The Unsolvable Equation

Chapter Five

“Alexia! Some good-looking boy is at our front door!” Alexia’s mom shouted.

Alexia quickly put the finishing touches of her makeup and tidied up her hair before checking herself out in the mirror once more. Hair check. Make-up check. Brain check. She grabed her book bag and laptop and made her way to her front door.

Woah.

Almier was dressed in a dress shirt, folded at the elbows and khaki pants. Man, he is so damn fine!

Almier grinned widely and extended his hand to Alexia’s Mom “Hi. I’m Almier. ”

"Some study date indeed. You look good enough to be going to the Opera! Please take care of my little Alexia! " she exclaimed.

Almier blushed. "Alexia, you don't look too shabby yourself."

Alexia rolled her eyes. "Mom, you always emphasize dressing. Cut us a little slack, won't you."

Alexia's mother grinned. "I was just saying, honey. Have fun!"

Once in the car, (and after Alexia had gotten over her mental freakout that Almier had a car), Almier turned to her, and the shyness from Day 1 returned. "I didn't know you wore make up," he said shyly.

Alexia fumbled over her words. "Not all the time. I just... My mom gave me a makeup set so i decided to try it on."

Almier looked down at his hands. "Well, I think you look good in it."

Alexia wasn't sure how to react to the compliment. Inside, her organs played a happy tune and the butterflies in her stomach went into overdrive. He thinks I look good. He Thinks I look good!

But all she could blurt out was, "So you think I don't look good without makeup?" Nice going. You just blew what could have been a potentially romantic moment. Are you satisfied now?

Almier's eyes widened and he fumbled for an explanation. "N-No. I don't mean that! I just... I mean … I-"

Alexia held up her hands, desperately trying to mend things. "Woah, Almier. It's alright. I was just kidding."

Almier's face broke into a relieved smile. "We're here," he said, a little too excitedly, and Alexia could tell her was grateful for the distraction.

They parked their car at the parking lot of the biggest library in town. They got their materials and exited the car. Almier made sure to pick the most secluded spot in the entire library, for privacy and to fulfil the “date” part of this “study date”. Alexia hoped she did a decent job in hiding her pleasure. Rule number one of first dates, K.H had read to her earlier on that day. Don't appear overly excited. Even though this is a study date, so I don't see what there is to be excited about, she had also snidely added.

They sat down and got their books out. Almier's hand slipped and his books tumbled down in a pile at this feet. He blushed furiously. "I'm sorry," he stumbled. And frantically bent down to gather them.

"Hey, no worries," Alexia said, and couldn't help noticing how cute he looked when he was stressed out. She reached down a handed his chemistry book back to him. It reminded her of Caden's chemistry joke, which left a sour aftertaste in her mouth.

Almier finally stacked his books neatly on the coffee table and looked at her, his face flushed. "What should we do first?"

"Erm, how about history?" Alexia suggested.

Almier broke into a smile. "Sounds good to me. I've always been fond of British history, especially Henry the eigth. How about we start there?"

Alexia wasn't particularly fond of British history, however she was fond of pleasing Almier, (K.H had also warned not to be too picky on the first date) so she went along. Almier began to describe to her King Henry's life in detail, spending a significant amount of time on his wifes and the way King Henry went about exterminating some of them.

Almier seems to keep forgetting that I am basically a walking encyclopedia. I know this stuff on the back of my hand! Oh well, I will just continuously stare into his blue eyes. This is pretty different than staying at home ranting on about the monotonies of life and the idiocy of most of the human race. I like it. Suddenly, something caught Almier's eye and he held her gaze for a moment.

Alexia's heart caught in her throat. What. What is it? Almier inch closer and closer. Are we going to kiss? How do you go about performing this so called “kissing”? Oh boy, you thought that school would teach us more useful things like this rather than focusing on useless logarithms that would not be of much use to the pathetic student body. Oh Gawd, oh mother, what do I do? Am I supposed to pucker up? What does that even mean? What if my breath tastes like shit? What did I even eat this morning?

Alexia’s heart raced and she was crossed her fingers, in hopes that Almier was more experienced at this than she was. She squeezed her eyes shut, held her breath and waited for it to come. Then, instead of placing his lips on hers, Almier raised his finger and flicked of a scab on her forehead.

“There was something on your forehead, but I got rid of it for you, so no worries.” Almier grinned, clearly oblivious that his good intentions had been misinterpreted.

"Oh," was the only reply Alexia could manage, as she tried her best to conceal her disappointment. Some kiss. Well, that was embarrassing. She prayed he could not read her mind.

Almier reopened the book. "Shall we continue?"

"Okay."

Almier inched closer to her again, and Alexia felt her face heat up once more. "You know what was my favourite part about Henry VIII?" he didn't wait for her reply. "That despite his infideity, he was married to his first wife for 24 years, which is 12 times the average lasting time of his 5 other marriages."

"Why's that?" Alexia asked, genuinely curious. Almier shrugged. "Don't know," he admitted. He glanced up again and stared straight into her eyes.

"But you know what they say. No matter who you meet in the future, the first love is the one you'll always remember."