It sucked.
Why he felt this way about me still remained a mystery. Yeah, I was a loner and everything. I had no friends. I was quiet. Not to mention the violet shade of my eyes was beyond startling. But I just couldn’t see any of these reasons being the cause behind his dislike for me. Even Kelsey Merritt had never pierced me with such withering looks.
The only reason I could come up with, as to why Alex hated me so much, was that maybe he blamed me for the fact that every time he sat down at our table in astronomy, the electric sensation sparked up. But I still wasn’t even sure if he could feel the electricity.
So where did this leave me? Nowhere basically. For the time being, my brain had taken up temporary residency in the Land of Confusion.
Regardless of my problems, life still moved on. School moved on. Mr. Sterling started pushing more and more for group participation, like he could tell Alex and I were having issues and wanted to force us to work them out with each other. But how was I supposed to work out my issues with Alex when I wasn’t sure what the issues were?
It didn’t matter, though, because Alex wasn’t having any part of it. He refused to work on any of the assignments as a group, crossing his arms like a two-year-old and not doing anything.
It was Friday when things finally took a shift in a different direction. Mr. Sterling had passed out a deck of cards with the constellations printed on them in gold ink. Now, as a group, we were supposed to be holding the cards up for one another and trying to identify them, but doing so would have required all three of us to work together. Instead, Alex had half of the cards and was identifying them to himself. He looked exceptionally good today, dressed in a dark grey Henley and faded jeans, his hair scattered messily just like always. But I was trying my best not to focus on how good he looked. And, let me tell you, it was working out real well for me too, because how good he looked was all I could focus on.
Across the table, Ailsin sat, texting away on her cell phone, her pale pink manicured nails hammering away at the buttons as she disregarded the assignment entirely. Over the last few days, I’d caught on that this blasé attitude seemed to be a trend for her, like she didn’t care at all about her grades.
The rest of the cards were on the table beside my elbow. I’d been doodling an inartistic rose on the cover of my notebook, daydreaming for the last fifteen minutes about what it would be like to be normal, while the electricity flowed lightly across my skin; a continuous reminder that normal was something I’d never be.
It was amazing how unfocused I was today. Normally, I’d have been all over the assignment, probably already halfway through the deck of cards. Lately though, my concentration had taken a drastic turn down Inattentiveness Lane.
Somehow I needed to get my concentration back.
As I added the thorns to the stem of my rose, Mr. Sterling appeared by our table, holding a pink slip of paper in his hand. Startled by his sudden appearance—and the fact that I wasn’t doing what I was supposed to—I dropped my pen. It rolled off the table and landed on the floor as I scrambled to grab a card and pretend I’d been working on the assignment the whole time.
He frowned disapprovingly at me and set the pink slip down on the table in front of Aislin. “This came from the office for you.”
She snapped her cell phone shut and flashed him an innocent smile as she gathered up the slip of paper.
“No more texting,” Mr. Sterling mumbled, adjusting his tie as walked away.
Aislin read the paper over and then announced, “I have to go to the counselor’s office.”
Alex dropped the card he was holding and it floated to the floor like a feather. “What for?” His voice came out loud, his words rushed, causing a few people to shoot curious glances at us. Alex leaned closer to Aislin and lowered his voice. “Why do you have to go?”
“I don’t know.” She shrugged and handed him the slip. “It doesn’t say why. It just says I have to.”
Alex skimmed the paper over, then crumbled it into a ball and tossed it on the floor. It brushed down Nina Monroe’s long, blonde hair during the downfall, and she turned around, her eyebrows furrowed as she ran her fingers through her hair.
Aislin flashed an apologetic look at her and scooped up the crumpled ball of paper from off of the floor. “Jeez Alex,” she said, smoothing out the creases. “You really need to stop freaking out about the tiniest things.”
Alex rolled his eyes. “And you need to stop butting into my business.”
Aislin pointed her finger at him as she got to her feet. “Be nice while I’m gone. I mean it.” She grabbed her phone and trotted down the stairs, the curls of her golden blonde hair swinging across her back.
And just like that, a tension filled bubble formed around Alex and I. Electric sparks danced all over my skin. My heart was like a jackhammer in my chest, feeding my already growing concern of how much more my heart could take before it would explode.
I needed to concentrate on something else.
I plucked a card from the deck and tried to center all of my attention on the gold patterned dots forming the constellation. Right away, I knew it was Andromeda but still flipped the card over to check the answer. Yep, Andromeda printed in bold black letters on the back. I slipped it underneath the bottom of the deck, took another card from the top, and stared at the set of gold dots. This one was a little bit trickier, which was a good thing because figuring out the answer took more of my attention. I could feel my heart rate slowing down and my body gradually relaxing. But then Alex began tapping his pen on the table over and over and over again. I don’t know if he was doing it just because, or if he was attempting to get under my skin.
