Time for School Ch. 15

As she processed my remarks in her head, I decided to let time resume. All the airborne water splashed down to the ground before I gazed over at her.


"Thanks," she vaguely replied, leaving me wondering.


"For what?"


"For ... sharing that with me. The thing about your time-stop power thing and ... the other stuff. You were right — you have changed and I'm sorry I misjudged you."


Hearing her say that couldn't have brought a bigger smile to my face. It proved infectious, as she smiled back at me.




But our smiles quickly faded when we both noticed a flash of lightning not terribly far from us. She shrieked at the sight of it and began to quickly head right back to her belongings amidst the booming sound of thunder.


"Time to go!" she exclaimed. "Hurry up!"


I smiled and followed her, heading over to the table where my stuff was. I quickly dried myself off before I slipped on my sandals. Samantha was already high-tailing it out of there, waving for me to follow. I left the safety of the awning to chase after her. Just as we began our dash to get back inside, rain drops had started to descend upon us. She shrieked again while I couldn't help but laugh. It felt like old times when we were little, running through the rain for fun. Back then, though, we actually wanted the rain to wash down on our heads. Simpler times.


But I should probably stop reminiscing – I'm trying to get out of the rain.




Samantha was kind enough to wait and hold the door open for me, allowing me to rush inside with her. The two of us laughed as we panted and caught our breath.


"Well, that was fun," she remarked. Both of us dried ourselves off with whatever dry spots we could find on our towels. "Reminds me of when we were kids."


"Yeah," I replied, thoughtfully. "I was just thinking about that, actually."


She smiled at me. "Sometimes I wish I could go back and relive those moments. But, ... I guess I kind of can now that you're back."


The two of us sat there and grinned at each other for a brief moment before I casually looked to the ground.


"Well, I guess I'll see you around," I said with a nod. She looked at me like I was insane.


"What do you mean?"


"Erm," I muttered, not quite expecting such a response. "I ... mean, I'll ... talk to you again sometime in the near ... future?" I replied, doing my best to define slang.


"I thought we were gonna hang out for a little bit longer." I was genuinely surprised that she wanted to be around me for any longer than she had to. "Don't you want to? I mean, we haven't talked in a long time. Plus, I can't just let you go after that whole ... insane time-stopping thing, which I can't even believe I'm talking about right now like it's a normal thing."


The look in her eyes told guilted me incredibly, like she was going to be heartbroken if I turned her down.


"Okay, I'll hang out for a bit," I replied before dropping my towel to the ground and taking a seat on it.


"Not here," she replied with an amused smirk. "I'm not sitting out here in the stuffy, old hallway. Come back to my place."


I raised my eyebrows in surprise as I picked up my towel and got back to my feet. I thought about it for a moment before shrugging casually.


"Why not?" I replied. She laughed before leading me on the brief trip to the elevators nearby. This was more of the Samantha I remembered.




As she pressed the 'up' button, a thought popped up in my head.


"Won't your parents flip if they see me just walk in with my bathingsuit on? I mean, I'm not even dried off yet."


"They're out for the rest of the day," she replied as the elevator doors opened. As we got in, she pressed for her floor, near the top of the building, before turning to me with a sly smirk. "We have the whole place all to ourselves."


I was surprised by how flirtatious that last remark was. Still, I was not one to complain if a girl had taken interest in me – especially not one as beautiful as her. I just casually leaned against the back wall of the elevator with a content smile, watching the numbers light up as the elevator made its upward climb.