8. Her Smile

The next day just as Kyle promised he did meet me but not at my locker but at my door.

"Hi, ready to go to school?" He smiled brightly.

"Oh, Kyle come in, have you eaten breakfast yet?" Aunt Carrie came up from behind me, smiling at Kyle.

He looked at me and then back at aunt Carrie, "actually, mom made me eat a lot of pancakes and I'm stuffed. But thank you for the invite."

I looked back to aunt Carrie and waved at her to tell her that I was going.

I went over to Kyle's car knowing the guy would never let me walk to school ever again. He followed behind and waved at aunt Carrie before getting in the car.

I got in the car as well and he began to drive.

"Yay, school time." His voice was full of sarcasm as he glanced at me.

After that it was silent in the car and not the silence where you have music playing in the background to keep the silence comfortable. It was the type of silence where you really want to fart and you don't even have the low volume music to drown it out. In other words, it was awkward.

After a whole three years of not talking to each other, we were both a bit uncomfortable around each other.

Kyle kept glancing at me and it became even more awkward. He coughed and I saw the school building approaching and I was grateful for it.

Kyle drove into the school parking lot and parked his car at an empty parking space close to the school building.

I got out of the car followed by Kyle and we began our way inside the school building to our lockers.

Kyle's locker was a bit far from my locker so he waved at me and went to his locker leaving me standing in front of mine.

I opened the metal door and took my books out.

"Hi!" Someone shouted in my ear startling me and I wanted to knock that someone.

I looked to my right to know who shouted in my ear and found Clayton with a wide grin on his face. Allison and Josh were shaking their hands behind a grinning Clayton.

"I'm sorry Hayden for this brute's behavior." Josh slapped Clayton's arm and Clayton pouted while rubbing his arm.

I looked around the three people to see where Claire was. I didn't know why but I wanted her to be here too.

"Okay. I'm back." I heard Kyle say from behind me which caused the three to look behind me with confused looks.

"What're you doing here?" Clayton pointed towards Kyle with his eyes squinted.

"I go here." Kyle answered while slapping away Clayton's finger.

"You're Jordan's friend so you better leave Hayden alone before I make you." Clayton had now gotten in Kyle's face.

"I'd like to see you try." Kyle challenged with a smirk.

I sighed and waited for Josh or Allison to stop the two from fighting, who were trying to make Clayton move away from Kyle.

"I get to school late only once, and a full out war is about to happen without me." We all turned our heads towards the source of the voice.

I felt my heart rate pick up, and I could feel my heart occasionally skip beats while looking at the one and only Claire.

Why does she make me feel this way?

"It was all Kyle's fault, he was bullying Hayden. I was helping out my friend." Clayton gave his side of the story to Claire, to which I rolled my eyes. And that didn't go unnoticed by the grayish-eyed girl.

Claire smirked towards me and then looked at Kyle.

"And what's your version of the explanation?" Claire asked a wide-eyed Kyle who was staring at Clayton, more like glaring at him.

"He's a liar. I wasn't bullying her. We're friends, best friends at that. Why would I bully her?" Kyle frantically pointed towards Clayton and then at me.

"Well you were Jordan's friend." Josh pointed out the obvious.

"Yeah." Clayton backed him up.

"That doesn't prove anything." Kyle crossed his arms and squinted his eyes.

"Whatever. Just don't bully Hayden anymore. She's had enough of the bullying." Claire dismissed the topic and came over to me. She grabbed my arm and then turned to look at the four people glaring at each other.

"Now stop glaring at each other like kindergartners." Claire slapped Josh's and Clayton's arms.

"Ouch. Stop with the abusing already." Clayton complained while soothing his arm.

Claire rolled her eyes and then dragged me towards our first class. The four followed behind slowly.

The moment we got in class, Claire dragged me towards the back seats and everyone else followed behind.

It was as if Claire was royalty followed by her subjects, in any other case it would have been hilarious but right now it wasn't.

"I'm gonna sit next to Hayden." Kyle announced before grabbing my free arm and dragging me towards my seat next to the window.

"Excuse me. Hayden sits with me." Claire argued and grabbed my other arm.

"You're excused, now go sit somewhere else." Kyle smirked and I sat down in my seat.

