Worlds Divided | j. baker

sixty three

Everyone including Alondra was still adjusting to coming back from winter break, so the hallway was filled with slow walkers and coffee or energy drinkers. Alondra was normally a fast walker, but she was not going to turn down free coffee that Armando bought her. It wasn't a car, but it would do for now. "What are you doing here? I thought you had morning training." She asked Jordan in the hallway, where he was pulling things out of his locker. "Asher was asking me about you."

Armando always dropped them off like 20 minutes early, so she had time to stop her walk to her own locker to lean against the one next to Jordan's. Before she came up to him, his face was pretty stoic, but once he felt her presence, a smile came across his face. "Good morning to you too, beautiful." He greeted her, leaning down and over to press his lips onto hers. "And yeah, it was optional though and I accidentally slept in."

"Accidentally, huh?" Alondra asked skeptically. "You were snapping me pictures of you getting ready at 6am, and Asher said you were supposed to meet at 7am."

Jordan didn't expect her to know so much, so rather than trying to make another excuse, he looked and her and practically changed the subject immediately. "Since when are you and Asher buddies?"

"Since he started worrying about you slacking with football because of everything with your dad. And don't change the subject before I slam this door on your big ass head." Alondra told him with a new attitude, meaning every word she said. He finished everything he needed to do with his locker, but it looked like he was closing the door because of her threat.

Even with the scowl on her face, Jordan grabbed and kissed the back of her hand before firmly intertwining them and walking down the hall with her to her locker. "It was optional, I swear, and I just didn't feel like going today. That's all, nothing to it."

Her locker wasn't far from his at all, literally straight down the hall on the opposite side, so they got there within like 30 seconds. "Since when does Jordan Baker care about whether or not something related to the football team is optional?" She asked him. With him being team captain and the coach's son, he always felt like he had an obligation to show up to everything in the matter how minor it was, so this was out of the ordinary for him. "Look, I know you're mad at your dad, but don't let it get in the way of you being on the team."

Frustrated with the whole situation and all his family stuff, Jordan said, "It was optional, it's not that big of a deal. Will you get off my back?"

Halting from putting in the last number into her lock, Alondra turned to her boyfriend with a different type of scowl on her face. "Who the fuck are you talking to? Because I know damn well it's not me."

"I'm sorry." He said immediately, but then not knowing what to say when she kept looking at him. "I love you?" He stated, but it coming across as a question because he didn't know what she wanted him to say, but he also didn't want to be wrong.

Spencer was walking down the hallway, close enough to only hear what Jordan said. "'I love you'? Man, how you piss her off at eight in the morning?"

"Mind your business, mushroom head."

"Damn, I didn't even say anything to you yet."

× × ×

Alondra was supposed to go back home right after school, because she had plans to hangout with Spencer and Coop in Crenshaw. She saw Spencer all the time because of school, but with Coop being the only one in their trio that didn't move to Beverly Hills, their main communication was over the phone.

The current topic of conversation was about the new Crenshaw team, because with Chris getting injured at the state championship game, their new coach, who just so happens to be Spencer's dad, brought in a new quarterback to replace him. At least for the time being. Spencer was really upset about it because 1, Chris was one of his childhood best friends and 2, he felt like Chris being injured was his fault because he was the one that tackled him.