Sixteen

"You're never going to believe what just happened." I said, putting down my tray and sitting down at our "reserved" table in the cafeteria.

After the "meet and greet" with Harper, I walked straight into the girl's washroom to clear my thoughts, and to convince myself that I did the right thing by refusing to give Harper a chance. Every cell in my body wanted to go back and remove that despondent look on Harper's face, that I put there in the first place, but I had to hold my ground. 

My faculties were in total debate with each other. The sane part of me stressed the fact that I did the right thing by refusing him. He didn't deserve any more chances. He hadn't done anything that showed me that he was serious about me and after the things he said yesterday, it was going to take a lot more than painting my locker, balloons, chocolates, a rose, and a heartwarming love note!

I waited for the lunch bell to ring and then headed straight to the cafeteria, after deciding to ignore Harper to the best of my abilities. I had to simply flush him out of my system and I was prepared to do everything to achieve that.

I needed some alone time with my best friends and made a beeline towards our table.

I lifted my fork, ready to roll some spaghetti on it when I heard that voice.

"Sounds interesting. What happened?" My head whipped up to see Harper standing in front of me, on the other side of the table holding, his tray of food. 

My eyes widened in disbelief and Nat's and Sam's eyes bugged out of their sockets. I'm really glad to know that he has that effect on everyone!

Silence. Silence reigned in the cafeteria after everyone realized that Harper, the most popular boy in the whole damn school, was standing at our table. It wasn't unusual, it was bizarre. It wasn't that we were social pariahs or anything, we were just one of those people who blended in the background. Me and my friends were just there, not going out of our way to resist popularity and not trying to gain it either.

Sam, who was sitting beside me turned and raised a questioning eyebrow at me and Nat was still staring at Harper who had now, very comfortably, may I add, had sat down on our table.

I didn't have the strength to look and meet the eyes of anyone else in the cafeteria. In the teenage code of conduct, Harper had just made a very bold statement, and that too, in front of the whole school.

Everyone just stopped what they were doing and looked over at our table where, he had now started eating his lunch, not caring about anything.

"What the hell are you doing?!" I whisper-yelled at him.

He casually looked up innocently and shrugged. "I believe I am eating my lunch. It is lunch, isn't it?!"

Would someone help me plot his murder?

"I thought I made it clear that I wanted nothing to do with you. What the hell are you doing here!" I angrily whispered again.

He looked so bloody calm as if everything was just a walk in the park for him and it infuriated me to no end. I had, very clearly, given him my answer. Why couldn't he just man up and handle a rejection?!

"You know, whispering won't help you. At all. Half of the people in this cafeteria can hear whatever you're saying." He casually looked around the hall. People who had been keenly looking over at our table and trying to catch every single word spoken, averted their eyes when they realized Harper had caught them staring.

Wow! I wish I had that power over people!

I looked around the hall once again. People weren't directly looking at us anymore but it wasn't hard to know that they kept throwing furtive glances and their ears perked up whenever anyone on our table said anything.

People die for gossip here, I swear!

"What are you doing here anyway?" Nat said, turning her body to his side and giving him her full attention.

Sam raised an eyebrow at the gesture and I couldn't help but roll my eyes. Seriously, Natalie!

"I just had some unfinished business." Harper shrugged and looked straight at me as if daring me to say something against him.

I swear, if he shrugs one more time, I'm going to break his damn shoulders!

I narrowed my eyes at him. He didn't get to do this.

"It better not be what I am thinking, Harper." I don't think I looked threatening enough or he wouldn't have shrugged again!

He looked up from his tray full of spaghetti and meatballs and gave me a wink which turned into a full-blown smile.

He proved that a wink and a full-blown smile could go together. Wow!

Tingles erupted throughout my body and I could feel my cheeks growing warm. The effect Harper had on me and my body was simply unexplainable. After everything he had done to me, one would think that my body would side with my brain and stay away from Harper as much as possible and create an impenetrable armor. But I wasn't at fault here anyway, he just never left me alone. 

He leaned forward and gave a mischievous smile. "What if it is?"

"I think you should get up from this table and go back to your own." I pointed to his table in the center of the cafeteria where Aiden and the rest of the football team were sitting and watching us with curious and confused glances. Aiden met my glance and gave me a curious look, probably wondering why Harper was sitting across me, just like my friends were. And the whole school.

