Astrid recognized him. Though, they hardly associated much, they did share a couple classes. That infamous 'gimpy kid', as the other guys called him. His reputation is rather widespread, however she never actually held a personal vendetta against his character and, truthfully, sometimes she vaguely wondered just why their peers judged him so harshly.
She touched her chest, resting a hand over her thumping heart and breathed in. "Don't surprise me like that!" she whined, letting out a shaky chuckle from behind the scarf that adorned her neck.
Because for that split moment she thought Harold was a teacher. And at this proximity, given by the faint scent of her last cigarette, the discarded butt left on the grass, he doesn't have to guess twice why she is out here. It really would had been bad if she was caught by school staff.
"I don't mind," she answered him calmly -- probably a bit more friendly than what he is used to -- smiling a little at the boy's confusion as she squatted down neatly with her knees together and picked up her phone and examined it, relieved to find that it wasn't broken.
Seriously, the cold is the least of her worries.
She rose upright again then placed her hands behind her back and tilted her head, turning the question back at him. "...Um. Ha... Harold, was it? This is the first time I've seen you here. What are you doing out here?"
She knows my name! That is actually slightly better than her not knowing I exist whatsoever! Slightly.
"As for why I'm here--out here--I, uh--" Was running from a meathead that wanted to cave his face in that he didn't stand a chance against because he was a wimp? "You know, fresh air. It's...it's--" He searched for a word. "--bracing. You know, the halls get a little stuffy sometimes, and...it's perfectly reasonable to come outside in twenty degree weather in the dead of winter, right?"
There was a momentary pause, where his lips were pressed together in a thin line, and the he just looked sheepish. There was something in the look like...like he couldn't really lie to her for long, but why was that? When they barely knew each other?
"Actually, it isn't, it's more I was, uh, avoiding a direct confrontation with Zach Peterson's fists. He's too dumb to look outside, so going out the door makes me elusive and crafty and he'll probably wonder for the entire day how I disappeared, before deciding I'm magic and that it's one life's great mysteries."
He pushed a hand through his hair, recently cut nearly down to the scalp.
For a moment she just gave him an oblivious blink. And when it occurred that he could be picking on her, Astrid frowned almost in a pout, a cross expression flashed over her face before she was smiling softly again, appearing amused by the sarcasm. "Yes, it is freezing, though..."
She shrugged, positioning to lean back on the wall, head raising and gazed up at the sky. "I'm probably just weird, but cold weather doesn't really bother me. It's not so bad compared to--"
Compared...
Compared to... to... what?
Astrid's brows furrowed at the clouds as she lost her train of thought. Strange. She knew what she was going to say a second ago.
Shifting awkwardly against the wall, she shrugged it off, taking out her cigarette carton and nonchalantly popping another stick between her lips and holding it there with her teeth as she dug around for her lighter. "...Anyway, you were right to run away."
"You made the right choice. And who cares if you'll be called a coward for it." Lighting up her cigarette and blowing out a smoke, her eyes dully stared off and her demeanor seemed to take a complete apathetic change. "Better a coward than irrational, I say..."
Not that bad compared to... snow so thick the roofs creaked and the air practically froze in your throat. If you could get the door open, you could hear crisp crackling noises all over as the snow settled...
No, he'd never known a place like that, had he?
"Yeah, uh, better a coward than guy with a broken nose, I guess."
There was a disheartened look at that, at admitting he was a coward, at her saying the word first, and then a brief moment of awkward silence as he cast about for something to talk about.
He'd liked Astrid pretty much ever since he started school here. She was older, cooler, pretty, but more than that, she just had this...
There was something about her like she was perfectly at ease with the world. Nothing awkward, nothing...like he was.
She was just...cool. There was just something about her. Something...
It wasn't like he had any weird idealized ideas about who he thought she was, it was more that he he just...wanted to find out more, and knew he'd never be in a position to. They'd only had a few classes together, and whole they'd spoken a few times and even done a group project together (during which, he'd been so quiet it was not really any surprise she had to dig a little for his name), he'd never really...tried to talk to her. Just talk. Usually, he'd been too scared to.
Maybe this was his chance. Maybe this was his only chance.
"Cigarettes are bad for you." Great, way to sound like a total dork.
"I mean, you could get in trouble." And a goodie goodie.
