Jo
"HAVE FUN AT school today." Mum advises me as I reapply my lipgloss in her car. "I'm going to get these batches to your brother. Hopefully, he'll be able to eat most of them."
"Okay." I smile, tossing the lipgloss into my bag and zipping it shut. When I look out the window, I see Amanda and Cass waving at me and beaming with their trays of treats in hand, covered with foil paper.
"I'm sorry I won't be able to attend your bake sale," Mum apologizes for the one thousandth time today. "I'd really love to but it's important I meet up with my agent today. Plus I've got to babysit your brother."
I wave it off with a flick of my hand. "You don't need to worry, mum. It's fine. You did all this." I say, gesturing to the trays in the backseat because I definitely can't bake for shit. "Besides, I've got company already."
She nods, looking out the window like I just did. "I see that. I'm glad you're making more friends."
I roll my eyes and snort before getting out of the car because I know my mum. Give her a minute more and she'll make everything much more sappier than it's supposed to be. I open the door to the backseat and take out the stack of confectionery she made this morning before nudging the door shut with my hip.
"Remember to take less." She reminds me gesturing to the sweets around and I respond with an exaggerated nod. I give her one last wave before heading over to where Cass and Amanda are standing. We're not alone though. There are others like us hanging around the parking lot with treats here and there and by the time we get into the hallway, it's pretty much the same with posters hanging everywhere, advertising the bake sale for this afternoon.
We don't usually have classes on fundraisers and I'd always use that as an opportunity to sleep the whole day at home since I pretty much didn't participate in anything before but since exams are starting next week, the bake sale won't kick off until noon with revision classes taking up the time from 8 till 12.
"I'm super excited," Cass shrieks once we get closer to my locker. "So much sweets."
"Too much of everything is bad." Amanda says, clicking her tongue and I sigh before typing in my combination and forcing my locker open.
"Sucks to be me."
"Don't worry, you'll be fine," Amanda smiles, patting my shoulder while I place the trays into my locker. The first bell rings and we make our way to class and immediately I walk in, Flynn is the first person I spot sitting on his regular seat. He's spinning a pencil between his fingers and his eyes are focused on it but it's obvious he's not himself. His eyes are droopy and dark circles have began to form under them. He doesn't notice us walk in, so he leans forward and drops his head on his table with one arm stretched forward. The hand that's still spinning the pencil.
"He doesn't look too good," Cass whispers in my ear. He definitely doesn't. He's grieving and he has every reason to.
Amanda nudges me with her elbow. "You should go talk to him." She says. "There's an empty seat next to him."
And she's right. There's no one sitting next to him, yet I fumble with the straps of my school bag.
"That's Semia's seat." I say dryly and Cass rolls her eyes.
"I don't see her name on it."
"Neither do I."
I chew on my lip before exhaling and walking down to his table.
"You got this." I hear Cass whisper-cheer immediately I leave them and I sigh deeply before pulling the chair next to him and taking a seat. I'm aware there are people staring and I'm not surprised they are. I expected it. One 'ex' sitting next to the other. At least, that's what they see it as and I'd look too if I wasn't the one involved.
If he notices a presence next to him, I can't tell because he doesn't lift his head from the table but his pen stops spinning between his fingers. I hesitate before I do anything at all but that's probably because I'm thinking too much of what to say.
"I didn't expect to see you here." He says, startling me a little because he still doesn't raise his head.
I drop my bag on the floor and place my elbows on the table. "It could have been anyone else. How'd you know it was me?"
He lifts his head and drops it back on the table. But this time, he rests it on his arm with his face turned sideways so he's staring at me directly. I miss the intensity of his green eyes and I love that it's still the same.
"I can always tell when it's you."
"How?"
"Cos it's you."
I lean forward until I'm assuming the same position as him on the table with my cheek pressed to the surface because I'm positive heat is creeping up on it already.
When last were we this close or have we exchanged more than a few sentences? When I think about it, it seems like a lifetime ago even though it's been almost a week.
"How are you?" I ask silently and genuinely whilst staring at him and he keeps the eye contact for a few seconds before shrugging. That's all he does. He doesn't give me a verbal answer.
Instead, he looks at me and says, "You smell good. You look good too."
"Flynn."
"You always do."
"I know what you're trying to do."
"What?"
I lick my lips and his eyes follow the movement. I lower my voice to whisper. "I was with Ellie two nights ago. She told me."
He's also whispering. "What did she tell you?"
My lips turn into a frown and I touch his cheek with my hand. "Flynn." I call his name again and his lips lift a little.
"What is it, Josephine?"
I lean closer and brush a tear away. "You're crying."
He blinks slowly and then he lifts a finger to his cheek and wipes the trail away. He brings it back to look at it as if he's trying to be sure if he was really tearing up unconsciously or not and when he's confirmed it, he hides his face from me and buries it back.
