How To Stop Smoking

Their words, not mine

Chapter Two

Rob

I walked down the corridor to sixth form common room from my last period lesson, today was the first meeting of the Stop Smoking group my mum signed me up for, I thought I'd hidden my habit from her pretty well until she appeared in my room holding a pack of cigarettes and demanded to know why they were in my jeans.

As I turned into the common room there were a few others there too, people who I would never have guessed were smokers, and then there were the volunteers who were supposed to help us in our mission to become 'smoke free'. Their words, not mine.

I took a seat in a far corner after signing in to prove that I did actually turn up. The blonde one from the Sixth Form Office stood up to make some sort of announcement.

"Hi everyone, so we have just one person left to arrive but she should be here soon so we'll just start without her. I'm Mrs Webb, and this is Mr Johnson, who is here from the NHS to offer you some advice about stopping smoking."

As she talked the door open and a girl came in, she swept her long hair behind her shoulder and turned to face everyone in the room. It was the girl who I saw in the library whenever I had a free period. She looked around at everyone, when she met my gaze she quickly looked away.

"Sorry I'm late." She apologised to Mrs Webb and took the nearest seat to her, also the nearest to me, I stealthily watched her from the corner of my eye, she listened intently to Mrs Webb, occasionally she would inspect her bitten nails or tuck her hair behind her ear. 

Every little thing she did was being permanently etched into my brain, it suddenly became very important that I got to know her and how she behaved. Her hair was dark, and really long, brushing below her waist as she sat on the chair.

She wore makeup, not much, but she had long black eyelashes and perfectly symmetrical eyeliner. Something I knew some of my female friends would envy her for.

"Robert." I turned away from my observing of the girl to Mrs Webb who was calling my name.

"Yeah?"

"Would you please go and sit with your partner?" I looked around the room, in the time I had spent creepily staring at a girl I don't know, everyone else had been partnered up and was sitting in twos. Everyone apart from the girl, who was watching me curiously.

I took the hint that she was my partner and made my way over to her, which wasn't a far distance by any description. My stomach got a weird sensation as I sat down opposite her and felt her eyes take me in.

"Hi," she began somewhat shyly, "I'm Olympia."

I nodded, she had a nice name, "I'm Rob, nice to meet you."

She began to look around the room anxiously, most of the pairs were deep in conversation or laughing away with each other. 

Up close she was prettier, I realised that her hair seemed to be many different shades of brown, but didn't look dyed at all.

"So, er, what's your favourite colour?"

She raised an eyebrow at my question, guess it did sound as stupid out loud as it had in my head but it was all I could think of. Making conversation was never my forte.

She decided to humour me "Red. Yours?"

"Same." I said, almost as a reflex, I didn't really have a favourite but red was a pretty good one, I just felt relieved that I hadn't told her my favourite colour was pink or something.

She nodded, guess she felt as awkward as I did, I had to keep reminding myself that I was here because of my mum, it was this or lose my prized motorbike.