A sweet short story I distracted myself with while I work on something else. Enjoy!!

schrödinger equation

“quantum state equation that represents the behavior of an electron around an atom.” 

I pushed forward even faster. My legs and my lungs were screaming at me to stop, but I didn’t want to. I had to constantly jump over random branches and roots of large, tall trees, but that only made running more fun; at least until the dammed, unpredictable southern weather decided it would be fun to pour on me.

“Dammit,” I muttered, stopping.

The cold rain was refreshing, but it was falling with such force and intensity that the ground already felt slippery.

So much for my Saturday morning jog.

Sighing, I began to carefully make my way back to the dirt road between the trees that lead home. It wasn’t until I was only a few steps from it when I saw him.

Now, let me explain something to you. I live in a small town called Galvin that is located in Georgia’s most middle-of-nowhere. I’m speculating here, but I’m pretty sure we have more trees than we do people. We don’t even have a high school. All of us teenage kids have to take a long bus ride to the nearest town to go to class. And most of us will probably never even get out of Galvin. But that’s just life in a small town. A small town where nothing happens. Like ever. And I mean that. I think the most exiting thing that has happened over the last fifty years was when old Mr. Furrower brought a charged rifle to the civil war reenactment and perforated Mrs. Hallis’ favorite pink hat.

At least that was how it had always been until that faithful Saturday morning, when I found an unconscious astronaut lying in the middle of a commonly untraveled road. While it was pouring.

Now, don’t judge me here, because I usually don’t do things like that, but I didn’t run away when I saw the suited person lying there. I guess the part of me that loves science took over, causing my curiosity to get the best of me. I didn’t run, I walked closer.

I picked up a random branch and waited for the person to do something. I couldn’t see their face because the astronaut helmet had reflective glass. The only indication I had that there was actually someone in there was that the suit moved up and down regularly where a chest was supposed to be. I frowned when I noticed that the breathing was unlikely slow, like whoever was inside was sleeping.

I crunched down close to the suit, my branch at the ready in case I needed to defend myself. I could see my distorted reflection in the helmet. Slim girl, blond hair up in a ponytail, red shorts, white top. Crunching next to an astronaut. Who could probably have a dangerous weapon somewhere inside his suit.

So, of course, I did the only sensible thing there was left to do.

I poked him with my branch. Hard.

“You okay?” I yelled at the astronaut, hoping he would hear me through the rain and his helmet.

My response was a groggy grunt. Then, he or she–or it, I don’t want to discriminate–, tried to sit up. Quite unsuccessfully, I might add.

Of course, by this point, I had taken a few steps back and was watching the suit expectantly. My mind was running through every possibility of who he/she/it was and where he/she/it had come from.

The astronaut, now sitting up, took the gloved hand to his helmet. I think he tried to say something, but I couldn’t hear him through all the sound barriers.

“What?” I yelled, frowning.

Realizing I couldn’t hear him through the helmet, he tried to pull the visor up. But the his gloved hands were making that job hard for him.

“Just take your time,” I yelled, starting to feel cold.

The astronaut kept fumbling with the bulky gloves, instead of just taking them off.

Large droplets fell from tree branches down towards us, and I really wanted to leave and go home. I didn’t care if he/she/it was an astronaut or an alien. I wanted to go home and get some dry clothes on.

But, of course, just as I was getting up, the astronaut got the visor up and I could see his face.

Aidan Geller, my Chemistry lab partner.

Now, Aidan Geller was even geekier than I was. He was hot and did have a lot of friends, but he usually wore graphic T’s with Star Wars quotes, was the best in his Advanced Algebra class, and treated National Geographic Magazine as his bible.

And, that day under the unusually freezing southern rain, he sported a black eye and a bleeding nose. Which was quite shocking, since he abhorred violence and always spoke against it.

“Hellooooooow Liiiiaah,” he slurred. And then giggled.

I am not the kind of person who is easily surprised. But seeing geeky Aidan Geller drunk certainly came as a shock.

“Aidan?”

“Mm hmm?” he slurred again.

“Are you drunk?”

I knew the answer to that question. I was just shocked enough to have to voice it.

Apparently, he was on denial. “What?” he spat, looking deeply offended. “Frow can you even sway that?”

