Anxiety Attack

Chapter 10

Finley's P.O.V

I don't know who decided that all high schools are full of drama and that there is always that one "most popular guy in school/bad boy/hot jock, but that's simply not true. In high school, you don't know everyone's name, you don't really talk to people not in your grade, and you definitely don't always fall for the bad boy. At least, in my case, that's how it was.

I don't know everyone's name, heck; I don't even know everyone's name in my grade, much less the whole school. I haven't the faintest clue of who the most popular boy and girl in school are, and it's not that I'm dense, I just simply can't tell. There isn't a lot of communication between the sophomores and juniors and seniors; we just kind of ignore each other and all pick on the freshmen. We kind of ignore everyone that isn't our friend.

So all the books that say there is that one boy lie. There isn't that one boy. At least, not for the whole school. But there is one for me, and he goes by the name of Eli Sanders.

Speaking of Eli, he's sat across from me, struggling to read through a math word problem as we sit in the library. I smiled at him, secretly thinking he's being adorable at the moment, even though he's struggling greatly.

Eli wasn't lying when he said he was bad at math, and I had my work cut out for me. I stopped Eli in the middle of his sentence.

"Okay, l-let's focus on something else," I said.

Eli frowned, confused. "Like what?"

"You could tell me about your lip ring," I suggested.

Eli's lips turned up in a smile. "I think you're forgetting our deal, Fin. If I tell you, you have to tell me."

I frowned when I remembered the rule. "Oh yeah."

Eli chuckled. "Oh yeah is right."

"Shut up," I pushed him so he almost fell out of his chair.

Eli caught himself and narrowed his eyes at me. I sunk down in my chair and kept my eyes on him, as he had a devious look in his eyes. Eli smiled and that's when I knew what was coming.

"No," I warned him, getting up and slowly backing away.

"No?" Eli raised an eyebrow, still smirking.

"No," I confirmed, turning on my heel and start running.

Eli immediately gave chase, following me as I ran across the library, silently praising God for having the librarian in the front while we were in the back, and I was about to turn a corner when I tripped over a beanbag for kids and fell on it with an oomph.

Eli flung himself on the beanbag and rolled over so he was facing me. He propped himself up on one arm and carefully pushed a piece of hair out of my face.

Eli and I had been hanging out almost constantly for the past month, give or take a couple days, and we'd grown close enough to touch each other without feeling weird. I would still sometimes stutter around him, and I still had anxiety attacks, but only when he wasn't around, which actually, was a lot during school. Eli was Eli, and he was actually quite sarcastic and perverted, which I wasn't completely appreciative of, but I took what I could get, I mean, I kind of harbored a tiny little crush on him, after all.

"You fell," he whispered.

"I got that, thanks," I whispered back.

"So how are you?" Eli asked.

"How are you? Really?" I said skeptically.

"What do you want me to say?" Eli said quietly.

"I dunno, that's for you to find out," I said, getting up and brushing myself off before skipping back towards our books.