Growing Pains

Chapter Thirteen

Bridgette

I had decided to continue with my plan to ignore Geoff. I figured if I ignored it, it would go away. I had spent the weekend in fear that I would run into him at Waves or that he would decide to see Trent's show. He was thankfully stuck on babysitting duty for his younger siblings. I managed to avoid him Monday and Tuesday by eating in the library. Courtney was a little miffed that I missed out on hearing about her date—which I was still a little confused about—but I promised to call her about it later.

I was in the same place today. I had kept giving the same excuse that I had to study for an important exam this Friday, but I quickly realized that that was a limited excuse. Next week, I would have to come up with a new one, and that idea freaked me out. Soon, my friends would start realizing that I was avoiding something, or someone. And I definitely didn't want to have that conversation.

So, I spent my hour lunch break debating what my next excuse would be. A couple of times I considered coming clean to at least Courtney or Gwen, but I could just imagine the disappointed look in Court's eyes or the scowl on Gwen's lips and I rejected the idea in its entire.

I wished it would go away. I wished I could just blink and it would be gone, and it would take all my shame and embarrassment with it. It was probably one of the most careless things I had ever done and I regretted it ever since. But I at least thought the guilt was manageable since he lived a coast away, but now, he was living in the same town as me, going to the same school.

How was I that unlucky?

I was reading a book, and by reading I meant skimming the same paragraph over and over, when someone came and stood in front of me. I looked up and found a pair of warm blue eyes staring back at me. "Hey, Bridge," Geoff said warily, giving me a wave and a soft smile.

I plastered on a fake smile, "Oh, hey, Geoff."

"Do you mind?" He gestured to the chair in front of me.

I felt my eye twitch. "No, not at all."

"Cool," He responded as he pulled out the chair across from me. We were now forced to stare at each other, only separated by a small wooden table.

To avoid the awkwardness that was this moment I returned to reading my book. I focused very intently on the book, discovering I was halfway through some sort of mystery book that I had no premise to.

He leaned forward and cleared his throat, "Hey, I just wanted to talk."

I fought the urge to frown as nerves fluttered through me. Instead, I let out a hushed laugh and said, "Geoff, this is a library. It's not an ideal place to talk."

He scratched his head, "Can we talk outside then?"

I shook my head and tapped the book, "I'm a bit busy. Maybe later."

He sighed, "Bridge, I just wanted to clear the air about the whole, you know..."

I felt my heart race. I had no desire to talk about this, especially here with inquiring ears around every nook and cranny. I played dumb, "I don't know what you're talking about."

He scanned my face, "I'm pretty sure you do." I simply shook my head and returned to reading my book. I heard him get up and softly whisper, "Your hair looks unique, by the way."

I looked up at him confused and said, "What?"

He shook his head. "I mean, that it like looks different from a lot of other girls cause you don't like try, you know?"

I glared at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

He smacked his head with his palm. "That's not what I meant either. What I'm trying to say is that it looks cool. Yeah, you have nice hair."