The Pain of a Middle Child

III

"Hey, girl, you comin' to the party tonight?" Heather, one of my new friends asked me when I took my seat beside her.

"Yep. Wouldn't miss it for the world." I nodded and started scribbling down the answers to my worksheet as quickly as I could.

"Babe, oh, hey, Heath." my boyfriend, Liam greeted us.

"Hi, babe." I looked up at his dark-brown eyes and stark black hair that was messed up, just the way I liked it.

"Hey," he leaned down and pecked my lips, then smiled down at me.

"Ew, you two need to get a room," Heather fake-barfed. I snorted at her.

"You need to get a boyfriend; feel what I feel," I said while accepting a small bite of a chocolate bar from Liam. "Mmm,"

"Not from this school, never." she wrinkled her nose at her words.

"What's wrong with the guys in our school?" I frowned, melting another piece of chocolate.

"Good ones are all taken," she responded in a small voice.

"Aah, I could set you up a blind date," Liam offered. Heather shook her head.

"You know my rules. Never force a meeting or a relationship."

Before Liam could respond, the bell rang, and he pecked my lips one last time then headed to his seat across the room.

A few weeks prior, our teacher caught us whispering in class and ever since, our seats were always far apart. It was a real bummer, but we found a way around it; using Liam and my friends to pass notes in secret.

Roughly ten minutes into class, I got a note from Liam.

I'm boreddd ㅠ.ㅠ

Below, I wrote,

Awww, poor baby

I handed the note to Josh, who passed it to Katie, who passed it to Jamie, who handed it to Liam.

He took a bit to reply, probably because we couldn't afford to get caught for the fifth time this week.

His reply was,

Sneak out for coffe later?

Smiling at his love for coffee, I answered, scribbling on the paper in small writing.

Why not?

When the 'boring' class ended and the bell rang, Liam and I snuck out over the fence and went to the cafe right across the road to get drinks.

Cappuccino for Liam, Double espresso for me.

"Mmmm," I hummed with pleasure when we arrived back at school with a few minutes of break left. "I wish I could make coffee just like this one."

"But then you'd be copying," Liam pointed out for me.

"Yeah, I guess, but I won't mind if it's this one I'm copying," I grinned. Just as Liam was thinking out his responce, the bell rang, cutting out conversation again.

"Damned bell," I heard Liam mutter under his breath.

"Bet you wouldn't think that if I was the bell," I whispered to him before heading over to my seat.