What I needed - Chris Sturniolo

~4~

It had been a few days since the breakup. Brian was probably taking it a bit harder than Nessa was. She didn't know how her feelings just disappeared. It made her feel bad, emotionless, not human. She tried to push the thoughts aside and get out of the jeep as the girls were arriving at school.

Nessa only had a about 2 days left to turn in the Geography project and there was still a lot to do. The last thing she wanted was having to talk to Chris, but there was no way she was doing it all alone. Logically Nessa decided she would try and find Chris to work out a time to finish the project.

Once she set foot in the hallway, the loud noise of chatter and the warmth of students' bodies moving around hit her all at once. She continued walking until getting to her locker and putting some of her books in. While closing the locker door Cara appeared from behind it.

"Hi girlie"

Making Nessa twitch not expecting the sudden face behind the small metallic door "Jeez you scared me".

"Sorry, so.. where you heading?" Cara and Nessa chatted while walking to their next class. It seemed like a long long day today. Classes felt like hours longer than normal, lunch went by super quick and the work seemed to be harder. Overall Nessa wasn't enjoying herself, dreading still having to talk to Chris who she couldn't find the whole day, not even at lunch. Matt, Nick and Jack also clueless as to where the other triplet was.

Ring

Ring

The bell dismissed them from their last class, and finally, for the first time, Nessa spotted the boy.
She slightly jogged to catch up with him.

"Chris"

He didn't look at her, just kept walking and talking to his teammates who were beside him.

"Chris!"

Eventually he looked to the girl, not slowing down. He moved his eyebrows up, showing her an annoyed 'what?!'

"Are you free to work on the project?"

"No" And he got back to chatting to his friends.

Nessa was over it at this point. She grabbed his arm making him come to a halt "Well make time, you know you won't be able to play lacrosse if we don't turn it in".

He face growing more and more irritated by the second and Nessa matched his energy.

"I have practice in 40 minutes. I'm not going home just to come back again"

"So? Let's just go to the bleachers and do it there until you have to train?" The girl offered.

"Fine"

Without waiting, Chris started making his way to the outside part of school. Nessa had to walk quickly behind him as she had never been to the bleachers and lacrosse field. With his hands in his light blue hoodie, matching his hat pared with some black sweatpants, he sat down and just stared at some cheerleaders training on the field in the distance.

"Stop drooling and help me" Angrily, Nessa snapped at the boy.

Why is he always looking at girls?

Nessa wondered, but she didn't care. It only annoyed her because he wasn't doing anything. Just sitting there looking into the field chewing on his gum. She never noticed how his jaw clenched with each motion. She hated it.

Finally Chris started doing something and looked up information on his phone, saying it out loud so Nessa could write it down on her laptop. At one point he leaned a little closer to look at their power point making his shoulder touch hers. She felt tingles go down her spine. It felt foreign and weird. She liked it. No she didn't. She couldn't. She hated Chris and still did, shaking the feeling away.