The Brains and the Bad Boy <Editing>

40 Days Without An Accident

I was in an off-mood for the rest of the school day. "Alice? How many solutions are there for 6x=3x+2x?" My math teacher snapped me back to reality.
"Huh? Oh, none."
"Good." She praised me and I spaced out again.
"What's up with you? Your really spacey." Lindsey whispered to me.
"Nothing, I'm fine." I said and went back to checking my homework. Lindsey dropped it and went on ignoring me. One lesson later I was free to go to Art. "Paint your emotions of today onto your easel." Ms. Criser told us and I sighed. I was awful at art but it was something to do, right? I followed instructions and painted the whole canvas red with a black question mark. "Why?" She asked me as she walked around.
"I got into an argument with a friend a little while ago and now I'm just confused." I explained with a shrug, she gave me a pat on the shoulder and moved on, awkward much? I got through Lunch and Gym, I unfortunately realized that my English partner is in History with me and sits right behind me. "Hey," he poked me in the back and I made a point to ignore him, "Red, where are we doing the essay?" I cringed.
"Don't call me that, you can come over for an hour today. Just go to the apartment complex three blocks down on your right." I told him.
"He gets to call you that, and fine I'll write that down." He ended and I turned back around. Last period came and I kept bouncing my leg up and down anxiously, something I haven't done in a little while. "Quit shaking the damn table." The kid next to me growled and I rolled my eyes. When the bell rang I was a bit hesitant to leave. I made my way to the parking lot but I couldn't find Keith's bike in it's usual spot. I looked around a bit, a few minutes later Keith pulled up. "Ready?" He asked and I nodded.
We parked and went inside, this was the same time the kid, who I still don't know the name of, pulled up in a old looking car. "Oh great..." I mumbled as he got inside. "Hey." He said.
"Hey..." I said, trying to see if I can remember a name.
"Andrew." He told me and I nodded.
"So this is that kid you said was so annoying?" Keith interjected and I face palmed.
"You think I'm annoying?"
"Well, no... Ok fine, very." I said, ditching the lie.
"Thanks." He said sarcastically and we started up the stairs. Keith opened the door to the apartment and we set our stuff by the door. Keith went to his room and pretty much slammed the door. I sighed and sat down on the couch. "So are you guys siblings or something?" Andrew asked and I raised an eyebrow.
"No, what made you think that?"
"I don't know, just seemed like it." He said.
"So, a couple?"
"Uh, it's kind of complicated I guess?" I said, not sure how to answer.
"There's nothing complicated about it, you either are or aren't."
"It's complicated, alright? Just shut up so we can get this done." I snapped and he looked a bit surprised at first but opened up his laptop. "Darn... I think there is some sort of virus. I'll have to fix that later, do you have another laptop we could use?" He asked as he clicked around on a blue screen that was full of different symbols. I nodded and went to Keith's room. "Keith. Keiiiith. I need to borrow your laptop." I said, knocking on the door. No answer. "Keith, I need your laptop please?" I waited and nothing.
"Keith, open the motherfucking door, I need your goddamn laptop." I kicked the door and he finally opened the door and handed the laptop to me. "Was that so hard?"
"Shut up, you have my laptop. Your welcome." And he slammed the door in my face.
"Asshole." I mumbled and put the laptop on the coffee table. "There." I said and sat down again, decently annoyed.

