18 HISTORY OR CHEMISTRY

“Hey, you still here?” I blink my eyelids rapidly to be brought back into the now by Nathaniel, waving his hand before me.

“Uh, yeah. Sorry, I kind of uh-drifted.”

“Lily?”

Indeed. Lily and I had really fallen out bad. She had slammed her door on my face, and left this morning, before I could even wake up.

All through the way, I had been thinking of every word that I should not have said, as I sat bursting my knuckles in the cab.

I don’t think she’ll even be willing to talk any time soon.

“Yeah.” I whisper and Nathaniel silently nods at me.

I take a bite of my chocolate cookie, just when I sense someone settling beside me, and I know who it is, before even turning.

“Morning people. Mind if interrupt the date?”

“You already did-“ “It’s not a date rea-“ I notice Zach’s jaw tighten as Nathaniel raises an eyebrow at me.

“I meant, the-uh, interrupting part.” I blush too hard and look down immediately.

I’ve been trying to avoid Nathaniel after yesterday night, too paranoid about these new, uh, creatures that fly and sparkle, you know.

Butterflies?

Yes, thank you, conscience. And fudge you, conscience. But I didn’t want to use that word really.

They don’t sparkle.

Can you please shut up? Thank you.

“Yeah well, too bad your opinion didn’t quite take the intended importance.” I roll my eyes in irritation. Perfect. Just what the situation needed. Zach.

He takes a seat beside Nathaniel, and I look up to find my eyes drifting towards him.

Zach looks too good for my liking, okay not exactly for my ‘liking’ but definitely something along the lines of ‘thinking clearly’.

Dressed in a clean, grey Henley, paired with the dark blue denims, he is radiating off a whiff of cologne and bodywash, probably fresh from the shower. The face is the regular. Handsome and tempting.

I turn my head slightly to find Nathaniel looking at him with an amused expression.

I look down to my food when an irritating foot tap distracts me. And I look up to find Zach with a smirk. I glare at him and his smirk only gets bigger.

“Well well, seems I just made your day, didn’t I?” The raspy voice and the cocky grin breaks my stance.

“Please – don’t flatter yourself.”

“You mean to say, that you’re going to deny, straight on my face, your adorable gazing at my irresistible handsomeness?”

“Irresistible handsomeness, give me a break. And ‘gazing’. GAZING? Why would you even use that word? You could have passed with ‘staring’.”

“Just softening the blow for you. Trying to make it sound a little less creepy. And by the way I’m totally not pointing out the fact that by denying of having been gazing, you actual confirmed your ‘staring’.”

“What? No, I was not staring, either. I was just-uh, looking.”

“Thank you. For not having denying at least that.” I groan in frustration as he begins to get on my nerves.

I notice him munching at his sandwich he held in his hands and the way his fingers wrapped themselves around the item, the way he moves it, the way his veins popped ou-

“Why are you even here, Zach?”

“I wouldn’t have been, if you wouldn’t have enjoyed my company so much.

“Why are you so full of yourse-“

“Can I take a bite of this?”

“Don’t you dare touch my chocolate!” I smack his hand immediately and a little too aggressively with a dropped, horrified jaw, before he even touches my food. I will not have Zach Hayden contaminate my chocolate.

I look up to find his humour filled eyes and a twitching smile.

“Relax, Callister . It’s just chocolate. I mean, it’s just a cookie. You’re acting protective as if it’s your cond-“

“Don’t – even – say it. I know what you’re going to say and I don’t want to hear it, so don’t you dare.”

He’s fighting back a laugh as he analyses me with his piercing gaze-uh, stare-uh, no, fudge, his piercing look. Yes, look.

“Wow, it seems you did give a consideration to that re-productive offer I had thrown at you. Impressive.”

“You nauseate me, Hayden. I didn’t even give a millisecond of my time or a millimetre of my thought to that baseless, gross offer.” Seriously how can he think about that? Makes me feel so sick. Especially after all he has done.

“Really? Then how did you manage to know what I was going to say, if you hadn’t thought about it yourself?”

“Because I know you.” I say out with an annoyed gruff and he simply grins in response.

“So very touching.” I see him placing a hand over his heart as he breathes out his words, huskily. God.

“I-uh, am just – not going to acknowledge your presence anymore.” I speak out returning to my cookie, with my head down, so he doesn’t catch my blush.

“Oh, don’t bother, Callister . I got places to be. Some other time, maybe. Enjoy the date till then.”

I heave a sigh of relief, as I watch him leave after wiping his hand with the tissue and pushing the fallen hair fringe on his forehead, back off. I turn to find an amused Nathaniel, watching me intently.

“What?”

“You and Zach.” His smile turns bigger though I see an unnamed confusion in his eyes.

“What about us?”

“I don’t know, you two seem to have some sort of a…”

“Oh, god. Please don’t say chemistry.”

“…chemistry.” I look at him like he’s grown horns while he just smiles.

“I don’t understand why you would associate such an inappropriate term with both of us.”

Seriously. Zach and chemistry? It’s not even logically possible. Even if there was a chance, it was from my side, keyword: was and everyone knows that reactions don’t start with one, single ingredient.

No, if Nathaniel had to add a subject I would definitely have preferred something more along the lines of history.

Zach and I have history. We don’t have chemistry. Why would we have chemistry? I don’t even like chemistry.

I hear Nathaniel laughing casually while he sips on his coffee.

“Why do you hate him so much?”

“What’s not to hate?”

“Um, let’s see. Maybe the fact that it somehow took just a few moments of Zach, being Zach, with his arrogant mouth and a sandwich in it, to take your mind off of everything, while I have been sucking at it since the past thirty minutes?”

Author's note:

What’s (not) to hate?

Love me some history.

(No one loves history)

Okay then love me some chemis-

(Don’t even complete that sentence)

FINE. RELAX.