White is for Virgins

Chapter 17

The teacher was showing us a boring slideshow about something relating to Calculus, and I felt a little bad for not paying attention but it was physically impossible. From my peripheral I saw Fox reaching for his backpack. Intrigued, I glanced over at him. He unzipped his backpack and reached in. His hand pulled out few Smarties and some Reese's Peanut-butter Cups. I licked my lips and smirked, which is when he finally turned over to look at me. He wiggled his eyebrows and placed the candy on his desk nonchalantly.

See, now if I did something like that, I'd get caught within seconds. And the goods would be confiscated. Life was unfair that way. I eyed Fox as he un-wrapped the Smarties and stuck a white one in his mouth - right on the tip of his tongue. I cleared my throat, careful not to draw unnecessary attention to myself. It certainly got Fox's attention, which was what I was going for.

"Can I have some?" I mouthed sheepishly.

He stared at me blankly as he pushed the smarty in between his two rows of teeth with his tongue.

"That depends," he smiled slyly, "What are you willing to do for them?" I rolled my eyes and sighed. He was truly hopeless. I regretted asking him for anything, even though it was just candy, and sat back in my chair. Pretending to be interested in an educational slideshow was twice as hard as actually paying attention to it, but I tried. I saw a hand move across my desk, and it left behind a Reese's Cup. I smiled victoriously and tore open the package.

Biting into the outer edges of the chocolate cup, I chewed happily, saving the peanut-butter inside for last. It was like the center of a sandwich, you eat the yummy crust to get to the scrumptious center. I looked over at Fox who I was aware had been watching me eat the whole time. We were both holding our half-eaten cups, both saving the soft centers for last. Copycat.

"Loser," I mouthed, pushing the last of the chocolate-peanut-buttery goodness into my mouth.

"Reject," he countered, finishing off his candy as well.

"Got anymore?" I asked less sheepishly this time. He smiled wickedly and unzipped his treasure chest of a backpack to reveal his stash of Halloween candy. It had taken up about three quarters of his backpack.

"Holy cow, dude," I murmured, staring at the contents.

"Yeah, Nick and I split the winnings last night," he said. "I took all the good stuff. It's crazy how much candy-corn I had in my bag. Rip-offs," he muttered. I smiled to myself, and the bell rang. Yes! I grabbed my backpack, and a handful of Fox's candy, and escaped the dull room to enter the traffic jam of a hallway.

I felt someone holding me back, a force counteracting with my forward motion. I didn't even need to turn around to know who it was. Fox held onto my backpack frequently throughout the day. Why? I did not know. He followed me to my usual lunch table and I sat across from Lily like always. The only unusual thing about this whole situation aside from the fact that Fox was sitting at my table was where he was sitting. Next to Lily.

Not like I expected him to sit next to me (ok, I kinda did...) but he didn't really seem to know Lily. That's a lie, he knew everyone. But they barely talked. From what I knew, anyway. Nick showed up and sat beside me, and we all sat there comfortably. Fox dumped half of his backpack onto the table, and we all grinned as he told us to dig in.

"You stole all the good stuff," Nick muttered, grabbing a few pieces of candy.

"Well I'm giving some back," Fox chuckled. "Don't hate, brah, appreciate." We all ate candy for a bit, and talked about normal stuff; nothing in particular.

"So, um," Fox swallowed the last of his KitKat as he turned to face Lily. She looked back at him innocently. "Wanna go out this Friday?" he asked spontaneously. You could practically taste the amount of shock in the air. I blinked several times before closing my jaw. Nick just sat there, completely still. I think he was holding his breath. But then again, I was too. That was beyond unexpected. From the look on Lily's face, I could tell she didn't see that curveball coming. None of us did.