Fourteen by C.M. Smith (short story to read .txt) 📕

on the tabletop and leaning over to rest his head in his hands. His chest was heaving as he stared down at his textbook, and I sat up straight.

I wanted to say something to him, but he didn’t look all that friendly right then. In fact, he looked like he wanted to rip someone’s head off, and I really didn’t want it to be mine. But this past week had been all about learning to trust and changing and chances, so backing down now would only prove that nothing had changed between us.

“Evan?” I asked, leaning back a little just in case he did lash out at me.

I jumped back when he held up a hand.

“Please don’t,” he said through his teeth.

I leaned forward, wrapped my arms around my books, and went back to staring at the numbers on the chalkboard. We sat in complete silence until the bell rang. I sat up straight when the rest of our class started piling in. Mr. Streeter walked in and took attendance before announcing that our homework for the night was on the board and that we had the entire class period to work on getting our projects together. Conversation immediately picked up around the room, and I slowly looked over at Evan.

“We can’t use them for our project anymore,” he said, his voice low as he kept his eyes centered on his textbook.

“Okay.”

“Any ideas?”

“What about . . . ” I tapped my fingertips against my chin, looking around the room as if it might have the answer to all of my questions. My eyes landed on Mr. Streeter as he sat at his desk, grading a stack of papers. “What about our teachers? And maybe we could go door-to-door? Ask our neighbors if they’d be interested in helping us out?”

“Like Girl Scouts or some stupid shit?” he snapped.

“Do you have any better ideas?” I rolled my eyes and turned back to face the front.

He groaned, and I watched from the corner of my eye as he rubbed his hands over his face.

“I’m sorry.” He dropped his hands with a loud plop onto the table. “This isn’t your fault.”

“Yeah, sure.” I looked down at my notebook and played with the spiral wire.

Unfortunately, it kind of was. If he hadn’t chosen to be with me on Friday night instead of going to hang out with Brittany, none of this would be happening to him right now. Did it give him the right to be mean to me? No, it really didn’t, but it was understandable under the circumstances.

“The teachers . . . and neighbors . . . that’s a good idea. We can do that.”

“Sure.”

“Anna, I’m just . . . they’re . . . I . . .” He groaned again and rapped his fists lightly on the desk. “Please don’t be mad at me, okay?”

“I’m not. I’m just . . .” I sighed. “I’m not.” He sucked in a deep breath. “Let’s just work on the paper, okay? We’ve got enough information to at least start on it.”

“Yeah, that’s good.”

I pulled the papers out of my notebook and handed him half of them. We spent the rest of the class, asking each other questions about things we thought could be helpful. When the bell rang, I took the papers Evan offered me and shoved them back into my notebook.

“I have practice tonight,” he said as he slammed his books closed and stood up. “I’ll come over afterward, all right?”

“Yeah, that’s fine.”

“I’ll see you at lunch.”

He slid off the stool, smiled humorlessly and said, “I, uh . . .”

“Yeah, that’s fine,” I said. “I’ll see you at lunch.”

“Thanks,” he mumbled before turning on his heel and walking out.

I puffed out my cheeks and followed him. I felt a little guilty about everything that was happening to him. Granted, I liked spending time with him, but I didn’t enjoy the way he’d seemed forced to give up everything he’d known just because of me.

“. . . don’t know who she thinks she is.”

I caught the tail end of a conversation before I kept walking.

“It will never work out with them. He’s got to be just using her to get a good grade on this project.”

I held my books tighter to my chest, keeping my eyes focused on my locker door as my heart beat rapidly in my chest.

“Maybe he’s just sick. I mean, really, Evan doesn’t do girls like her.”

I walked a little faster, making it to my locker in record time and shoving my human physiology stuff inside. I did my best to block everyone else out and hurried to grab the books I needed for my English class before I slammed my locker shut.

“He’s only using her. I know it.”

I practically ran to the classroom and plopped down in my seat. Kyle came walking toward me, and I held my breath when I saw his eyes focus on me. He’d been sitting in the seat in front of me all year, and aside from a few polite smiles, he’d never acknowledged me before.

“You okay, Anna?” he asked, standing beside his seat.

I blinked at him, my breath whooshing out of my lungs. Just because I’d been halfheartedly expecting it didn’t make it any less shocking when he spoke to me. He might’ve tried to shield me from my locker last week, but it was still weird that he was talking to me where people could clearly see and hear him.

“Hello?”

He waved a hand in front of my face, and I jumped back.

“Sorry,” he said, sitting down.

“I’m fine, thank you,” I said to the back of his head.

A few more months, Anna. You can make it through a few more months.

I slid onto the bench at the lunch table where I usually sat with Christina and Vince and leaned back against the wall. I pulled my legs up to my chest and watched the door anxiously.

The comments hadn’t gotten any better. Everyone was