32 Chapter 11B (1/2)

”Took you long enough” Avian said with a smile before leaning back in his chair. I rolled my eyes, placed my bag on the table, and flopped down in a chair across from him.

The library was quiet; some students were typing away at the computers in the corner of the room, some in study groups (most of them the smart kids in the school), and then there were the lazy ones sprawled out on the couches reading novels.

I dragged my attention back to Avian.

”I was talking to Rain,” I said as I pulled out my notebook. He lost the smirk and replaced it with a sincere smile.

”I'm glad,” he said as he pulled out his notebook and pen ”that you guys are talking again.”

”Yeah me too,” I smiled to myself, my voice trailing off.

It was quiet for some time, and then Avian cleared his throat before pulling out a pile of papers from his backpack.

”So, I brought the notes,” he said, pushing the pile of papers towards me

I stared at him in disbelief.

”Am I supposed to read all of this?”

He nodded.

”Are you serious?”

He crossed his arms defensively over his chest.

”Yes, as a matter of fact you are” He said and I sighed, before picking up one of the sheets.

There was a bunch of chemistry equations scribbled on it.

”Let me just put this out there, that I am not a chemistry lover”

He pulled away the papers, his cheeks heating up.

”Sorry, wrong collection”

I smiled as he searched through his backpack, and then pulled out another slightly smaller pile.

”Here”

”Are we doing the bacteria and Petri dishes thing?” I asked as I looked up at him.

He rolled his eyes and shrugged.

”It's easy, so yeah”

”Good enough for me,” I said with a small smile and glanced up at him. ”So what exactly do we need to do?”

”Yeah, that's for you to figure out”

”What?” I asked, a little too loudly.

The librarian looked at us sternly and told us to be quiet.

Avian snickered.

”This is a group project Avian”

”Yeah and I came up with the idea Hunter” he said, with air quotes ”so you do everything else.”

I scoffed and rolled my eyes, earning a round of laughter from him.

The librarian glared at him this time, causing me to snort. I looked down at the papers with a smile, and after a while, glanced back up at him.

”This seems easy enough”

”Told you”

”So did you bring stuff for the presentation?” I asked, and he shoved his bag towards me with a smirk.

I glared at him, before unzipping the bag.

”A couple of sharpies, some glue, some glitter because Lexi insisted” – I laughed slightly at that – ”and some other artist stuff” he said with a smile, before pulling up a sheet of cardboard that had been sitting on the chair next to him.

”Okay, I'll work on the cause,” I said as I emptied his bag, hunting for the so-called 'artist stuff'.

”And I'll work on the effect” he said and I glanced up at him with a smile.

He handed me a green piece of cardboard paper and pulled a blue one closer to himself. There was silence as we worked on the project. I wrote down some of the causes he had noted down on the sheets of paper, in colored sharpies on the cardboard, glancing up at him from time to time.

Whenever I did though, he seemed to be looking at me, and if he wasn't, he was staring at the work I was doing.

I smiled.

”Do you want to talk about it now?”

”Talk about what?” I glanced up in confusion, to see Avian staring at me expectantly.

”What happened that night?”

I groaned inwardly and stared at him silently.

How had he found out about that night?

I rubbed my palms as they had begun to grow sweaty, and nervously licked my lips.

”What night?”

”You know, last week Thursday?”

Oh, that night.

I sighed in relief and glanced up from the table to look at him.

”I already told you,” I said, retelling the lie I had formed, ”I thought there was a burglar in the house…”

”…yeah and you panicked,” Avian said cutting me off, ”you told me that story many times but you still haven't told me the truth.”

I stared at him.

Could I?

For some reason, the thought of that night made me embarrassed that I had let it happen in the first place.

I should have never worn that tank top

”Just drop it” I said quietly, avoiding his stare.

There was silence for a moment, so I glanced up at him.

He was staring at me. Again.

”Sure,” he said slowly, running his hands through his hair ”you don't have to talk about it”

I didn't say anything, just glanced back down at the poster I was working on.

”Where's the purple?” he asked suddenly, causing me to glance up from my work,

”Why?” I asked, glancing up with a teasing smile.

He rolled his eyes and smirked at me.

”Cause I need it”

”Use another color,” I said going back to my work ”use blue”

”I have blue paper, it wouldn't show”

”We'll look at you, caring which colors match”