Acumen

Shit. Shit. Shit.

I'm late.

I'm never late for school.

As I'm running out the door with an apple in my hand I stop dead in my tracks when I see Charlotte leaning against the hood of her car.

Why isn't she resting?!

We've been over this.

"You're supposed to be resting" I scold as I stop in front of her which causes her to smile as she looks me in the eyes

"Whatever" she says with an eye roll "I'm so bored laying in bed, doing nothing all day while you're at school" She says as Carolina rolls down the drivers side window

"Get in, You're already late" she yells which causes me to gasp

How could I forget so quickly?!

"Can you drive me to school?" I ask which causes Carolina to roll her eyes as Charlotte laughs

"That was the point of coming here" she says before she walks towards the backdoor and opens the door open for me

I smile at her before I slide into the seat. She gets inside of the vehicle after me before closing the door behind her.

Carolina quickly reverses out of my driveway before heading down the street towards the school.

"You look cute today" Charlotte whispers near my ear which causes me to blush in embarrassment as I look down at my lap

I'm wearing dark blue skinny jeans paired with a cropped white halter top. I placed a light grey cardigan over the shirt since I don't feel like getting dress coded. I lastly have on a pair of low top white vans.

"Thanks" I say awkwardly as Carolina pulls up in front of the school

Thank the lords that I don't have to sit here and be awkward any longer.

Charlotte carefully gets out of the car before I grab her backpack and carry it since I don't want her putting any weight on her torso area.

As I close the door and look around us it looks like everyone has stopped what they were doing just to stare at us which causes my breathing to become harsher.

Oh god, this is bad.

This is very very bad.

"Ignore them" Charlotte says soothingly with a smile before she grabs my hand and drags me into the school

As her hand touches mine I feel my arm start to tingle which causes me to internally freak out.

What the heck is happening?!

I hear people whispering around us talking about how "I lied about us dating" or that "we're a cute couple".

"Charlotte, can you please let go of my hand. The rumors are getting worse" I whisper with obvious panic which causes her to frown as she quickly pulls me behind a corner

She looks me deep in the eyes as if she's trying to gauge my emotion before doing anything.

She gently places her hands on my cheeks before she uses her thumb to caress my cheekbone which causes me to instantly lean into her touch.

"Relax," she whispers before I close my eyes and take a deep breath in. I slowly breath out before opening my eyes.

"All you have to do is ignore them," she says as she continues to look into my eyes with a soft look

"They just want to get a reaction out of you" she says which causes me to nod so that she knows that I'm listening

She continues to look at me with an unreadable expression which causes me to blush as I look down at the hallway floor.

I've never seen her show this emotion to anyone before.

What does it mean?

She uses her thumb and pointer finger to lift my head up so that I'm looking into her eyes again.

She's about to say something but gets rudely interrupted by our hall monitor. I groan in annoyance as I think about all of the possible punishments that he could give to us.

"Why are you out here? The bell rung six minutes ago" he says as he stops beside us which causes my eyes to widen

Six minutes?!

I didn't even hear the bell ring!

"I-I'm so sorry, it won't happen again" I say in a fearful voice

I've never been late to class before.

Oh god, how would my mom react.

I'd probably be grounded and have to stop seeing Charlotte.

Oh god, I hope I can get out of this.

"Chill, we're on our way to class" Charlotte says to him in a calm voice which causes me to look at her as if she's gone mad

This guy looks like he could explode at any moment and what does she do? provoke him.

As Charlotte grabs my hand and goes to walk away we're stopped by him blocking our path.

"Move" Charlotte says with an emotionless tone which causes me to shiver from the coldness of her tone

"Y-you both h-have detention f-for three days" he says with a shaky voice which causes me to internally smirk

Not so tuff now are we.

Charlotte glares at him so hard that I can visibly see his legs start to shake.

"If you do not move out of my way in two seconds I'll make sure that the only thing you'll be able to give out is coupons in a chicken suit" She says which causes me to snicker

I know that she's just bluffing.

There's no way that she could get him a job where he has to stand outside in a chicken suit while handing out coupons.

The dude quickly scurries off as we continue to stand there.

I turn to Charlotte and frown once I see that she's angrily digging her nails into the palm of her hand. I gently stretch her hand open before I slide my hand into her hand.

She immediately squeezes my hand but not hard enough to hurt me.

I lead her towards an empty classroom before I close the door and turn to face her.

She's still pissed but her eyes soften when they land on me. I smile as I wrap my arms around her neck and hug her.

