Turning ✔️

Chapter 3. Lunch

"I'd like that," I finally stumbled out before removing my eyes from his gaze. Will's lips tugged into a bright smile at my response. I gathered my belongings and quickly stood up, only just then realizing how much shorter I was than him. At 5' 4", I just barely reached his well-sculpted chest.

Internally I was freaking out, but I tried to act cool and collected as I lead the way out of the classroom with him following behind me. We walked down the hallway together before I paused.

"Don't you want to put your books away in your locker?" I said turning my head over my right shoulder to look at him.

Will looked down at his hands as if he had forgotten he was holding his books from class. His eyes appeared sad for a split second before he chuckled and they went back to their usual luminosity.

"Oh uh yeah right, yeah I'm going to run these over to my locker. Meet me at the cafeteria then?" He asked me nervously.

"S-sure," I replied hesitantly. Hearing my reply, he turned on his heel and sped off to the direction of his locker. I wasn't in so much of a rush, so I slowly meandered my way back to my locker.

Why is he being like this? We have had classes together since my family moved up to Pittsburg in the first grade after our family lost our dad. He was in a tragic car accident that wasn't too far from our house. Everything in our old town just reminded my mom too much of my father. So we moved up north to a place out in the middle of nowhere.

I feel grateful for the time I got to spend with my dad. My sister Eleanor doesn't even remember our dad and that makes me sad for her. Genevieve puts on a great facade of being perfect, but I know that underneath everything she was crushed when he died. She used to be my best friend, and when it happened something in her did too. She became so hateful and never wanted to be around me. She dove all her energy into being the person every girl wants to be and every guy wants to be with.

As I was approaching my locker, I saw Eleanor leaning against it with a scowl on her face.

"What took you so long!?" She shrieked at me.

"Sorry El," I said frowning, "We have an assignment in Calculus with partners. I'm going to sit with him at lunch to go over some of the details, so, you can just sit with some of your friends......if that's okay with you?" I said slightly rambling in my nervousness.

"O-oh okay. That's fine. Bye Nate." She said shortly, giving me a slightly confused look before walking away towards the cafeteria. I felt somewhat bad. I normally sit with her every day, but I can see her anytime. We live together for crying out loud.

I took a deep breath and put in the combination to my locker. I opened it and threw all my books into the locker hastily. My thoughts drifted back to Will and my heart instantly started to accelerate. I slammed my locker shut and headed in a beeline towards the bathroom.

I burst into the room, locking myself into a stall. I felt like I was going to throw up and hyperventilating.

Okay, it's okay Nathan. Everything is going to be fine. Take deep breaths. In. And. Out. In. And. Out. In. Out.

It was my way to handle my panic attacks. It worked for me, it allowed me to calm myself down. I took one more deep breath and walked out of the stall. I walked over to the sink where the mirror was affixed above. I peered at my reflection and smoothed down my hair nervously.

Once I was mentally prepared enough, I stepped out of the bathroom and into the now deserted hallway. I rushed over to the cafeteria as I had now taken way too long in meeting Will. When I reached the door, I saw him standing there waiting, leaning on the wall with downcast eyes looking at the ground.

"Sorry I'm late," I said startling him and making his eyes jump up to meet mine. "Are you ready to eat?" I asked almost immediately.

He looked at me for a moment as if pondering what to say before nodding and pushing the doors to the cafeteria open and walking in. The sound of boisterous teens immediately hit my ears as I followed in his steps. We walked through the line, picking our different selections on what we were going to eat. I decided on just a simple Caesar salad, while he chose meatloaf.

After we both paid, I continued to follow him over to a section of tables where there was hardly anyone else sitting. I noticed the boys that I would usually see him with were sitting a couple of tables over from us. A few of them I saw were peeking over at where we sat, trying to go unnoticed in doing so. My sister and I always sat on the complete other side of the room, near the courtyard which had a few picnic tables you could sit and eat at. I never noticed how quiet it was on this side and I liked it.

I quickly dressed my salad and began to munch at it slowly. My eyes staring down at my plate, too nervous to look up at the handsome man in front of me.

"So..."

My attention snapped back to Will and I looked up at him. "So?" I replied.

"I was thinking in Calc today that we have known each other for a really long time, but I don't even know anything about you."

Why do you want to know now?

"Um, w-well w-what do you want to know?" I asked timidly in response.

"Everyone knows the great Genevieve Stewart, but I want to know more about the mysterious brother of hers. What do you like to do outside of school?"

Mysterious? Me?

"Well, I'm really into art and photography. I'm usually out taking pictures or I'm painting. I love to make something most people see as insignificant into something beautiful. Sort of like everyday items seen in a whole new perspective." I said just above a whisper and my face flushing crimson.

He leaned in a bit closer, nodding his head in understanding. "That sounds great."

My eyes flicked down to his plump lips for a moment as they turned upwards into a smirk. I returned my gaze down to my salad quickly, unsure of what to say next. I finally realized I should ask him the same question and so I did.

"I actually work my family's doggy daycare and I'm an avid runner. I like to take the dogs out with me and their owners really seem to enjoy it too. A lot of the dogs are there because their owners work out of town and feel bad leaving their dogs cooped up all day."

Ugh, could he be any more perfect? It's like this boy has no flaws.

"That's really awesome. I love dogs, my mom is allergic, so we could never have one growing up." I said with a slight pout. His face twinged with an emotion I couldn't quite pinpoint.

"That's too bad. Maybe you could come by my work and hang out with the pups? They could always use some company. Maybe you could even find some inspiration with the dogs for your art." He said with a hopeful look on his face.

"You know, that's actually the best idea I've ever heard. I'm doing a piece in my art class right now involving a wolf so it might help me out with that." I said excitedly. It's been too long since I had last gotten to be around any dogs. He beamed at my response.

"Perfect. I'm glad you liked the idea." Will said looking like he was resisting the urge to keep talking but never spoke more. Instead, he locked eyes with me with the same enigmatic expression on his face as I saw earlier.

I wasn't sure what to say next, so I concentrated on my salad again, realizing I only had a few bites left. I absently traced my fork along the edge of the plate in thought before biting my bottom lip nervously and looking back up to him. Just as I opened my mouth to finally speak, the bell rang.