Crestfallen

29: Sweet Talking

After Jeremy's' confession I wasn't quite sure how to interact with him, let alone exist in the seat beside him. I tried to concentrate on the class and actually succeeded in doing so until Jeremy slid a piece of paper across my desk. I looked over at him confusedly but he was staring straight ahead. I shifted my gaze back to the paper and gently unfolded it. Written on the paper in surprisingly neat handwriting was a phone number and a note that read: for our future lessons. I smiled a little and pulled my phone out of my pocket to quickly enter it. I had just finished creating the contact when suddenly there was a loud cough from the front of the classroom.

"Miss Hall? You know we have a strict no-phone policy in this class. Especially for those of us who have difficulty paying attention as it is. However, since I don't think we're legally allowed to take away student devices anymore, I'm going to have to send you to detention for the rest of the day."

"For checking my phone?" I exclaimed with exasperation. "I'm pretty sure you can't make me miss class either."

"I'll email the teacher of your next class and inform them of the circumstances."

"Doesn't that interfere with my education?" I defended, oddly vocal today though I blamed the hangover.

"I believe you have gym class next. Doesn't seem too vital," Mr. Labonte said dryly. I sighed and started gathering my belongings when suddenly another voice pitched in.

"Maybe not for someone who clearly doesn't place any priority on exercise or physical maintenance," Jeremy sneered, smirking at the teacher whose face had now gone completely red.

"You, Mr. Storm, may join her," the teacher snapped, fuming. Though I was pretty sure that was Jeremy's plan. With his ever-cocky smirk on his face, he grabbed his stuff and headed out the door. It took me a little longer to collect my stuff since I was a little more spread out, but once I was out the door I saw Jeremy waiting for me against a locker.

"If you were so eager for my phone number, you could have asked for it before, ya know," he teased, winking at me. I rolled my eyes though little fuzzies ran through my veins.

"I just didn't want to lose it," I told him. We started walking towards the detention room though I wasn't quite sure where it was since I had never been. There was a stretch of silence as we both thought of something to say.

"When do the lessons start?" I laughed a little.

"Well, we can start with what just happened in the class. You shouldn't say stuff like that," I said, thinking back to the insult he had thrown at our teacher.

"Not even if he deserves it?" Jeremy inquired with big puppy dog eyes that nearly made me trip over my own feet.

"He didn't deserve it though. I was on my phone during class and this is my punishment. I defended myself a little bit but not to the point where it was rude," I explained, looking up at him to see if he understood what I meant.

"Fine, what if it's to be romantic. You know, get in detention so you can hang out with a girl?" he tried again, this time making me laugh. I slapped his arm gently.

"Sweet talking doesn't count as being nice," I said as we finally reached the office, where the detention room was, Jeremy jumped ahead of us and swung open the door for me.

"Does this count as being nice?" he asked as I walked through the door. I snickered a little.

"Yes," I replied as he followed me through the door.

"Besides, the view is good from behind too," he commented slyly and I whipped around to face him. He burst into a fit of laughter and my anger dissipated as I saw the genuine smile on his face. Instead, I rolled my eyes and checked into the office before entering the detention room.

We took our seats in the small room though there were only four seats in total. It was a rather depressing concrete room though at least it had a window. Suddenly curious, I turned to Jeremy. "Why aren't you always like this?"

"Like what?" he asked, turning towards me as he threw his feet onto the desk in front of him.

"Goofy, flirtatious, not a total asshole..." He shrugged.

"Mood swings," he said sarcastically. I stared at him and he sighed heavily. "I don't know. I think it's mostly society? There's like... a role to fill and this is just the one I got stuck with."

"So what role do I fill?" I inquired quietly as Jeremy stared at his shoes awkwardly.

"The cute good girl that all the popular boys fall for," he whispered almost inaudibly. I tried to hide my surprise, knowing it would hinder him from opening up again. This was a completely different side of Jeremy that I had never seen before and I didn't want it to go away.

"If you can't be goofy, flirtatious, and not a total asshole, what does society want you to be?" I asked him and he responded with a dry laugh.

"I can be flirtatious. If anything, that's part of the job. It's just hard for me to be flirtatious, invulnerable, and unfeeling all at the same time. To me, flirting seems more intimate than something that can be "unfeeling". I've tried to learn it over the years of being in this role but it never came naturally to me so I just cut it out altogether whenever I could."

"If you don't fit the role, why continue?"

"Can we stop talking about me?" he snapped suddenly. "I want you to teach me how to be nice, not figure out my whole life story." I raised my eyebrows in surprise but decided to back down since I didn't have much other choice.

"Well if I could understand why you were mean all the time, it would be easier to help me figure out how to make you nice," I explained with a little bit of sass in my voice. "And I think we should change it from making you "nice" to making you a better person. Nice seems too superficial for the makeover I'm going to have to do here." Jeremy rolled his eyes.

"Sure, whatever." And so the other Jeremy returns.