You, Me, and All The Spaces In-between

CHAPTER 19

It was Sunday night, and I was standing in the shower, staring at the tiles at my feet. Water cascaded down my body and collected in puddles on the floor, and it made think, for the millionth time that weekend, of the rain that had been gathering in my hair and running down my shirt and collecting in the folds of my hoodie when Cash and I had been kissing.

Kissing.

God, we'd been kissing.

I raised my palms and buried my face in my hands. I'd been in this state all weekend, just standing around, staring incredulously into space. It still didn't feel real. I was half-convinced I'd hallucinated the whole thing. And now...Now I'd have to go back to school and face him.

What would it be like? Would things be any different?

No, I tried to tell myself, unwilling to get my hopes up. You know he'll ignore you. You know he will.

"Go to bed, Alyx," I muttered, scraping my hands through my hair. "Don't sleep over that-that-"

That what?

I didn't have a word for Cash Smith anymore. One word surely wasn't enough to explain the myriad of complexities that comprised that boy.

Sighing, I clambered into bed, resolving to forget about everything and just sleep.

- - - -

"Shit, Alyx," Robert swore when I approached him the next morning. His brows knotted with concern. "Did you even sleep?"

Okay, so maybe things hadn't gone to plan. Maybe I had stayed up for most of the night thinking about-

"Doesn't matter," I said abruptly, sweeping past Robert before he could ask more questions. "What does matter is that I finally finished all that maths homework. How'd you do on question seven?"

To my relief, Robert didn't push. He usually let it go when I didn't want to talk about something, and as we fell into step on our way to homeroom, I felt that familiar rush for gratitude for him. Even if the rest of my life was in shambles, it was nice to know I had someone to count on.

As predicted, English was exactly the same.

When I walked into the room, Bryce raised his brows and exclaimed, "Our resident nerd is here! How's it going, Alyx?"

My face burning, I peered briefly at Cash, who was determinedly looking away and refusing to meet my eyes.

Right.

Trying to keep my expression composed, I moved to my seat.

"Dude," I heard Bryce mutter as I sat down, "Didn't you hear what I said?" He repeated the joke, and Cash laughed loudly, but it sounded hollow to my ears.

"Good afternoon, class," Mr Reiner called cheerfully as he stepped into the room. "How are we all?"

Oh, just great, I thought miserably. Cash Smith kissed me, and now he won't even look at me.

I imagined just saying it. Out loud. In front of everyone.

The notion was laughable. I'd definitely be sent to a psych ward.

"So, we're going to spend today watching some clips on text analysis," Mr. Reiner continued, proudly brandishing a remote. "Our IT department just finished briefing me on how to hook my laptop up to the TV, let's give this a go."

"Ugh," Robert groaned. "This is gonna be a trainwreck."

"Oh, before I forget." Mr. Reiner paused to fix us with a serious stare. "Remember, next week you'll be writing your reflections on your book sharing experiences. So, wrap up those text conversations, alright?"

I snickered despite myself, and Robert glanced at me curiously.

"What's so funny?"

"You wouldn't get it," I said simply.

- - - -

After class, I went to my locker and scraped half of its contents into my schoolbag. Given the nature of my AP classes, I was always taking heavy textbooks to and from home on a daily basis. I'd gotten pretty used to the weight, but as I was hoisting the bag onto my shoulders, something grasped the back of it and pulled, causing me to stumble.

"Hey-!" I protested, straining to see over my shoulder. Before I could catch a glimpse, something was shoved into my hand.

I twisted fully around when the weight holding down my bag had vanished, and only just caught sight of Cash as he whisked around the corner.

I contemplated following him, then, shaking my head, looked down at the thing in my hand. It was a crumpled piece of paper, and when I unfurled it, I discovered a series of hastily scrawled numbers.

It was a phone number.

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