Falling - Paige Cunningham (read book .TXT) 📗

I felt a jolt of electricity course through my body and I jerked back. He was unfazed by this and continued, “Do you remember me?” This question took me by surprise. Should I remember him? I was pretty sure that if I had seen him before, I would have remembered. I looked into his eyes; they were wide and eagerly awaiting my answer. Then I realized, his eyes, his glowing, green emerald eyes that sent me into a trance the last time I stared into them. It was him, the boy who I almost ran over.
“Yes, you jumped in front of my car earlier. Do you have a death wish or are you just plain stupid?” His eyes narrowed and the eagerness in them disappeared. They were unreadable but I knew that what I had just said wasn’t what he wanted to hear. I ran over what I had said and realised that I might have offended him.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to call you stupid, or offend you its just that I get a bit worked up when I nearly kill someone,” After I said it he just laughed. Not obnoxiously like I had just fallen flat on my face or spilled a drink over me. It was a quiet laugh to himself, like I had said something funny that only he would understand. Whatever he thought was funny I didn’t get it.
“Oh no, you didn’t offend me and don’t worry you didn’t nearly kill someone.” As far as I knew nearly mowing someone over with my car counts as nearly killing someone. What he thought was dangerous and what I thought was dangerous were obviously two very different things. I didn’t push the subject further; clearly he was just one of those daredevils that live their life with the insane idea that they are invincible.
Mr Burton had set up his stuff before Matt and I could say anything more to each other
“Could everyone please get out their copy of Pride and Prejudice.” Mr Burton said. I groaned as searched through my bag for my copy.
“You don’t like Jane Austin?” Matt asked after hearing my groan of complaint at this terms reading material.
The first though that ran through me head was: he knows Jane Austin? I mean, I know she’s like one of the greats when it comes to literature but trust me, if you asked half of the boys in my class who wrote Pride and Prejudice, fifty percent wouldn’t know, thirty percent would know but wouldn’t admit it and the other twenty percent were – how do I put this nicely? – Actually interested in English literature (geeks) or guys in tune with their feminine side (gays) – sorry to be so blunt. I know you should judge people based on appearance, books and covers and all that, but I had pretty good intuition (not to mention what Rose would call a gay-dar) and I was not getting any homosexual vibes from him nor did he radiate the geeky vibe. Confident, insanely good-looking, nope, no geeky signs.
“No, I love Jane Austin. It’s just, well, Pride and Prejudice annoys me” I know I shouldn’t have said that. Only a freak could get annoyed at a book.
“Why?” I don’t blame Matt for wondering, Pride and prejudice is a great book, a classic but I couldn’t help feel irritated when I read it – and yes I had read it before, whilst other girls were going out, bogging, twittering, texting and other activities you’d expect of a teenager, I spent my time reading. It’s OK though; I acknowledged my geeky-ness and was proud of it which was exactly why I was under no delusions that I had any chance whatsoever with the new boy. He was miles out of my league. However there was no reason why I couldn’t just talk to him.
“Your going to think I’m stupid but Elizabeth and Darcy’s relationship just aggravates me. I mean, they obviously love each other but their so worried about what other might people think, they refuse to admit to their feelings. I just think that if you truly love someone you shouldn’t care what anyone else thinks and you should just say how you feel.” He was silent; I knew he thought I was stupid to get so worked up about a book.
“Very insightful.” Whoa, I wasn’t expecting that reply. I was waiting for a “your right that is stupid” or “Umm, Yeah, whatever” and then muttering “geek” under his breath. That’s what most boys would have said but not him, maybe he was different.
“Hey, I’ve forgotten my copy, first day and all,” he said with a shrug. “Can I share yours?” I was just about to say “Yes, of course,” and then spend the lesson focusing more about the hot boy that was inches away, daydreaming, fantasising about that could never be mine, instead of actually reading the book but before I did, I looked down to his open shoulder bag. Inside was a copy of the book and I realised that he very well knew it was in there. I pointed to his open bag and said,
“Isn’t that your copy there?”