"Wow, I'm sounding like a narc here--I just mean Vice Principal Goodey peeks out here in between classes sometimes. It's not really the best place to smoke. The other doors usually--I haven't really seen her peek around those because they're farther from the Main Office."
There was an aimless shrug to show that he was trying more to be helpful in preventing her from getting caught than anything.
"Although, cigarettes, you know--I always find it a shame when a really pretty girl smokes because it means if they don't stop, then by the time they're forty, they're probably going to look like one of the ladies that works at the Moonrow Diner--side of mountain for a face, yellow teeth, emphysema..." Wow, he was straying into being offensive, wasn't he. Go him. He just won at talking to girls forever.
"I just mean..." He sighed, now frustrated that, as always, he could never, ever say anything right. "I've seen you around and all. You're pretty and a pretty cool girl--you don't really have to do something like smoke, because it'd be hard for you to be any cooler than you are, anyway."
Okay, that raised her eyebrows and she silently stared at him incredulously. Was he complimenting and indirectly insulting her at the same time? If she was offended or annoyed, he couldn't tell. There wasn't a trace of it on her face. But maybe her teeth did absent-mindedly grind on the butt of her cigarette.
Saying such things. What gave this lower class man that right after barging in on her time and... ...Easy. He's just concerned.
"I--I am aware of that," she stammered indignantly, then sullenly eyed down at the cig, fiddling with it between her fore finger and thumb, feeling a sudden rush of shame. Of course it was shameful, she knew that. She... knew that.
"...I don't plan on keeping this habit forever. I do want to quit. Eventually. And, really, I tried to. Once. It just..." Makes everything feel a tiny bit better? Keeps me sane?
There was another pause from her... but then it was probably unexpected when she turned to face Harold, stepping closer to him and lowered her head, looking up at him pitifully and also a bit guilty, albeit a bit pleadingly. "That means--this means you won't... You won't tell, right?"
Just how much of a big mouth goodie goodie are you, Harold?
A pause. Waaait a second... There was opportunity here.
"Of course, if I did tell, I might get some brownie points with the Vice Principal so maybe they'd get off my back a little and stop thinking I'm a troublemaker all the time. All they'd have to do is make you empty your purse or go through your locker, probably..."
He tapped his chin, breath frosting in the air.
"Actually, I'm trying to think of reasons why I shouldn't."
He glanced up at the sky, thoughtfully, then directed a sly glance over at her.
Stunned, she nearly gawked at his opportunist reply, closing and opening her mouth then settled on frowning at him dejectedly. He's good.
She tilted her head to the side, holding her chin and thought really hard. "Rgh..."
Heeey.
Astrid fixed her eyes back at him and beamed, faintly giggling behind her fist. "Ooh I get it. A bribe, huh? I admit, your words were admirable, but I'm onto you!"
Not taking her gaze off of the boy, her hand found its way on her chest and moving aside the bit of scarf and piece of fabric of her collar, her smile shifted into a wry grin. "This is what you are really after, right--"
Ah there it is. She fished out a second pack and waved it at him.
"You want me to fork over my share. You're still too young to buy your own, so you need mine, right? You seem like you need one. I totally understand."
A blink as she noticed something with the pack. "...huh. It's empty. I thought I hadn't used these yet... t'ch. My reserves..." Astrid rubbed the back of her head and grinned sheepishly. "W-Well, this is embarrassing. --Oh!"
She plucked the cigarette she was currently working on from her lips, glancing back and forth between it and Harold... until she resigned, offering it out.
"I guess there's no helping it. You can manage with this one, can you? S-Sorry, I got some of my lipstick on it..."
Okay, so he'd only said that to seem kind of maybe a little bad, and actually hadn't been sure what to ask for a bribe. A kiss? Too forward. A chance to hang out? Like she'd even want to. A date? Not likely.
So when he saw the smoke drifting over her lips as she plucked the cigarette out of her mouth and held it out to him, he just decided to roll with it. It was a chance to look cool, right? A chance to be all smooth and cool?
"...Yeah. Yeah, that totally works."
Taking the cigarette from her, and surreptitiously eying the lipstick smudged on it, he held it up to his mouth, leaned back against the wall all casual like, and took in a long drag. All the while, he was trying ignore how acutely aware he was of the fact that something that had touched her lips was now touching his--that was a weird thing to fixate on, right?
