He's a Fighter & I'm a Runner

FOUR

On my run this morning, I didn't see Luke, so I was worried. What if he isn't okay? What if he should have gone to the hospital?

I let out a breath of relief when I saw a dark haired boy near my locker. I walked closer to him, needing to know if he was okay.

As I got close, he looked up. "How are you doing? The injury, I mean."

"I'm fine." He then pulled out my phone from his pocket. I lost it yesterday, but I didn't know where I did. "Here, I found it in my apartment this morning."

I took it from him and smiled. "Thank you. I was looking for it."

The first bell cut off anything we would have said after. He left, and I quickly got my books for first period.

Once I sat down, I quickly went through all the texts and calls I missed. Something caught my eye though. Right below my mom and dad, Luke added his number in my favorites. The corners of my mouth titled upward involuntarily.

Once AP GovPol rolled around, I was in a better mood. I sat down in my usual seat, but this time Luke sat next to me, leaving Nate and Daniel confused.

Luke didn't talk to me during the class, but that was expected since it was notes and lecture today. Daniel and Nate kept glancing at me and Luke the whole time.

I was excited for lunch. I sit by Luke everyday for lunch, so no one would think that it's weird. On the first day, I sat between Sera and Luke, so I've been sitting between them ever since.

Ryan was proudly showing off the painting of a Volcano we did in class today.

"Here comes the master herself. She taught me how to do it, and now, I don't think I'll fail painting class." He suddenly tapped his phone again. "Hers is still better." He mumbled.

I caught a glimpse of Luke looking up from his food to my painting. "How do you even get these photos? I never see you taking them."

"You should stop being so nice and make me clean the brushes." He teased.

I rolled my eyes.

I started to eat my food. Suddenly, it was taken away from me by a hand. I glared up to Nate who just stole it.

"What is this?" He asked, taking a bite.

"It's a poke bowl! Give it back!" I yelled at reached over the table to get it. I snatched it back and continued eating.

"I don't understand city food. It all good, but overpriced and overrated." Nate commented.

"Well, if you don't understand it, don't take my food." I grumbled. He ate so much of it. It's sad really.

"You can have some of mine." Nate offered. I looked up to see him eating the school lunch. I mentally gagged.

"No, thank you." I politely replied.

Everyone burst out laughing.

"What was school lunch like back in your old school?" Daniel asked.

"It wasn't too bad. We had a lot of options, but I always ate out. One of the joys of the city is walking outside of the school to eat out." I replied.

"I don't think I could run to a place, order food, wait for it, and eat it in the amount of time they give us for lunch." Daniel replied.

"Of course, you couldn't. You're a fat ass." Rachel commented. Everyone started laughing.

"We had an hour for lunch, unlike the forty minutes we get here." I explained.

"Ugh! That's so lucky!" Daniel groaned.

"What was your favorite place to eat?" Luke asked me, looking directly into my eyes.

In my peripheral vision, I saw everyone with eyes wide and jaws dropped. Probably because he's never spoken to me in front of them.

"I love Italian food, so I went to this Italian restaurant every single day. I got to know the owners very well, and they'd have my order ready when I walked in, so I wouldn't have to wait." I smiled, thinking back to the memory.

We both looked back to the table. Everyone was just staring at us, like we were fish with two heads. Luke glared at everyone, and they all started acting normal again.

Lunch was fun, and now, it was time for the last period of the day. I walked to class with Luke, and we took our seats.

I was completely zoning out and staring out the window. I'm pretty sure Luke was doing the same. We were both similar in class. We both don't put any effort into school and don't pay attention, but we do all the work.

Suddenly, a piece of paper floated to my desk. I curiously picked it up and recognized it as a pre-test the class took. It was on all the stuff we would learn this year.

I turned my test over, so no one could see my score. Luke noticed and tried to take the paper.

I slammed my hand down on it. "Don't look at it."

He ignored me. "I know you don't like to, but I'm curious." He smirked.

In my distracted state, he pulled the test out from under my hand and looked at it.

"Hmm..." He said. He reached over to his test and placed each of them in front of me. "Matches my score."

I looked down to see two tests, one with my name and the other with his. They both had bright red ink on the top showing us our scores: 100%.

I looked up at him. "How did you? You don't even pay attention." I mumbled.

"You don't pay attention either. Guess we're the same type of student." He smirks.

"The ones that get perfect scores without trying?" I asked.

"Yeah, we're those people."

The rest of class, we just sat around and did nothing. The sounds of students complaining about how hard this class would be filled my ears.

It was finally time to go home, so I picked up my painting and drove home.