Side Note: I Think I Love You (Side Notes Book 1) - COMPLETE

Chapter 35 - Attie

"At-Bat?" Amy's voice breaks through. All day, I've been hearing muffled voices similar to the adults in Charlie Brown. Just muffled, off-key, trumpet noises.

I look up from the instructions. We're doing a two-week long lab in physics today and me, Jason, and Amy decided to pair up and build our rocket for our projectile motion unit.

Yes, that's a thing you get to do in physics. The artist in me would have been excited if I wasn't so distracted.

"Did you hear anything we said?" Jason stares at me the way I would observe any of the cartoon paintings on my wall.

I blink at him and shake my head. "Sorry, what did you guys need?"

Amy looks over the table and reads the instructions. "So we need to decide what shape the top should be."

"Easy," Jason says. "A cone." He then turns to me. "Right?"

I barely hear him but I nod anyway.

"Attie?" He snaps a finger in my face.

I turn to him and glare. "Rude."

"Well, what are brothers for if not to be rude?"

I roll my eyes at him, which causes a soft smile to appear on my brother's face. He did that on purpose. Jason doesn't do things without a reason, which says a lot when his ADHD is taken into consideration.

I try to focus on the work in front of us but at this point, every little thing reminds me of Ian. He's in the class after mine, probably doing something similar to this. Hell, I swear I saw someone with a dragon pin on their backpack and immediately thought of the one I drew on his arm a couple of weeks ago.

It's not right to think so much about the boy who broke my heart but I can't help it.

This is why I chose to not get wrapped up in relationships! After what Chase did my sophomore year and what Ian had said–or hadn't said—to me...

And what I said to him...

I just don't think my head or my heart could handle it.

But I took that jump and landed headfirst on a rock that broke me. Not literally, but it might as well given how much it hurts. I let myself out of my head and look at what that led to.

The bell rings and we pack up our things. At this point, Mr. Ali is going by each group and checking on our progress. Luckily we managed to finish building our rocket before he finally approaches our table.

"Looks like you guys are ready for next week," he observes.

Jason and Amy pack up their things but I'm still sitting down and barely moving an inch. It doesn't hurt to move—come on, I'm not that dramatic—but I don't want to go to the cafeteria.

"I'll wait for you outside," Jason tells me before he and Amy walk out of the classroom. My best friend has to meet with her dad every day during lunch so it doesn't bother me that she leaves without a word.

"Attie, are you okay?" Mr. Ali asks.

"I'm fine, Mr. Ali," I lie.

He shakes his head, clearly not believing me. "No, you're not. It's so obvious."

I raise my head to look at him. He's a pretty tall guy—around six feet if I had to guess—with curly jet-black hair, medium-dark skin, and sleeves of tattoos on both arms. Mr. Ali also has the equivalent of a male resting bitch-face which has me wondering how this guy could know what goes on inside the mind of a teenage girl, despite being on the younger side of the age spectrum.