There are Certain Things You Can't Lie About Ms Hastings

I Got you

Spencer:

     “You’re doing it again.” It was the last period of the day and I was sitting in Ancient History with Emily, copying down the many paragraphs on the board in excessive boredom.

     “Hmm?” I mumbled, using every ounce of concentration to make sure I didn’t copy the same sentence down twice.

     “You keep tapping your leg, I mean it’s cool and everything, but one day you’re going to burst a blood vessel.”

     “Yeah, Yeah we should.” I said, only half listening to what she was saying. And throughout the year that Sir Michael Chain was alive, he sought all but six wives.

     “Spence you there? Earth the Spencer, Hellooo.” I nodded my head.

     “Okay.” His presence was feared all throughout Ireland, as he was known for stalking beautiful women and forcing them into abusing marriages.

     “Penis!” My head shot up.

     “What?” Emily threw her hands up in the air.

     “She lives!” I rolled my eyes and put my head back down, focusing on my work.

     “Very funny,” His presence was feared all throughout Ireland, as he was known for stalking beautiful women and forcing them into abusing marriages. “And you could be doing your work too you kn-” I looked at my notes. Dammit. Sighing, I reached for my liquid paper.

     “I am work, but unlike you, I choose to use modern day techniques.” She swiveled her laptop around on her desk.

      “I don’t think typing is going to help you in your SAT’s Em.”

     “Eh, it’s a hell of a lot easier than writing.” I laughed, smiling at my best friend.

     “Whatever you say.” I finished the paragraph with three minutes left before the bell goes and when it did, I parted with Emily, telling her I needed to speak to my Physics teacher about an assignment. I was playing with the strap on my saddlebag again, noticing the weight difference in my bag. Frowning, I peered into my bag.

     “Shoot.” I’d left my binder in History. Groaning, I slumped back to the classroom. The teacher had left when I got there, but thankfully had left the door open. I peered inside.

     “Spencer?” I jumped.

     “Toby,” I breathed. “You scared me.” I took a few steps into the classroom, surprised to see Toby sitting behind a desk, surrounded by textbooks.

     “Sorry,” he said smiling. “I wasn’t expecting company.” I smiled back at him, walked over to wear he was sitting and pulled out a chair beside him. 

     “SAT prep?” I teased, flipping through pages in his book.

     “I wish it was that easy,” he replied. “But no. Commerce Assignment.”

     “You take Commerce?”

     “No, I just wanted to do an assignment on it.” I raised an eyebrow. “Yes of course I take Commerce.” He laughed, swinging my binder around. “Do you want this?” I grabbed it out of his hands, very aware that our legs were slightly pressed against each other.  

     “Thanks, have fun with your commerce assignment.”  I stood up to leave, not exactly wanting to say goodbye but not wanting to stay either.

     “Wait!” I stopped, swiveling around. “Why have you been ignoring me?” I faltered for a split second. I had been ignoring him. But that was for a reason far to complex to look into at the moment.  

     “I-” Dammit Spencer think of a believable excuse. “I haven’t been ignoring you Toby I just didn’t realize it’d been two weeks since we’d talked and I’ve been busy.”

     “Two weeks? For someone so blissfully unaware of the situation you seem to know a lot about it.” I narrowed my eyes.

     “I guessed, besides I thought you were ignoring me.”

     “Why would I do that?”

     “I don’t know!” I cried. “Why does it matter?”

     “Because I’ve missed you,” I bit my lip, a thousand threads circling in my mind but not forming a string long enough to create words.

     “Yeah I’ve missed you too I guess.” I said finally.

      “So why, I ask have we been ignoring each other?” I looked at my feet.

     “I don’t know.” But I did know. I knew exactly why I’d been avoiding Toby and it scared me. It scared me that through every rumor I heard about him, I found myself denying each and every one. It scared me that I was attracted to him in a way I couldn’t understand, and I didn’t want to. But there was something about Toby Cavanaugh that kept me both intrigued and terrified which was something that no one had ever been able to do before. But behind every excuse I could string together I had a motive. If the school found out I was crushing on the Toby Cavanaugh they would think I was the Clarice Starling to his Hannibal Lector.

And that was why I was avoiding Toby, because if I get attached to him then bad things would happen. After I’d mulled these thoughts over my head it took me a split second to realize he was studying my face. I smile crept up the side of my mouth.

     “What?” I said, trying to sound as un-accusing as I could.

     “I’m trying to read your facial expressions,” I raised an eyebrow and crossed one of my legs over the other.

     “And?”

     “Well, You seem to be concentrating very hard on something or your thinking about something in excruciating detail because you’ve been frowning since you walked in here.” He said simply.

     “I – What? Really?” I touched my forehead self-consciously. “I didn’t even notice.”

     “It’s okay, you’ll always look like sunshine to me.” I found myself smiling even wider. Correct me if I’m wrong, but that was a compliment

     “Hey,” I said, nudging him. “Don’t go all cheesy on me.” Toby laughed, swinging back on his chair and chewing on the end of his pen lightly.