Until They Met

Chapter 19|The Unexpected Proposal

🔱 ALEISHA'S POV 🔱

Two weeks pass and it's now December. The weather is completely frigid and there has been a few snowy days. At school, I am quite busy with the preparations for the Winter Formal. The dance will be taking place one week from now and it is the only thing the whole school can talk about. All the girls are waiting to be asked out and all the guys are probably googling the best chat up lines to ask their dream girl out. All except me, I am waist deep in work as I am put in charge of everything; food, decorations and music.

I walk into school, pulling my faux fur coat closer in order to stop my body from shaking and my teeth from chattering. The familiar din of students talking, locker doors shutting and high-pitched laughters fill my ears as I walk to my locker. Dae is standing there, oblivious to my approaching presence as she talks furiously to someone standing in front of her. On reaching our lockers, I recognize the 'someone' as the guy who had spoken to her at the party, one month ago.

"I'm okay! I swear Hayden! I don't need your protecting or whatever it is you're trying to do for me. Just leave."

Hayden runs a hand through his hair in frustration, and then starts arguing back. "I saw you crying Dane. I'm not going to pretend like you're fucking alright, okay? So just let me help," his voice cracks when he continues. "Please."

Dae bores her eyes into Hayden's, her gaze steely-cold. "It's Daena, Hayden." And with that she slams her locker shut and storms off. Hayden's first reflex is to run behind her but I stop him by putting a hand on his shoulder. His eyes stare longingly at Daena's retreating back and then flit to me.

"Give her some time. I have no idea what's going on between the two of you but Daena's been through a lot. Just give her some space." I say, sympathetically.

His mouth breaks into a sad smile, his eyes holding a million unspoken words. "I know."

***

"Take a seat everyone! Pop quiz time." Mr. Stevens, my biology teacher calls out, a smug look on his face.

I gape at him as my palms start to involuntarily sweat. Oh God! I jerk my head backwards to face and Noah and I send him a panic-stricken look. I find that he's already looking at me. Calm down. He mouths. He gestures his hands in an up and down motion, signalling for me to breathe in and breath out. It will be fine. He mouths again. I shake my head vigorously, completely disagreeing with what he's saying. Right when I'm about to say something back, a worksheet is slapped down onto my desk.

"I hope Mr. Winter and you have been having some enlightening and insightful tutoring sessions?" Mr. Stevens asks.

I simply nod, my mouth refusing to open.

"All the best Ms. Matthew. I know you'll do well."

Again, I simply nod but am able to offer him a small smile.

Twenty minutes later, I'm answering the last question on my worksheet. I look around to see that a few students like Noah and Olivia are already done with theirs. I quickly go through my paper and then heave out a sigh before walking over to Mr. Stevens, who has already began correcting the worksheets as he receives them. I turn back around and my eyes meet with Noah's as he sends me a look asking how the test was. I shoot him a smile and put one of my thumbs up. He nods slowly and smiles back.

A couple of minutes later, the bell signals the end of the period and the loud shuffling of feet, screeching of chairs and flipping of pages can be heard as all the remaining test-takers rush to submit their papers. I slowly grab my bag from the floor and put my pencil case in. I start walking to the door, waiting for no one in particular, when Mr. Stevens speaks up. "Aleisha? Can you just wait here for a minute?" I turn around slowly and shut my eyes tightly. I take a deep breath and open them to find Noah in front of me, watching me with a concerned expression. I give him a nervous smile which he notices and immediately he brings his palm to the small of my back, bends a little and whispers, "It'll be okay." He rises back to his full height and exits the class, leaving me alone.

I hesitantly walk towards Mr. Stevens' table and hold my breath in as I await whatever he has to say. He raises his gaze from the stack of test papers to my face and smiles widely. He thrusts a paper in my face and motions for me to look at it. With shaky hands I grab the paper and gasp when I look at the red marking at the of the paper. A bright red A- makes me beam. I let out a giggle of relief. I say a quick
'thank you' to Mr. Stevens and then exit the class.

Noah is waiting outside with a nervous look on his face. I mutter a quiet 'hey' to get his attention.

"Hey, what happened in there?" He asks.

"Noah, I don't think you should tutor me anymore." I say in a small voice, purposely dodging his question while faking sadness.

"What? Why? What happened Aly?"

"There's no point in tutoring me anymore." I continue playing along.

"Aleisha, stop saying that and tell me what Mr. Stevens said."

I quickly smile and his eyebrows furrow in confusion at my quick change of expression. "Well," I start. "He gave me my paper and..." I drift off, lifting the paper to his face, "I got an A- !!!" I exclaim and then launch myself at him by tightly my wrapping my arms around his neck. His body stiffens but then, slowly, he wraps both of his arms around me. I hear a laugh reverberate through his chest. "You scared me back there, Aly. Congratulations!"

We stay like that in each other's arms until someone's coughing interrupts us. We break out of each other's hold and shyly step back. We both turn to face Hadley who is standing there with a quizzical expression. She shakes her head and then puts on a wide smile, turning to Noah, she says, "I need to talk to you, Noah."

Noah shoots me a puzzled look to which I roll my eyes and start walking away. He pulls me back before I can even complete two steps. He turns to Hadley and responds, "Sure, what's up?"

Hadley looks like she's about to say something but, her eyes flit over to me for a second and then she smiles brightly again. Placing a manicured hand on Noah's arm, she asks the least expected question. Or at least I didn't expect it.

"Noah, will you be my date to the Winter Formal?"

~~~

Hey people! So after a major writer's block, I finally got back into the groove of writing a chapter and thus, this was produced. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter.

I do not apologize for the cliffhanger, though.

Please Vote and Comment as it means a lot to me and every other writer out there.

That's all I have for now. Until next time.

Adios.