Chapter 5 .

I walk into the kitchen to see my father working on his laptop.

He looks like he has been worried and I notices his sigh of relief when I walked in.

"Where have you been? School has been closed for two hours now." He asks.

"Sorry. I went to Keith's house." I apologize.

"Well is that so? Have you met Vivian?" He asks with a smile.

"Yeah," I say.

"And lunch? There is nothing to eat here right now." He says with a look of apology.

"I'm not hungry. I ate at Keith's." I raise the food for him to see. "Mrs Lautner was kind enough to even pack some for me to take along."

"Wow, that's so nice of her. I will call to say thanks." He says. He has gone back to typing on his laptop.

I wonder what he would do if I hadn't eaten at all. Probably would have continued working on his laptop.

I walk out and climb up the stairs.

"Won't you keep me company?" He calls.

"Can't. I have to do some school stuff." I reply.

"Oh, I almost forgot. How was your first day."

"Really great dad. Really great." I reply and Continue walking.

I enter my room and close the door behind me. I quickly change out of my clothes and open my bag to update my notes. Everyone was so eager to lend me theirs. That was after the lunch drama, of course.

I raise my biology note and a note falls from it. I pick it up and stare at it.

It's not from Hailey's ( the girl whose note I brought home) book, it was definitely not from mine. Someone must have slipped it into my bag.

I opened the note and read through it:

Hi pretty,

Here's my number. 213******** Give me a call, please.

KEVIN.

It's from Kevin. The hot guy who offered me a handshake at the boy's table. He slipped a note into my bag. When and how?

And he called me pretty. I can't help but blush. He thinks I'm pretty? Well, what can I say?

He is kind of cute so I don't mind. And he is so brave.

But I won't give him a call. No, I don't want to appear cheap. If he wants my number, he should ask himself.

*********************

I walk into the almost full class. My classmates smile and wave at me. So different from yesterday.

I quietly take my sit and unzip my bag. I take out Hailey's note and pass it to her, smiling in appreciation.

She smiles back. Because I don't know what to do next, I put my head down on my desk and close my eyes.

So time passes and I'm slowly falling asleep. That's when I heard a tap on my table. I raise my head to see Taylor smiling at me. Her tail of friends are with her, as usual.

"Hi." She smiles at me.

"Hi." I smile back.

"Are you okay?" She sounds worried. "You look kinda dull."

Wait, is Taylor really worrying about my well-being?

"No, I'm fine," I assure her.

She nods.

"Hi." I hear a timid voice.

I turn to see that beautiful snub. The one who asked me if I was Ben's brother, do you remember her now?

She was smiling at me. But she is clearly intimidated by Taylor's presence.

"Yes, Abigail? What do you want?" Taylor snaps at her.

"I-- I just wanted to say hi to Annabelle." She says.

This girl is clearly terrified of Taylor, I mean who isn't?

Abigail, so that's her name. I look at her with pity, but I remember the way she tried to make a fool out of me yesterday, that pity disappears.

"Why?" She says with scorn." Is it because you got to know that Ben was her brother and that Keith is her cousin?"

Wait, what?

"Taylor," I whisper." Keith is not my cousin."

She waves her hand as if I'm the one who doesn't know what she's talking about.

"You are just a mean, conniving bitch. Get out of here, will you?" Taylor snares at her.

Abigail looks like she is gonna cry. I don't want her pretty, well-made-up doll face to get ruined. But I look away as she quietly walks back to her seat.

"Bitch." Taylor says under her breath.

She pushes me gently so that she too sits on my chair. Her friends are hanging around other people's tables.

"Don't mind her. All she wants is to get close to you. She wants to use you." She warns me.

I can't help but nod. This sounds like something Taylor would do, but what do I know? She has been here longer than I have and so she should know everyone better than I.

"Wow." I say." But she looks so innocent." I argue.

Taylor closes her eyes like she is getting impatient with me.

"You know that's why everyone keeps falling for her shit. She looks like an angel but her heart is pure evil." Taylor lectures me.

I nod.

"Don't worry" She reaches for my hand. " I'm here, I will protect you from all the mean kids around."

So sarcastic isn't it?

This great predator wants to guide a prey.

Anyway lunchtime, she insisted that I sit with her.

I wanted to sit at the boys' table so that I could get to look at him.

Keith and the boys keep turning to look at me, as I and Taylor keep talking and laughing.

I know they are wondering what I'm doing with her, I also don't know.

As I walk to the trash to throw away the wrap of my snacks, a hand grips my wrist and I look up in surprise.

It's Keith. He pulls me outside of the hall, but no one notices.

"What are you doing?" He asks.

"What do you mean?" I ask back.

"Why are you sitting with Taylor?"

