Stuttering and Stumbling

Luke's P.O.V

After I parted ways with Tyler I made a run for Biology. He just had to drag me aside and confront me. Now I'm late and I'm not even sure if I have a good seat left.

"I'm late I'm late I'm late." I keep muttering to myself and I reach the classroom after what seemed like an eternity.

Fortunately, I actually wasn't and I look around for a nice place. The last one was behind Emily Truman, and two seats ahead of her was Mackenzie. I felt the need to pass a note and talk to her through it.

So I grabbed an untouched and folded piece of paper from my wallet and scribbled down:

"You okay?-LH"

I told Emily to pass it to her while the teacher wasn't around yet. She complied and soon enough, Mackenzie was noting something down and passed it back to the person behind her until it reached me. I straightened the creases out as it unfolded.

"Yeah, it's nothing." She wrote, but I was sure she wasn't.

"You sure?" I wrote back and sent it forwards again. This time, Emily was getting irritated and so was the person a seat ahead of her.

The passing of notes stopped right after Mackenzie's answer: "I am." I still feel like I need to ask her the truth, but I didn't want to push it further. Our teacher, who was none other than Ms. Fauer, came in as chirpy as ever.

Discussion went on and on and on, but it didn't bother me. I was quite antsy in my seat, so I decided to take down notes. Or a graphic chart of some sort. It helped me understand the lesson more than just listing words and their definitions down in bullet form.

The wall clock ticked away and I had to admit, it started getting boring.

"The molecular composition of organisms begin to differ especially when in..." Ms. Fauer babbled away too, but with all due respect, it appeared as a distant and faint noise.

Her lesson distributed fairly and accordingly with the remaining minutes. I couldn't help but tap my right foot repeatedly. I looked across the room and at everyone. Half of the class was snoozing and the other half was trying to stay awake.

I scan the room once more and my eyes land on a sign that said: "Fall Formal coming soon; Inquiries will be on October 18." The announcement will be this Wednesday. I have to come up with a choice. Who should I bring to the dance? Mackenzie. No kidding.

But I have to come up with a back-up if ever she turns me down. Maybe I should ask Tara Shields. I don't know. Staying home sounds like a nice back-up plan too, I guess.

The topic finished thoroughly just in time as the bell rang for third period. Everyone stands up and pushes past the door after Ms. Fauer dismisses us. Some of us notice the sign on the door and since they've left the room that was their only topic.

Now is probably a good time to execute the plan. I could spot Mackenzie and she wasn't as far ahead anyway. I took a deep breath and chanted stuff in my mind.

"Let's just not overthink this, Luke. You're smooth. You're the man." Until it reached the point that people were staring at me and how stupid I look. 'Nice move, man. Let everybody know you're going to ask your best friend's girl out and you're not man enough to do it.' my inner self kicks in.

"I so am man enough to do this." I whisper and with a swift motion, comb my fingers through my hair.

"Hey, Kenz. I um, I was wonder- I um, was wondering..." I stutter as I tap her shoulder and she turns around before lifting her eyebrows and knitting them together out of confusion.