Contagious Chemistry by Sian Webster (best ereader for pdf TXT) 📕

Abby."

I smiled back. "I know." I stood on my tip-toes and kissed him on the lips softly.

"Come on," He took my hand once more and led me towards the maths classroom.

We walked in and took our seats in the front corner of the room, still followed by stares and whispers. They were really staring to get annoying. People started going out nearly every day in our grade; I just wished they would shut up about Alex and I. I guessed I would be pretty confused if I were them too, though. A week ago, Alex and I practically hated one another. Then we were suddenly in love with one another and making out in the middle of the quad. It was practically scandalous.

"They're all loving this, aren't they?" I asked Alex, talking about the other kids in our grade, while we waited for our maths teacher to come into the room.

"Of course they are." He replied. "We're the most exciting thing that's happened around here since Breanna and I broke up."

"Oh, so nothing's exciting unless you're involved, right?" I smirked.

"I dunno, you tell me." He winked.

I shook my head mockingly. "You're so full of yourself."

He raised his eyebrows. "Whatever happened to self confidence in guys being attractive?"

"It's attractive until they're completely egotistical." I smirked.

Alex mocked shock and placed his hand over his heart. "My ego is significantly wounded."

"Well, you know how good I am at playing Doctors and Nurses." I joked.

"Tell me about it," He said quietly, leaning forward, his gaze lingering over my lips.

I smirked.

He leant closer until our lips were less than a millimetre apart. "Thank you, Absidy."

I could feel his breath on my face. "What for?" I asked breathlessly.

"Saving my life." He said simply, before closing the small space between us.

I smiled against his lips and pulled back slightly. "Not now." I told him.

"When?" He asked cheekily.

"Maybe later," I smirked, leaning my forehead against his. "If you're lucky."

Someone in the doorway cleared their throat. Alex and I jumped apart immediately, and we looked up to see Mr Stewart giving the two of us a quizzical look.

"That may just be the strangest thing I have ever seen." He mumbled.

I looked from Alex, to Mr Stewart and back. After all the remarks we'd had already it had gotten to the point where we couldn't hold it in any longer and we burst out into uncontrollable laughter.


***


After what was an incredibly awkward maths lesson, and a science lesson that was pretty much the same, Alex and I collapsed onto the "Queen Bee" table in fits of laughter. The other girls slowly joined us one by one, all of them but Emily and Stacy still looked significantly confused at the turn of events. One thing I did notice was the fact that Breanna stayed away. And that was perfectly fine with me.

When we got our breath back after laughing it all away, Alex was the first to speak.

"I have to go and see Mrs Jardine, but I'll be back soon, ok?" He told me.

I smirked. "What's wrong? Got a detention?"

He shook his head. "I just need to talk to her."

"About what?" I pressed.

"Just an assignment, don't worry." He promised.

"I could just tell you how to do it, silly. You don't need to see her." I smiled, grabbing his hand before he could walk off.

"Don't worry about it, Abby. You just do yours, ok?" He said.

I sighed in defeat. "Ok,"

He bent over carefully and kissed me softly on the forehead. "I'll be back soon, ok?"

I closed my eyes and smiled. "Ok."

I watched him walk away.

"He's so not going to see Mrs Jardine." Emily said, appearing at my shoulder.

"Not looking that nervous, he's not." Stacy added.

I sighed. "I was just thinking the same thing."

"We should go and check it out." Emily and Stacy said together.

"If you two are following him, I'm coming too." I told them sternly.

"Come on then!" Stacy urged.

I groaned and stood up from my place on the bench. Emily and Stacy linked arms with me and dragged me in the direction Alex went in. We didn’t have to go very far before we found him. He was talking to Jeremy in the teachers' car park behind the bike shed.

"Ooooh, this looks interesting." Stacy joked.

"Shut up!" I snapped in a whisper. I wanted to hear what they were saying.

"--Didn't pay you to break her heart! Or to kiss my girlfriend! I payed you to break up with her!" Alex was saying.

