Down Under

11 sorry?

Ava tapped her pencil on the table, once and then twice in anxiousness. The clock read 12:58 pm, two more minutes until the tests would be handed and everything would go mum, only the slight tick, tick, tick of the clock and the wind outside. She tapped her pencil again, for good luck, which resulted in people turning around to glare at her. She hated this part, the silence in the room, her legs wouldn't stop bouncing, her eyes refusing to stay on her own paper and her hands slightly shaking. When the clock ticked to 1:00 pm, the exam papers were distributed and everyone started to scribbling answers, and whatnot. Ava sat there, staring at the paper and trying to get her breathing under control. Just a chemistry midterm, no big deal, she didn't study as much as she probably should have but it was fine, she reassured herself.

An hour and 40 minutes later, Ava handed in her midterm, slung her backpack over her shoulders and shuffled out with the rest of the class. People mumbled what they put for what question, but she liked to feign ignorance, it just psyched her out when she tried to overthink it. Someone pushed her from the back, a sharp shoulder against her back that sent her crashing into the person in front.

"careful" hands came around her elbows to steady her, and Ava looked up.

"oh" she paused, staring in disbelief, "it's you"

"It's me" Wes mumbled, letting go of her elbows and stepping back, his eyes skating over the other students.

"sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going"

Wes glanced at her, his eyes running over her face for few brief seconds and then went back to fixating above her head. "Listen" He paused, his hand coming to rub at his neck and his eyebrows pulled together in concentration.

"Yeah?" Ava waited, and when Wes didn't say anything, she started again, "right, never mind, I should get going anyways, I'll see you later" She mumbled, twisting around him to go in the opposite direction.

"Wait" Wes caught her elbow, and when she turned around to look at him, at the hand around her arm, he abruptly pulled away. "ah, I, you think we could talk?" Ava raised an eyebrow in question, and Wes shrugged in answer. Yeah, because that explained why he suddenly wanted to talk after she ran out of the kitchen three days ago.

"I've got class in a bit" Ava shrugged, "what is it?"

Wes brought his hands to cover his face, a deep, throaty groan sounded in the hall, and then he finally spoke, "it won't take long" He turned around and started walking towards the doors, outside the building into the sun. Ava wasn't even sure if he wanted her to follow him so she stood there, staring after him, trying to decide until he opened the door, and peeked inside. "you're supposed to follow me"

"Oh. right, yeah" She walked towards the door, and stood in the cold, windy weather. Wes took out a cigarette and patted his pockets for his lighter. Once he found it, he covered the stick with one hand and lit it with the other. Smoke swirled around him as he leaned back against the brick building.  "So?"

Wes had his eyes closed, but at her voice, he peeked one open to look at her and nodded towards the spot next to him. Ava walked over, making sure to leave some room in case he decided to rip her head off or something.

"Listen, about couple days ago" he finally said, his voice slow and raspy, "I, uh, it's just that, well I talked to, no uh" Wes stumbled over his words.

"What about it?" Ava asked, exasperatedly, just thinking about that day made her feel weird, the embarrassment, and anger still quite fresh.

"I feel like..." Wes trailed off, licking his lips, "well, I mean, I was angry"

"right, of course so the usual"

"you make it seem like I'm always mad" Wes turned his head towards her, his tone light and if Ava didn't know any better, she'd think he was actually teasing.