Chapter 31: The past 1

About a year ago;

Chatters of energised students filled the chemistry lab of Fairfield high. Since their teacher hadn't arrived, they decided to make the most out of it. Meanwhile, Emily was at the end of the lab, sitting all alone with a book on her lap. She was trying to read a particular topic but the noise prevented her from concentrating.

"Jesus why are they so lousy?" She shook her head as she was failing miserably at reading. She then felt someone throw a piece of paper at her.

'Just ignore them.' She told herself. Deciding to block out the noise, she took out her earphones and plugged them into her phone. She sighed in content as the music in her ears pushed away the background noise.

"Alright, Alright quiet down!" Their chemistry teacher had finally arrived. Sighing in relief, she kept her earphones safely in her bag and turned her focus to the teacher.

"I hope you haven't broken anything or your marks will be reduced. Not like most of you even have marks."

"For your project, you're going to be in pairs. I'll call out your names now. Lily Sanders and Victor Cruz." 

"Emily Hernandez and Chris Young." Emily's heart rate picked up at hearing who she was paired with. Of all the people it had to be him. The cute bad boy that made her heart stop?

Chris then went to sit next to Emily.

"Hi partner."

"Hi." She said meekly. He smiled and Emily felt butterflies in her stomach. After that he was done pairing them up. He then gave them the topics they were presenting in the next two weeks. 

The bell rang and everyone got up from their seats and rushed out of the class.

"The project mustn't be a minute late, or else there will be consequences."

"So partner, you're the smart one. Where do we start from?"

Emily was lost staring at him for a while before she shook herself back to reality. 

"Yeah, first we need to draft out notes to prove our points. Then we'll start on the rest later. Perhaps you can help with that?"

"You're the boss. I'll see what notes I can sketch out. I'll see you later Emily." He shouted as he ran off.

'He knows my name! He actually knows my name!' Emily thought she was trying not to yell in pure happiness. She had a big grin spread across her face.

"What's got you so bubbly?" It was her best friend, Courtney.

"Chemistry." Courtney stared at her like she was crazy. 

"Are you serious?"

"Hold on, I didn't finish. I'm having a project and you can't imagine who I was paired up with."

"Must be someone good for you to be this happy." 

"Chris!"

"No way! The same Chris?"

"The same! And he knows my name! God, how I'm I going to survive this?" Courtney smiled as she saw her friend staring at the distance dreamily. 

"That's amazing and all. But don't let him put all of the workload on you. Chris is cute, but he's also a dumbass whose brain is filled with God knows what." She gave her friend an arm squeeze.

"I know. I'm not dumb."

"I never said you were. Now let's head to class." Courtney dragged her friend to their next class as she kept pulling her friend out from her daydreams.

The next day, after school;

"Emily! I was thinking that maybe we could start the project at my house. I already have all of the books and supplies we need.,"

'No no no! I can't do that! That will only worsen my situation!'

"How did you get them? You mean you have all of what we need?"

"Yes, my sister is a science whiz so she was able to get them for me. I know you said you would help but I decided to lend a hand."

'Damn he's so nice. He's perfect.'

"That's awesome! That will make our work faster."

"Hmhm, so will you come over? In fact, let's go." I gasped as he dragged me by the hand and headed towards his wrangler car.

Within ten minutes, we were at his house and already preparing what we needed.

"Hmhm. That's much better. I can't believe your sister has a lab. It's even more equipped than our school's own. How old is she?"

"She's twenty-one. She was obsessed with science when she was younger. In fact she still is. So our parents carved out a room and turned it into a crazy lab. It's what keeps her busy."

'So she doesn't go to school?'

"I know what you must be thinking, she graduated a few months ago. She got into college much earlier."

"Oh, ok." Her cheeks flushed red as she seemed to be too predictable. 

"Can you hand me that beaker?" Emily asked. He handed the beaker to her and as he did, his hand brushed against hers lightly. Emily felt her breath go short for a few seconds. It was a swift touch, but it made her whole being shiver.

"Thanks." After an hour of working, they decided to take a break. He ordered take out and they dug in.

"You're not as bad as I thought, no offence"

"Don't worry, I understand" There was a soft smile on his face. His blue eyes were sparkling, almost like stars. It was cheeky but that was what she was thinking at that moment. But the sound of the door bell brought her back to reality.

He went to fetch who was at the door and Emily cleared up the dishes and went back to the living room. She then saw Chris appear in front of her with a bouquet of roses. 

"Looks like my sister has a secret admirer." He concluded as he read through the letter. He hadn't noticed that Emily was shifting backwards, scrunching her red nose. Then she sneezed!

"Sorry." She muttered. She went farther away but she kept on sneezing. Emily was heavily allergic to roses but Chris hadn't figured that out. When he saw that her sneezing kept persisting, he rushed towards her, wanting to calm her down. But she yelled at him.

"No! Stay back!"

"Why? What's wrong?"

"I-achoo! r-roses…allergies. ACHOO!" Chris's eyes then widened.

"Oh! I.." He then scampered and placed the roses in another part of the house, hoping that would help. He then rushed back to meet her. In his hands a glass of water.

"Here. Take it easy." Her cheeks and nose were irritably red and her lips looked a little bit swollen. He got worried.

"Maybe you should go to the hospital, you look puffy." Emily drank all of the glass's contents 

"I'll be fine ... .It doesn't cause me that much harm…. unless I stay too long next to it. Or I'm completely surrounded by them."

He gently stroked her back and Emily couldn't help but lean into his touch just a little. Chris then made her look at him.

"The redness is fading." 

"Yeah, I told you it was nothing." She uttered with a smile. Chris then caressed the part of her cheek that was still red. Emily didn't know what to do. She just stared at the guy in front of her. 

"You're really pretty Emily. How I'm I only noticing you now?" Emily gulped. Now her cheeks were getting red out of sheer embarrassment. 

He was still caressing her cheeks, his eyes slowly drifted from her eyes to her puffy red lips. They were so inviting that he couldn't help leaning in to kiss her. Emily's eyes went wide. Chris was kissing her! She didn't know what to do so she just let him lead 

The butterflies in her stomach increased ten fold. She sighed gently and kissed him back. Cherishing the sweet moment of getting kissed by him. But then he pulled back. 

"I'm sorry, I just couldn't help it."

"I-its ok." She whispered. Their faces were still inches away from each other. But then, someone walked in through the open door.

"Chris! Why is the door…oh." Emily sprang away from him. She saw a lady in her early twenties staring at them. She had a few bags in her hands.

"Hey sis. I just got distracted." Emily felt like turning invisible at that moment 

"Suzy, this is Emily. My project partner."

"Oh, hi Emily."

"Hi Suzy…Thanks for your help."

"It's no problem." Chris then informed his sister about the roses. With wide eyes, she sprinted to where Chris had left them.

"We'll continue another day. Let me take you home."

That night, Emily fell asleep with thoughts of Chris, turning into a sweet and pleasant dream.