Immediately, he wondered why anyone liked cigarettes at all, because it didn't even taste good. It tasted like hot, minty ash. Smoke drifted out of his mouth over his lips like it had drifted over hers and then--
Then he doubled over and started into a terrible coughing fit. And he couldn't stop. Then he started laughing in between coughs. He couldn't stop that, either.
"Okay," he managed to squeeze out when he could, holding the cigarette back out to her. "So much for--" Coughing "--Operation: Impress the Hot, Older Chick." More coughing. "I look stupid."
Astrid stifled laughter, retrieving the cigarette with the other. "Y..you're not gonna die, are you? I'm so sorry, I kind of pressured you there, didn't I."
Geez, by the way he was acting, she thought he was cut out for it.
"Oh, c'mon. I'm not that old," she chuckled meekly, scratching her cheek with a bent index. "If only I were older and wiser. Then I'd definitely have less trouble on my science exams. Maybe."
A chance to hang out is more likely than you think.
Harold kept coughing until he could almost breathe again.
"You need help in Chemistry? I'm acing it right now."
A few more coughs.
"And it wouldn't even be boring, because at some point I'd embarrass myself and you could laugh at my expense. Tutoring and entertainment, all in one. I'm multi-talented."
She considered this carefully. It was a nice gesture-- though why the sudden interest of helping her? Could he have some kind of ulterior motive? But what would Harold gain from that? Granted Astrid wasn't a part of his... crowd and, perhaps, she knew a few people that turned their noses up at him or cleverly mocked his misfortune, but hopefully he realizes taking it out on her wouldn't benefit him in the slightest.
"This is a extortion waiting to happen, isn't it. You'll ask for a bribe again," she said, frowning skeptically.
Harold cleared his throat, clenching and unclenching his hands at his sides.
Did he just admit it? Would that make it worse? Better?
Before he could even really put it to conscious through and make a decision about it (and that decision would've been not to say a word), something else took over, something more daring and confident than he actually was, some part of him that just wanted Astrid close. That wanted things the way they should be, the way they were.
"I think you're really cute."
Great. Great, why did he say that?
Great. He just ruined it all for himself.
He tried his best to recover.
"I've just--seen you around, and we're in some of the same classes, and I think--I think you're cute, and when you talk in class, you're interesting, and I just want an excuse to get to know you better, and maybe be friends? And even if, you know, it turns out you think I'm lame and you don't want to be friends, which I'm okay with, tutoring would help me study and it'd help you not fail, so it's a good thing in and of itself."
My, where did that come from? She's heard that on multiple occassions and from different people, but it managed to catch her off guard this time, unprepared to hear it come out of his mouth so suddenly. Unsure of how to respond at first, she tucked a stray lock of hair behind an ear bashfully. "Ah... I'm flattered."
Something told her he genuinely wanted her friendship and it surprised her that she'd take up his offer this quickly.
"...Deal. You're a funny guy and maybe somewhat rude, but... you're kind of nice."
Astrid tapped her chin and checked her cell phone, pressing buttons with ease, sorting through some things on the small screen. "Pretty sure I don't have any plans with Junior on that week, uhm... Oh, okay. Here we go. I'll be free..."
Amazement. Complete amazement. Telling her what he thought of her worked? It actually worked?
He cleared his throat again and said it louder the second time.
"Sure. That'd be great."
How had running from one of the bullies that loved tormenting him turn into something really great like this? He could kiss Zach! Only he wouldn't because it would be like kissing a moose.
He fished his cell phone out of his back pocket.
"Uh, can I have your number? Or...I could just give you mine?" In case she didn't want some dweeb knowing it unless she was sure about it?
Harold looked like he zoned out a moment there. Astrid resisted waving her hand in front of his face.
"Oh! I almost forgot that, didn't I? Yeah, you'll need that too. In case--in case you change your mind or if... something comes up. If you're too busy." Why was she rambling now? Anyway, she exchanged numbers and flipped her phone closed, depositing it in her pocket. Her smile brightens, albeit her lips a faint blue from the chill.
One last draw from the cigarette then she drops it, stamping and twisting out the light with the sole of her boot. "And I checked the time, guess I better go. Before my nose runs and I won't be very cute."
Lame joke, but he'll laugh because she is cute.
The other hand shoved deep in her pocket, she flicks a one hand wave as she walks past him to leave for class. When she turns the corner and reaches the door, Astrid immediately halts just in time from colliding into one of the teachers blocking the entrance.