I know that's what everyone is thinking.

"She asked me to," I answer.

"Really? After the stunt, she pulled yesterday? Do you forget so easily? This girl humiliated you."

He is right. But I think that the fact that the meanest girl in school asked me to sit with her overshadows the fact that she humiliated me just the day before.

"I didn't forget," I tell him. " I have forgiven her. I think it's the school she wants to be friends with me."

He laughs and shakes his head. The way he looks at me with pity tells me he thinks I'm so naive and stupid.

But he says. "Alright. Just be careful." He ruffles my hair and walks back into the hall.

I hold my hair and think. That just brings back some nostalgic feeling. Who does that to me?

Oh, it's Ben. He always ruffles my hair no matter how much I tell him I hate it. I don't realize that a tear is dropping from my eye.

"Are you crying?" I hear a voice.

I look up to see Kevin standing by me. He is throwing glances at the students in the hall.

"What? I'm not crying. Something got into my eye." I lie.

He smiles like he doesn't believe me. He takes one look at the hall and grabs my hand.

"Come on. Lunchtime is over."

"Where are you taking me to?" I ask.

"Somewhere quiet. To talk." He answers.

"How about classes?" I've only been here for two days. I don't want to start getting into trouble with my teachers already.

"Don't worry, they won't even notice." He calms me.

I forget I'm not the one trying to get into trouble. Sneaking away from class with this handsome boy makes me excited.

He takes me to the computer lab. The way he sits around makes me think he has done this before. He feels so comfortable like he knows that no one is going to catch him.

"What's your old school like?" He asks.

"Nothing much. But at least I had friends." I shrug.

"You have friends here too.", He says. "I'm your friend."

I smile at his thoughtfulness.

He grabs a piece of paper and starts cutting it into small pieces. He looks nervous.

"Did you get my note?" He doesn't look at me.

"Oh, I did," I reply.

I didn't picture him to be this shy.

"You never called." He says.

"I figured out if you wanted to hear my voice, you would find my number," I say kind of slow.

I have never spoken to a boy this long and never felt so much like for a boy. I just got to know him yesterday, but it will only be justified to say I have a big crush on him. I'm not sure if I've really crushed on a boy before.

He laughs and looks at me.

"The note was stupid." He rubs his eyes." I should have just asked for it."

I remove my phone from my pocket and hand it to him. He looks surprised and types his number in.

He hands it to me.

"I called my phone. Save my number as Kevin, or whatever you want." He smiles.

I smile back and nod.

------------------

It is closing time and I didn't attend classes much today thanks to Kevin. But I had a great time not having to think about studies once. I quickly entered Keith's car and shut the door. The sun is so hot outside.

Keith looks at me. Before he straps in his seat belt. I do the same.

"Came by your house this morning. You weren't waiting for me." He says.

"Yeah. It was getting late, thought you've left without me. My dad offered to drive me today."

He nods.

"I will be coming to pick you up every day. You just wait for me." He tells me.

"Okay," I say.

"Do you have a phone?" He asks. " Let me give you my number."

Why won't I have a phone? I'm seventeen for God's sake.

I roll my eyes and hand him my phone.

He takes it and begins to type his number.

But why is he taking too long to give it back?

I look at him and notice a small frown on his face.

"Who's Kevin?" He asks.

Wait, is he going through my phone?

"Are you going through my phone?" I ask and reach out for it but he keeps it out of my reach.

"Who is Kevin?" He asks again.

"Kevin from the boys' table. Now give it back." I struggle with him.

He types some more on the phone and then hands it back to me.

Does he know anything about privacy? God!

I scroll through my contacts. And to my dismay, I can't find Kevin's number.

Wait, did he just delete Kevin's number from my phone?

The audacity of it all. What makes him think he can go through my phone talk more of taking people's contact off of it?

This guy is stepping over his boundaries too much.

"What did you do?" I ask him in anger.

I can kill him right now.

"You shouldn't be giving out your numbers to boys." He says starting the car.

"Boys? And what are you?" I ask.

"Don't be ridiculous. The whole school thinks we are cousins. I don't count as the other boys."

"Why would they even think that?" I screw my face. I can't imagine being cousins with someone as annoying as this.

Ben is annoying but this guy, he is way worse.

"Because Ben and I were so close. We weren't brothers so we had to be cousins." He explains.

Keith and Ben? I try to picture them doing everything together. Them being so close for people to think they are cousins.

"Whatever. That doesn't give you the right to take off people's contact from my phone. You are not my cousin." I remember him.

He scoffs and continues to drive.

I'm still pained that he deleted my crush's number from my phone. I hit his arm with my feeble hand and he doesn't even move.

I remember the note he wrote me. I smile. I still have Kevin's number.