Bad Influence - popular girl x nerd boy

14- Lucas

Rome is already in the library when I enter. She is laying across one of the armchairs at a small table in the middle of the quiet room, her attention solely on her phone. The desk space is empty except for a closed MacBook.

No words are exchanged as I sit down across from her, and my friendly smile isn't returned as she opens her small computer and sets down her phone. During my last class, I finished the majority of my work so that I would be able to work ahead and help her with anything she needed. The embarrassment from the way I treated her is still fresh, and I wanted to prove that I could be better than I was.

I focus on the project, the knowledge of the Great War being typed onto the google document as quickly as I can bring it to mind, but my curiosity lingers on the girl in front of me. Her soft brown hair has been tied into a long braid, small strands falling into her face that she periodically moves behind her ear, to no avail.

A silence builds between us. I brainstorm things I can say while I work on a new section of the project, but nothing I come up with sounds like a good idea.

How was your day?

What are you doing after school?

What do you think of the prom theme this year?

No, it all sounds too stupid in my head.

I stay quiet, overthinking the noises I make when I adjust my sitting or fold a paper too loudly. Rome continues to work elegantly, her eyes never leaving the keyboard of her silver MacBook. She doesn't care that every time she changes her position she scrapes her chair against the floor, or how loud it is when her long, green nails click her keys. When she becomes too distracting to type my thoughts, I watch the words on the document grow and fill the page with electronic ink, unbothered. I notice that she mouths the words as she reads, silently shaping them in order to see what sounds good.

After an hour of working on the project, we are nearly done with the several pages of research and paragraphs that will later be turned into a full essay and slideshow presentation. The last few questions are Rome's, and although I am finished with my part, I decide to wait for her so that she doesn't have to work alone.

For a minute she pauses entirely, and I didn't notice how accustomed I had become to her loud shuffling until it was gone. In the corner of my eyes, I could see her sitting straighter, leaning closer to the desk and staring up at me. I expect her to say something, maybe ask me a question, but she simply shuts her mouth. Her eyes dart back and forth between me and her screen, and I realize she is too scared to speak to me again.

Rome looks away from me for the last time, fidgeting in her seat and staring at the question on her screen like it will solve itself.

"What do you need?" Light and friendly, I attempt to make my words as gentle as I can.

"I just need..." She clears her throat and suddenly all signs of anxiety are gone. She places a mask over her face and hides her nervous signs, acting like nothing was stressing her out at all. "I need help on the last problem."

I read the question in my head, and my mind blanks.

"I actually don't know the answer," I say, surprised.

"Wow, how do you not know this?" Rome mocks me, repeating the same words I said to her yesterday.

I cringe, wishing I could take back everything I said to her. "I deserved that."

"Definitely," she says, but the word is accompanied by a grin rather than a scowl. She jumps out of her chair and grabs her bag, stretching like she isn't used to sitting and working for so long. "We've been here for a while, do you want to leave?"