Page 3 of Perfect Chemistry

I was thankful that my parents were not home to see me like this. I had no doubts that my mom would have seen me and assumed I had been attacked by feral animals. I needed to stop getting emotional about someone who didn’t want me. I was just torturing my own heart by getting my hopes up, only to have them crushed in my face.

As I cried myself to sleep, I swore it would be the last time I ever cried over Kai Rayburn. He was a friend. He would never be anything more than just a friend. No matter what I thought, his actions were resoundingly clear: I was not his type.

October quickly rolled into November, and Kai was out of school during yet another chemistry lab. Mr. Tinneson assured me that I would be fine and let me pair up with another group to do the experiment. The two sophomores looked scared shitless to see me suddenly standing in front of their table. I just shook my head at their weirdness, and proceeded to set up the apparatus for the lab. They eventually got the hint, and joined in.

I was distracted half of the class, barely listening to what they were talking about until one of them bumped into me. “Sorry,” I mumbled and shifted out of his way.

“No, it was my fault entirely,” he apologized blushing.

“It’s okay. I won’t bite,” I said. “Unless you want me to, Taylor.”

The guy’s jaw dropped and his eyes looked like they were going to fall out of his head. The look on his face had me laughing in seconds. I couldn’t stop, even after Mr. Tinneson scolded me for distracting the other students.

“I’m sorry. That comment was inappropriate,” I whispered as we were leaving class.

He looked around him to make sure no one else could hear him, then leaned close. “It’s only inappropriate if I was offended. I’m not,” he said and then walked away.

I felt my face flush. Cheeky monkey.

Wait…. Did he just flirt with me? No. I needed to get through this year. Just get through the year and then off to the military.

Things never progressed with Taylor, and before I knew it the whole school was counting down the days until Christmas break. Unfortunately, midterm exams came right after vacation, so I would be studying the whole time.

Thirteen days remained but Kai was finally back at school.

“I told you not to mess with her. That’s what you get for playing with cra-” Bradley stopped talking as I took my seat in Chemistry. I didn’t know what he and Kai were talking about and I didn’t care.

I hadn’t really talked to Kai like I used to. He hadn’t been himself since Homeceoming, and it felt like I had lost my best friend. I began to wonder if that girl was something more? He used to talk to me before but now things were strained. He always seemed to miss classes when we had labs, and when he did come to class he barely spoke to me. I wasn’t paying attention to their heated whispers, then I heard someone mention my name. I lifted my head up from my work to see Taylor smiling at me.

He was one of sophomores I had been partnered with the numerous times Kai wasn’t in class.

“Sorry, did you say something?” I asked.

He actually blushed. That was new.

“Um, I was asking if I could borrow your notes from the labs?” he asked, eyeing me like I was going to vomit rainbows.

“Yeah, sure. Just give them back when you are done,” I said, pulling the lab notes and calculations from my binder.

Taylor. He was a beautiful guy, and I knew for a fact that half the girls in the senior class were after him. Somehow they found out I had labs with him, and they peppered me with questions about his likes and dislikes. I couldn’t tell them anything. I just never paid attention because of Kai. I suddenly felt bold, and took the papers back for a second and scribbled my number on the top.

“If you get stuck, or need anything explained just give me a call,” I smiled at him.

His eyes lit up, and that gigawatt smile of his actually got bigger. He leaned across the aisle toward me, and I instinctively leaned toward him.

“What if it’s not about the labs?” he asked quietly, eyeing my every facial twitch.

I thought about everything that I had endured waiting for Kai, and decided to be brave. “Taylor, I am happy to help with any chemistry problems you have,” I whispered back.

His face flushed bright red and he sat up straight at his desk. He was really cute, but I felt like I was soliciting a child. Yes, Taylor was beautiful and built like a young Norse God. He was 6 feet 2 inches tall, and just pure eye candy. But he was also 15.

He turned 16 soon, but I would turn eighteen shortly after that. This was never going to happen. I decided I would let him down gently whenever he got the courage to call me.

Notes passed over, I directed my attention back to my assignment, and repeatedly cursed Kai in my head for being a blind twat. Why couldn’t he just see me?

To my surprise, Taylor did call me that night. He stuttered at first but then we got to talking about the notes and he relaxed. He was stressed about his grades, because of baseball. It was a well known rule in our school that if any grade fell to a C, the athlete would be benched for probation. Getting a D or an F, could have them removed for a season.

The more we talked the more I learned about him. He was hoping to get a sports scholarship to an Ivy League. I was jealous of his dreams and ambitions. I just wanted to go away, and this guy was planning his whole life at 15.

---