i hate you » carl gallagher

twenty-six - double order

noel

I walked into my last period of the day, math, which I had with Carl. I sat down in my seat infront of him.

The teacher passed out a worksheet and told everyone to pick a paper and complete it by the end of class.

Ever since Carl and I were little, I never had to worry about finding a partner for class because I always had him.

I felt him tug the back of my shirt as Mr. Davis said the word "partner". I turned around in my seat as soon as the teacher finished directions and the classroom got loud again.

"I have no clue how to do any of this," Carl admitted.

"Figures," I sighed, resting my head on my hand nonchalantly. "It's easy though. How do you not know how to do it?"

"Because I'm dumb," Carl said, looking down at his paper.

"You're not dumb, you just don't apply yourself," I told him.

"Whatever," he sighed.

"You wanna come over after school and I can help you out with everything you need help with," I offered him.

"That would take hours. No, that would take days," Carl said.

"Then, you can come over everyday," I smiled as I began to write my name down on the worksheet.

"Yeah, until you leave and I never see you again," Carl stated, reminding me about going back to Florida; something I have been dreading.

"Carl, I'm not leaving forever. Just a little while," I told him.

"You act like a few months is only 'a little while'. Noel, that's like forever," he argued.

"Carl, we can talk everyday. We can FaceTime or talk on the phone. Whatever you want. It's not like we'll be isolated from each other," I said.

"I guess that's better than nothing," he sighed.

"Good. Okay, first question," I looked back down at my paper and began reading the first problem on the worksheet, feeling Carl's eyes on me the entire time.

•••

As the final bell rang, Carl and I turned in our finished worksheet and rushed outside the school.

"I have a question," I told Carl as we both walked out of the school doors and headed home. He looked at me with a questionable look on his face. "If it wasn't for me, would you have even gotten through that first problem?" He looked confused at first, but finally caught on to what I was talking about.

"Shut up," he lightly pushed my shoulder, making me laugh out loud. "I helped a little bit."

"I guess," I admitted. "But still."

"Yeah, I probably wouldn't have turned the worksheet in at all," he said. "As long as I have you, I'll be good." He wrapped his arm around my neck and pulled me closer to him. "What am I gonna do when you leave and I have to find someone else to partner up with."

"You'll find someone," I told him. "You still have me, no matter how far away I'll be."

"I love you," he kissed the top of my forehead and wrapped his other arm around me.

"I love you, too," I said, just as we reached our street. "Wanna race to the house?"

"Wha-"

"Go," I yelled, interrupting him as I began running full speed towards the house. Carl soon followed my lead, but never caught up to me.