...Well, crap. Seems she miscalculated just how much time had passed.
He'd pat himself on the back for his quick-thinking and slickness later. Because what he did was indeed quick thinking and very slick.
While the teacher was busy frowning at Astrid, he bent down awkwardly and picked up the cigarette, and swooped up next to her, slipping his hand into her purse in a way that looked like he was just accidentally bumping into her too, before drawing it out and placing what he'd grabbed in his back pocket.
"Aw, come on, you found a teacher to rat on me that fast?" he said, flicking the cigarette butt to the ground and stamping on it very obviously, but stamping on it too quickly for it to be noticeable that it was already out.
It made it look like he'd been the one smoking it.
Before she could explain, he had intervened and stole the teachers attention away from her just like that. Shocked, Astrid jerked her head to stare at Harold.
No way would that fool the teacher. He's the minor here, after all. And shouldn't she take consequences for her own actions. Astrid held up her hands peaceably and shook her head, finally opening her mouth and tried to interject.
In his eyes, it was worth it. It wasn't just to impress her, it wasn't to try to win her over, it was--
He saw that look he shot back at him and it felt like something was tugging at hooks in his chest, and with that feeling came the simple thought that he just didn't want her to get in trouble. He just...didn't want her to.
And that ran even deeper, to another thought:
I'd do anything for you.
That, he decided, was a pathetic thought, when he was feeling it for someone he barely knew, but somehow, at the same time, it also felt right. It felt perfectly normal and not creepy like it should have been, it felt like he'd take a bullet for her--
Because she'd do the same for me--
It was confusing, because he didn't know what was just...desperation and what was something more, something--
She's my friend and I care about her.
--something strangely connected--
She believed in me when I didn't even believe in myself.
Why did looking at her make him feel like he was torn in two?
Why can't you remember how you feel about her? Why can't you remember who you are?
Why did it make him feel like he was missing something?
WHY WON'T YOU LISTEN TO ME?
There was a strange feeling, and it was like having a word on the tip of your tongue, and then she turned away, and that word was lost for good and the feeling was gone.
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no subject
"Oh. Oh, Astrid. Hey, Astrid. What are you doing out here? It's like twenty degrees out."
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Astrid recognized him. Though, they hardly associated much, they did share a couple classes. That infamous 'gimpy kid', as the other guys called him. His reputation is rather widespread, however she never actually held a personal vendetta against his character and, truthfully, sometimes she vaguely wondered just why their peers judged him so harshly.
She touched her chest, resting a hand over her thumping heart and breathed in. "Don't surprise me like that!" she whined, letting out a shaky chuckle from behind the scarf that adorned her neck.
Because for that split moment she thought Harold was a teacher. And at this proximity, given by the faint scent of her last cigarette, the discarded butt left on the grass, he doesn't have to guess twice why she is out here. It really would had been bad if she was caught by school staff.
"I don't mind," she answered him calmly -- probably a bit more friendly than what he is used to -- smiling a little at the boy's confusion as she squatted down neatly with her knees together and picked up her phone and examined it, relieved to find that it wasn't broken.
Seriously, the cold is the least of her worries.
She rose upright again then placed her hands behind her back and tilted her head, turning the question back at him. "...Um. Ha... Harold, was it? This is the first time I've seen you here. What are you doing out here?"
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"Yeah. Harold. Is my name."
She knows my name! That is actually slightly better than her not knowing I exist whatsoever! Slightly.
"As for why I'm here--out here--I, uh--" Was running from a meathead that wanted to cave his face in that he didn't stand a chance against because he was a wimp? "You know, fresh air. It's...it's--" He searched for a word. "--bracing. You know, the halls get a little stuffy sometimes, and...it's perfectly reasonable to come outside in twenty degree weather in the dead of winter, right?"
There was a momentary pause, where his lips were pressed together in a thin line, and the he just looked sheepish. There was something in the look like...like he couldn't really lie to her for long, but why was that? When they barely knew each other?
"Actually, it isn't, it's more I was, uh, avoiding a direct confrontation with Zach Peterson's fists. He's too dumb to look outside, so going out the door makes me elusive and crafty and he'll probably wonder for the entire day how I disappeared, before deciding I'm magic and that it's one life's great mysteries."
He pushed a hand through his hair, recently cut nearly down to the scalp.
