Anxiety Attack

Chapter 15

Eli’s P.O.V

I leaned against the wall, waiting for Finley to come meet me. Checking my phone, I sighed once I saw the time. She was twenty minutes late, and Finley was never late.

Like, seriously.

Never late.

It was weird. She was always on time, and now when I was here first, she was super late. I saw Allie walking down the hallway, which confused me. Wasn’t she in college? Maybe she went to school here or something and was visiting old teachers.

People did that, right?

I raised my hand slightly and waved at her. Allie caught sight of me and kept walking, slamming her shoulder into mine on purpose, hard. As she did, she muttered, “Asshole.”

I was taken aback, rubbing my shoulder, as it did really hurt, wondering what crawled up her ass and died.

Probably Luke’s dick.

After what seemed like another ten minutes, Finley finally appeared, head down and her backpack slung over one shoulder, her hair escaping from her ponytail. I liked it when she wore her hair up. It let me see her face.

“Hey, Fin,” I said cheerfully, pushing myself up off the wall to greet her.

“H-Hi,” she mumbled, keeping her head down instead looking up and smiling brightly at me. And stuttering. Weird.

“What’s up?” I asked, leaning against the wall again. “Why were you so late?”

“I h-had to get a b-b-book from the l-library,” she muttered, still talking to the ground.

“Oh,” I said, knowing that she was lying. “What book?”

“Prodigy,” Finley says. “Allie w-wanted me to g-get it for her a-and Luke.”

“Uh huh,” I said, humoring her, but letting the matter drop. “You ready to go and study?”

“Y-Yeah,” Finley mumbled, trying to push the strands escaping from her ponytail out of her face.  

“Okay,” I said, trying to understand why she was acting so weird. “Let’s go then.”

We walked together in silence, the tension palpable in the air as Finley still didn’t say anything. Usually she was a chatterbox and now she’s acting like she did when we first met each other.

“You alright?” I asked a few minutes later, as we’re well on our way to her house.

“Y-Yeah, I’m f-f-fine,” Finley stuttered.

“Fin?” I put my hand on her knee and she stiffened under my touch. “You know you can talk to me, right?”

“Y-Yeah,” she murmured, still not making eye contact.

I slowly withdrew my hand focused on driving, wondering why Finley was acting so weird. Did someone say something to her at school? Did she have another anxiety attack? Was she mad at me for something I did? Was this because I teased her about being a genius?

I pulled into her driveway and quick as a flash, Finley had her seatbelt undone and was about to basically leap from the car when I grabbed her wrist to prevent her from leaving me in the dust.

“Fin, what’s up with you?” I said, sounding a tad annoyed. “You’re acting weird.”

Finley sighed deeply and turned to face me, making eye contact for the first time since lunch, making me notice that her eyes were kind of red and she looked a bit pale.