Chapter 42

Just as I said, working made class fly by and for once I had very little homework.

I quickly got all of my things together as the bell rang and tried to catch up to Alice before I lost sight of her.

"Hey,wait! Alice!"

She turned around at the sound of her name being called and almost seemed surprised to see that it was me.

"Alice, glad I caught up to you. What I wanted to say was, thank you. You have no idea how much I wanted out of that."

"It's no problem. I was too ahead of the book anyway to want to suffer through that. If anything I did that for myself."

"Well whatever the reason you still saved my life. Thank you."

She laughed at that.

"I'm Alice. Maybe I'll see you around?"

"Samantha. And yes."

"Well the bell's about to ring. We should get to class."

"Oh, yes. Luckily it's the last one."

She laughed again.

"You have no idea how long I've been waiting for this day to end."

She started heading off to her class and I went to mine.

You and me both.

I had a small smile on my face until I walked into my last class forgetting who I would see there waiting for me.

I immediately locked eyes with Drew as I started waking to my seat, an uneasy feeling overwhelm me thinking about the night before and how we left it off.

I still need to talk to him. I mean, I have an idea what he meant but I just want to know for sure. This isn't something I should take lightly. Not when I'm committed to keeping my promise.

But earlier when I tried to talk to him he put it off like there was nothing to talk about. He even pushed away his feelings. He pushed me away!

I'll ask him later after class.

I got to my seat trying my best not to lock eyes with him again. It was a bit unsettling.

As class started I felt as if eyes were on me. I knew they had to be Drew's. I mean, he probably wanted to talk to me too and explain things. At least, I hope so.

"Today we'll start our group projects."

I looked up at my teacher surprised. Up till now I wasn't paying attention to her or even listening. Now, I was well aware of the situation around me.

"I have already assigned your partners for this project."

I heard some groans in the class.

Personally I was freaking out because it could still go either way. I could still be paired with him and that can be good or bad. I could be paired with someone I don't know and be in an awkward mess.

Good he lets off the whole clingy thing and doesn't mess with me about the others.

Bad, he acts like himself and tries to get me back like he suggested in his texts and bugs me about the others and tries to make me stay with him.

But I still didn't know if that was the real reason with the texts.

The teacher started listing everyone and their partners going through the list of names, one by one.

"Samantha and Andrew."

I looked over at Drew seeing a small smile on his lips and quickly looked back ahead.

"The project will be due next Friday. For today, finish your papers if you haven't already. If that's done then go ahead and start working on your project."

Oh no.

Now what was I supposed to think, or do at that?

I was glad I got a chance to talk to him but I couldn't really now and here. And I don't know what to even say. I didn't really think this far. I was just going to ask him what he really meant. Now I was stuck with him to act that out. I mean, if he meant what I think he did.

Next thing I know he is next to me standing there, his hands in his pockets.

I felt my heart pick up speed a little.

"S-sorry but I'm not done with my paper yet."

Please don't see through my lie!

"No, you're done. You stayed up late for that reason."

Crap. I forgot I told him.

I knew I wouldn't be able to get away from this. I did want to talk to him but now wasn't the time.

I forced out a little laugh and nervously scratched the back of my neck.

"Y-yeah you got me. Fine, let's get started on this."

I was half and half on this. It wasn't exactly a feeling I was up for. Not now anyway. It only made me feel more anxious here with him.

He sat down in front of me with a smile on his face as if he were glad to be my partner. But what for? With Drew there was always an end goal.

He brought out his binder and pulled out a sheet of paper and looked at me expecting a response. He started twirling his pencil around as he stared into my eyes.

"Oh, uh, what is the project again?"

I really was drawing a blank here. I've been so into my thoughts I couldn't really figure out what was going on.

"Sam. Focus. Just relax and focus on me."

"Yeah, right. You want me to do that, don't you?" I said while folding my arms and closing my eyes looking away. "As if."

"You don't have to be an ass about it."

I looked back at him not really expecting that response from him.

"Ha! I made you look!"

I rolled my eyes and got back to the project trying to think on what to do for it.

"Seriously Drew. What is the project. I don't need a failing grade in my stats."

"Fine, fine. We need to compare the feelings in the story so far to our lives and explain that."

"Doesn't seem that hard."

"Really? This book is so abstract that I don't even know where to start."

I held in in a laugh.

"What?"

He could tell I was holding it b in as always.

"Nothing. Just that I thought you understood this thing since your always better than me in class."

"I'm better than you in most classes. This," he pointed to the book, "is impossible."

I was a little surprised at that but knowing he wasn't good at something wanted me to egg him on about it.

"Don't. You. Dare."

He glared at me holding down his paper.

"Fine. I wont. Don't worry I'll help you."

He relaxed and started to open the book as if looking for something.

Then he smiled a smile I knew he got when things went his way.

"I'm glad things are normal with us again. It felt weird earlier."

I froze at his words as he just looking through the book like everything was normal.

I shook the feeling off and went to work ignoring the reminders of last night.

"Yeah. It was off."

And it still is.