I was expecting, once the weekend was over, that Seth was going to jump even more headfirst into things than he was already. School was naturally somewhere I didn’t want to be; the idea that Seth would be all over me was even more of a disconsolation. Full boyfriend and girlfriend behavior was not on my agenda. We were supposed to be just-friends.

 

As I walked through the school’s entrance, I knew that it was my fault. I had given him too much liberty this weekend. The kissing, the flirting – it was only natural that he would increase his attentions if I responded in the way he wanted me to react.

 

Michelle was resting against my locker door and scooted over as I reached to flip open my lock.

 

“Hey,” she said, smiling briefly then turning back to her homework.

 

“Where’s Michael?” I shoved all my textbooks into my locker. I wasn’t exactly finished with all of my homework, but I was too tired to care.  On second thought, I pulled my Spanish stuff back out. I could at least get that finished before school.

 

“Sick.” Shell replied.

 

“Sick?” I peered at her face and noticed that she looked rather sick and tired herself. “What about you? Are you feeling okay?”

 

“Yeah…” She answered with a sigh. “…just tired, as always.”  I shrugged and continued to stuff my back-pack into my locker. When I finally got it in, the stupid door wouldn’t close. I pushed my leg against it and tried to get the door shut enough to click the lock closed.

 

“A little help here, Shell?”

 

“Hmm?” She finally glanced up, but her eyes quickly flicked to something behind me.

 

“Helps if the buckle isn’t in the way, Kate.” I whipped around at Seth’s voice, subsequently moving away from my locker and letting the door creak back open. He kept walking towards me, and I was about to take a quick and somewhat unnecessary trip to the water-fountain, but he just pushed my back-pack further into the deep, dark depths of my locker, shut the door, and clicked the lock closed. He raised an eyebrow at my about-to-flee stance, and I blushed. “Wasn’t going to attack you,” he mumbled, turning to go to his own locker. As he brushed past, he let his fingers graze my hands, and bent to whisper in my ear. “Not that I didn’t want to.”

 

My blush spread all the way to my ears that were now probably as bright as a firetruck. Good thing I’d worn my hair down.

 

I stared at his retreating back until Michelle let out a cough.

 

“Wanna…explain…that?” she asked while gasping for air. I just turned towards her, raising my eyebrows.

 

“You want to explain that?” I gestured to the hand covering her mouth and her incessant coughing.

 

“What?” she asked innocently. Her hoarse throat totally killed the tone of voice she was going for.

 

“You’re sick. Michael’s sick.” My finger went to my chin, and I scrunched my face, acting as if I was deep in thought. “There aren’t any logical deductions there. No way.” I dropped my pose as Shell’s face turned pink, and I couldn’t stop the chuckle from bubbling out of my throat.

 

She just stared down at her homework. “There’s nothing for me to explain. Nothing at all. You, however, have lots of explaining to do.” I shook my head.

 

“I’m not sharing if you aren’t.” With that, I turned away and headed for the library.

 

“Where’re you going?” Shell called behind me.

 

“To share my secrets with my other best friend, of course.” I grinned wickedly to myself, waiting for her protests. I was surprised when they didn’t echo through the hallways. Instead, I heard footsteps, slowing as whoever it was neared me.

 

“Secrets??? Oh, do share.” The high-pitched voice, definitely not Michelle’s, squeaked piercingly into my ear.

 

“Introducing Seth the creeper,” I mumbled under my breath.

 

“What’d you say?” he asked in a normal voice. And then in his sad imitation of a girl, “You aren’t keeping secrets from me, are you? Or calling me names behind my back?” I rammed my elbow into his ribs. “Ow! Geez, Kate. Put that thing away.”

 

“Then stop talking like a girl,” I retorted.

 

“Oh, that was because of my amazing―,” my elbow made its way to his side again, “―I mean, horribly awful acting? I thought it was because I’m a so-called creeper.”

 

“Both.”

 

He stopped abruptly in the middle of the hallway. “Ouch, that hurt, Kate.”

 

I told myself that I wouldn’t peer behind me, but I couldn’t help myself when a jarring thud rang out through the hallway. It was quite a funny sight: Seth was standing by himself in the center of the hallway with his books scattered around his feet, a wounded expression on his face, and both hands covering his heart.

 

I laughed and almost kept walking, but turned around despite myself.

 

“I think you’ll live.”

 

“And what if I don’t?” he asked, dropping his hands. “Will you try to revive me?”

 

“Over my dead body.” I flipped around then and reached the library doors as his bounding steps trailed behind me. 

 

“You don’t mean that.” He said, following me into the serene, comfortable space. His infinite energy clashed with the atmosphere, and the juxtaposition made me smile.

 

“How do you know?” I asked, dropping into a chair and pulling out my Spanish homework: more dreadful conjugations. But Seth grabbed onto my hand and pulled me to a back corner of the library. I stared indignantly at him as he set his books gently on the floor and then flopped down beside them.

 

“See?” he asked. “I’m dying.” He proceeded to gasp for air and grasp his chest like his heart was about to come flying out at any moment. “Help!” he cried, albeit softly because of our surroundings. I just shook my head.

 

“Seth, this is ridiculous. Get off the floor.” I rolled my eyes and stuck my hand out. “Come on, I’ll help you up.”

 

He ignored me. “…need…air. Won’t…any…one…help…me?”

 

I nudged his leg with my foot. Miraculously, the gasping stopped.

