Chapter Three: Am I in Love with This

Angela Chase didn't get it. Maybe it was because Brian wasn't been clear enough or he was being too clear. She was in this world that he often looked at, but never got to fully be apart of.

The only time Brian got a taste of Angela's world was when he wrote those letters for Jordan. By lying to her, he made Angela happy and to see her happy made him happy, sort of.

It didn't' numb the pain of knowing that she would never look at him the way she did with Jordan and it was just so frustrating. Before, Brian would just block it out by memorizing some impossible physics equation or free writing in French, but here he was in his favorite class, Calculus II, and all Brian could think was that Angela was just a few doors down.

He wondered what she was doing, if she was tucking her hair behind her ears or maybe she was twisting it around her fingers nervously. What Brian wouldn't do to get a whiff of that hair, its smell … like fresh, authentic virgin apples.

"Brian, could you solve this equation?" Mr. Mullens called his favorite pupil to the board.

"Umm …" Brian's tried to focus back on school. "May I be excused?" He asked, as the teacher nodded, not saying anything as Brian took all of this things with him. Class would end in five minutes anyway and it would be lunch time. Brian would see Angela again, unless she'd skipped school again.

Bobby held Sharon tightly, close to him. That's where she belonged in his mind. When she left that night it really freaked him out and he thought she wouldn't come back. After what had happened, Sharon shouldn't have come back, but she did and Bobby was thrilled.

"I love you." He whispered into her ear as she nodded and smiled uncomfortably, mimicking his words back.

"I love you too."

"Prove it." Bobby demanded playfully.

"I don't want to get in trouble." Sharon muttered back.

"Well, I love you and I'm not afraid to show it. Why are you afraid?"

"I'm not scared Bobby." Sharon rolled her eyes as a yucky taste entered her mouth. "I just don't think we need to broadcast it to the world." She reached for his hand, comfortingly.

"Don't touch me." Bobby yelled sharply, pushing her off.

"Bobby…"

"Look, it's obvious that something's going on with you. You're hiding something from me and I will find out what it is." Bobby scoffed. "If you were smart, you'd tell me before I found out, AND got too mad."

"It's nothing. I'm sorry, okay?" Sharon pleaded, wrapping her arms around his neck and looking at his face, not his eyes, she was too afraid that her eyes might give it all away.

"Good." Bobby kissed her powerfully. "Baby, you're shaking. What's wrong?"

"Just feeling a little weak. I missed A lunch." She lied, kissing Bobby back, lingering just a little.

"You have art third period right?"

"Yeah … so?" Sharon shrugged.

"Mr. Dummier can't stay awake for more than thirty minutes at a time. Sneak out the last part of class and I'll take you to get something to eat."

"I can't. I'm practically failing that class and … I've got cheer practice."

"Fine. Whatever." Bobby rolled his eyes, pushing Sharon off him roughly before marching down the hallways. Sharon took a deep breath. If nothing else, at least that was over with.

Angela couldn't stand being in class. Every minute in there was passed by clock watching and note passing, but since she wasn't really talking to anyone right now, notes were out. And time seemed to stand still, but not in a good way but a totally gut-wrenching dreadful way.

So instead of nodding and pretending to listen like everyone else, Angel had done the smart thing and gotten a pass. She had to endure fifteen minutes of lesson introduction, but this was totally worth it.

Freedom. But now the problem was that she didn't know what to do with it. Yesterday was a complete disaster, and the day before that and so on until it added up to a week and some days. And it was mostly Jordan's fault.

Angela couldn't get him out of her mind. She kept replaying the scene at the club where he caught her watching him. Angela so wished that she could go back there again. The weekend wasn't the same without it, but now that he knew that she was there Angela couldn't just walk in there and watch him, enjoy him like she longed to.

Instead, she watched over to the place where they used to go and sneak kisses. Under the bleachers. Angela pretended to be one of the students in gym class and when no one was looking, she make a break for it, bumping into the bleachers and nearly falling.

She smiled, feeling a sense of adrenaline rush through her body from the realization that she had done it. Angela had gotten away with it and she didn't need delinquents like Rayanne or Jordan to do it. Giggling to herself, Angela found a since spot on the soft patch of dirt. It felt good.

Angela wiped her plaid shirt from her arms and watched the action unfold. It was soccer today. She zoned in to see if she knew anyone out there. No one, which took away from the fun of this, completely. She sighed deeply as the surroundings started to take their toll.

First, she felt a huge sense of joy from this mid-class escape and now she felt regret for the past. The whistle blew, completely shaking her from this fast-approaching funk. Angela decided to focus on the game in front of her, taking notice of one kid with curly blonde hair.

He was kind of good. She smiled to herself watching how he seemed to move so gracefully. The ball slid from the side of his foot, gliding through the slick grass as if it was meant to. Like he was make to do that. She watched with interest, noticing his thin fingers, pale skin, and awkward stance that hid his athletic talent.

A disappointed Angela filed in line with the other gym students, trying to find the star player that had caught her eye, but unable to recognize him although she just spent the last fifty minutes eyeing him.

She shrugged, thinking about what excuse she was going to make for not going back to class ... there was the food poison excuse, fever, or ... period. That was a great one. Whenever a girl mentioned the word, the male species just backed off without another word. It was a real life 'get out of jail free' card.

Smiling to herself, Angela started wringing her hands together. Damn. She had lost her ring. Well, it was some cheesy friendship-type that she had gotten with Rayanne and Ricky, but her finger looked incomplete without it. There was an imprint on her ring finger and everything.

"Hey! Angela!" An eager Brian Krakow yelled enthusiastically as she nearly made it back to the building without being spotted.

"Just my luck." She muttered to herself, typing the plaid shirt around her waist. "Hi."

"Hey." He grinned eagerly. "I take gym class." He explained as Angela nodded.

"Obviously. You're really like sweaty." She noted as Brian started to study the floor. Did she know?

Silence followed as Angela stopped fickling with her shirt and started to think about what class she had next ... what period ... third.

"See you Krakow."

"Wait." He called back, walking alongside with her a sense of accomplishment. Brian was living part of his dream, being side by side with Angela, just the two of them.

"Well, what is it?"

"Umm ... like, my birthday's coming up."

"I know. It's like on the 12th or something like that, right?" She cocked her head to the side and leaned into her hip, posing impatiently.

"The 21st." Brian corrected her. "I am like ... having a big ... celebration and I like wanted to know if--"

"If Danielle will be able to go? Sure." Angela shrugged with a smile. "My parents aren't normally okay with these kinds of things, but they like you Brian. I'll make sure to tell her."

"Actually..." Brian contemplated as to whether to try re-explain everything or not. This was exactly what he had been waiting to gather up the courage to say and do, to totally like get her to go to his party.

That was the whole reason he had convinced his parents to like make it more ... mature and he was going to invite all these people, but if Angela didn't go none of it would matter.

"Are you frozen or just like not here?" Angela asked, waving her hand in front of Brian's face. He was so embarrassed that he almost blushed.

"Actually, you're right on. I want Danielle to be there." He explained as Angela nodded. "And if you want to like ..."

"See you later Brian." Angela ducked out suddenly like a scared little bunny rabbit. It didn't make sense to Brian until he saw Jordan Catalano pass by. He scanned the crowd for Angela Chase, but all that was left of her was the ring he had found on the field on the way back from class.

He sighed, disappointed and then he remembered that he had to hurry and get back to shower before his next class, AP Physics. Gym class was intense today. They had started with soccer this week, a sport that Brian would never admit to secretly loving. To everyone that mattered he was a young, genius brainiac and prodigies got into Oxford, not soccer players.

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