Walking Away

Hey, I need a favor.

Johnathan

I knew I was in trouble when I saw Mark waiting for me in class. A class he didn't have, by the way.

He walked up. "Hey, I need a favor." I gave him a look, realizing the girl he had been talking to looked familiar. I couldn't quite place her. He tapped his fingers on his leg, which meant whatever he was about to ask, I wasn't going to like it.

"So, that girl over there, she's awesome. Her name's...um, Rachel or Robin or something. Anyway, she is new, totally lost, and sitting with us at lunch. Oh, and, you're going to.." he trailed off for a second at my expression, then continued. "You're hopefully going to show her where her classes are...." seeing that I did not agree, he added, "..because you're a good guy who doesn't want her first day to be hell and also because I already said you would and you can't just make a liar out of a guy like that....please?"

Oh, god. I couldn't say no, he already invited her to sit with us at lunch. And I didn't want to make a liar out of him, and he knew it. He knew he'd won, before he even asked. And so I nodded, while wondering how he thought I wouldn't end up late to all my classes. And then he was gone, after saying something to the girl who had just walked up.

And then...awkward. We just kind of migrated towards our desks as the teacher walked in, on opposite sides of the room. As the teacher...honestly I couldn't remember her name, went over the bell work and passed out worksheets, I thought about ways to get out of spending the whole day being a GPS for some random person Mark thought was "awesome".

Not that I had anything against her, but I really wasn't looking to make new friends. Mark knew that though...and he rarely asked me to do things if he thought it would cause trouble. As it got close to the bell, I figured I would at least look at her schedule. Even if I didn't walk her, I could highlight her classes on the map or something. That would at least be helpful.

The bell rang and I headed over to her desk, where she was sitting...with her head down. Okay. Maybe she had fallen asleep. First period already, it's been a long day. I walked over and tapped on the desk, hoping this wouldn't be a huge scene.

She sat up, and I remembered where I had seen her - this morning, by the office. I frowned as I remembered my first impression, then held out my hand for her schedule.

Except she didn't hand it to me. She just stared at my hand like she had no idea what world I was from. I took a breath. Patience, I reminded myself. "So, you think I could actually see the schedule?"

She flinched when I spoke, like she had been off in her own world. I waited while she handed me the schedule - finally - and looked over it.

And almost walked away, because I'm not sure how this was possible, but she had almost the exact same schedule as me.

Which Mark knew, of course.

"Um..look, you don't have to." she said quietly. And probably for the first time since we'd (sort of) met, I looked directly at her.

"Sorry?" I was confused.

She blushed. "Walk me to class, I mean. I know that it wasn't really your idea, and I don't want to make you late to all of your classes...and honestly you don't look incredibly eager to help me out here, um, so I was just saying that you really don't have to." She looked up at me for a moment, then looked back away. "And it isn't a guilt trip or anything, I mean it, not that you seem like the kind of person who would respond to guilt trips, though honestly I'm guessing that's what Mark did. Of course, Mark seems pretty hard to say no to, so he might be an exception,"

Dear god, this girl was like Mark on a sugar high. I started shaking my head, stopping her. "Come on."

She finally stopped talking, but looked really confused. "What?"

I tried not to laugh. "Unless you plan on skipping class on the first day, we really need to get going." I told her. She nodded, still looking kind of shocked.

I led her out of the classroom, and in what seemed uncharacteristic for her, she didn't say a word the entire time we were walking.

And so begins my day as a human GPS.