Fragile Bones

Chapter Fifteen

I slammed my locker door shut, already not feeling this Monday morning. Sunday had passed by without anything notable happening, basically just me dragging myself around the house trying to occupy my mind with thoughts other than food. After the cookie incident, I felt way too ashamed to eat for the rest of the day, and even the next day. As a result, I was feeling kind of dizzy waking up this morning and I considered staying home from school. However, the thought of seeing Asher pushed me to get up and get ready, and now here I am. Feeing extremely stupid for getting excited to see this player who had gotten way too close for comfort on Friday.

"Hey there." I shrieked and turned around to be greeted with a pair of amused eyes. Speak of the devil. His eyes flicked up and down my body for a split second before focusing on my face. I'm not surprised, my clothes weren't exactly fashionable, and my hair was dull and lifeless. "So I talked to Spencer," he continued, looking down at my wrist then back at me. I honestly had completely forgotten about that, and how I told Asher it was an accident. "He said the same thing as you, so I'm not as worried as I was before."

"You were worried?" I asked him, tilting my head at him. No one was ever worried about me, not for all of the years I had been alive.

He laughed, and tilted his head back at me, mimicking my gesture. "That's cute. You look like a puppy," he said, with a little smirk on his face.

I immediately faced the ground, my cheeks heating up. Allow me to make a mental note to never, ever, do that again. It didn't escape my notice how he had avoided the question, but I didn't pressure him about it. He was probably joking, or something. "Um, I should get to class," I replied, starting to walk away from him until he grabbed my arm.

"We have the same first period class, remember?" He said, rolling his eyes. "Let's just walk together." I stared at him, and looked around at all the people in the hallway. Some had already started to take notice of us talking, and were staring. It really was probably a spectacle to them; a hot "bad boy" and some worthless girl everyone liked to pick on standing next to each other having a normal conversation. I frowned, making him do the same once he noticed my expression. I didn't want to drag him down to my level, nobody deserved that.

"But wait, what's that?" I yelled, pointing to absolutely nothing somewhere in the distance.

He turned around to look at where I was pointing. "Madeline, what the hell-" He began, but I was already sprinting down the hallway, away from him. Unfortunately, I realized halfway through running that I would still be sitting next to him in english. Well, this would certainly make things awkward, but it was the first step in making some distance between us. He had his level, being friends with Spencer, and I had mine. I walked through the doors and saw Lindsay seated on Mr. Henderson's desk. They both whipped their heads over to look at me, and she slid off and relocated to the other side of the room to where her seat was. I warily eyed the two of them, neither of them being some of my favorite people in the world. Mr. Henderson just coughed, and shuffled some papers around on his desk. I stole a look at Lindsay who was just staring at her desk, not bothered by me at all.

Asher came flying through the door and gave me a bewildered look. "What's wrong with you?" He exclaimed, slumping down into the seat next to me. "God, you act like a complete psychopath sometimes," he muttered, shaking his head. I merely looked in the other direction, not wanting to make conversation in case I said something truly dumb He rustled through his bag and produced a pencil, laying it on his desk.

"Is that all you brought?" I questioned him in disbelief, not being able to resist myself.

"Now calm down sweetheart, of course that isn't all I brought. You must take me for some kind of slacker. Shame on you," he reprimanded, with a tsk and shake of his head. I felt guilty for assuming this of him and watched as he dived back into his backpack. An eraser was placed next to the pencil and I stared at him waiting for more and all he did was stare back innocently.