We finally finished after we finished the three page essay. "We can print it out at school." I said and saved the essay to my flash drive.
"Cool, how's 7 tomorrow?" He asked.
"Hell no, I don't get up until 7:30 most days."
"I thought girls needed like 5 hours to get ready in the morning."
"The average bimbo at our school might need that much time because they take an hour to cake on makeup. I just throw something on, do my hair and that's it."
"Don't you eat breakfast?"
"Sometimes."
"But you don't eat lunch."
"How would you know that? Do you watch me at Lunch?!"
"Uh."
"Get out, I'll print it out myself when I have the time." I said, sliding away from him on the couch. He sighed and put his laptop and books away before leaving. I knocked on Keith's door again, "Can I come in?"
"Fine." He answered and I opened the now unlocked door. I put his laptop on his desk and sat by his desk. I saw Andrew's car leave from the glass door, "What a creep." I mumbled to myself. It was quiet for a while until Lauren came home. "Hola Familia!" She shouted and shut the door. Oh thank god she's home. I went out to greet her, "how was work?"
"Fine? Why?" She asked with a sideways glance and I curious smile. I looked back to Keith's shut door and she nodded. "Follow me, I need details." She grabbed me by the arm and dragged me to her room. "Explain." She said sitting me down.
"From where?"
"Let's go on... Today."
"We presented our video today and what happened was the audio got effed up and he got pissed." I went to go on.
"Why? It's just a project."
"Yeah, well it was from the aquarium in Minnesota. One of the employees, Zeke, let us into a closed area and was hitting on me. It bugged Keith to the point of scaring the guy away, unfortunate for me."
"He did?!"
"Yeah, well he asked me to voiceover the guy talking which I did and it got messed up so you heard him a bit at the end. He got all pissy about it and we got into a fight then I left my next class to talk to him."
"You left class?" She laughed.
"Yeah, I know. He said that it wasn't that he was pissed at me for mis-editing the video, he just hated the guy."
"So he got jealous of the dude because he hit on you? This is a bit off topic but was he cute and did you get his number."
"Yeah he was freaking cute, and I had his number but guess who threw it away?"
"He threw it out, damn." She sulked.
"I know, that totally sucked but then I told him to tell me why he was getting all crazy mad and wouldn't talk to me and he freaking left and has barely said a word to me all day and UGH!" I said, throwing myself back onto Lauren's bed.
"So I think it's obvious now that he likes you, it's been obvious for two weeks now. You said that you like him, right?"
"If I didn't do you think I'd be so bugged about this?" I asked, playing with my braid between my fingers.
"I've picked up over the past two years that Keith isn't a very open guy and if he is it's only for about two minutes before he goes back to being a wall. So it's kind of obvious he isn't going to just say, 'let's go out' or 'I like you'." She informed me and I nodded, I knew that.
"Maybe you should tell him how you feel then he will tell you." She suggested.
"I'm not exactly a cuddly person either. I don't like opening up to people either, the only reason I'm here right now is that this whole situation is giving me an anxiety headache." I said, rubbing my temples.
"Then I don't know how to help, you like him, he likes you but both of you are pretty impossible. We all know that you two just... go together." She shook her head like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"We do?" I half smiled, unbelieving that we just... "Go together".
"Let's face it, you were a paranoid, anxious mess on the first day you visited, no offense. And he hasn't brought home a single girl since you got here, it might be because you're in the same room but you know what I mean. And you know, it was the first time I've ever seen him smile when you came around?"
"Sure." I rolled my eyes.
"It's so true!" She exclaimed and we went on talking for about an hour before Ms. Salaway told us it was dinner time.
I sat across from Keith and it was so ridiculously quiet all you heard was the sound of metal clinking on glass. "How was work today, Lauren?" Steven asked.
"It was just like any other day I guess, I'm just a waitress." She said with an awkward laugh. It was quiet again. I pushed around my food, not really eating it. "How was school for you two?" Ms. Salaway asked, I looked up a bit to look at Keith who seemed to ignore his mom. "It was fine, I think we did good on our project." I piped up.
"I'm glad, you both worked hard on that." She smiled warmly.
"Did you get to do that essay today?" She asked me.
"Yeah, but my partner was a total creep."
"Sorry to hear that."
"Mhm." I hummed in response and it went quiet again. It seemed like Ms. Salaway and Steven were doing anything for some sort of break in the silence. "Is something up with you? You haven't been your obnoxious self." Steven asked Keith.
"Nothing, just been a long week." He responded and I lowered my gaze. I excused myself a few minutes later, claiming to be tired and going to take a nap. Yes, I knew it was 6:00 but I just wanted to get away from the uncomfortable silence. I decided to get some fresh air and found myself on the apartment. I was leaning my forearms on the railed and staring out at the busy streets and all the buildings. I enjoyed the noise of the car horns blaring and the yelling of the lovely LA people passing through. I heard the balcony door shut and it startled me. I looked over my shoulder and saw the same person who hasn't talked to me all day. "Hey." He finally said, leaning on the railing next to me. "Your talking to me now?" I asked and he mumbled something under his breath. "I guess I am." He breathed and I gazed down to the parking lot bellow me.
"I don't get why you stopped in the first place. I don't think I did anything wrong." I added, looking over to him. He didn't say anything for a minute. "Yeah..." He mumbled and I sighed.
"Why is there a bandaid on your wrist, Alice?" He question, looking at my slightly exposed wrist and I got a pit in my stomach.
"You didn't."
"Not exactly...?" I said.
"Alice, what do you mean 'not exactly'?" He questioned with a suspicious look in his eyes.
"I scratched at one of the new-ish scars until the skin broke." I said, feeling ashamed that I kind of relapsed.
"Red-"
"I don't do well when I'm left with my thoughts, ok?! I have a problem, I'm sorry." I exclaimed and ran one hand through hair and down my loose braid. I felt frustrated tears build up and I blinked them away. "Come here." He invited, pulling me into a warm hug. I let a few tears fall, "I'm sorry," my voice cracked slightly, I felt like my mental calendar of "40 days without an accident" was back at 0, I was so mad at myself. "Hey." He said and I looked up at him. His lips met mine and I boost myself on my tiptoes to reach better. His arms were holding my waist, I put my arms around his neck. I felt my back hit the cold metal of the railing and I could still taste the tiniest bit of alcohol from his "bottle and a half" from this morning but ignored it. It felt like forever before we separated the kiss for a breath. Our foreheads rested on one another's. "God you drive me insane." He mumbled and pressed his lips back into mine. I smiled into the kiss, good enough for me.