If it was the latter then it was sure working.
At first, the tapping noise was only mildly annoying. But the movement seemed to be stirring up more and more sparks. My heart began to speed up again. My head started pounding. I massaged my temples with my fingertips, taking a deep breath before I looked up at Alex.
My plan was pretty simple here. I’d give Alex a death stare and hope he would take it as a hint to knock off the tapping. I ran into a bit of a problem, though, because when I looked at him, and our gazes met, my mind blanked out on me. I ended up just staring at him like an idiot gaping at their celebrity crush.
Alex stared back at me with this semi-intrigued, semi-panicked look on his face. What he was finding so intriguing was beyond me? The electricity? Me? Or maybe he found it interesting that he was making me feel the electricity? I’d always assumed it was me causing the electric sensation, but maybe I was wrong.
Over the last couple days, I’d learned three things about Alex. First off, he barely talked to anyone other than his sister. Even when Kelsey Merritt attempted to flirt with him, he ignored her. And as much as I hated to admit it, I liked his lack of interest toward her.
The second thing I’d discovered was that he could feel the electricity too. It hadn’t taken long for that to become clear. Every time the buzzing paid me a visit, Alex showed signs of being bothered by something as well. He’d tense up and lose focus. Aislin had even asked him a couple of times if something was wrong.
And the third and final thing was that he hated me. But you’ve probably already figured that one out on your own. It didn’t take a genius to see that the guy despised me.
Alex and I continued to stare each other down like we were having a staring contest or something. Alex, for some reason, seemed to find it entertaining. The amused smile playing at his lips proved that. Me, I was torn between wanting to slap that amused smile right off of his face and leaning over and pressing my lips against his. Yeah, I know, definitely something I should not be thinking. But like I’ve established before, when it came to Alex, I had very little control over my thoughts.
“Gemma. Alex.”
I blinked and realized Mr. Sterling was standing beside our table, a stern expression on his face.
Just how long had he been standing there?
“Can I speak with you two in the hallway…now?” he asked, but it wasn’t a question that was allowed to be answered with a no.
“Alright,” I muttered at the same time Alex said, “Okay.”
Alex kept his eyes glued on me as he rose to his feet. I stood up too, and we followed Mr. Sterling down the stairs and out into the hallway.
I found the situation very unsettling. The hallway was empty and silent. Mr. Sterling looked irritated. I’d never been in trouble before, but I was getting the impression that this was going to be my first time.
“I was wondering if there was a problem between you two?” Mr. Sterling asked.
I shook my head. “No.” I mean, what was I supposed to say? Yeah there’s a problem. A huge problem. There’s this really strange electric feeling buzzing between us, and despite the fact that he hates me, I can’t seem to hate him back. Yeah, that wouldn’t make me sound crazy at all.
Mr. Sterling stared heavily at us, his attempt, I assumed, to be intimidating. The thing was, he just wasn’t a very intimidating teacher. In fact, he had a rep for being a real softy and letting things slide.
“It just seems like there isn’t a lot of group interaction going on.” Mr. Sterling said, his attention focused solely on me. “Now Gemma, I expected you to be a little more welcoming to Aislin and Alex since they’re new here.”
Shocked, my jaw about dropped. What! Was he kidding? “I-I’m not…I mean I—”
He held his hand up, silencing me. “I don’t want any excuses. What I want is for the three of you to worked together and get along.”
My jaw tightened as the prickle stabbed at the back of my neck. I was pissed. More than pissed. I was downright furious. I burned the hottest glare I’d ever summoned up at Alex. He pressed his lips together to, of all things, hold back a grin. Apparently, my anger was also another thing that entertained him.
I clenched my hands into fists. I’d never been a violent person before, but if Mr. Sterling hadn’t been standing right there, I might have hit him. Well, okay, that was a lie. But in the imaginative part of my brain I would have.
“Now we have a fieldtrip coming up here pretty soon and working in a group is a very big part of it,” Mr. Sterling continued on, oblivious to my outrage. “So I want you two to get to know each other by working on the other assignments as a group.” His gaze wandered back and forth between Alex and me like he was waiting for us to promise we would.
But I was too irritated to make such a promise.
“Alright,” Alex said, his eyes flickering in my direction. “We will.”
I had to hold back an eye roll. What’s this we crap? I wasn’t the one going out of my way to hate someone I barely knew. He’d never even given me a chance, and now I was the one getting the blame.
“Good,” Mr. Sterling said with a pleased smiled. He opened the door to the classroom. “Now I’ll let you two get back to the assignment.”
Grinding my teeth, I stepped back into classroom and made my way back to my table. Kelsey Merritt awarded me with one of her infamous you’re-such-a-loser looks as I passed by her, and then batted her eyelashes at Alex. In spite of how mad I was, I still felt a wave of relief as Alex turned his head away from her.