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PROBLEM XXXIV | HeWon’tSmile
The rest of the day was a mess in my mind. I was hard to get by. The whispers followed me to every hallway in LakeVille High to every corner. It was awful, the things they said, but I blocked them before they brought down my spirits anymore than Justin had done before.
Leon sat beside me today in Spanish. He didn’t give me a snarky remark for getting him suspended. But instead, he grinned at me with his pearly whites. It was a beautiful smile, could make any girl fall to her knees. Leon didn’t ask me about the tape but I knew that he knew. I’d heard some girls telling him about it in the hallways.
It might be a little early to say, but I had enjoyed Spanish with Leon for the first time. Today, I realized he wasn’t as bad as I had condemned him to be. Leon Fomah was different than Reyana Fomah, that I had come to know today. Reyana had bitched about the video to my face and Leon had let it slide.
When Leon first entered the class, I knew the day was going to go from bad to worse. He came in with s stoic face, and cold eyes. He looked at me and dumped himself in the seat beside me, sighing as though it was such a chore. I figured it was because he had to sit beside me for he was assigned the seat but then, then he cracked that smile—That grin. And it blew me off my feet.
He said, his grin still intact, “You have a way with pranks, Clover. I don’t like to be a victim, let’s do the next one together.”
It made me smile. With the bad day I was having, it felt good to be able to crack a genuine smile. I didn’t see Ryan the rest of the day but I did see Houston in the hallways here and there. He didn’t talk to me and it bothered me to be brutally honest. He spared glances at me and I openly started at him. And he knew my eyes were locked onto him. And I knew he was desperately hunting around for an escape. He stalked off as soon as he found one.
After school hours, I caught up with Houston. Well, I went to see his basketball practice. When I found him among his team mates, mother liquor’s swear, time froze. He looked magnificent. He was sweating. God forbid if I could take my eyes off. Sweat coated his skin like a lustering layer. His tee was soaked. He had a bottle of water pouring over his head, while shaking his head, spraying water and possibly sweat droplets everywhere. It felt like a movie scene.
He had a smile gracing his face as he talked with the rest of the team. I couldn’t help a small tug of my lips. He eyes suddenly fell on me. He dismissed the one he was talking to and ran upto me.
“HoneyCakes!” He grinned. “What are you doing here?”
Stalking you.
“Oh, I was wondering if you could give me a ride home?”
“Sure,” He nodded quickly. “But you’ll have to wait for a while. Coach’s grumpy today. He’s making us do Suicides.” He groaned at the end of the sentence, making me laugh.
