AN: Hey readers, this is another chapter for you. I want to finish this story fast so that I can write another one. Hope you enjoy reading it.
Chapter 7: New Feelings
The sophomore year started after the long summer vacation. Everything seemed fresh and new. I hadn't talked to Reid for weeks now. I was really looking forward to see him again. A strange fear was working within me though. I feared that Reid might not stay the same as previous year. I feared that he had forgotten all about me and forgot about our friendship during the time we spent away from each other. I feared that in the new school year he'd move on and leave me behind. But I was his friend, right? You can dump your girlfriends, not your friends right? I'd reason with myself. Still I feared a lot of things.
The first day of the semester, everyone was catching up with each other. I was no exception. I was chatting away with Jessica and Michael. They were telling me about how their summer was. The classes would start within fifteen minutes. My eyes were flickering towards the doors every now and then. I was expecting a certain blonde to walk in through the doors. When only five minutes were left for the first class to begin and we were finally preparing to head to our destined classrooms, Reid gracefully walked inside the cafeteria.
I had no idea how it happened but Reid looked very different. He no longer seemed like an immature kid but rather a masculine young adult. Somehow he has earned a well built up body. His already angelic features developed and gave him a devilish handsome look. Any girl would go crazy for him now. Not that they weren't crazy about him already. But I was surprised when I found myself unable to look away from him. The other girls were of course ogling him as expected. Their eyes were inviting and their gestures were seductive. They not only roamed their eyes all over his body but didn't even hesitate to make it obvious. Not to mention the way they were batting their eyelashes at him. I shouldn't say this but I felt a little jealous. Okay scratch that, I felt like my blood was boiling in my veins. But I was careful not to show my emotions on my face.
I tried my best to shake off that unwanted feeling but it only increased when a girl ran into him, pretending it to be an accident when it was completely intentional. She was about to fall down on the floor but Reid quickly caught her and saved her from falling. I saw how his strong arms wrapped around the girl's waist. I noticed how he checked out the girl in his arms. His eyes lingered on her cleavage particularly. The girl blushed when she noticed his interest. Certainly feeling pleased about it. She even thanked him for saving her by kissing his cheek lightly. Though the kiss was too close to the lips. I on the other hand couldn't help but glare at them as they acted like love birds.
The girl walked away from Reid after a thank you and an inviting smile. Only then he looked at me. I should've smiled at him but I didn't. I couldn't explain my own behavior to myself but I looked away from him instead. And I was so willing to meet him just a while ago. I didn't know what got into me. Reid on the other hand, made his way over to me but I walked away from there before he could reach me. I couldn't make it far though before Reid caught up with me easily.
"Hey Rayna! Wait! What happened to you? Aren't you going to say hi to me at least?" He looked serious for a moment. I avoided looking at him and replied with a casual tone.
"You were busy checking out girls, so I thought not to bother you with my presence." I said the last part with over enthusiastic saccharine voice. Then after throwing a glare at him, I started walking again. Though I immediately regretted glaring at Reid so openly. I was supposed to keep my confusing feelings to myself. My behavior just exposed it to Reid and he didn't hesitate to tease me about it.
"Hmm… something is burning" said Reid as he smirked wickedly at me. Was something really burning? I couldn't deny it but why? I stopped suddenly and looked back at Reid who was walking just beside me. He also looked at me with both of his eyebrows raised in a questioning manner. Suddenly I started to feel nervous under his gaze. I opened my mouth to say something but nothing came out.
"What?" Reid asked curiously.
"I don't know. Please don't follow me right now. I'll catch up with you later." I didn't wait for him neither let him say anything. I felt his eyes on me though for as long as I was within his sight.
I avoided Reid the entire day. He looked at me now and then but didn't come over to me. The other sons of Ipswich shared confused looks among themselves. Caleb even suspected that Reid must've done something bad with me and often gave him accusatory looks throughout the day.
I spent the lunch time with Troy, Angela and Jessica. Though I appeared normal outside but inwardly I was frustratingly confused about what I felt in the morning. I desperately needed to have some alone time with myself; in order to figure out my own feelings. After the classes ended for the day, I went straight to my dorm and shut the door behind me. What was happening to me? Why did it hurt to see Reid with another girl? I was his friend. I wasn't supposed to feel like that. After arguing with myself for a long time, I was finally able to convince myself that it was nothing. Reid was my friend and nothing else. I didn't need some stupid romantic feelings to jeopardize the friendship between us. It'd certainly make things unnecessarily complicated in my life.