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She shrugged, positioning to lean back on the wall, head raising and gazed up at the sky. "I'm probably just weird, but cold weather doesn't really bother me. It's not so bad compared to--"
Compared...
Compared to... to... what?
Astrid's brows furrowed at the clouds as she lost her train of thought. Strange. She knew what she was going to say a second ago.
Shifting awkwardly against the wall, she shrugged it off, taking out her cigarette carton and nonchalantly popping another stick between her lips and holding it there with her teeth as she dug around for her lighter. "...Anyway, you were right to run away."
"You made the right choice. And who cares if you'll be called a coward for it." Lighting up her cigarette and blowing out a smoke, her eyes dully stared off and her demeanor seemed to take a complete apathetic change. "Better a coward than irrational, I say..."
no subject
Not that bad compared to... snow so thick the roofs creaked and the air practically froze in your throat. If you could get the door open, you could hear crisp crackling noises all over as the snow settled...
No, he'd never known a place like that, had he?
"Yeah, uh, better a coward than guy with a broken nose, I guess."
There was a disheartened look at that, at admitting he was a coward, at her saying the word first, and then a brief moment of awkward silence as he cast about for something to talk about.
He'd liked Astrid pretty much ever since he started school here. She was older, cooler, pretty, but more than that, she just had this...
There was something about her like she was perfectly at ease with the world. Nothing awkward, nothing...like he was.
She was just...cool. There was just something about her. Something...
It wasn't like he had any weird idealized ideas about who he thought she was, it was more that he he just...wanted to find out more, and knew he'd never be in a position to. They'd only had a few classes together, and whole they'd spoken a few times and even done a group project together (during which, he'd been so quiet it was not really any surprise she had to dig a little for his name), he'd never really...tried to talk to her. Just talk. Usually, he'd been too scared to.
Maybe this was his chance. Maybe this was his only chance.
"Cigarettes are bad for you." Great, way to sound like a total dork.
"I mean, you could get in trouble." And a goodie goodie.
"Wow, I'm sounding like a narc here--I just mean Vice Principal Goodey peeks out here in between classes sometimes. It's not really the best place to smoke. The other doors usually--I haven't really seen her peek around those because they're farther from the Main Office."
There was an aimless shrug to show that he was trying more to be helpful in preventing her from getting caught than anything.
"Although, cigarettes, you know--I always find it a shame when a really pretty girl smokes because it means if they don't stop, then by the time they're forty, they're probably going to look like one of the ladies that works at the Moonrow Diner--side of mountain for a face, yellow teeth, emphysema..." Wow, he was straying into being offensive, wasn't he. Go him. He just won at talking to girls forever.
"I just mean..." He sighed, now frustrated that, as always, he could never, ever say anything right. "I've seen you around and all. You're pretty and a pretty cool girl--you don't really have to do something like smoke, because it'd be hard for you to be any cooler than you are, anyway."
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Okay, that raised her eyebrows and she silently stared at him incredulously. Was he complimenting and indirectly insulting her at the same time? If she was offended or annoyed, he couldn't tell. There wasn't a trace of it on her face. But maybe her teeth did absent-mindedly grind on the butt of her cigarette.
Saying such things. What gave this lower class man that right after barging in on her time and... ...Easy. He's just concerned.
"I--I am aware of that," she stammered indignantly, then sullenly eyed down at the cig, fiddling with it between her fore finger and thumb, feeling a sudden rush of shame. Of course it was shameful, she knew that. She... knew that.
"...I don't plan on keeping this habit forever. I do want to quit. Eventually. And, really, I tried to. Once. It just..." Makes everything feel a tiny bit better? Keeps me sane?
There was another pause from her... but then it was probably unexpected when she turned to face Harold, stepping closer to him and lowered her head, looking up at him pitifully and also a bit guilty, albeit a bit pleadingly. "That means--this means you won't... You won't tell, right?"
Just how much of a big mouth goodie goodie are you, Harold?
no subject
"No! No, of course not. No way."
A pause. Waaait a second... There was opportunity here.
"Of course, if I did tell, I might get some brownie points with the Vice Principal so maybe they'd get off my back a little and stop thinking I'm a troublemaker all the time. All they'd have to do is make you empty your purse or go through your locker, probably..."
He tapped his chin, breath frosting in the air.
"Actually, I'm trying to think of reasons why I shouldn't."
