“You looked like an old lady with a bad hip trying to sit.” He chuckles.
“Um…” My hand tightens on my pencil. Andy’s glaring look also makes me nervous to talk. “I exercised last night, so my legs are sore.”
“Why were you exercising?”
Andy lifts his head higher. “Hey, back off, mate.”
“It was only a question,” Conner responds, his brow twitching.
“Squats,” I answer. “Can I study, please?”
Andy smirks. “You heard her.”
“Both of you,” I snap. Then, with an exhaled breath, I grab my pencil case and bag. “Leave me alone.”
I sit at the back, where Conner initially sat, and bury my head into an assignment I need to rewrite after Dad ruined the first one. During study break, I will use the library printer so I can hand in my Ancient History assignment tomorrow.
They don’t bother me for the entire lesson, nor do they seem to have spoken to each other. Conner and Andy lean as far away from each other as they can. There is history between them. If I were in their year and in the classes they had together, I could piece together the reason they don’t get along.
From afar, it seems Andy is driven by rivalry and jealousy. However, Conner curls his lips, and from what I remember, his friends cringed when Conner mentioned I hung out at the back of the building with Andy.
By the end of class,Conner heads down the hallway to his next class, and Andy walks me halfway to my health class before making his way to his block.
Samantha leans outside the classroom, chewing her gum. It doesn’t cover her cigarette scent, but she doesn’t care as she plays with her glittery pink lighter with a diamond skull. “Hey,” Samantha says. “How was art?”
“Annoying.”
“Hmm, why? Andy kept talking to you while you were working again?”
“And Conner,” I say. “It wasn’t their fault, though. Mr Rogers gave us a free session, but I just needed to finish some work, and they were bickering the entire time.”
“Did you tell them to fuck off?”
My cheeks turn red, and I look away. “No.”
“You wouldn’t say that to Conner, would you?”
“I wouldn’t say that to either of them.”
Samantha frowns. “I’m surprised Conner kept going. Usually, he’s…you know,”—she waves her hand in front of me—“better at understanding you than anyone else.”
“I think he wanted to irritate Andy.” I shrug. “They don’t like each other that much.”
She pockets her lighter when Mrs Kennedy opens the door and gestures for us to come in. A diagram on the board shows male and female anatomy, and the boys snigger.
“Wylan told me some time back that Andy and Conner got into an argument while they were doing a group assignment.”
“What happened?” I ask.
“Supposedly, Andy didn’t want to take part. Wylan didn’t really say much about it.”
I can see that. I can picture Andy not doing his work, being difficult to work with, and getting Conner to pick up the slack. Honestly, it would have pissed me off. The thought that I would have had to do everything and Andy would get a free ride wouldn’t bode well for me.
“Anyway, I doubt that’s why Andy is a dick to Conner,” he says.
I lower my focus and go back to work.
The rest of the day goes by quickly, and as I walk towards the car park, I head to Conner’s car, only to notice that it’s not there, and Andy is waiting for me in his car with a smile.