"I don't want to!" He went back to eating his spaghetti again. Is he serious?!

"I think we should just steer clear of any drama and get through this lunch period," Sam said while looking pointedly at both Harper and me.

I huffed and crossed my arms over my chest. I watched Harper have his lunch in peace while I kept glaring daggers at him.

I could get up from the table and walk out of the cafeteria, but I was hungry and I didn't want to leave the battleground. Not when he was challenging me at my home ground.

I gingerly picked up my fork and got back to eating my lunch, quite aware of the sneaking glances Harper constantly threw at me.

***

The week that followed was one of the most frustrating and exasperating ones of my life. In the days that followed, Harper didn't just make a statement, he had gone all out and made a declaration to the world, which landed me in the center of all the attention and the public's scrutiny.

Every damn day, my day started with finding Harper in front of my locker, waiting for me, before the first class started. He had the gall to just turn up even after I told him off.

I knew it was useless to ask him to stop bothering me. So, I didn't even try, but I was in no mood to entertain him by paying any heed to his futile advances to any kind of conversation starters.

Kudos to him for even trying to start a conversation for the second time after I gave him the deadlines glare, I could manage.

As if waiting for my locker at the start of the day wasn't enough, he stood outside after every one of my classes and "accompanied" me to the next one. It didn't matter that he didn't share the class with me, or that his class was at the other end of the school, he was always there. Waiting for me.

It does sound chivalric, but believe me, it is not.

Everyone gave us a pretty wide berth to let us pass in the hallways. If I wasn't a social pariah before, I was certainly a social disaster now.

Nobody talked to me and if they did, it was to enquire about Harper because everyone suddenly assumed that I was a walking encyclopedia about the guy. Girls sneered at me and gave me cold shoulders and boys gave me weird looks, probably wondering what Harper found remotely interesting in me.

Harper had conquered our cafeteria table and took the liberty of inviting Aiden to sit with us. I had once luckily escaped Harper when I went to the girl's washroom and discreetly went to the library instead of going to the cafeteria. That was the most relief I'd had in the week. He soon caught onto that, not that I was surprised.

He followed me even after school and sat at one of the booths at Monique's Bakery through my shift. And he ordered a lot of dark chocolate muffins. It was good for business so nobody was exactly complaining. But they were asking questions. Especially, Monique and Antony. Questions I didn't have any answers to.

Questions I didn't want to give answers to. 

Harper was practically stalking me, in front of everyone, as if he was a righteous man and wasn't doing anything wrong. I wouldn't be surprised if everyone in the town knew about it. It was surprising how my parents hadn't yet questioned me about him.

But not once, not even on a single instance did he make me feel remotely uncomfortable. He was pretty open about what he wanted and that appealed to me. He never hogged me; he was just sending out a clear message to me and everyone. The message was that he was going to keep trying to get my attention and I would have to listen to him, sooner or later.

It was a completely disastrous approach and if it had been anyone other than Harper, I would have dialed 911 as soon as I realized what he was doing. But this was Harper.

The insane part of me was winning and I could feel myself caving in.

As I cleaned the display case of Monique's, I couldn't help but steal a glance at Harper, who had his earbuds in his ears and was listening to some song after he had finished eating his lime pie. 

I am sure he has tried everything on the menu by now.

I squared my shoulders and took a deep breath. It was showtime. It was time to give him what he wanted and rid myself of his shadow. It was time to listen to him.

I made my way towards his table and sat across from him. As if sensing my presence, he promptly took out the earbuds and put them back in his pocket.

He gave me a charming smile which had me swooning. I returned it by giving him a small smile of my own. If he kept doing that, I would be eating out of his palm soon enough!

This was a first, I returned his smile and it showed on his face. The twinkle and joy in his eyes were unmistakable and it gave me immense pleasure that a small smile from me could do that to him.

"Ok, I'm here. What do you want?" I put both of my hands on the table and laced my fingers together. 

He gave me a nervous smile and rubbed the back of his neck, cheeks tinged red.

I bit my lips to stop the smile that threatened to break out.

"I want you to go out with me." His Adam apple bobbed up and down. "Like, on a date." He stopped fidgeting and looked at me with those green eyes of his, awaiting an answer.