The Girl In The Suit

Anne

I get up on Monday morning and there's a new text from Gemma.

I'M SHITTING MYSELF OVER THE EXAMS, WHAT DO I DOOOOO

I smile as I look at it and I reply.

You'll do great, don't worry. Its French and history today, right?

Yuuup. I'm great at history but fucking French. Should we just skip the exam and go get Galileo?

Nooooo, Ms Welch, you're doing that exam. Besides, its only pres, its basically a warmup. Its June we'll have to worry about.

I suppose. See you in a few minutes, Anne with an E. 💕

See you soon, Gem. 💕

STOP FLIRTING WITH ME 😂

YOU STOP FLIRTING WITH ME 😂

I smile and put my phone down. I get dressed and I make my bed and set my rosary beads on the pillow. I head downstairs to breakfast, and everyone's already sitting down and the foods untouched. I sit down, and then we do our prayers.

"And God,", my mother says at the end, "please help Anne with her exams this week. Help her to succeed and achieve. Amen."

We then eat our food. When I'm done, I grab my bag and walk out the door.

"Good luck, we love you!", I hear them call.

"Love you too!"

I meet up with Gemma at the end of the line of houses. We hug each other when we meet and we walk to school chatting. She's worried about the exams, and I'm helping her relax. Our hands brush off each others every so often.

When we get to the gates, we're immediately pushed to the ground. I immediately help her up, and we look to see the Fuckface Four cackling at us.

"So fucking gay!", Bethany sneers.

"Wow! I have a fucking friend, so gay!", Gemma replies.
"Yeah, I doubt you two are 'just friends'.", Sally says with a snigger.

"Shut the fuck up."

"OK. Good luck at the exams, fags."

They push past us and we look at them walk away. I sigh.

"The terror continues.", I say looking at her. She laughs and punches my arm lightly.

"Oh, you're funny, O Brien!", she says. She puts her arm around my shoulders as we walk into the exam hall.

We sit near each other while we do our French exam. I go through it easily, but I notice how stressed Gemma is. She looks over at me, and I mouth, Its OK, you're going great. She smiles and mouths back, Thank you.

When the exam finishes, we're given a 15 minute break before we go onto history. We chat about how we think we did on the first exam. I'm so happy when she tells me she thinks that she did good.

When we sit for the next exam, the two of us go through it quite quickly. We have to keep from bursting out laughing when we see that Aoife and Sally are struggling a lot.

When the exam ends, the teacher looks at us both proudly. We smile at him and then we head out the door. We just have study until 4, which is just another half hour. When we're done, I sidle up next to Gemma.

"See, Miss Anxiety, it wasn't so bad, was it?", I say as I poke her in the arm. She smiles at me.

"No, it wasn't too bad. So, where to today?"

I smile at her. "I was thinking the playground? The one over there, not all the way at the end of the town."

"That sounds perfect."

We walk over to the playground and we take turns going down slides and pushing each other on swings. It feels very innocent, something I think neither of us have felt in a while. 

We finally sit down on the bench, and we just watch the sun begin to set. Then, Gemma speaks.

"Have you ever kissed anyone?"

I freeze. "No, I haven't. Have you?"

"No."

"But what about Joseph in first year?"

"We never kissed. I didn't want to until I was sure I liked him enough. And I never liked him enough, so we broke up."

"Oh. I never knew that. You guys always seemed so happy."

"Well, he's a great guy but I wasn't the one for him, and he wasn't the one for me. You know?"

"I know. So, who is the one for you, do you know?"

I pause, and we both look at the ground for a minute. I mentally beat myself up for asking that. She finally looks up to me, and I look at her too.

She looks all around her before finally saying, "You."

I freeze in place. We just look at each other.

"I'm sorry.", she says frantically. "I know you just like me as a friend but, the thing is, I've had a crush on you since we were 12. I don't know why I gave you so much shit. I guess I didn't know what to say to you. Its stupid, I know. Just forget it, its irrelevant now."

I look at her in the eyes. "You know, its OK. You could've talked to me earlier though. And you weren't the only one."

"What do you mean?"

I lean in and give her a quick soft kiss, merely a peck. She gasps, and looks into my eyes. I feel my heartbeat increasing. She then kisses me, properly, and I kiss her back softly.

When we separate, I see a familiar looking person in the empty car park. Then, I realise it's Alison, and she's looking right at us. I can't see her too clearly, but I can see that she's disgusted, and something tells me she saw everything.

Gemma looks where I'm looking, and she looks at me.

"Shit.", we say in unison.

I turn to her, and I begin to speak.

"So, I really, really like you, and I want to be with you, but I think we should wait a while. I wanna get to know you better and then I'll have a think about it. I hope you understand. It has nothing to do with you or anyone else."

"I understand completely. I agree with you. Thanks for being my first kiss, by the way."

I smile at her. "No bother. Thank you too. I better go sort things with Ali. I'll text you later."

"OK. See you tomorrow."

I give her a quick kiss and a smile before I leave the playground.