"Claire! Hey, Claire!"
Claire Standish stopped walking down the hallway when she heard her name and turned around. Her smiled faltered for a moment when she saw Andy Clarke walking towards her.
"Oh, hey, Andy."
He was stood in front of her now, smiling if not slightly shyly as he shifted on his feet.
"How was your day?" he said.
"Fine. Benny went off on one at lunch, but apart from that…yeah, it was fine."
"I heard about that, actually. What happened?"
Claire smiled. "Yeah, it's probably regarded as the most exciting thing that's happened here all month. She just got into some stupid fight with Trisha Paulson."
"Oh. Trisha's cool. She's on the female wrestling team."
"Yeah, I know. I don't think Trisha or her friends are too fond of me or my friends right now."
"But you didn't do anything wrong, did you?"
"I didn't stop the fight."
Andy nodded his head, and Claire smiled back tightly.
"Anyway," Claire continued, "my dad's picking me up today, so I better get going."
"I'll walk you out. I was going that way anyway."
"Oh… sure."
They began to walk towards the front door of the main school building. The hallway was beginning to thin out as various people got the last things out of their lockers and said goodbye to their friends.
"I didn't see you again after Saturday. I mean, after I saw you last," Andy said.
"Yeah, I went home soon after." Claire didn't turn to look at him, her eyes instead focused straight ahead. She was very much aware that his kept darting back to her.
"On your own?"
"Someone walked me back."
"Oh. Good."
There was a long pause before Andy spoke again.
"I'm sorry… about all of that. I was so drunk. It was a bit stupid actually."
"Yeah."
"And I guess I wasn't feeling too good after what happened between us."
"You felt bad?"
"Well, yeah, because you pushed me away."
"Only because you forced your tongue down my throat."
They reached the doors, and Claire pushed herself outside, still refusing to look at him. She instead looked out for her dad's car, praying that for once in his life he would be early.
"I… Okay, I admit that I was a dick. But I'm not like that usually."
"Sure."
"Claire?"
Finally she looked up at him, her eyebrows raised.
"Do you not like me?" he said.
She sighed. "It's not that, Andy… you're a nice guy and all…"
"But you won't go out with me?"
"I don't know."
"Look, I'm not saying this to be mean, but you kind of have a reputation around here for being a bit too precious when it comes to guys."
"There was no way you could have said that without sounding mean."
"Sorry. It's true, though. What is it? Are you gay?"
"For gods sake, why does everyone always assume that? Just because I'm not interested in the guys around here?"
"All I'm saying is that you never know until you try. Why don't we just get to know each other?"
"Andy…"
"Let me take you out for dinner, at least. Friday? I can come pick you up. Just friendly dinner?"
Claire sighed. "Fine. Dinner on Friday."
Andy couldn't contain his grin. "Great. Do you want a lift now? I'm taking a few of the guys home and I think Rog leaves near to you."
"Thanks, but like I said, my dad is picking me up. He's just running late. So I'll see you later," she said, forcing a smile and then turning away from him. Her dad was still nowhere to be seen, but she didn't want to talk to Andy for any longer. She couldn't even believe that she'd agreed to spend an evening with him on Friday.
She began to walk to the side of the building, round the corner towards the teacher's car park. It was almost empty, save for one teacher walking towards their car and a few kids hanging around closer to the grass hills at the back. She glanced over briefly, then walked towards the wall, pressed her back against it and looked up towards the sky.
Today had been weird.