He glanced up at the sky, thoughtfully, then directed a sly glance over at her.
"I could maybe be bribed."
no subject
Stunned, she nearly gawked at his opportunist reply, closing and opening her mouth then settled on frowning at him dejectedly. He's good.
She tilted her head to the side, holding her chin and thought really hard. "Rgh..."
Heeey.
Astrid fixed her eyes back at him and beamed, faintly giggling behind her fist. "Ooh I get it. A bribe, huh? I admit, your words were admirable, but I'm onto you!"
Not taking her gaze off of the boy, her hand found its way on her chest and moving aside the bit of scarf and piece of fabric of her collar, her smile shifted into a wry grin. "This is what you are really after, right--"
Ah there it is. She fished out a second pack and waved it at him.
"You want me to fork over my share. You're still too young to buy your own, so you need mine, right? You seem like you need one. I totally understand."
A blink as she noticed something with the pack. "...huh. It's empty. I thought I hadn't used these yet... t'ch. My reserves..." Astrid rubbed the back of her head and grinned sheepishly. "W-Well, this is embarrassing. --Oh!"
She plucked the cigarette she was currently working on from her lips, glancing back and forth between it and Harold... until she resigned, offering it out.
"I guess there's no helping it. You can manage with this one, can you? S-Sorry, I got some of my lipstick on it..."
...Well?
no subject
Okay, so he'd only said that to seem kind of maybe a little bad, and actually hadn't been sure what to ask for a bribe. A kiss? Too forward. A chance to hang out? Like she'd even want to. A date? Not likely.
So when he saw the smoke drifting over her lips as she plucked the cigarette out of her mouth and held it out to him, he just decided to roll with it. It was a chance to look cool, right? A chance to be all smooth and cool?
"...Yeah. Yeah, that totally works."
Taking the cigarette from her, and surreptitiously eying the lipstick smudged on it, he held it up to his mouth, leaned back against the wall all casual like, and took in a long drag. All the while, he was trying ignore how acutely aware he was of the fact that something that had touched her lips was now touching his--that was a weird thing to fixate on, right?
Immediately, he wondered why anyone liked cigarettes at all, because it didn't even taste good. It tasted like hot, minty ash. Smoke drifted out of his mouth over his lips like it had drifted over hers and then--
Then he doubled over and started into a terrible coughing fit. And he couldn't stop. Then he started laughing in between coughs. He couldn't stop that, either.
"Okay," he managed to squeeze out when he could, holding the cigarette back out to her. "So much for--" Coughing "--Operation: Impress the Hot, Older Chick." More coughing. "I look stupid."
no subject
Astrid stifled laughter, retrieving the cigarette with the other. "Y..you're not gonna die, are you? I'm so sorry, I kind of pressured you there, didn't I."
Geez, by the way he was acting, she thought he was cut out for it.
"Oh, c'mon. I'm not that old," she chuckled meekly, scratching her cheek with a bent index. "If only I were older and wiser. Then I'd definitely have less trouble on my science exams. Maybe."
A chance to hang out is more likely than you think.
no subject
Harold kept coughing until he could almost breathe again.
"You need help in Chemistry? I'm acing it right now."
A few more coughs.
"And it wouldn't even be boring, because at some point I'd embarrass myself and you could laugh at my expense. Tutoring and entertainment, all in one. I'm multi-talented."
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She considered this carefully. It was a nice gesture-- though why the sudden interest of helping her? Could he have some kind of ulterior motive? But what would Harold gain from that? Granted Astrid wasn't a part of his... crowd and, perhaps, she knew a few people that turned their noses up at him or cleverly mocked his misfortune, but hopefully he realizes taking it out on her wouldn't benefit him in the slightest.
"This is a extortion waiting to happen, isn't it. You'll ask for a bribe again," she said, frowning skeptically.
no subject
Did he just admit it? Would that make it worse? Better?
Before he could even really put it to conscious through and make a decision about it (and that decision would've been not to say a word), something else took over, something more daring and confident than he actually was, some part of him that just wanted Astrid close.
That wanted things the way they should be, the way they were."I think you're really cute."
Great. Great, why did he say that?
Great. He just ruined it all for himself.
He tried his best to recover.