"I'm sorry," he breathes. "I just need a minute."
Now that I think about it, I'm sure he's been doing a lot of crying recently and it makes me feel like a bad person. I steal a glance at Cass and Amanda at the back of the class and I see them giving me a thumbs up. I'm not sure how to be there for others or how to comfort them but I know the first step in doing that, is just being there.
When I look away from them, the door opens and Semia walks in with her group of cheerleading friends. She sights me immediately and her face takes on an exaggerated shade of red. It's one of two things: Annoyance or Annoyance. Like the popular saying goes, if looks could kill, I'd definitely be six feet under by now and that makes me really uncomfortable so I lift my bag from the ground with an intention to talk to Flynn later before attempting to get to my feet.
I don't succeed because before my butt even leaves the seat, Flynn stretches a hand sideways and grabs one of the legs of my chair. He drags me towards him in one fluid motion until we're close enough that we're touching. And he does all of this with his head still bowed on the table.
It's almost natural for butterflies to swarm my belly whenever he does the smallest things that make my heart bloom and I lean back on the chair, aware that we're being stared at before dropping my bag back on the floor.
"Has it been a minute?" He asks and I don't really get to adequately respond because from the corner of my eye, I see Semia storming towards the back seat while the door opens to reveal Miss Anderson hot footing her way in. I take out the books from my bag and place them on the table before taking out a pen from my pencil holder.
"Apologies for my tardy arrival." She quips while she brings out a book from her bag. Her voice is slightly croaky and she sniffs in as she stares at the whole class. "You have the weather to blame for that. I hope everyone's seen their papers. That should give you a fifty percent average of what to expect at the end of this semester's exam."
Flynn raises his head from the table with his eyes as dry as ever before he slouches further into his seat and stares lazily at her. He attempts to raise his hand but I lean towards him and whisper, 'I have yours.' He turns to look at me and I clear my throat before looking straight at the board so it doesn't look like I'm talking. Plus, the way he's looking at me makes me feel nervous for some reason.
"You weren't in school when she distributed our scripts and then she told me to give you yours because in your words apparently, we're pretty tight."
He makes that sound in his throat that seems like he's about to laugh but then he stops himself when Miss Anderson glances our way and rolls his lips. If she notices anything odd about our sitting position, she doesn't comment on it. Also, it's the most I've seen him do today especially when it comes to him smiling so I cock my brow and shoot him a look.
"You think that's funny?"
"No." He shrugs and gestures a finger between us. There's practically little to no space between our arms. "We seem pretty tight already." He places his arm around the back of my seat. "Don't you agree?"
I look away and place my hands under my cheeks to hide my facial expression. I don't say anything again after that because honestly, I might not be able to say any other thing without making a fuss so I try to focus on the words that fly out of our English Lit teacher's mouth regardless of the fact that the heat from his body is emanating towards me. Towards the end of the class, he zones out and absentmindedly fiddles with the flowery hem of my dress. His thumb grazes my skin a few times but I don't comment on it because whether I admit it to myself or not, I want it.
There's a knock on the door that disrupts the flow of Miss Anderson's teaching and she frowns before heading towards it. She opens the door and goes out and by the time she returns, she fixes her pointed gaze on us.
"Flynn Cauley." She calls and the rest of the class turns to him. He barely moves from his seat. He only raises a brow and then he raises his hand to his eyebrow level.
"You're needed at the principal's office. Right now."
She doesn't entirely shut the door before she steps back into the middle of the class and carries on with her teaching. He takes his arm off my seat and lifts his bag from the floor before dumping his books into it.
I don't hide the frown on my face. "Did you get into trouble?"
"Would you like it if I did?"
I narrow my eyes at him. "Of course not. Why would you say that?"
He smirks a little and points towards the novel under my copy of wuthering heights. "Seems like you have a thing for bad boys and trouble." And then he gets to his feet and heads to the door.
I'm confused for a second before taking out the novel from under Emily Brontë's work and rolling my eyes with a grin. It's titled 'Mr Right likes Trouble.' He's already out of the class by the time I toss the novel into my bag and even though he's not sitting next to me anymore, I feel way lighter than I felt when I first walked into the class.
â
"IF THIS SCHOOL had a billboard that ranked things most talked about today, Flynn and Jo would rank third."
"What would be in first and second place?" Amanda asks with a genuine confusion on her face while I roll my eyes between them.
Cass lifts a finger. "First place; Mr Morris has an engagement ring on his finger with a picture of a woman with a similar engagement ring as his wallpaper. So he's not gay, like we thought he was."
Amanda laughs and shakes her head from side to side. "Were the skinny jeans, sparkly eyeshadow and highlights in his hair a joke?"
"Shocking." I laugh and Cass nods.
