Question Mark

Chapter 2

Brandon is kissing me!

I push him off of me, out of pure shock. I start questioning our entire history. "What was that?"

"I was hoping you were going to like it," he says quietly, looking ashamed for the terrible assumption.

"It's just something that I really didn't see coming or expecting; I thought you were going to lean in for a hug not a kiss," I say slightly shuffling away from him. I don't miss a beat to save him from his own embarrassment and change the subject, "I think we should start making our way to everyone else," I say without giving him another glance.

He falls behind me a few strides away. I'm crossing my arms with my head down and my hair shading my wide eyes from everyone else. I'm still recovering from Brandon's repeated open feelings. 'I thought you were going to like it.' What?!

My first kiss was with my childhood best friend; it sounds like a boring old romance story line.

. . .

I try to walk into science with an unfazed face, but someone—it's always someone—stops me from pulling out my chair from underneath the desk, Milo.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Can I get my chair please?" I say sounding defeated and exhausted. I try tugging harder at the hard plastic seat, but it doesn't budge.

"Nope. Not until you tell me why your face is contorted like that," he says wiggling his fingers in my face.

"Well, gee. When you put it that way, of course I'll tell you!" my words are drenched in sarcasm. "I'm just tired from the tour and school is draining me. I'm just trying to get through these last couple weeks. Please, can I have my seat?"

He lets up on the chair and nudges the seat with his foot for me to sit down.

Ms. Limily assigns the class an optional partner worksheet and Brandon is behind me hunched over his desk burying his head in the work, obviously not wanting to work with anyone and trying to block out everyone in the room, especially me. I turn back to face forward and see Brittany waving me over to join her, I force a smile on and get up. My seat screeches against the flat floor and I see Brandon's shoulders tense. I know for a fact that he hates any screeching noise, one of my favorites out of his pet peeves to mess with. I quickly sit down beside Brittany and we work quickly through the worksheet and pull out our phones once we're finished, she checks the media and I read. Now, Hardin's really deep in the aftermath of his own mistakes, maybe Brandon and Hardin are more alike than I'd like them to be, but Tessa's more blindsided by love than I'd like to think I could ever be.

The bell rings dismissing everyone for the day and the whole class scrambles out to leave the quickest way possible. I slowly pack my things up, but I'm rushed because I'm not going to walk home, how I usually do—or did—with Brandon. I guess I am a little like Tessa, somehow tied back to the most complicated boys of our lives. I hurry and race out of the room, en route to the bus line up. I forgot the last time I actually rode a bus home with all the tiny sixth graders and annoying seventh graders. I run up the steps to the bus and find almost every seat filled. All but one.

Brandon's.

I make my way to the very back seat, standing in the aisle waiting for him to acknowledge that I can sit with him, until the bus starts moving and I'm forced to sit with him. I make the seat dip causing him to shift his eyes to his right. I make a small smile for him to help clear the thick tension between us, but he chooses to ignore the gesture and shifts closer to the window. I dart my hand out for my phone, but I hear something come from my left.