I was looking forward to detention today.

Ew, did I just say that?

Yes, I did. I was actually looking forward to detention. The past couple of days I sat next to Tristan. I didn't want to attempt to make conversation with him again because of the progress we made earlier this week. I didn't want that to go down the drain if I said or did the wrong thing, so laying back for a little seemed like the best option.

I swear I felt like I was dealing with a wild squirrel. If you gave it too much attention or got too close, it would scatter off.

This time after school, Mr. Pennded had a different idea for our hour-long detention.

"I have work for you all." There were some groans in response to this and the teacher glared around the room until there was silence once again. "some of you will be paired up to go around the school and either organize, clean, or fix a few things that need to be done. I don't care who you go with just grab a partner and pick up a list from this desk. Go ahead."

I didn't say anything. I didn't want to be the one to ask Tristan to be my partner. But who else would he or I pair up with?

I looked over to him to discover he was already looking at me. But he said nothing to me, just got up from his seat and walked off.

I guess he had someone else in mind. I looked around the room to find a potential partner when someone blocked my view entirely.

"What do you think Adelaide? Let's go find a dark closet to organize."

I internally sighed, thinking about much of a creep Walter was and how it was such a pity he was good looking. What wasted potential.

"I'm not going anywhere with you." I replied almost laughing out loud.

"Come on, be my partner?"

"Positions already filled." Tristan said, back at our desk with a papered task in hand.

He scoffed before looking back at me. When he realized I had no rejection to voice he said, "whatever man." And walked off.

Tristan nodded to the door so we could leave and find our task for the next hour. I followed after him into the hallway.

It was silent for a while before I spoke up, "why do you do that?"

He looked back at me with a blank expression on his face, "do what?" he asked, and looked forward again.

"Walter. You're always there to shut him down when he's bothering me."

"Am I?" he asked, feigning confusion in his voice without looking back at me.

We reached the empty classroom where we were assigned to organize a book shelf.

"Yep. It actually reminded me of something," He didn't say anything in response, so I kept going, "when Leah and I were elbow shoving each other in the fifth grade and you told her there was a spider on her shoulder."

He finally turned to face me, his blue eyes deep in thought, probably remembering the scenario. Then he leaned a little closer and said in a low voice, "that's because there was a spider."

"Liar." I deadpanned. He only shrugged his shoulders and turned back around to the messy bookshelf we had yet to organize. I picked up a stack of fallen books and set them on a table beside us.

"So what got princess perfect in detention?" he asked me and placed his own stack of books on the table.

I tried not to think about the fact that he was the one that initiated the conversation this time. "Mr. Pennded is anal on Mondays." I responded without thinking.

I heard a light chuckle and it took me a second to realize it was coming from Tristan. A smile and a chuckle, all in one week? I was on a fucking roll.

"I was four minutes late to school." I said more seriously and asked him what he did to get detention.

"I stood up for myself." He said simply, "but they say throwing punches is against school rules or some shit like that."

That must explain the beaten-up knuckles I saw that one day. The same day he nearly punched Walter.

"Is punching people a hobby of yours or something?" I asked jokingly. He didn't say anything in response, not even a grunt.

"You're a man of many words, Grumpy." I mumbled.

"Grumpy? Is that another nickname of yours?"

"I don't know. Do you think it's better than Parsley?" I teased, thinking back to the memories of making mud pies.

He stopped stacking books to look at me then, his expression unreadable. I thought he was going to say something, but he just ran a hand through his black hair and kept stacking.

"Anything's better than Parsley." He said finally, when I almost gave up on keeping the conversation.

I laughed, "whatever, you loved that nickname."

He smirked and said, "nah" while shaking his head.

Liar. I thought again.

The conversation died there. I guess it was all Tristan was willing to give out today, but that was okay with me.

I took a minute to remind myself not to get strung up on making things good between us. He walked out of my life after all.

Yet, it still felt like we just took a big step in the right direction and I couldn't help but hope that I was right.