He's a Fanboy?!

He Makes Himself so Obvious

Brayden and I stand at the front of the classroom. He hands me the paper, urging me to read first (rude!). I take it anyway as I clear my voice.

Mr. James stands in the back corner. I think I see his eyes twinkle and I know he expects a lot from me. Confidently I make eye contact with him before reading out loud, "Nat knew it would be wrong to take her with him. Should they be caught, torturous punishment awaited. But he could not stay as well as leave without Alia."

The story was Brayden's idea. Alia was different than everyone else--different from Nat. But they were closer than any two people could ever be.

I pass the paper to Brayden. He steps forward and speaks (with a deep, storytelling voice, I must say), "He had already devised a plan for escape. All he needed was Alia."

Our one-shot was that Nat and Alia fell in love and escaped. As a Natlia shipper, I agreed instantly.

"Did he deserve this, Nat asked himself? Not at all, he knew. But they loved each other like they were two pearls of an oyster. He could not simply leave her here. It would be impossible for the both of them."

I strung the words together like popcorn strings on Christmas. I don't usually have great ideas, but if I do have them then my writing is amazing. Brayden's writing is (supposedly) awful, but he has great ideas. I don't regret writing the story with him.

I can feel Brayden's icy cold fingers on my wrist when he hands the paper back to me. "Yet still it was impossible to stay. They could never be seen together, not even as friends.

"Nat was human. Alia was not."

Nat desperately wanted to escape the imprisonment of his family's mansion. All Alia wanted was to survive. And Nat, of course. They were shockingly different yet exactly the same.

We go on like that, passing the paper back and forth until there are no words left to project.

When we finish, I curtsy mockingly and Brayden bows to our audience. I smile in pride as our audience (Mr. James and our English class) claps loudly for us. Maybe it's all for Brayden (oh, the benefits of being loved by the whole school), but it doesn't matter. I'm proud of our story, even if it is only the first draft.

We look at each other before we move back to our seats and share a laugh before high fiving.

As I take my seat I turn to look at my teacher. "What did you think, Mr. James?"

"I think," he chuckles, "you just broke my scale."

❤️❤❤️️

As I walk to the library after eating as per usual, I find myself wondering whether Brayden will be there or not.

Then I wonder if I care. Do I care? Should I care? It unnerves me that there is suddenly another person to join me after years of the quiet aloneness. But it doesn't seem like anything could go wrong.

I decide not to care, simply because it's easier that way. As long as we stay out of each other's way, everything will be fine, right? We may be partners for the writing assignment, but that doesn't mean our relationship should change. We're simply acquaintances.

I keep telling myself this, that I don't have to worry about some random boy in the library. He's just another human being that shares the love of books with me. I don't know why I'm worrying about it anyway.

I step inside the silent kingdom and plan not to say a word if he's there. He won't care if I don't care.

But then I see him there, nose in Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, and can't help fangirling. I fight to keep my mouth shut.

But my mouth opens without consent. "You make yourself so obvious."

He looks up, eyebrow raised. "Obvious about what?"

"That you're a fanboy. A geek. A nerd. A bibliophile. I mean, Fangirl?"

He shrugs. "I read what's good."

"Fair enough." I sit down and pull a book--Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld--onto the table, but I don't open it quite yet. Something makes me want to continue the conversation. "I loved that book, you know. Rainbow Rowell is amazing."

"Right? It's like she knows what we have to live with. Like--"

"Like she understands." We laugh.

I think about inviting him to the event at the city library. The librarian knows Rainbow Rowell's publisher, so our book club is going to meet her next week. But then he keeps talking and I decide that he probably wouldn't want to go with me anyway.

"Exactly." He runs his hands through his hair. "It's so hard. Nobody understands us. There are people that drive me insane, you know?"

For some reason I want to say, I suppose we understand each other. Instead I say: "Oh, I know. You know that girl Sarah? She said that Divergent was just a copy of The Hunger Games."

"No." His eyes widen like mine did at the end of Allegiant.

"Yes! I wanted to punch her pansycake face!"

"I probably would have if I was there."

I awkwardly laugh, not knowing what to say next. I'm never really that good with one on one conversations. Well, in real life at least.

He doesn't try to strike up any more conversation, so I read. And he reads. We read there, the entire lunch hour, not muttering a word, each locked in our own universe.

-A/N-

lol why do i even write i suck

ok soooo a couple things:

1) Dylan O'Brien or Logan Lerman as Brayden Snow? ;)

2) Who do you picture as Anna?

3) Thanks so much for 362 reads :DD I know it's little but it means a lot to me.

4) I'm going to try to post every Friday WOOHOO

5) I'm just curious, but how did you find my story? Commmmmment :D

aiiighhht that's it thanks guys ilyy. stay tuned bc i have lots of stuff planned ;-)

-Jubelle <4