River's Journey

by Arthurs, Nia

  Fitting.

  “Sorry to disturb you,” Clark said with the same amount of hesitancy he’d used yesterday.

  I arched my eyebrows and tilted my head impatiently. Could he get on with already?

  “I, um, I just wanted to ask if you’d printed out the essay?”

  The blood drained from my face. In the chaos of Mom’s confession and my mini-meltdown in my room last night, I’d completely forgotten.

  “Oh no.” I moaned. “I’m sorry, I totally forgot.”

  I checked my watch and hissed. Class was going to start any minute. There was no time to dash to the library and print out a copy.

  Mrs. Thornton demanded that we hand in our homework before the eight o’clock hour.

  Clark touched my shoulder and then quickly withdrew his hand. “I-it’s okay. I printed out a copy just in case. You don’t have to worry.”

  “Oh, thank God!” I pressed a hand to my chest. “Clark, you’re a lifesaver.”

  His pale cheeks and the tips of his large ears immediately flushed to red. If my world wasn’t so crazy right now, I would have laughed.

  “I-it was nothing.”

  “I could hug you.”

  His eyes sparkled and I saw the blue straining to overtake the overcast grey of his irises. “There’s no need for any of that.”

  “Okay.” I shrugged my shoulders and held my hand out for the assignment. “I’ll hand it up.”

  He quickly darted to his school bag and extracted the assignment from a folder. I grabbed the paper from him and kissed it.

  When Mrs. Thornton arrived a few minutes later, our essay was safely on the desk, ready to be graded.

  I exchanged a smile with Clark and he offered an enthusiastic grin in return. The kid had his moments, I’d give him that.

  I decided to make good on my promise of a hug when we all filed out of class fifty minutes later.

  “Thank you so much, Clark. I really missed the ball back there,” I admitted.

  “It’s okay.” Clark generously waved my colossal mistake away. “It could happen to the best of us. That’s what partners are for.”

  “You’re very sweet.”

  “I mean, I guess.”

  I laughed and opened my arms. In the midst of the busy hallway, Clark sent me a confused stare.

  He glanced at my outstretched hands as if I’d produced a second pair of limbs from the upper tier of my back.

  “Come on, big guy,” I waved him forward. “Bring it in.”

  He smiled and walked into my hold. My head barely made it to his chest. I squeezed him around the middle.

  “Audrey?” I recognized Stanley’s voice and quickly released my hold on Clark.

  I spun around. “Stanley!”

  Stanley Preston frowned at Clark and then his brown eyes cut to me. “This is Farm Boy?”

  “Stanley…” I warned. Clark had just saved my butt. He didn’t deserve Stanley’s ribbings. Stanley backed off but not before sending Clark a wicked grin.

  “I’m just repeating what I’ve heard you say, babe. Come meet me at the parking lot when you’re done with Clark, here.”

  Clark’s name could have easily been replaced with ‘moron’ or ‘idiot’.

  When he disappeared into the crowd, I winced. “I’m so sorry.”

  “No,” Clark shook his head. His face was red again but I knew it was from a different kind of embarrassment. “It’s okay. I’m just gonna go.”

  “Clark…” But he had already raced away.

  I sighed.

  I was right. This day had turned out to be a disaster.

  … For more look out for Audrey’s Choice in the Amazon store …