Rage

Chapter Eight

Julio wasn't wearing his leather jacket for the first time since I'd met him in Physics the next day, and it was a little 'whoa' seeing him like that.

It was a hot day, so it wasn't really surprising that he'd not want to wear his jacket, but still. He wore a black t-shirt with worn dark blue jeans and the t-shirt clung to his lean physique like it had been crafted for his muscles.

I stood stock-still for a second before walking over to him.

"Trying a new look?" I asked teasingly, taking the seat beside him with a smile. He looked at me for a second, before letting a smirk loose.

"It's a hot day." He said, and I shrugged.

"Fair enough," I told him, pulling my binder and textbook out of my bag. Mr. Barker was in today and I wasn't exactly happy about it. Free periods were the best.

"Did you eat this morning or am I going to have to start pulling granola bars out of my bag?" He asked, an eyebrow raised. A single eyebrow. It wasn't fair that some people could do that.

"What, no apple today?" I joked, poking him with my pen when he showed no reaction to my words.

"Granola bars take up less space." He explained, his arm carelessly draping over the back of my chair. Why was he being so friendly suddenly?

"You're in a good mood today." I observed, leaning back into the chair. "What's wrong with you?" I asked, smiling wide at the sight of his tiny one. I'd never actually seen him smile before. It was cute.

"How funny." He said and that was probably the most I'd heard him speak till now. "Is it illegal for me to be happy now?"

"Pretty much, yeah." I told him, laughing at his expression. Before he could retort, Mr. Barker showed up, apologizing for his lateness.

Honestly, though, I liked this side of Julio.

***
The next two weeks passed monotonously and I'd officially been a resident of suburban hell for two months. I'd been hanging out with Ryo, Ally and Chris as much as I could, and subtly avoided Charlie. He'd been nice to me but I didn't like the way he treated other people. Fortunately, Ryo and Chris got along pretty well and I could hang out with all three of them at the same time.

I even squeezed in some time during Physics class with Julio, but we didn't talk much. He was still distant and, while he actually opened his mouth and spoke, we never talked about anything deep.

Which was why I was going to do super scary.

"What are you doing after school today?" I asked, whispering because Mr. Barker had asked us to solve a couple of questions and he was the kind of teacher who, although was pretty nice, got annoyed when people talked in class.

"Nothing. Why?" He asked, slightly standoffish. I thought we'd been progressing.

Almost rolling my eyes at him before thinking better of it, I said, "So that we can hang out. Duh."

Julio's eyebrows furrowed, and the look in his eyes read what-the-fuck, but I wasn't going to let that discourage me.

"So, what do you say?" I urged, waiting for a reply.

"I get to pick the place." He stated, in a tone that warranted no argument. Normally, I would have said something about his tone or argued with him about his words, but I didn't know anything about this town, only having been to the movies and the mall, both times with Ally.

"Fine." I said, shrugging. He looked like he expected me to say no to that. Oh, well, that was just his luck. "I'll meet you at the entrance later." I informed him.