Chapter 18.


    <strong>Chapter 18. Midterms (3/7)</strong>


    <span style="font-weight:400">When I leaned back she mimicked me. The two of usid side by side with our backs to the ground.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Several minutes passed by in silence where neither of us said anything.


    <span style="font-weight:400">I was the first to break the serene moment where a single boy and girlid atop the school roof side by side.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“So, what exactly happened? Why weren’t you listed on the rankings for the midterms? When I saw you studying with Jass I thought you’d be fine and figured you didn’t need my help after all. But then you got called to Mr. Oz’s office for something. Is it my fault? The scrap paper I tossed over to you… did they catch you cheating and invalidate all your midterm scores with the reason of academic dishonesty because I did something unnecessary?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">I asked everything that had been on my mind all in one go.


    <span style="font-weight:400">She didn''t respond immediately. It took a bit before she opened her mouth.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Honestly… I don’t know what happened.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Huh? What do you mean you don’t know what happened?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“My mind is a bit of a mess. I don’t understand what’s wrong with me.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Please borate. When did this start?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“The start of it… probably the very first half day you missed.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What do you mean?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“That day when you got up to leave for the first time during lunch I was a bit surprised but I didn’t immediately think too much about it. I thought you were just going to the washroom to take a leak or something and you’d be right back. But then… you didn’t return. You disappeared like nothing without a single word. I was a bit confused I guess.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Then?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“The next day you didn’t appear at all. I felt a bit lost. My eyes darted about the ss trying to pin your figure down. But you were nowhere to be found. It was a sick day. He must have just gotten sick and left early the day before and hadn’t gotten better yet. I thought that had to be the reason for your abrupt leave.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Over that weekend… I guess... I was thinking about you. I was looking forward to Monday when I''ll see you next. I’d get even with you for taking up free lodging in my mind. That was what I thought.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Monday, you still didn’t appear. I felt an unpleasant sense of emptiness encroach upon me. A bunch of guys always surrounded me, but they weren’t you.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Tuesday came and went and you still weren’t there, I began to lose hope I’d ever see you again.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Wednesday the world around me started to appear monochrome, it was bleak and dreary.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Thursday it felt like there was rain constantly pouring down and battering my heart.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“By Friday there was nothing left. Dazed, I was asked to meet someone behind the school. They confessed to me and asked me to go out with them. I listlessly agreed to their request for a date. I nned to use the opportunity to forget everything.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Wow, that guy really confessed.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“On Saturday I went on a date with them. It looked like they had fun. What was fun like, I already couldn’t remember.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Sunday the guy I went on a date with called me up suggesting we could do somest-minute study sessions for the midterms together. I agreed to it. We met up and studied for the midterm on Monday. But anything he tried to teach me I couldn’t really remember. I just wasn’t interested. I nkly nodded along like I understood what he was talking about, but nothing ever stuck.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“When Monday came and you finally walked in, I thought I’d feel happy, but it wasn’t happiness I felt at all. It was confusion. Pure confusion. I nked out. In the middle of the midterm, a folded-up piece of papernded on my desk. I read the message on it. The single word at the end stuck in my mind, ‘sorry.’ Everything after that turned to white. I ended up unable to answer a single question that day. My hand wouldn’t move to write.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I studied with that guy again for the midterm set for Tuesday as well. The same thing happened. On Tuesday I was still hung on the word in the note you left for me. I don’t even know why.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Every day I studied with that guy for the next midterm but nothing ever changed.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Wednesday I ended up reying thest two months in my head.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Thursday I tried to figure things out.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Friday, I finally realized something. I’d never been staring at you because of something like love. I’d only been staring at you for selfish reasons and I’d done nothing but inconvenience you for my own fun. I thought about having a normal romance with a guy who fit a certain set of criteria just for the sake of having a normal romance. It’dst until the end of high school before we’d go our separate ways and never see each other again. It was a rather selfish thought of mine. Because of how nonchnt you were and immune to love you seemed to be, I thought it’d be fine if it was you. That was my reason in the beginning.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I ended up rushing in head first, forcing things along recklessly. I wanted to speed things up but I got needlessly impatient at some point and pushed you to the point where you took arge step back and created a rift between us.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“During the weekend that followed I tried to think about a way I could fix things but I couldn’t think of anything much.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“When Monday came I was called to Mr. Oz’s office as you already know. I’d gotten a zero on every midterm because I couldn’t so much as lift my pencil to write let alone think. Everything from the week of the midterm was nk in my mind. I just told them I’d been feeling sick the week before and they epted it without any questions asked. They even thought I might have caught something from you since you’d been out sick for a week and I sat close to you. They n to let me retake the midterms next week.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“So… honestly… I could really use your help right now.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Well, I don’t really mind, but is that all you want for all the trouble you apparently went through because of me? I mean you’d surely be thinking of getting even with me, right?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Your help is enough.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I see. Well, I’m d you’re asking for my help. I can at least make it up to you a bit. I’m also d that I got to hear your real thoughts. This makes things easier.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Makes what easier?” I could see her turn her head toward me from the corner of my eye.


    <span style="font-weight:400">I took out my phone held it up in front of me and opened up my contact list. I edited her contact details and changed the contact name.


    <span style="font-weight:400">I then turned my head to face her. Looking her in the eyes while turning my phone toward her I asked with a slight smile, “Would you be my girlfriend?” Before she could process what I’d asked her or what I’d shown her on my phone and respond to me, I raised my right hand, ced it on her left cheek, and leaned in closer to her. Closing my eyes, our lips came into contact.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Her lips were warm and moist. I tasted something rather sweet. Something I hadn’t tasted before. I couldn’t help but think it was a taste of youth. Something you could only experience when you were young and in love.


    <span style="font-weight:400">If you were too slow to act, it would be a taste you’d never be able to try.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Disyed on my contact list in front of her she was number one in the list of one. Her name was now listed as ‘???MY GIRLFRIEND???’.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Truly, it was quite the embarrassing name.


    <span style="font-weight:400">When I pulled my head back thinking to stop she moved forward and kept us connected as if afraid I’d disappear on her again.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Even without her saying it her action was enough of a confession. She’d reciprocated. Her hand slid up across my chest and she meekly hooked it around the back of my neck. Her nails dug into me a bit, but it didn’t bother me too much.


    <span style="font-weight:400">The bell suddenly rang signaling the end of lunch. When it did we snapped out of our trance. But she seemed a bit reluctant.