Imago

Chapter IV

Day 2

Thankfully, Donna hasn't caught wind of my white lie today and I'm almost thankful that Chris seems to be keeping her rather busy, even if I do think she could do so much better him.

It was raining this morning so Mum dropped me off at school and I haven't seen Izzy or Isaac at all yet. I was kind of hoping we could have all walked to school together. I do get a glimpse of Isaac between second and third period, but I'm distracted from staring at him by Emilia's invitation to catch up in our free period to do our history assignment in the library.

During lunch I am privy to another show of PDA's by all the couples in the group. I'm thankful to Izzy for having an out from it all.

"Oh my God, Isaac was so wet when he got home," she laughs. "Did you get home before the rain?"

I look around, hoping no one is listening into our conversation and am happy to see most of them, especially Donna, are preoccupied in their own conversations. "He used his jacket to keep me dry and got me home just after it started."

"Hmmm. My brother can be sweet. Ha! Who knew!"

I laugh at her jest and I manage to get her to change the subject by asking her about Tony the tosser and why she's grounded. Turns out she snuck out of the house a couple of weeks ago to go to a gig.

Izzy and I walk to fourth period together. She has English, which is, thankfully, right by the library.

"Hey, Shorty!"

I hear Izzy huff beside me and she stops to look back. "What do you want?"

"Where you going?" Isaac looks between us both and smiles casually. I put my hand on my belly to calm the crazy butterflies.

"Not that it's any of your business, but I've got English, see-ya!" With a roll of her eyes she leaves me standing alone with Isaac.

"So, what about you?"

"Huh?" I am unsure of the question but then I remember. "Oh, um, I've got a free, so I'm meeting Emelia in the library to do our History assignment," I explain in time to the rapid fluttering of the butterflies.

He's watching me silently and I'm wondering when he's going to speak. It seems like maybe he's waiting for me to say something else, so I do.

"And you?"

"Hmm?" He snaps out of his daze and runs a hand through his hair. "Um, well, er, I've got phys-ed."

"Okay, cool. Well, have fun running around and getting sweaty. I'll be thinking of you while I'm in the nice airconditioned library." I cringe and wish desperately that I could eat the words that just came out of my mouth and start again.

Isaac smiles his lopsided smile and gives me a nod. My embarrassed state has me hightailing it out of there faster than you can say "you idiot."

"Loren?" I turn and am startled to see Isaac running up to me.

"You dropped this!" He hands me a folded piece of paper.

I don't think I've seen it before, but I don't have a chance to tell him so, before he takes off into the crowd. I open the note gingerly, hoping I'm not about to read someone else's personal letter.

'Red suits you. You should wear that shirt more often. See you after school? Isaac x' is written in blue pen.

I am flushing so bad even my ears feel hot. I'm desperately hoping that no one can see the heat my body is giving out right now. I look around, but he's nowhere to be seen, and no one else seems to have noticed our interaction either. I spend the rest of the day with the dumbest grin on my face, and count down the hours to the last bell. Sadly, I don't get to see him after school, because he forgot that he has basketball training.