“Okay, come on,” I said as I took one of his gloved hands and tried to pull him up.

“Me stay here want–”

He didn’t get to finish his Yoda complaint, since I tripped because of the now muddy dirt. And feel on top of him.

“Ouch.” He grimaced. “You are heavenly.”

“Heavenly?”

“Heavy. Whatlever,” he said. “Swame thing.”

“In what world?” I said, holding back a smile.

Aidan giggled. Again.

He didn’t stop giggling until I somehow managed to pull him up.

I knew he lived back in town, and I had absolutely no idea how he had gotten to that completely inhabited part of Galvin by his own. I suppose in the state he was in, it is possible to do pretty much do anything. For a moment there, I actually thought of taking him to his house, but with that rain and with him hardly being able to stand up, I knew that wasn’t a choice.

“Where are you taking me, mommy?” he asked, leaning into me, making our walking through rain and mud extremely difficult.

“To my house. And don’t you ever call me mommy again.”

“Kay,” he said. And then giggled.

✾

Getting home that day turned to be one of the most difficult things I had ever done. Even harder than my Physics final from the year before. And that was saying much.

I think it took us about twenty minutes to get there, and all the while Aidan kept mumbling random facts about whales and asking where did their pee go to. I had no idea what the answer was. He didn’t want to believe me.

When my house finally came into view, Aidan stopped. I turned to look at his terrified face, trying to figure out what the hell was wrong now.

“We can’t go in there.”

I sighed. Why was I helping him, again?

“Why not?”

“Haven’t you seen that movie? Cabin In The Woods?”

“No. And I don’t think that happened in the southern woods. So you’ll be fine. Besides, it’s my house.”

Aidan looked confused. “You live in a cabin in the woods?”

I sighed again. “Yes, Aidan. I live in a cabin in the woods. No please lets go inside before either of us catches a cold. And by either of us, I mean me.”

“Why not me?” he asked as I dragged him to the door.

“Because you are wearing a freaking waterproof astronaut suit.”

“Oh. Really?” he asked, looking down at his suit as if seeing it for the first time. Since when?”

Let’s just say I didn’t answer his question, but I did think of a long stream of very bad words.

I opened the door to my house and soon the warmness of the place enveloped me. I could feel myself relax as I walked inside and grabbed a warm, dry blanket to cover myself with it. With a happy sigh, I let myself fall down into our couch. Just to see that Aidan was still standing by the doorway.

“What are you doing there? Get in! You are letting all the heat out!”

He shook his head. “You have to invite me in.”

“Why?” I cried.

“Because I can’t come in if you don’t invite me in.”

“That’s vampires, Aidan. Not astronauts.”

Even from my place in the couch I could see his eyebrows creasing. “Are you sure?”

“For gods sakes. YES! Now come in!”

“Kay,” he said with a shrug and stepped in.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to tell him to close the door behind him, because he did that by himself. Very slowly. I didn’t even waste my time is asking why.

Once he was inside, he stood in place, looking around my home awkwardly.

I stood up and handed him a blanket. He took it and draped it over his suit.

“I’ll go get a shower, okay? You can stay here and watch TV or something.”

“Kay,” he said, looking at me with weird intensity.

“I’ll bring you some coffee so you can sober up a little.”

“Kay.”

I made sure he was sitting down and not walking around braking things or something, and then I stepped into the kitchen. The clock said it was seven thirty, so I knew my mom had already left for work in the nearest city, two hours away from Galvin. I think the only reason we didn’t just go and live there was because mom loved our little cabin. It was cozy and warm and so private. Our little corner in the middle of the world.

I poured some freshly made coffee into a large mug and walked back to Aidan.

“I really hope this helps you sober up, because I find this version of you extremely disturbing,” I said as I put the mug down by the table.

When I got no answer, I turned to look at Aidan.

He had already fallen asleep. With his astronaut helmet on.

“Seriously?” I whispered, shaking my head and trying not to laugh.

 ✾ 

radiation

“energy in the form of waves or subatomic particles when there is a change from high energy to low energy states.” 

I took a long shower. I figured my drunk and sleeping guest wouldn’t mind much. It wasn’t until I was already dressed and combing my hair that he actually gave signs of life.

