𝐇𝐈𝐃𝐄| 𝐉.𝐁.

34: Hide

"I still think you should give him another chance." Taylor suggests and I give her a look.

"May I remind you that he kissed me multiple times while dating Kacey, let her spread that horrible rumor and best of all, bashed Shawn's face in at the basketball game two days ago." I grimace at her.

"But he apologized, didn't he?" She asks.

"Yeah, last night too when he walked me to my door after he dropped you off." I admit.

"Did you guys kiss too?" She scoffs, clearly trying to make a harmless joke.

"Almost." I mutter, pushing some hair behind my ear.

"What?!" She exclaims, turning to me with wide eyes.

"I'm not saying it again." I huff.

"You and Josh almost kissed! Oh my god, did you lean in first or did he-" She raises her voice and I cut her off by putting my hand over her mouth.

"Say it any louder, why don't you?" I say through gritted teeth.

I shut my locker and wait until a few students pass by until I can say another word to Taylor.

"Sorry." She cringes and I let out a scoff, sighing at the end.

"It's fine. And no, I didn't lean in first. Josh did, but I did lean back. I remember what I told him at the game last night before I let him kiss me." I huff, crossing my arms.

"Can't you tell this is a sign? The universe is trying to tell you something."

"Oh yeah, and what's that?" I scoff.

"That you are Joshua are meant to fucking be!" She grimaces and I bite the inside of my cheek.

"I don't wanna talk about this right now. Let's just get to class."

"You can't run away from your problems, Lex." She sighs and I turn to her.

"Better than facing them." I say, only half confident in my answer.

                                        ||

"Good morning everyone, today we will be testing how deep glucose can burn through objects." Mr. Reynolds announces.

"But didn't the school close last week because of a glucose leak?" A girl with strawberry blonde hair says.

"Yes, but we've made sure nothing fatal will leak through anything. We put more alarms so it'll go off even before a spillage will go in an opening." He says and the girl nods.

"Finally, this school is actually doing something." Taylor whispers and I chuckle.

"Alright, glad we got that cleared up. Now, everyone I will be assigning partners before we touch any chemicals. And-" Mr. Reynolds says, but is cut off as the doors burst open.

"I'm so sorry I'm late. I just got caught up with some stuff and-" A familiar voice rambles and I turn my head.

"It's alright, Mr. Bassett. This is your first tardy so I'm letting you off with a warning." Mr. Reynolds says and Josh finally catches his breath.

"Thank you, sir." He nods at him, fixing his collar of his jacket.

"Please, sit next to Ms. Williams. Alexis, raise your hand." Mr. Reynolds says and I snap my head up.

"But, Mr. Reynolds, I wanna-"

"Sorry, I won't be pairing anyone up with their friends for this lab. Too many distractions." He says and I slowly raise my hand.