He looked down, took out his copy and then replied, “Oh, I guess I didn’t forget it after all,” He smiled at me again. Then it occurred to me, anyone who could think up a scheme like that so quickly must have experience in that sort of thing. He was flirting with me and I had fallen for it. Why was he bothering with me though? I shook that thought off. It didn’t matter why, I was just sure that no matter how charming or hansom he was, I couldn’t let myself caught up in his little game. He was a player and I was nothing more than an easy target.
I spent the rest of the lesson ignoring his existence, like it was any other English lesson. However, even after pretending he wasn’t there, I was still filled with relief when the bell rang and I could get away from him. Just like I had thought, as soon as the bell rang our table was surrounded by every girl in the class, all of them fighting for Matt’s attention. It was difficult to get out of the class room at first, I had to barge my way through the crowd but after I broke free from the impenetrable wall of girls it was easy enough to walk to the door. Just as I was about to leave the class room, I heard a voice from behind me.
“Ang,” Matt’s voice was struggling to be heard over all of the girls. He pushed through the gathering and walked over to me. After realizing who he was talking to, all of the girls fell silent. He walked right up to me and stood a bit closer than I would have liked. I felt every single one of the girls glare at me, all of them filled with jealousy, all of them envious that I was the one who he was interested in.
“Ang, I’ll see you soon,” I was slightly confused. Why go to so mush trouble just to say ‘I’ll see you soon’? Why bother? I didn’t know what else to say so I just added
“I doubt it.” Which I did. We didn’t have English again until Monday, which I wouldn’t say was ‘soon’ and the chances that we would have any other lessons together were slim. We seemed too different to have chosen the same subjects and even if we did we would probably be in different classes anyway. I didn’t ponder about what he had meant for long, in fact, it only took the time taken to walk from the English block to the Maths block before I discovered what he meant.

I reached my maths class room to find him leaning in the doorway, smirking.
“I told you I’d see you soon,” Oh, I bet he thought he was hilarious. How funny that he knew that we both had maths. Not.
“How did you know that we had maths together?” These were the words that came out of my mouth but what I was really thinking was Oh crap; now I have to spend ten hours a week trying to ignore this pompous jerk and his annoying flirtatious stunts. What now? Maybe he’s forgotten his calculator. He tapped his nose and said, “That’s for me to know, let’s just say that I have a friend in the office” What did that mean? Did he get someone in the office to tell him my class schedule? No, that’s impossible, we only met today and he only found out my name about an hour ago. Unless, we had met before. Maybe that’s why he asked if I remembered him, maybe that’s why his eyes looked familiar. Surely if I had met him before I would remember, wouldn’t I? I couldn’t figure him out; everything about him was mysterious and cryptic. That was another reason why I couldn’t let him get to me; he was bad news.
I was so happy to see the boy who I sat next to take his seat. At least I wouldn’t have to sit next to him in this lesson. Saffron also had maths with us and when she saw Matt talking to me in the doorway she was not happy. She approached us with fury in her eyes. I really thought she was going to start on me for talking to Matt. The girls in our school had a monarchy, Saffron was at the top. Nobody messed with her, she was the queen bee and she got what she wanted. Unfortunately for me, she wanted Matt. For all I cared she could have him, it would make life a hell of a lot easier for me but Matt just didn’t seem interested.
She walked over, flaunting her mini skirt, trying to draw Matt’s attention away from me. He was staring at me, watching my face react to his last statement and figure out what he meant. He was so wrapped up in analysing my expression that I doubt he even noticed Saffron or her mini skirt. Saffron recognised that she wasn’t being noticed, as they say desperate times call for desperate measures and what she did next could only be described as desperate. She walked right up to the door and launched herself forward, falling into Matt’s arms. She made it look like I had tripped her up just so that she could play the damsel in distress.
I wondered if she had felt the electricity I had felt when we touched. I wondered how it felt to be in his arms. No, that train of thought was going somewhere that I didn’t want to go. The electricity was just an electric shock caused by static. It had nothing to so with his touch. My stubbornness would prevail. It had to. I wasn’t going to let him win. I couldn’t even believe that I was thinking this because at the same time that