“Leah?” I heard him grumble loudly. His voice wasn’t chipper anymore. “Leah?” he yelled again, louder this time.

I walked out of the bathroom and into the cozy living room. “Yes?”

“Help me,” he moaned. “Please.”

Holding back my smile was hard. Really hard. And I know that probably sounds mean, but it wasn’t every day that I got to see one of the cutest (and geekiest) guys in school wearing an astronaut suit and feeling like dying, on my couch.

“Depends,” I said as nonchalantly as I could.

“On what?”

“Are you sober?”

“If being sober means that my head is killing me and everything hurts, then yeah,” he groaned.

I walked closer as he fought incessantly with his astronaut helmet, trying to take it of.

Apparently, my amusement at his unsuccessfulness didn’t pass unnoticed, because it wasn’t long before he stopped trying to get it off and said, “Why are you smiling?”

“I'm not smiling,” I said quickly, trying to keep a straight face.

“I can see you, Leah. Why are you smiling?” he said as he got back to working his helmet.

“It's just that...” I began as I walked closer and slapped his hands away, ready to get the dammed thing off myself. “I recently found goody-goody Aidan Geller passed out drunk in the middle of the woods,” I finished. And smiled some more.

Through the small gap that the visor left, I could see Aidan scowling.

“Don't glare at me! I just saved your ass from drowning!” I said as I kept trying to push the thing off. I had now stopped trying to do it kindly and decided to resort to force. Which was probably why I ended up being able to remove it. But not without punching his nose on the way.

“Ouch,” he cried, his hands traveling to his now re-bleeding nose.

“Sorry.” I grimaced. “That was harder than I thought.”

His eye was darker than before and now I could see he also had a split lip. That had certainly not been the guy’s day.

“Why are you wearing an astronaut suit, anyways?” I asked him.

He let out a tired sigh and leaned back on my couch. “Long story.”

“Well,” I said as I dropped the helmet on the table and walked back to the bathroom to get the first aid kit. “Seeing as it is raining cats and dogs out there, I figure we have some time.”

He leaned his head back and groaned. “It’s stupid.”

“Oh, I bet it is,” I said, dropping down next to him.

“Please stop smirking. It makes my head hurt.”

I rolled my eyes. “That’s what that coffee mug and the aspirin beside it are for. Now look at me so I can stop that bleeding and see what can I do with your eye.”

He immediately shot back up. “What happened to my eye?”

“It’s purple. Going black.”

“Oh god,” he groaned again.

“Stop complaining!” I said as I slapped him lightly on the arm.

“Ouch.”

“Baby.”

He stuck his tongue out. “Geek.”

“Oh, if anyone is a geek here, that'd be you. Now stop moving so I can take a look,” I said, taking his chin and inspecting the damage.

“You are wrong there. Geeks are the type that love school and staying home. Like you.”

“Fine. Nerd, then?”

“What makes you think I–?”

“Come on. You wear Star Wars T-shirts, you live by a non violence ideal, you don't drink at parties–”

“You don't go to parties.”

“–You speak with a Yoda voice at least once a day and you recite random animal facts all the time. For fun.”

Aidan shrugged. Then winced when I applied some alcohol on his wound.

“I still want to hear your great story,” I told him as I finished cleaning the dry blood.

“I didn't say it was great.”

“Seriously? It ends with you wearing an astronaut suit and me rescuing you.”

Aidan rolled his eyes at me, but he was actually smiling. I had seen Aidan Geller smile a lot of times. But he had never smiled at me. Mostly he just groaned and complained about how much he hated Chemistry.

“You know, you are not as geeky–sorry, nerdy–as I thought you were,” I said aloud. I hadn’t intended to. But I did. He smiled even wider.

“Of course I’m not,” he said, his smile turning into a smirk. And then a disgusted grimace. “I dated Callie Harris, remember?”

“Right,” I said with a small nod.

Callie Harris was your typical high school cliché. Pretty, popular, and with no future whatsoever after high school.

“Why did you do that, again?” I asked, remembering just how bad it had ended between them. Publicly, of course. Callie needed her drama.

“Maybe because I’m just stupid like that?”

We both looked at each other for a few seconds. And then laughed.