"Ha-ha. Were you trying to be funny?" Claire glared at the smirking guy.

"No but I guess I just have it natural for me." Kyle kept smirking and Clayton snickered behind Claire, which didn't go unnoticed by the girl.

"Whose side are you on?" Claire calmly asked Clayton who got wide eyed.

"Of course, yours, Claire." Clayton answered Claire in a shaky tone of voice.

Claire smirked at Clayton's shaky voice and then looked back at Kyle who had sat in the seat next to mine already.

Claire stared wide eyed at a smirking Kyle, "Cheater. Get out of my seat!"

Kyle looked at Claire and laughed sarcastically.

"Your seat? Does it have your name on it?" Kyle questioned still with a smirk pasted on his face.

Claire didn't answer so Kyle continued.

"No, it doesn't. So why don't you run along and go sit next to snotty Sam over there. I heard he has a huge crush on you." Kyle pointed over to the guy who sat at the end of the class in the corner.

His name was Samuel but because his nose was always runny, for God knows what reason, he had been called snotty Sam.

We all had looked over at him and I could see the way Claire cringed in disgust. Clayton and Josh managed to laugh aloud and Allison had her hand over her mouth, maybe to stop herself from laughing like Clayton and Josh.

Claire was on the verge of losing self-control and I couldn't see her getting teased any longer so I just did the next best thing possible.

I got my phone out my jeans' pocket and typed a text.

'Get out of her seat. Go sit behind me or something but don't sit on her seat.'

And sent. I waited awhile for the text to be received by the dumb head.

A beep stopped Kyle from everything else and he reached in his jacket pocket to get his phone out.

He looked at his phone, and for a minute there was confusion, then it became happiness and lastly amusement.

He looked up from his screen to me and smiled amusedly then slowly got out of the seat.

The laughing Clayton and Josh, the trying not to laugh Allison, and the glaring Claire; all stopped whatever they were doing when they saw Kyle get up from the seat.

There was surprise and confusion on their faces.

"Go ahead. Sit down." Kyle smiled genuinely at Claire and she squinted her eyes at his sudden niceness, if that's even a word.

But nonetheless she did sit down and everyone else did too. Kyle sat behind me and he leaned in to whisper in my ear.

The teacher had arrived and everyone had their attention at the front of the class but I had my attention drifting away from the class and the teacher.

'She's a keeper. Don't drive her away too, she won't come back.'

His words were circling in my head and I didn't know what to think of them. If I were to shut her out, would she ever try to get back in?

Would she try for me?

I glanced over at Claire who had all of her attention at the teacher with her pencil in between her lips with her eyebrows connected in concentration.

I kept staring at her as if I could get an answer from just looking at her.

After a while, as if feeling someone staring at her, she looked beside her, at me and smiled cutely.

With her eyes closing halfway and her cheeks turning a reddish color maybe because of embarrassment. Her smile was the same as an unanswered question.

Her smile was the answer.

I didn't know how deep I was before but now I was quite sure of my position. I was still falling in an endless hole as if it didn't have a bottom.

And if I were to keep falling, I knew It would hurt in the end. And not just a bump on the head but a full out bang, was for sure.

But I also found the answer to my previous question too. Would she ever try for me?

'Would I ever try for her?' Was the correct question. Would I?

"Why are you staring at me?" A whisper came from Claire and she still had her cheeks tinted.

I turned to look at the board and she puffed air in her cheeks at my ignorance.

"Fine. Be that way." She whispered again and I had the urge to smile.

I had the urge to smile.

I looked over at her again and this time with a slight twitching at the ends of my lips.

She was glaring at the board and had her arms crossed.

I took a small piece of paper and wrote on it before sliding it on Claire's desk.

She, at first ignored it, but then glanced at the paper and then unfolded it.

Her eyes were wide and her cheeks got red, but after a moment of looking at the paper, her eyes softened and she smiled at it.

"So, you love my smile?" She whispered in my ear again and I nodded slowly.

She leaned back from me and when I glanced at her again, I saw her smile.

'It doesn't matter if she tries or not. I'll try for her.'

We never love but once. That is the first time we love.

-Anonymous