Believe Me, I'm Lying [New & Improved]

Chapter Fifteen

I frowned, staring at the clock. It was now half way through first period.

And Arden wasn't here.

Was he sick? He had looked fine yesterday. More than fine, actually. Was he ditching? No, Arden wouldn't ditch me— I mean, his punishment from the whole food fight thing... Suddenly it felt like a weight had dropped in my gut. The two-month quota was almost up.

I knew I should be happy for Arden, but I really liked the help and company. I would even miss Oliver's company when the time was up. Sure, the boys were a lot to handle, but they were also, in some weird way, fun. A sigh escaped my lips as I put my head down on my desk. I really wanted to know where Arden was. What if he was sick? Well, there wasn't anything I could do about that. He was probably just skipping. Not this period, but the whole day. But it'd be nice if he came in later...

I shook my head. Why was I so caught up with Arden? I still needed to get ready for second period. The sophomores were quite the handful. Frowning, I marched to the supply closet to get the necessities for the chili we were making.

Third period was dedicated to working on Tucker's lunch. After I had scanned the cabinets, I realized I didn't know what Tucker liked or didn't like, so I decided to go with something everyone usually liked— or if they didn't like it, they'd still eat it: Pizza. I also had some chili from second period left over. Starting to whistle, I began spreading pizza sauce on the pre-made dough. The school literally had every kitchen necessity, and ingredient, known to man.

Five minutes after the lunch bell rang, Tucker came stumbling into my room, looking mortified. I beamed up at him from my desk, which only seemed to increase his embarrassment. His face was tinting the slightest shade of red. When I started to smile, he shot daggers at me.

"Don't look at me like that," he snapped.

"Like what?" I asked innocently.

"Like I'm some kind of animal you're taking pity on."

Well, he had the animal part right.

I frowned at him. "I'm not taking pity on you. I like to cook, you can't cook, and you need lunch. It works out fine. However..."

Tucker looked at me questioningly. "What?"

I gave him a sheepish grin. "Do you think you could make me a list of things you like? I wasn't sure."

To my surprise, a small grin appeared on Tucker's face. And boy did he have a beautiful smile. His teeth were perfect! Before I could make a comment about it, he quickly rearranged his face into a nonchalant expression, and gave me a casual shrug. "Whatever."

"That's not going to help, Tucker."

"I'll eat whatever you want to make."

"I want to make something you like."

"Anything."

"Tucker."

"Ms. Allen."

I rolled my eyes. "Fine, but if you don't like it, don't blame me."

"Have you told anyone?"

"Hmm?"

Tucker frowned at me, his lips pressed in a firm line. "About why I come in early..."

"No!" I responded quickly, shaking my head. "I won't tell anyone, Tucker."

He nodded once. "Good."

An awkward silence settled in, and the only thing I could hear was the clock making quiet tick sounds as time passed. Tucker stood by the door quietly, his hands jammed into his pockets. His face was blank, and he was rocking on the balls of his feet. Eventually I had enough of the silence.