Chapter 3

                                

"So what are you studying?" Carter questions, skimming his eyes over the notes I was taking.

"Nothing really, just making some notes on the topics we covered today," I replied.

"I will get to studying too then." He said, before leaving the place to gather some course books for himself. I go back to my work, pretending that I was busy in my work was much easier than truly acknowledging that he was sitting in front of me. I didn't want the buried feelings to resurface again, especially when he would never reciprocate them.

I heard the sound of a book being placed on the table and I cleared up some space so that he could use it.

We do our work in silence for a while, both of us engrossed in our work. I had to admit this felt a little nice. I hear the alarm on my phone go off.

Carter looks at me with a questioning look, while I quickly turn off the alarm.

"I will have to leave in a while so that I am not late for the usual bus that I catch," I told him. He nodded in understanding.

I started packing my things as quickly as I could. I could feel his eyes on me, and I hated it when people looked at me while I did anything. Especially the ones I wasn't well acquainted with.

"Celeste?" I heard him say my name. I stopped with whatever I was doing and turned towards him.

"Yeah?" I questioned. He looked nervous, as though he was contemplating whether to do it or not. I waited for him to say something.

"Do you maybe want to grab a drink before you leave?" He asked, scratching the back of his neck nervously. My heart skipped a beat, and I felt a shiver run down my spine down due to the nervousness.

"I don't know if I have enough time to do all of that and walk to the bus stand on time so that I don't miss my bus," I admitted. A part of me wanted to say yes and just not care about anything, and the other part of me was nervous and just wanted to run home.

"How long do you have?" He questioned.

"Roughly around 20-25 minutes. But it takes me 5 to reach the bus stop." I replied after glancing at my watch. I thought that would make him stop trying, but his face only lighted up.

"That's more than enough. We can make it if we leave now. We can take my bike so that we don't waste time walking and I can also drop you to the bus stop later." He proposed. I could feel the nervousness kicking up with twice the intensity than it would normally when he said that we could take his bike. That meant that I had to sit close to him.

"I don't know," I replied, a little hesitant about the whole ordeal.

" I reckon you are not a slow drinker. If you are, then we really have a problem." He said. He looked at me hopefully, and I pushed my nerves and my rational brain to the back of my head.

"Okay, let's do it. You better be fast Carter Jenkins!" I finally gave in and zipped up my backpack so that we could leave.

"Let's go then." He replied, his bag already packed and ready to go.

We speed-walked towards the parking lot, and I prayed that no one would see us leave together. I didn't want to explain to random people when I myself didn't know what this was.

"Hop on." He said to me handing me a helmet once we were in his parking spot.

I slowly sat on his bike, gingerly placing my hands on his shoulders.

He started the bike, and we zoomed through the college gates. He took a turn and entered a lane that I wasn't familiar with.

I didn't bother asking him where we were going. I was just hoping that we would have enough time rather than pretending that it was a chugging competition.

He stops in front of this milkshake place that had a few booths so that people could sit.

We entered the shop, and I looked around, taking in the aesthetic decor of the shop.

"What do you want to have?" He asked me. I looked over at the menu and decided to go with the cotton candy milkshake while he chose to have some chocolaty drink. I always steered clear of too chocolaty drinks, I would always get sugar high faster than you could say the word 'chocolate'.

I go ahead to pay for the drinks, but Carter stops me.

"Please let me pay for mine at least. I will feel crazy guilty," I reply. He frowned at that but let me do it anyway.

Besides this wasn't a date and there was no need for him to pay up for me. Not like I would let that happen if we were on a date either.

We grab our drinks and make our way towards one of the booths on the end.

He sits opposite to me, and we don't say anything for a while we just sip on our drinks in silence.

"So..." Carter starts.

"So..?" I reply, not really knowing how to continue the conversation.

"Say something." Carter coaxed. I couldn't hold myself, and I let my stupid mouth run.

"I am giving up on you!" I replied. I watched his face pale and confusion etched on his face.

"Did I do something?" He asked, unsure of what I had just said.

"No. It's this thing that I do where I randomly blurt out lyrics. So when you said 'say something', it reminded me of that song by a great big world." I quickly add. His relaxes a little.

"Ohh. My heart jumped a little when you said that to me." He said, chuckling a bit. I knew I shouldn't have done that, why did I have to ruin everything with my weird antics.

We talked for some more time. Me totally forgetting that I had a bus to catch, while I watched him smile and talk with me like we had known each other forever. For that moment, I had forgotten that he liked someone else, and I let myself pretend that this was something that my heart knew it could never be.

" Oh! Look at that we spent an hour here. Didn't you have a bus to catch?" He adds after a while.

"Oh shit! Fuck, Fuck. The next bus is not until for another hour." I say more to myself.