Summer Before Her (Completed)

8- Here's The Deal

Kirsten's POV

He walked briskly into class and headed straight to the seat next to me and as soon as he was seated, he stared off into the distance as usual.
The disconnect between his mind and the environment was apparent.

"Hey, Welcome back" I mocked.
I was met with silence, not a muscle on his body moved in reaction. I suppose this is how it was gonna be now.

Its been a day since the project was handed out to us. If I don't bite the bullet and ask Novak, we would definitely fail. Or I could just do the project on my own. Or I could just swallow my pride and ask Novak.

"Hey Novak, when are you free to work on the project?"
His face configured an emotion as if my question pained him and then he responded curtly "Evening, up to 10 pm"

So he speaks now.

What had I ever done to spur such a reaction out of him? I couldn't recall my exact words from that night but from what I remember, there was nothing that was overstepping the line. I wish he would just scream at me instead of behaving in this manner.

For the rest of the class, which dragged on for an unexceptionally long time, my eyes kept wandering and stealing glances of him as he silently brooded.

**

As I walked into the cafeteria, a salad box in hand, I spotted him leaning against the wall, an apple held in a vice grip between his fingers as he bit into it momentarily. I ran up to him and in reaction, he pushed himself off the wall and braced himself for the incoming hug.

"I missed you sooooo much Freddie, how have you been?" I asked, my voice now muffled into his shirt.
I could hear the rumble of the laughter in his chest as he said "I missed you too, Kiwi"

"Oh, there's Talia, let's go eat" he continued breaking the contact between us. This man would have been the love of my life had he batted for this team, too bad he didn't.

As soon as we were seated, Talia began complaining about Wani "Do you know what he did?" She continued answering her own question "That wanker was fucking Bethany, he didn't even have the bloody balls to tell me himself, Larsa walked into him and do you know his bloody excuse? We weren't exclusive Natalie, could he not think of anything better than that"
She continued rambling for the next several minutes. Now don't get me wrong, I loved this woman to pieces but she had the worst taste in men and absolutely no sense of boundaries, why wouldn't she get walked all over?

Being done with her rant, she clicked back into 'let's-use-Kirsten-love-life-as-entertainment mode' and began by questioning me "Its been a week since you went to invite lover boy to the table, where is he?"

"Uh, he can't make it" I tried dismissing the topic.

"Can we focus on us for a while?" Fred asked seemingly annoyed by her question.

Talia eyed him oddly as she said "sure Fred, what do you have in store? A sleepover so we can watch Benedict Cumberbatch and do each other's hair?"

"Hahaha, that doesn't sound so bad, when are we doing this?" I chimed in.

"I wish, sadly it's our dumb school's project season and I have yet to even begin four of them" Fred stated.

"Let's keep it short and sweet, icecream anyone? " I bargained.

"Um, I can't make it, I have to work on the project" Talia responded.

"Come onnn Talia, it won't take long, Tell me you are coming, Freddie" I plead.

"Seriously, I am barely passing, unlike guys, I actually have to put in the effort" Talia mocked, now putting her cutlery away, about to leave.

"So it's just me and you, baby"He winked.