"Yeah, well," Jeremy started. "You're Alex Parker, and I don't trust you."

"So you took advantage of that and hooked up with Casey, and broke Abby's heart?"

Even just seeing the back of his head, I could tell that Alex was incredibly pissed off.

"Well, it certainly looks that way, doesn't it?" Jeremy smirked. "Besides, Casey was better than -- Absidy?!"

I had leant around the car just a little too much, and Jeremy had spotted me. I cursed internally and either Emily or Stacy grabbed the back of my shirt to pull me backwards, but my legs slipped out from underneath me, propelling me backwards into them. Things would have been fine, except the girls couldn't keep their mouths shut and screamed when we all fell on one another in a domino effect. I cursed aloud as I heard footsteps coming towards the car.

"Abby?" I heard Alex's voice as he came around the back of the car.

I stood up just as he came into view. "Is that true?" I asked sternly, "All that I heard, is that true?"

"Yes, Abby, but you don't understand, that's not the whole story, please--" He started to say.

"There's not much that you could add to the story, Alex. It won't make it any less bad." I told him.

"Abby, I promise, I've done nothing wrong!" He said.

"No, you just payed my boyfriend to break up with me so you could date me instead, correct?" I snapped.

"Well, yes, but--"

"No buts." I said sternly.

He looked at the ground.

"The sad thing is, I thought I could trust you." I sighed. Tears pricked at the back of my eyes, but I blinked them away. I wouldn't cry over him. At least, not in front of him.

"You can trust me, Abby!" He insisted.

"Prove it." I snapped, turning around and pulling Emily and Stacy off the ground before walking away.

18. Alex's Explanation

I managed to ignore him for a week after I found out. Somehow. But I only managed a week. And frankly, that wasn't even my fault; he was the one who came up to me. I guess he knew that no matter how much I wanted to, I wasn't going to be the first one to talk. And when he finally did talk to me, he followed me home again, getting off the bus at my stop rather than his.

"Abby!" He yelled out as he hopped off the bus behind me. I cursed in my head; I didn't want a repeat of last time.

"What?" I snapped, turning around and facing him.

"De ja vu, huh?" He asked awkwardly, shrugging.

"If you say so," I mumbled, just as awkwardly as he had. It was obvious to us both that the other had no clue what to say. It was also obvious that we both had something we wanted to say very much.

"Uh," he shifted his weight, "I heard about you winning that science award,"

"Well, they announced it in front of the whole school, so…" I muttered, looking down at my feet.

"You have a point," He laughed awkwardly. "But, yeah, that was… that was good."

"Yeah," I laughed, still looking down.

"Absidy?" He started. "There's something I want you to know."

"And that is?" I asked, still not looking at him. I knew my eyes would give me away. He could read me like an open book.

"The truth." He said simply.

I looked up at him then and sighed. "Come on, we can talk at my place."


***


"So…" I muttered awkwardly as we walked through the front door.

I heard the back door slide open. "Absidy? Is that you?"

It was my Mum. I cursed; I forgot she finished work early on Wednesdays. In all honesty, I had forgotten what day it was.

"Get down!" I whispered to Alex, motioning for him to hide behind the couch.

Wide-eyed, he did as I said.

"Yeah, Mum, it's me," I called out. "I'm not feeling very well so I'm just gonna go and lie down, ok?"

"Ok, honey, hope you feel better soon," She said, poking her head around the corner and smiling at me before disappearing again. Thankfully, Alex waited until the back door slid shut again to stand up.

"That was clo--" He started to say as the back door opened again. His eyes widened again and he was on the floor in a fraction of a second.

Mum walked around the corner again. "Oh and Absidy? Your brother called. He's coming home from college for your birthday and said he should be here by 5:30, and we'd like to go out for dinner so wear something nice. Said he didn't want to miss his baby sister's seventeenth. Oh! And there's some paracetamol in the cupboard if you need any."

I smiled awkwardly. Jake was coming home from college for my birthday? I cursed internally, wanting to tell Mum to call him