“No. Really,” he said with a sigh after our little giggle party. “I’m stupid.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Does this astonishing statement have anything to do with the fact you were drunk at six in the morning?”

“Maybe.”

“I’m all ears then.”

“Well,” he began, leaning back and looking forward, as if trying to picture what he was about to say. “I guess it all began a couple of days ago.”

“With the break up?”

He nodded. “Yep. It was horrible. I was just trying to tell Callie that I was tired of her telling me what to do–or not to do, actually–when she just began yelling at me and making a scene.”

“I know. I was there.”

“Right,” he said, his cheeks gaining a pinkish tone.

“So. What does that have to do with you getting drunk? Are you missing her or something?”

“Oh, god no. I hate her.”

I laughed. “So, then? What happened?”

“I went to Mike Poller’s party last night. I was searching for Roger–“

“Your best friend?”

He nodded. “Yes. So I was searching for him when I see him kissing this girl. Now, don’t judge me here but–”

“Too late pal. I found you in an astronaut suit.”

He rolled his eyes. “Let me finish. The thing is, I see him and I get closer to see which girl he has managed to lure in.”

“Lure in. Wow. That’s quite the expression.”

“Shut up and let me finish, Leah.”

“Fine, fine.”

“So… Where was I?” He frowned.

“You get closer…”

“Right. I get closer and I see who this girl is.”

“Let me guess,” I say, but I’m not trying to be clever. I actually fear I might be right. “Callie.”

He nods once softly and I can tell it pains him to do so. “If it had been any other guy, I wouldn’t have cared, but…”

“It was your best friend.”

“Yeah.”

I tried to imagine what it would be like. Having someone you trusted so much doing something like that. Four days after you broke up.

“I’m sorry.”

He smiled sadly at me. “Me too.”

“And that is why you got drunk, then, right?”

“Yeah. I go so mad. I wanted to kill Roger.”

The conversation wasn’t funny. At all. But I still chuckled. “Sorry. It’s just… you wanting to kill someone.”

“That was my exact reaction!” he exclaimed. “I’m not like that. I’ve never been like that. So I decided to try to have fun and clear my mind.”

“Hence the drinking.”

“Hence the drinking, yes. The more I got drunk, though, the more I got mad. So, eventually, I was so drunk I decided to fight Roger. I looked for him around the house, opening doors and everything. And that’s how I found the astronaut suit in Mike’s grandfather’s office. And before you ask, no, I have absolutely no idea why he had one.”

I laughed, trying to imagine a drunk Aidan attempting to put that thing on.

“And you just randomly decided to wear it?”

I could swear he blushed a little. “I thought it was an armor that would protect me from getting punched.”

“Look how well that worked for ya’.”

To my surprise, he didn’t get mad. He actually laughed. “Tell me about it. Now my head, my lip, and my eye are killing me. And let’s not talk about the nose.”

“I’m surprised you can even remember all that.”

“Me too.”

“But, wait. How did all the bruising happen?”

This time, Aidan blushed harder than before. He couldn’t look into my eyes when he whispered, “I think I tripped down the stairs.”

I believe I hadn’t laughed that hard in a long time.

✾ 

Eventually, after I calmed down, Aidan made me apologize for laughing at his clumsiness. I did. But we were both laughing, so I don’t think it really counted.

The rain was making it impossible for him to go back home just yet, so we decided to watch a movie. But, of course, a movie wouldn’t feel like one without food, so I raged my kitchen until I found something suitable. We didn’t have popcorn, but I did manage to find a frozen pea bag for Aidan’s eye and an ice-cream carton for my hungry stomach.

As soon as he put the pea bag on top of his eye, Aidan moaned. “God, that feels good.”

I chuckled and opened my ice-cream carton while searching for something to watch on Netfilx.

“That looks good,” Aidan said. When I turned to look at him, I realized he did not mean the Barney movie, but my ice-cream.

“Get your own spoon, then.”

He shook his head. “Nah,” he said, and then, to my horror, shoved his finger inside my immaculate, creamy breakfast.

I pulled the carton as far away from him as possible. “Why would you do that?” I yelled at him. “That's disgusting!”

He shrugged. “It tastes better this way.”

