Completely (Un)expected

When the next day came, tensions were still present between Bob and I, but I was determined not to let them get in the way of my time in Jersey. I refused to let something so trivial ruin my last year of school.

"Hey, Henri," he said as Mikey and I stepped out of the car to meet Bob and Frank in the parking lot before school started. He seemed like he didn’t quite know what to do, whether he should hug me or not, grab for my hand or let me alone, whether to make anything of us being within five feet of each other.

"Hi," I said back much more shyly than I had before. I was already a timid person to begin with, but now add that to the fact that less than twelve hours ago Bob had his lips on mine, and things became slightly more uncomfortable.

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to date Bob, because that wasn’t it, or at least I thought. Yes, I'd dated in the past, but aside from Tommy, I'd never actually had a boyfriend. I wasn’t actually certain about how the whole relationship thing worked and I was even more confused since it was with Bob; someone I'd practically only just met, and was introduced to as a friend no less.

Dating in general was something I mostly stuck away from, but I wasn’t the type of person to shut someone down without having at least talked to them enough to know that I didn’t like them, and I liked Bob. I wasn’t so sure how I liked Bob, but he was alright.

Frank and Mikey either didn’t notice any tension or just didn’t say anything. The air was dense between the four of us though, in reality, nothing had happened. Bob asked me out, what’s the big deal? Oh yeah, and he kissed me, but still.

"Ugh," Mikey complained for the millionth time to me since he'd woken up and the first time to Bob and Frank. "We have that science project due tomorrow. I'm nowhere near done with it."

"Who's your partner?" Bob asked, looking to me for a brief moment afterwards as if to see my reaction to his input into the conversation. I think he was just self-conscious.

"Danielle Skelly," Mikey replied distastefully. From what I'd heard of her so far, Danielle was an air-headed cheerleader and though she had a perfect body and eyes that could kill a man, when it came to what was upstairs, no one was ever home. I'd never met her, but to say that she seemed lost a lot during our history class would be an understatement like you wouldn’t believe.

"Oh, that's rough, man," Bob replied before turning to a rather tuned-out Frank and asking, "What about you?"

"What?" he replied quickly, as if he'd been surprised to have even been addressed. "What did you say?"

"I asked who your partner for the science project was."

"Oh," Frank answered, centering himself slightly to bring himself back into the conversation. I had come to notice that Frank was very good at getting lost in his own little world while we were all talking. He rarely contributed to the conversations we had and when he did, it was minimal. "Marissa Camp."

The talking ended with some uncomfortable head nodding and the ring of the bell. The boys all turned to each other and gave their goodbyes, Frank quicker than the others. He walked off into the sea of high-schoolers, disappearing in an instant, just like every other morning.
"So, I'll see seventh?" a voice from behind me said. "Or during lunch?"

"Yeah," I replied to Bob, quickly shaking Frank's speedy disappearance from my mind, or trying to.

He didn’t really know what to do next, but neither did I. Our classes were in separate directions and this was the part where we had to leave each other and it wouldn’t be the same if it wasn’t uncomfortable. He held out his hand, but quickly decided that this wasn’t a business deal. He went in for a hug, but backed away when I didn’t reciprocate right away, then went back again to embrace me in the most awkward hug of my life. I was never much of a hugger anyway, but with our ridiculousheight, and size difference, hugging Bob was like hugging a bear. A really big bear.

Stature differences aside, Bob and I exchanged our goodbyes until later and I made my way to my first class.

***

I'd always hated gym class; you have to change into a stupid tee shirt and pair of shorts which girls always had to slut up, you had to participate or you'd fail, and the worst part, was that in co-ed gym, you had to get sweaty around the guys. I tried telling myself that it didn’t matter because I had Bob, but a girl can't help being self-conscious.

I was never coordinated to begin with so I generally put minimal effort into gym, and this year would be no different. I didn’t care if I failed the class, I refused to participate in gym class; I was no good at sports, I was slower than a snail, and I couldn’t catch or throw a ball to save my life.

Tee shirt and shorts on, I walked outside with the other girls to the field on the side of the school. There we met up with the boys and were put into teams. We were playing field hockey, something I neither cared for nor was any good at, so I prayed that whatever team I ended up on got to sit out for the day.