"I've just--seen you around, and we're in some of the same classes, and I think--I think you're cute, and when you talk in class, you're interesting, and I just want an excuse to get to know you better, and maybe be friends? And even if, you know, it turns out you think I'm lame and you don't want to be friends, which I'm okay with, tutoring would help me study and it'd help you not fail, so it's a good thing in and of itself."
no subject
Something told her he genuinely wanted her friendship and it surprised her that she'd take up his offer this quickly.
"...Deal. You're a funny guy and maybe somewhat rude, but... you're kind of nice."
Astrid tapped her chin and checked her cell phone, pressing buttons with ease, sorting through some things on the small screen. "Pretty sure I don't have any plans with Junior on that week, uhm... Oh, okay. Here we go. I'll be free..."
She gave him the time and date.
"...Is that fine?"
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He cleared his throat again and said it louder the second time.
"Sure. That'd be great."
How had running from one of the bullies that loved tormenting him turn into something really great like this? He could kiss Zach! Only he wouldn't because it would be like kissing a moose.
He fished his cell phone out of his back pocket.
"Uh, can I have your number? Or...I could just give you mine?" In case she didn't want some dweeb knowing it unless she was sure about it?
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"Oh! I almost forgot that, didn't I? Yeah, you'll need that too. In case--in case you change your mind or if... something comes up. If you're too busy." Why was she rambling now? Anyway, she exchanged numbers and flipped her phone closed, depositing it in her pocket. Her smile brightens, albeit her lips a faint blue from the chill.
One last draw from the cigarette then she drops it, stamping and twisting out the light with the sole of her boot. "And I checked the time, guess I better go. Before my nose runs and I won't be very cute."
Lame joke, but he'll laugh because she is cute.
The other hand shoved deep in her pocket, she flicks a one hand wave as she walks past him to leave for class. When she turns the corner and reaches the door, Astrid immediately halts just in time from colliding into one of the teachers blocking the entrance.
...Well, crap. Seems she miscalculated just how much time had passed.
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While the teacher was busy frowning at Astrid, he bent down awkwardly and picked up the cigarette, and swooped up next to her, slipping his hand into her purse in a way that looked like he was just accidentally bumping into her too, before drawing it out and placing what he'd grabbed in his back pocket.
"Aw, come on, you found a teacher to rat on me that fast?" he said, flicking the cigarette butt to the ground and stamping on it very obviously, but stamping on it too quickly for it to be noticeable that it was already out.
It made it look like he'd been the one smoking it.
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Hiccup reached into his pocket and held out the lighter and the empty carton that he'd snagged from Astrid's purse. Good thing it'd been right on top.
"Which, okay, that's lame--" Eyeroll. "--but she shouldn't get in trouble for what just I was doing."
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Before she could explain, he had intervened and stole the teachers attention away from her just like that. Shocked, Astrid jerked her head to stare at Harold.
No way would that fool the teacher. He's the minor here, after all. And shouldn't she take consequences for her own actions. Astrid held up her hands peaceably and shook her head, finally opening her mouth and tried to interject.
"Mrs. Norbury that's not--"
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Oh, and Astrid, you severely underestimate his rep for disruptive behavior.
"Ms. Hofferson, head to class. Stenson, office. Now."
She bought it, totally and completely.
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Unbelievable. He was really set on taking the blame, wasn't he.
Astrid gave one last apologetic look back at Harold then she nodded and adjusted her purse on her arm and proceeded past them on her way inside.
She will leave it in his hands to explain why he fancies carrying around a fuchsia lighter.
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He saw that look he shot back at him and it felt like something was tugging at hooks in his chest, and with that feeling came the simple thought that he just didn't want her to get in trouble. He just...didn't want her to.
And that ran even deeper, to another thought:
I'd do anything for you.
That, he decided, was a pathetic thought, when he was feeling it for someone he barely knew, but somehow, at the same time, it also felt right. It felt perfectly normal and not creepy like it should have been, it felt like he'd take a bullet for her--
Because she'd do the same for me--It was confusing, because he didn't know what was just...desperation and what was something more, something--
She's my friend and I care about her.--something strangely connected--
She believed in me when I didn't even believe in myself.Why did looking at her make him feel like he was torn in two?
Why can't you remember how you feel about her? Why can't you remember who you are?Why did it make him feel like he was missing something?
WHY WON'T YOU LISTEN TO ME?There was a strange feeling, and it was like having a word on the tip of your tongue, and then she turned away, and that word was lost for good and the feeling was gone.