She quickly relaxes as she buries her face in my hair and deeply inhales before wrapping her arms tightly around my waist. I relax my face as I lay my head on her shoulder.

In this moment I didn't care that I was late for class. I didn't care that there could be another video surfacing about us. I didn't care that there were false rumors being spread about us.

All I cared about was making sure that my best friend is okay.

I care about her more that anyone would know.

I go to pull away but she doesn't release her grip around my waist, if anything I think she tightened it.

"I don't want to hurt you" I say since my body is pressed tightly against hers but her injury is still trying to heal

"Lets just stay like this a little longer" she whispers against my neck which causes me to bite my lip

Why does her breath feel so good against my neck?

I bet it would feel better if her-

Wait a minute, why am I thinking about this type of stuff?

I nod my head since I don't trust my voice at all right now.

Snap out of it, Aspen.

No more dirty thoughts about her.

Charlotte is your best friend.

She's only going to be your best friend.

She releases her grip around my waist only to grab my hand which causes me to blush as I look away.

"Is this okay?" She asks

"Y-yeah" I stutter out which causes her to laugh at my reaction

Why do I have to be so awkward?!

I hear the bell ring which causes me to jump in fright from the sudden noise but relax a second later.

"Come on, I'll walk you to class" she says with a smile as she opens the door and drags me out into the hallway

At least she's happier now than she was a couple of minutes again.

As we walk through the hallway people continue to stare at us as if we were the presidents daughter or something.

Of course there are those few people that are homophobic but all they did was glare at us before going back to their conversations.

As we're approaching my class we get stopped by Maddie.

Oh great, my day couldn't get any worse.

"Charlotte, you already made your move on the new girl?" Maddie asks in shock as she looks between the two of us

Charlotte rolls her eyes before looking at me with a confused look.

"She thinks I'm new ever since I started wearing my hair down" I say which causes Charlotte to smirk

"Well, I wouldn't blame her since you wore the same hairstyle for three years straight" she says teasingly which causes me to blush as I gently smack her shoulder

"The hairstyle suits me" I say which causes her to smile at me as she just stares at me with that same unreadable expression from earlier

"I think you look good in every hairstyle," she says as she tucks a strand of hair behind my ear

"Well, the hairstyles that I've seen you in" She says jokingly before bursting into laughter which causes me to roll my eyes

"Ha ha ha, very funny" I say sarcastically before we're interrupted by Maddie

"Aww, you both make such a cute couple" she says with a smile which causes Charlotte's smile to fall as she looks at Maddie

"What are you still doing here?" She asks which causes me to scold her about her attitude, even if she doesn't listen to me.

"I'll see you after class" she says to me with a smile before she kisses my hand which causes me to internally freak out

"Go before you're late to class" I say while laughing which causes her to smile wider before she turns around and walks down the hall towards her class.

Before I'm able to walk inside my class I'm stopped by a tight grip on my elbow.

"I don't know why I didn't recognize you earlier, Aspen" Maddie says as if my name burns her tongue

Oh, I wonder what gave it away?!

"The way she looks at you. Gosh, she's always looked at you that way" she says with annoyance clear in her tone

"Obviously you forgot about my threat, stay away from her" she says with a glare

"Or I'll make sure a bruise isn't the only thing you'll walk away with" she says lowly before she turns on her heels and struts down the hallway

Wait a second...

Charlotte has always looked at me a certain way?

Wait, why am I even listening to what Maddie says.

I walk into the classroom only to immediately get stared at as people's conversations change from random to all about Charlotte and I's "relationship".

I speed walk towards the back and plop down in my seat only to have Kayden look at me with a teasing expression.

"You told me that you and Charlotte weren't dating" he says which causes me to roll my eyes

"Because we're not, people just assume that we are" I say

"Well, how can they not when the both of you were photographed holding hands in the hallway. Twice might I add" he says which causes my eyes to widen in shock

"How do you know that?" I ask which causes him to roll his eyes as he takes his phone out of his pocket and quickly types something before showing me his screen

"An Instagram page?!" I shriek which causes him to laugh at my reaction

"Yeah, someone made it during first period. It already has seven hundred followers" he says which causes me to thread my fingers through my hair and pull

"This can't be happening" I say in shock

What if my mom sees this?!

What if Charlotte sees it?!

I didn't think things would get this bad.

"If I were you I'd be careful" he says which causes me to give him a 'duh' expression

"You think" I say sarcastically which causes him to hold his hands up in surrender

"Sorry" I mumble before I look down at the desk

I think Charlotte's rude behavior is rubbing off on me.