The following day in the morning, I was normal again. I talked to Reid as if I wasn't avoiding him like plague yesterday. For that I received weird looks from him, but he didn't say anything about my behavior which I was thankful about. I ate lunch with him, and the boys. Kate and Melody were constantly gossiping about their summer vacation.
"I heard Kira talking to her friends. Aaron thinks the new girl this year is really hot and thinking about asking her out. Kira looked infuriated." Kate informed us about that with serious interest. I didn't know that a new girl came to Spenser this year. But apparently everyone else knew about it.
"She didn't look that attractive to me" said Tyler as he wrapped his arm around Melody. However, Reid scoffed at him.
"Are you kidding me? You're just scared to confess that in front of your girl. That new girl is super sexy if you ask me. Haven't you seen the curves of her body and the way she dresses? Look there she comes." Everyone looked at the cafeteria doorway including me.
A girl walked in with bunch of other girls. She had shoulder length red hair and green eyes. Her body was extremely curvy. I could be wrong but it seemed unnatural to me; like some surgery was done on her. She did awful things with her school uniform to reveal more skin. Her face was also caked with makeups. I wasn't surprised that she caught Reid's eyes. He always preferred girls like her. In all honesty, I could have never gotten his attention by showing off my curves. Not that I wanted to or anything. I'd never do such things. But the point was, Reid would've never got interested in me because of my body. I got curves but not that much to attract someone like Reid. I never complained though; about my body I mean. I've always wanted to look beautiful but not sexy or hot. But as I saw Reid's eyes traveling up and down the new girl's sexy body, I couldn't help but wish that I had more curves than I possessed. Now why I suddenly wished for something like that was out of my own understanding?
I looked away from the girl but Reid kept gawking at her. My eyes suddenly met with Caleb's and I started to feel really insecure about my thoughts. He had a knowing look on his face. As if he knew exactly what I was thinking. He couldn't know what was bothering me, could he? I didn't know but I cleared my head from all the thoughts involving Reid and engaged myself in a conversation with Melody about something else entirely.
Melody was extremely pleased that Tyler wasn't giving the new girl any attention. And I secretly wished that Reid had done the same. Yet again I got confused about my own thoughts and feelings. Why the hell did I care if Reid was looking at some hot chick? He has done it before, but it didn't bother me then. So why was it bothering me now? I shouldn't care about it but the fact was I did care. And it was driving me crazy.
For the next couple of days everything was going on smoothly except for the inner struggles I was having with my own feelings and thoughts. It was a Tuesday evening and I was doing my part time job in the grocery store that I found myself last year. Usually I worked at the counter and handled the cash. I got my monthly allowance by working there. I was giving changes to a customer when Reid walked through the door. He quickly spotted me and came over to me.
"What are you doing here?" I asked him with a wondering tone of voice. He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly at me.
"Just came to check up on you. When are you getting off?" He asked.
"After half an hour." I replied shortly as another customer came with a loaded cart. She was an old lady and a regular customer of the store. I knew her and she knew me as well.
"Hello Maria, how are you today?" I asked her like always and she smiled at me warmly.
"Just the same. Getting older every day." She let out a small chuckle saying that. Her eyes went over to Reid.
"Who is this? Your boyfriend?" I prevented the blush from showing.
"No, he's just a friend. We go to Spenser together." I replied quickly and felt Reid's eyes on me which made me a bit uncomfortable. I looked back at him and saw his eyes got intense for some unknown reasons. It was really unnerving.
"I'll wait for you outside." He said and started to walk away.
"Reid!" I called him back. He stopped in his track and looked back at me.
"You don't have to wait up for me." I didn't know why Reid was suddenly so interested about escorting me back to the dorms. It was in a walking distance anyway. Reid however shook his head in response.
"I want to." And saying that he walked away from there before I could say anything else to him. I looked back at Maria who had a smile on her lips and a knowing look on her face.
"What are you thinking?" I asked curiously but tried not to sound too interested while I checked in the stuffs.
"You know my hair didn't turn white because of the air. I've lived long enough to see things. That boy is in love with you." She stated, so sure of herself but I shook my head.
"You wouldn't be saying that if you knew him." Her face was calm but her eyes were brightly shining.
"You will find out soon, dear."
