letters to the boy who never cared

o n e {edited}

I held my schedule for my senior year in my hands, all the while searching for that familiar shock of brown hair. Honestly, I had no idea why I was getting my hopes up. The improbability of "us" came down to simple math. I was Alexa Green. He was Reed Marlowe. It was simply illogical. But at the moment, it didn't matter to me.

I had his number in my phone, but since the brief conversation in July after the laser tag party, we hadn't texted each other. I turned my iPhone in my hands, biting my bottom lip.

"Alexa!" Grace's raspy voice was unmistakable. Suddenly, her thin arms were thrown around me in a tight embrace. "You look a little too good," she quipped, wriggling her eyebrows. "Who's the guy?"

"Grace." Getting my voice to go flat wasn't particularly difficult. Still, my best friend wouldn't buy it.

"Okay, loser, don't tell me. I'll find out." Grace gave me a suspicious look, twirling a piece of her long blonde hair around her finger.

I forgot about Reed momentarily, happy to be back with my crew. Grace was the only one of my friends I'd really hung out with that summer. The others knew about my aversion to social scenery. So, today was the longest we'd been together in months.

I wasn't even thinking about Reed when he texted me during lunch, something I'm a little too proud of, since I'd been freaking out about what I would do when I saw him. He'd saved his number under the hot one from laser tag with the sunglasses and heart emojis, and it was too funny for me to bother changing it.

the hot one from laser tag: hey lexi

My breath caught as I looked around the cafeteria for Reed. There he was, grinning at me across the room.

me: hi... i can't come up with a nickname for reed. sry

I watched him laugh at my text with embarrassing pride, feeling a goofy smile on my face.

the hot one from laser tag: im coming over there, i need to check if we have classes together.

I struggled to act cool as I watched him walk over to our table. Everything he did- walking, smiling, existing- was too sexy for comfort.

Grace followed the direction of my gaze, and her mouth popped open. "Why is he coming over here?" she whispered, half to herself and half to me.

Reed slid onto the bench next to me and gave me a look that made my breath short. As if he did it everyday, he wrapped his arm around my waist and winked a greeting to my dumbstruck friends.

"Hi, Lexi. How was your summer?" Reed asked, plucking one of my fries off my lunch tray.

My cheeks were impossibly warm. "Uh, good. Yours?"

"It was good. Hey, I need your schedule." I handed it to him.

He grinned. "English! I would've liked more, but at least there's one."

I realized I wasn't breathing. I felt like I was going to throw up with him touching me, with his arm slung around the small of his back. I couldn't do anything more than nod at him.

He chuckled again, and rose out of his seat. "Well, Lexi, I'll see you around." He grabbed my hand and shook it before leaving. It wasn't until then that I noticed everyone in the cafeteria looking at me. Thankfully, I couldn't dwell on that for long.

"What...? Alexa! Explain!" Summer Hardy, one of my other friends, hissed. She wrung her red ponytail excitedly.

"I don't know!" I replied helplessly, throwing my hands up. "What do you want me to say?"

"Something like, um, I don't know, 'I made friends with Reed Marlowe this summer'?!?"

"Or more than friends," Grace added, winking with mock sensuality.

"It never came up," I said sheepishly. Jennifer, the mom-type in the group, smacked me upside the head.

"You should've brought it up, stupid," Jen huffed.

I sighed. "Whatever." I looked down at my plate. "Hey!"

me: u ate my fries?!!

Reed winked at me across the room.

the hot one from laser tag: mmmmhmmmm they were sooo good lexi. thanks

I shook my head angrily.

me: NOT OKAY REED. NOT OKAY.

the hot one from laser tag: dont be a baby lil lexi

I was way too angry to be charmed by the nickname.

me: just wait till english. ill crush u. nobody eats my food

the hot one from laser tag: ok lil lexi whatever u say

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My next class was pre-calc with Summer, Jen and Grace all in class with me. All four of us sat in a square, with Grace behind me, and Summer and Jen across from us. We whispered at each other and gossiped while the teacher droned on about the syllabus.

Grace poked me from behind with her pen. "Alexa."

I turned around and poked her back with my pencil. "What, loser?" I whispered.

She rolled her eyes at me. "I am not a loser. But listen, don't look now, but Marin and Ava are staring at you. Dude, what happened this summer? Why are they suddenly noticing you?"

Marin Daley was the self proclaimed queen of our school. Her whole clique were heel-wearing hair-flipping model-types with killer attitudes. None of my friends could stand them. They were just so... arrogant. Marin figured out just how one controlled people like that. Ava Gossamer was one of those people she kept under her thumb, her closest friend. The slightly simple blonde would do whatever Marin wanted.

Marin's green eyes glinted as she stared at me. She, along with the five Barbie dolls around her, seemed to be assessing me. For what, I didn't know. I did know that I was uncomfortable.

I turned to Grace and shrugged. "Beats me. I just don't like it. I wish they would look somewhere else."

I watch Marin give me a tight-lipped smile, Barbie-fake as usual, and whisper something to the group. They glanced at me one last time, and then the staring was over.

I didn't know what to think, or what was going on, so I shoved the whole experience out of my mind and attempted to pay attention to the teacher.

A/N how do you guys feel about Alexa's personality? I think it fits the model pretty well if you imagine her with darker hair. Whatevs though.

Don't forget to vote, comment and follow!!

xx