"Team one versus team three today," the coach shouted from the middle of the field. Of course it was just my luck to be on team three. I grabbed a hockey stick and did my best to control my urge to hit people with it as I made my way to the far end of the pitch. I would have preferred to be goalie since it required less moving around, but no, I had to be defense. At least I wasn’t on the front lines.

Stick in hand and enthusiasm lacking, I took my position and looked out onto the other end of the field at the other team. He stood out among the others, what with his piercings and red streaks of hair peeking out from under his otherwise jet-black fringe. He looked just about as thrilled as I was, and when his eyes met mine,he quickly looked down.

I hated that things were still timid between me and Frank. I felt weird enough about having kissed him that night as it was, and I didn’t need him constantly avoiding me, so just being around him was never anything enjoyable.

I couldn’t figure out why he was so nervous all the time. I was the one who'd kissed him, so if anyone should have been awkward, it should have been me, and trust me: I was.

Since I'd been in Jersey, and since Frank and I had found out that we'd be going to the same school and just so happened to share the same friends, Frank had been almost avoiding me. He'd barely said more than a few words to me and when he had, they were said looking down at his ratty old sneakers.

I knew that we wouldn’t be best friends right away what with our history, but I also couldn’t understand what else was going on.

All I remembered was a strong blow to my side and blood running down my leg. One moment I was just standing on the field, admittedly not paying much attention, and the next, my teacher was running over to me, and so was Frank. Kids started to circle around me and I felt myself beginning to panic. What happened?, I asked myself as I looked up at my classmates around me then down to my leg which had now become completely covered in blood.

Someone had run into me from the side and, since I wasn’t paying attention, I was taken down and my leg had been scraped up on the dirt beneath me. A boy who looked to be about twice the size of me was kneeling next to me repeating over and over again, "Oh my god. Are you okay? I'm so sorry."

Things were swirling around my head so quickly and so much was going on that I felt on the brim of a panic attack, but I felt instantly calmed when a set of hands grabbed onto my shoulders. I looked up to Frank's hazels eyes staring back into mine, concerned. "Henri," he said to get my mind to focus on something. "We need to take you to the nurse."

Without even really thinking, I nodded to him. He moved away slightly and shifted his hands to hold me behind my back and underneath my knees and suddenly I was off the ground and moving. I looked back to see the kids all shuffling back inside while Frank, accompanied by the gym teacher, took me into the nurse's office.

He set me down on an exam table while my teacher explained what had happened and after a few moments, the pain had started to kick in. I was in too much of a state of shock previously to fully take in the fact that I was in the nurse's office for a reason and that my leg was actually scraped up horrifically. I would probably scar from it.

"Everything is going to be just fine," the bubbly nurse said as she pulled on a pair of gloves.

"Okay," I replied a little skeptically. I was bleeding a lot and wasn’t sure how effective school first aid would be. The nurse pulled out a bottle and some cotton from her box and I feared the worst. "That's not going to sting is it?"

"Not at all, dear." Liar. She soaked the cotton ball in the peroxide and immediately upon contact to my open wound, shots of pain ran through my body. I instinctively grabbed for the nearest thing to me, which happened to be Frank.

I could tell that I startled him, but in the moment I really didn’t care. I needed something to hold onto to distract myself from the pain, and as I buried my face into Frank's chest to avoid having to look and to let out my frustration as the nurse's lie caused me even more discomfort, he just let me.

Thirty minutes, two rolls of sterile bandage, and a phone call to aunt Donna's house later, I was all clear. The nurse told me that it was best to go home and let it heal over the weekend before walking around and disturbing the dressing too much, meaning Bob would have to present our project without me the next day.

I sat in the office waiting for Donna to come and pick me up, and while I waited Frank sat with me. We didn’t talk and I couldn’t stand it, and I knew that this massive awkwardness wouldn’t get better on its own, so I decided to take the matter into my own hands.

"Frank, we've got to talk."

Notes

AHHHH!! Finally, a freaking update. Seriously guys, I am so sorry that I haven't been really consistent with this story. When I started it, I had this whole plan of where to take it, but then when all of my stuff got deleted, I started to rethink the whole plot, and now I'm just not finding a whole lot of time to write. I am completely serious when I say that I am going to try PHENOMINALLY hard to get as much written as I can whenever I have time so that I can always have an update every week. Thank you so much for sticking with this story with all of my sketchy updates, love you all! Mwah!!!