"I know. Second place; Today's bake-sale and third, Lakeville High's most adorable couple." She grins while she forms a heart with her fingers. I lift my hand and imitate a saw before sawing through it.
"Your exchange in class was cute," Amanda says. "And the blush on your cheeks says the same thing."
"Choo-choo," Cass vocalizes while making train gestures with her hands. "Is that the sound of a Flo ship sailing?"
I raise an eyebrow that clearly says 'really?' "Flo?"
"Cass," Amanda pinches her nose. "That's the sound of a train."
"There's no ship sailing." I say, happy and relieved that the door to the debate club is right in front of us so I can escape this conversation as quickly as possible.
"Alright. If you say so." Amanda shrugs giving me a knowing look and I narrow my eyes at her even though my face gets hot.
"Don't give me that look." I turn to Cass to see her doing the same thing. "I don't like any of you."
And then I walk faster, leaving them behind while they laugh behind me. I open the door and meet Mel and Khalid engrossed in some kind of video game argument while Austin shyly waves at me before the rest of them come in.
"Alright, I'm going to make this snappy since it's almost time for the bake-sale. Mrs Lendermann is due tomorrow and we're going to have to make out time to visit her at the hospital like I said earlier this week. Any suggestions?"
Khalid pulls himself out of the conversation and shrugs. "We could go with my car. It should take everyone."
"I'm almost through with the hamper so I think we're all good. Except anyone else has something to say." Amanda says, with a good natured smile.
The door opens behind us and when I turn around, I'm definitely not ready for the sight before me.
"Why's everyone staring?" Semia asks before walking in like she owns the place. Her red hair bounces behind her and her cheerleading outfit immediately signifies that she's out of place here. She takes a seat next to Cass and shrugs.
I breathe through my nose and comport myself as much as I can. "We're in the middle of a meeting. How can we help you?"
"Right," Mel snorts. "She's a member now."
I blink once. "I'm sorry. How do I not know about this?"
Mel shrugs with an evil glint in her eyes. "There are signs everywhere inviting students to join the club. She probably saw one and became interested."
"There's a part in the flier that says you'll have to meet the captain first though," Amanda chimes in. "Just saying."
"My bad." Semia shrugs, flipping her hair to the side. She glances round and smiles. "This doesn't exactly seem like a warm welcome."
"Yeah well, it's not everyday we see people barging in at the middle of our meetings, claiming to be new members." Cass says, smiling sweetly.
"Now, now, Cass. Let's not be rude to our guest." Mel tsks leaning forward to smile at Semia. "We're usually seven but Flynn's not here today. I'm sure he'd be happy to see you."
"Can someone tell me what's going on?" Khalid asks, while his eyes dart between both of them.
Am I okay? Of course, I'm not. My mind whirls and then it backtracks to the conversation I had with Cass and Amanda on the night that they were at my house about Semia joining the club because Flynn invited her to. But now that I look at the scene in front of me, I'm positive Mel has a hand in this. She loves to create drama but I'm not going to entertain it.
"We were just talking about how we'll pay a visit to Mrs Lendermann at the hospital tomorrow." Mel chirps and Semia eyebrows jam against each other.
"Who's Mrs Lendermann?"
"You don't know and you joined the club?" Khalid laughs and Mel shoots him an annoyed glare.
"She created this club. Our coordinator." She answers for him.
"Oh, I knew that."
"Sure you did." I say and her eyes revolve to me with a speed that amazes me. "We usually introduce ourselves to the newbie so we're going to do that now. Khalid?"
"I'm Khalid," he says coolly. "And this isn't weird at all."
"Austin." Austin grumbles without looking at her and Mel goes next.
"Melissa Burnes. We're glad to have you here."
Cass snorts and the look on Semia's face clearly expresses her opinion about that. "Cass."
"Your dad's a senator right?" Semia questions, resting her cheek on her palm with a mischievous smile on her face.
Cass is unfazed. "Does that bother you?"
"Nope. I feel like we'll be very good friends."
"I already have good friends. I don't need more."
"You never know, Cassie."
"It's Cass." Amanda corrects with an arched brow.
"Oh," Semia leans back on her chair. "Is that your name as well?"
"Amanda Chabra and yours?" Amanda asks, even though she's fully aware of who she is.
"Semia."
"Josephine Pryce but you know that already." I say, stretching a hand forward. "I'm captain. Welcome to the club. I'm sure you'll have plenty of fun."
She takes my hand and she gives me a sly grin. "I hope so."
"That reminds me," Mel starts as the bell rings continuously for the bake sale to begin. "I have stuff to do tomorrow so I won't be able to make it. Semia, do you think you could go in my place? You're a member after all. Plus, it'd be a good opportunity to meet Mrs Lendermann."
"Sure." She beams and looks at me squarely. "I'd love to."