Hours After Sundown [Completed]

12

CHAPTER 12

Three weeks later, there I was panicking about another test. Can you guess the subject? Starts with 'P' and ends with 's' and rhymes with 'hysterics' in which my inner self is. 

"You'll do great, Astrid. Seriously. You've worked so hard." Drake said, as we walked towards school.

"Give me that!" Taylor said as she tried to snatch away the pages in my hands; keyword- tried. I turned away while reading the notes at the same time. "A! Dude stop! You've been studying non-stop this week." she groaned,

"As your tutor, I ask you to stop. It's enough!"

"What if it's not? I don't want to get an almost failing grade again. I don't know anything. I didn't put in any extra efforts." My brain felt jumbled, and I couldn't stop turning pages even if nothing entered my brain. My eyes widened as I suddenly stopped and turned in the opposite direction before walking.

"Where are you going?" Drake asked, his eyebrows probably furrowed in confusion.

"I'm sick. Won't be able to give the test. Need a retest. Convey that to Mr. Parker." I said giving them an excuse to say, walking quickly in the opposite direction of school without turning back. I heard footsteps rushing after me. A soft hand grabbed my wrist and turned me around.

"Oh no no no. You aren't running." Taylor said as she rested her hands on my shoulders. "Astrid White, look at me. You'll do great, even if it is physics. You've worked hard and so has Drake. Have some faith." I looked at her and tried to calm my breath. Drake gently slid the notebook from my hand replacing it with something else. I looked down to see a brown paper bag.

"I made it last night for Ryan, thought you might like one too." He said casually, and my jaw dropped. Ryan was his 12 years old brother who shared my love of nutella; we bonded over it a week ago when we held the session at Drake's house because he couldn't leave Ryan alone. I opened the bag to see two cookies with chocolate chips sticking out of them.

"You bake?" my blue eyed friend asked, clearly as surprised as me.

"Sometimes. She was freaking out yesterday so I thought to get them, just in case."

For some reason, I suddenly felt my heart warm up as I looked at him gratefully. That was so thoughtful of him. I put one of the cookies to my lips and took a bite. Flavour burst and spread in my mouth; it had just the right amount of sweetness and crunchiness. Just the way I liked it.

All the tension eased out relaxing my shoulders that I didn't know were stiff as I bit into the cookies that Drake made himself. It was the best one I had in my entire life, and trust me, I have had many. Drake and Taylor walked with me till the classroom where the test was supposed to take place, and then the latter left for her class. Dylan had joined us when we stopped at our lockers.

"I couldn't be more thankful, Dray." I said sincerely before entering.

Now, you must all think that I must be overreacting; it's just a test. But it was really important to me. What if I wasn't making any progress? What if my scores got even worse? Then Drake would've wasted so much of his time. And midterms were just few weeks later- its result would decide if I had to continue with a tutor or not.

...

"I think that smile tells me everything I need to know." Drake acknowledged with the corners of his lips turned up. I said nothing but kept smiling goofily affirming the fact that the test went better than I expected. It wasn't great and I won't be getting a full score anytime soon, but it was an improvement and I was content.

The rest of the day was good; Drake spent the day with Taylor, Ava, and I. We learnt a few things about him- apparently he used to love sweets and cakes made by his grandmother, and he had learned to bake from her over the summers too. He also let out a fact that I don't think much people knew- he used to be a fat kid in middle school and freshman year (or 9th grade). Not the obese one, but definitely not the scrawny one. Not that anything was wrong with it, but it was surprising because if anyone had to guess, one would think of him as the scrawny kid who happened to gain some muscle over the years. He was lean, unlike the guys, and not all buffed up.