“Gosh,” I muttered, disgusted. “Come on,” I said, handing it to him. “Take it.”

“What about you?”

“I'll go get another one.”

I was already in the kitchen when I heard him scream after me.

“Can you bring me a spoon?”

“Use mine, you pig.”

“Ack. I'd rather use my finger,” he yelled back.

When I came back with a new ice-cream carton and a spoon for Aidan, he was already eating with mine.

“You are disgusting,” I said, but I was smiling.

And so was he. “So are you, geek.”

“Nerd.”

“Geek.”

“You already said that.”

“Whatever. Let’s watch something!” he chirped excitedly.

“How about an astronaut movie?” I smirked.

“Oh, shut up, geek.”

“I wouldn’t treat the girl that gets me free A’s in Chemistry like that.”

“Fair enough.”

✾

heat

“energy transferred from one system to another by thermal interaction.”

“HOLY SHIT” I screamed as I jumped, shut my eyes close, and hid my face in Aidan’s shoulder.

He laughed. “And here I thought you were the kind of geek that stays at home watching movies instead of going out.”

“Oh, I am. I just don't watch stupid, senseless, and plotless horror movies.”

“Key word there being horror.”

“Exactly.”

We both fell into silence and he went back to watching Cabin in the Woods. But I was more interested on watching him.

He was so… different to what I had expected. I had always thought of him like the geeky guy with good looks and popular friends. But he was so much more. Was it always like that? Did people always have superficial ideas about who other people are, just to discover that their idea was completely wrong? Or did that happen just with people like Aidan?

“You are staring, Leah,” Aidan whispered out of the blue, his eyes still of the TV.

“I know,” I replied, and that was enough to make him look at me.

Which was somehow uncomfortable. So I said the first thing that came to mind.

“You know, you say kay a lot when you are drunk.”

Aidan frowned at me “Kay?”

“Yeah. Kay. Like in okay.”

“Oh,” he said. Then raised his eyebrows. “Really?”

“Yep.”

“Interesting.” He nodded, looking like he was actually thinking about it; about why would he say kay instead of okay.

I smiled at how cute he looked when he focused. I wasn’t used to see him that way. He always just groaned a lot or slept during most of the only time we spent together in Chem.

I turned to look at the horrifying movie I was eager to see finished. After a while, I turned to look quickly at him just to see that he was staring back.

“What?” I asked, surprised at having catching him.

“You have a pretty smile,” he said.

Then, even if it was dark, the only source of light being the TV and the occasional lightning bolt, I saw him blush.

“Sorry,” he said. “I…”

I shook my head. “It’s okay,” I said. And then, I smirked. “So have you, by the way.”

I bet that if I had been quick enough, I would have caught him blushing red, but the whole lot of blood splattering that happened to occur in that exact moment made me scream like a little girl. And so there was no time for me to look at him before he was cracking up at me.

✾

“Well, you seem comfortable,” I said as I turned on the living room lights and saw Aidan leaning on the couch, his arms behind his neck, and his feet up the table.

“That’s because you are a great hostess.”

“Is it, really?” I said with upped eyebrows as I let myself fall next to him, letting out a sigh.

I wondered how much time had passed. It probably had been more than a few hours, and still the rain hadn’t stopped. At this rate Aidan would have to either stay in my house until the next day or put his astronaut suit to good use.

“What is that supposed to mean?” he asked.

“You just keep surprising me, that’s all.”

His response was a low, tender whisper, but still loud enough for me to hear. “So do you.”

When I turned to look at him, my eyes met with his.

Yes, he was not strong and athletic and didn’t lead any sports teams, but I understood why so many girls liked him. There was something different in a boy who didn’t care about those things. A boy who cared about the little things, the things that many years from there could turn out to be the significant ones.

“And why would that be?” I asked, but I wasn’t trying to be witty. I actually whispered it, exited to hear what this boy I had never really talked to before would say.

He shook his head, looking away, and I knew that what he was about to say would be hard for him. “I’m not going to lie. But the first time I saw you, I thought you were like Callie.”

“Callie?”

“You know, the average high school princess.”

“And what made you think that?” I wasn’t mad. I was curious.

“I don’t know. The blond hair, blue eyes, pretty face, tall, nice clothes… You don’t exactly scream Chem nerd.”

