Becoming Normal

Chapter 7

After a long sweaty game of gym class, Tanner and Max went into the locker room to change as Tanner explained what happened with him and Autumn.

"She actually talked to you?" Max remarked surprised.

"I know" Tanner agreed with a smile "You were right, all I had to do was make her laugh."

"How'd you do it?"

"I told her what happened on my first date."

Max gave a loud chuckle "That never gets old."

Tanner couldn't help but agree, but at the same time thinking about it just made him cringe with embarrassment.

"So what else did you guys talk about?" Max continued as he slipped out of his gym shirt and into a fresh one.

"Well hopefully I'm meeting up with her after school, now I just gotta wait for her answer."

And just like that, his phone beeped indicating a notification. After slipping on his fresh shirt, he pulled out his phone from his backpack and read the text from a number he assumed was Autumn's.

This is Autumn, my parents said I can stay till 5:30

Tanner felt a smile spread across his face, feeling glad that she had actually texted him.

"Is that her?" Max questioned with a small smirk.

"Yep," Tanner smiled as he began to text her back.

Great! See you in the library after school

"Have you told Dayna about her?" Max suddenly asked.

"Hell no," he cringed "You know how Dayna gets whenever I talk about other girls who aren't part of my family."

"Oh right," Max remembered with a little cringe.

Being the girlfriend that she is, sometimes Dayna would get jealous of every girl Tanner mentions. And no matter how many times he has to explain, she just never stops.

By the time the last bell rang, Tanner made his way to the library, and to his astonishment, Autumn was there sitting in the same spot as before and doing the same thing. Wondering if she'll ever get tired of writing, he shrugged it off and made his way up to her.

"Hey" he greeted with a friendly smile.

She returned with a small smile and a little wave.

"You ready to get started?"

"I guess" she shrugged as he sat down in front of her.

As he began to take his stuff out, he couldn't help but stare at her notebook, wondering what she was writing.

"What are you writing?" he questioned.

"A poem" she answered quietly.

"Cool," he commented, "Can I read it?"

"Oh uh-" she replied a bit nervously while avoiding eye contact "My poems and writings are only for me to see so..."

"No problem" he assured, "I understand."

But that just made him more curious as to what were her writings about. Were they too depressing? Embarrassing? He had to know.

"Okay then" he started to say after getting ready by pulling out his English notebook which he barely wrote in "So uh, you picked a book out yet for the assignment?"

"No" she mumbled.

He groaned to himself inside, hoping that she would have chosen one by now.

"Well um-" he tapped his finger on the table "I don't really know which book to pick because I'm not really much of a reader, so uh, I was hoping you could pick."

"I don't know" she sighed "It's hard to choose, I already read all of them."

"You have?" he replied astonished "Were they for fun or for an assignment?"

"Well "Pride and Prejudice" was the only one I wanted to read for fun, the rest for old English assignments, and I liked them all."

He was now more astonished, he's never met anyone who actually enjoyed reading considering their time period where everyone is stuck to technology.

"Which one was your favorite?" he asked.

"Well I really liked "The Great Gatsby", but I think my favorite would have to be "Pride and Prejudice". I like romance novels."

"I'm sure you do" he smiled "Have you seen the movies?"

"No."

"Neither have I, but I bet they're good."

She shrugged, not knowing what else to say.

"Well uh-" he continued "Which book should we do then?"

"I don't know" she mumbled shyly.

"Well, which one do you know the most?"

"I guess "Pride and Prejudice" she shrugged.

"Okay then, "Pride and Prejudice" it is" he concluded.

Haven't read a classic novel before, Tanner hope that working with a girl who has read the book would be an easy task considering that she knew it more.

"Hey do you have a pencil I can use?" he asked.

He watched her reached into her binder and pull out a pencil as she handed it to him. But right as he was about to take it, it spotted something that caught his eye. When she reached out to hand him the pencil, her hoodie sleeve pulled back from her wrist exposing a thin scar. And as Tanner froze to examine it, he noticed that the scar looked as if it had been done on purpose. But before he could examine it more, Autumn quickly pulled her arm back and pulled her sleeve up while hiding her face.

"Autumn-" Tanner began to say when she cut in.

"I'm not cutting myself if that's what you're thinking" she stated in a frustrated tone.

A bit startled by her tone, Tanner definitely knew something was wrong.

"Hey-" he said calmly "If you ever wanna talk about anything-".

"Stop doing that" she suddenly snapped.

"Stop doing what?"

"Acting like you care."

Now Tanner was even more startled, seeing how she was heating up.

"What are you talking about?" he questioned a bit confused.

"Oh don't act like you don't know" she scowled "I appreciate you wanting to work with me, but deep down, you know you really don't wanna do it. I know that as soon as we're done with this assignment, you're not gonna talk to me anymore. I know that for a fact, no one wants to talk to me. Some people may seem like they "care", but I know they don't, nobody fucking cares about me because I'm not like everyone else. I'm not confident, I'm not beautiful, I'm just an outcast that nobody cares about."

Tanner couldn't believe what he just heard, one minute she was all quiet and shy, and now she's criticizing about herself. Too shocked to say anything, he watched as she began to pack her things. And without saying a word, she stormed out the library.