 

“Please?” he said. “Air? I’m dying here. You can’t just walk away.”

 

“Can too,” I answered, taking one step back to the main area of the library and then sighing. “But I won’t. At least stand up first – there’s no way I’m getting on the floor.” His long fingers wrapped around mine and as he pulled himself up, he tugged me closer. I stared up at him, waiting for the kiss that should have been coming but wasn’t for reasons unbeknownst to me. I was both aggravated and relieved at the same time: all that flirting for nothing? But kissing in the library was risky business, after all. Getting caught meant a definite detention.

 

“Well? Gonna up my air supply now?” The smirk on his face was so…so…I had no choice but to wrap my hands around his neck and wipe it off.  His arms found their way around my waist, closing the gap between us even more.  When I pulled back, we were both breathing a little heavy.

 

“You know, Seth, I don’t think that really helped your air supply; quite the opposite, actually.” I shook my head at his logic. It was silly, but somehow life seemed to always work out in his favor. Then again, maybe I was just a push-over. Nevertheless, my quest to keep only friendship between us was definitely being overridden, no thanks to Seth or my crazy teenager hormones. “Did someone spike your orange juice this morning?”

 

“Didn’t have any OJ, so no.”

 

“Ah, then it must’ve been those tainted cheerios.”

 

He just grinned at me then bent down to pick up the books that had fallen from my hands along with his own stack.

 

As we headed out of the wall of shelves, a cough sounded out behind us. I turned quickly, fearing some faculty member had seen Seth and me, but it was only a freshman frantically texting on her cell phone. I sighed in relief, Seth chuckling at my panic behind me. We stepped out the doors just as the warning bell rang.

 

“Hand me my books, Seth. I’ve got to go back to my locker.” He slid them into my arms, tugged on a loose piece of my hair and headed to calculus.

 

“See you in class?” he asked over his shoulder.

 

“Nah, I’m skipping,” I called back, shaking my head. Where else would I go, goody-two-shoes student that I was?

 

I grabbed my textbook and then headed to calculus, almost dropping my calculator at least three times. As I passed by the office, I saw a group of girls huddled around the student message board. Their high-pitched chattering was only getting more excited as they continued to mingle amongst themselves, eyes glued to a poster with glittery writing covering every inch of its green surface. While I was interested in discovering the source of all of the hullabaloo, I wasn’t intrigued enough to force my way through the gaggle of girls, so I trudged on to calculus, saving the mystery for later.

 

Little did I know that Seth had already discovered what all the fuss was about and was ready to ambush me. As soon as my foot crossed the threshold of the classroom, he was hovering at my side.

 

“So, Kate, have you heard the news?” he asked, grinning widely at me, his blue eyes twinkling with excitement. I sidestepped him and headed for my desk.

 

“Nope, but I’m guessing it has something to do with the growing blob of girls circling the bulletin board outside the office.” I dropped my books on my desk and watched resignedly as my calculator slid to the floor. Seth bent to pick it up.

 

“Don’t you want to know what’s going on?” he asked, fiddling with my calculator cover before finally yanking it off.

 

“Well, I suppose I do, since you so desire to tell me.” I flopped into my seat and snatched my calculator from his hands. “I’ll be needing that. You know your seat is over there, right?” I pointed to his stack of books on top of a desk in the corner.

 

“Nah, I’ll sit here.” He slid into the desk behind me and got one of his other friends to pass him his books. His friend nodded his head at me and winked to Seth when he thought I wasn’t looking. Ugh. I wasn’t sure I was gonna like this news.

 

As Mr. Bloomgard read the attendance list, Seth leaned his head towards my ear.

 

“How many holidays are in March?” I turned my head slightly towards his.

 

“Uh, one?” He stared at me, waiting for me to elaborate. “Ummm…the Ides of March?” He laughed.

 

“Caesar’s death doesn’t count as a holiday, sorry. Try again.”

 

“Ummm….I got nothing.” I pulled my notes out because Mr. Bloomgard was about to start scribbling examples all over the board, and I would need every single one to finish my homework. Seth apparently didn’t take the hint.

 

“Come on. Little green men? Rainbows?? Pots of gold??? Ringing any bells here?” I turned to face him.

 

“St. Patrick’s Day? Since when does any thing of importance happen on St. Patty’s Day?”

 

“This year.” He smirked at me.

 

“Whatever for?” I was still facing him and praying Mr. Bloomgard wasn’t going too fast.

 

“Well, there’s gonna be a-”

 

“Kate.” Aww crap. Speak of the devil. Mr. Bloomgard was staring right at me, or the back of my head, rather. “Do you have eyes in the back of your head?”

 

“No, sir,” I answered sheepishly.

 

“Then I suggest you take notes and stop flirting with your…friend.  I’ll treat you like two third graders and assign you seats in opposite corners of the room if you keep this up.” Mr. Bloomgard turned back to the board. I blushed, feeling everyone’s eyes on me. Seth brushed his finger against the side of my neck; it was meant to comfort, but it did the exact opposite- my face went even redder, and my heartbeat skyrocketed. I jerked away and hastily started copying the notes, not even caring if Seth finished his sentence.

 

He cared, though, because two seconds didn’t go by before I felt his breath on my neck again.

 

“There’s gonna be a dance.”

 

I dropped my pencil and fell back into my seat with a huff.

 

Crap. Crap, crap, crap.