I had to smile at that. “Callie doesn’t have blond hair.”

“I know!” he said, shaking his head as he couldn’t believe it. “How weird is that?”

I shrugged. “Maybe our school has all the wrong stereotypes.”

“Maybe stereotypes just don’t exist.”

“I doubt that.”

“But they shouldn’t.”

“That is true.”

We fell into a long pause there. And it felt… weird. The whole situation was weird and somehow uncomfortable. And the weirdest thing was that I actually liked that. I think I liked him. But that was stupid, because we had technically just met.

“We got an–actually, you got us an A+ in the last Chem lab project.”

I laughed. “I heard.”

“You are really good at it.”

“Thank you.”

✾ 

ionic bond

“electrostatic attraction between oppositely charged ions.” 

There are hot guys and there are cute guys. The first are the athletic ones. The ones with the hard abs, strong arms, and “sexy” smiles. The second guys are the ones who make the cut solely on what nature gave them, like cute dimples and bright eyes. Aidan Geller fell into the second category. And, apparently, the smart one with good memory, too.

“Can somebody tell me what an activated complex is?”

I think the teacher–and everyone else in the classroom, I guess–was just as surprised as I was when Aidan Geller raised his hand for the first time in the whole year.

“And activated complex is formed because of the collision between molecules while new bonds are being formed,” he explained.

Out teacher–just like every single student–looked shocked. “Ah… that is… right, actually. So. Okay…” she mumbled.

When she had recovered and carried on with her class, I turned to look at Aidan.

“When did you learn that?” I whispered.

He smiled smugly. “Last night.”

I shook my head. “And here I thought you really couldn’t understand Chem.”

“Oh, I can’t. I just memorized the whole book.”

He looked serious. And I probably looked shocked. At least until he laughed.

“Nah, I just memorized what she said we had to read for this class.”

I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding.

“But don’t be that surprised. There is more to me than you think,” he said, but then his cheeks turned pink after realizing what he had just said.

I tried not to let him see me smile.

✾

As days passed, our routine changed. Aidan didn’t sleep at Chem anymore. And I didn’t get us A’s either. He could be quite distracting when he wanted to.

The more we talked, the more I realized just how wrong I had been about him. And I kept wondering if I talked to someone else in my class I hadn’t spoken with before, would they also surprise me that way? Were my impressions about the people around me that wrong? And how did they see me?

They probably thought I was a selfish bitch that just had time for her and her friends. I probably should start smiling more. And saying hi to people on the hallways, not just to the ones who said it first.

When Callie Harris heard that her ex-boyfriend and I had become close friends, she began glaring at me quite often, but I didn’t really care. Another reason for people to think I was cold, I guess.

When I talked to Aidan about my new worry, all he said was, “Don’t change just because people are stupid. But… it may be good if you stop scaring people away with your glares.”

Not long after the rainy weekend had passed, Aidan began to sit with my friends and me during lunch. Apparently, things with him and his friend Roger hadn’t turned out okay. But then a few days went by and I convinced Aidan to talk to Roger again and try to sort things out. They were friends again before the day ended.

✾

The day that changed our newfound friendship was another rainy day.

“Hey! Leah, wait!”

I turned to see Aidan running out of his History classroom.

“Yes?”

He got closer and took a deep breath. “Do you want to go out with me tomorrow night?” he said, all in one gulp and making it sound like one big word.

I was surprised, to say the least, but I was also really, really happy. Even if I was intent on not showing it.

“No.”

Aidan’s face fell immediately. “No?”

I tried to contain it for a little bit longer, but a smile had already invaded my lips. “Not unless you wear an astronaut suit.”

Aidan soon relaxed and that cute smile of his made its way to his lips and to my heart. “Whatever you say.”

I nodded, still smiling. “See you later in Chem, then?”

“See you in Chem.”

Before I turned around and left, I whispered, “Nerd.”

He yelled back an “I heard that, geek!”

Many of our fellow classmates turned to look at us with confused frowns on their faces. But I knew neither of us cared. Stereotypes are boring. And, technically, we weren’t breaking any fictional and unwritten high school rules. We were both dorks. And that was chemically perfect.