Another Day

Chris stood outside the gates of the school, a blunt dangled from his lips, he leaned against the fence and took a puff, then exhaled slowly

Dani approached Chris "shouldn't you be inside class, learning instead of outside smoking?" she said

He took another hit "and why are you out here?"

"Isn't the real question why you aren't in there?" she said, " Chris, when will you stop this bad habit?"

"when i die" he grudgingly flicked the blunt away, leaving it to slowly curl its tendrils of smoke up into the grass "can you at least wait till school starts to bust my chops babe?"

"No I can't wait! 'When I die'? that'll be soon if you keep smoking like this!" Dani said angrily.

"then it would've been a good run" he smiled at her "can i give you a hug or are you to pissed off?"

"Yeah I'm pissed off. I can't just sit by and watch as you slowly harm your body," she said with her eyes tainted by disappointment.

"aw cmon babe" he leaned in and embraced her, kissing her on the cheek as he did so

"No," she said as she giggled then pauses to recapture her serious face. "You know you can't sweet talk your way out of everything?"

"just most things" he smirked then kissed her on the lips

Dani pulls away. "You know I don't like to kiss you right after you just smoked," she said.

"fuck" he turned away, at the same time the bell rang, he turned back to her "want me to walk you to class?"

"Don't you always?" Dani said and then giggled.

Chris smiled, he puts his arm around her shoulder and walks slowly with her toward her first class

"You know one day I'm going to start feeling about about making you late to class all the time," she said as they approached her class.

"i don't give a crap bout' bein' late babe, you know that, half the time i don't even go" he smiled

Dani stopped. She turned to him, "But I give a crap. And how many more times do I need to tell you, you need to start going to class more."

"ok ok ill go to class, now you better go before your late" he smiled then kissed her on the forehead "ill see you later ok?"

"Yeah. And you better go to class," she smiled and walked inside.

Chris sighed, contemplating whether or not to go to class, he finally relented and walked up to his History teacher's door "mornin' Mister H" smiled Chris, "decided to join us eh McKinnley?" Chris laughed "you know it" he sat in his seat

Dani finds her mind wandering from the math lesson. She starts to think about Chris. Hoping he really did go to class. But a bigger hope of hers is for him to stop smoking. "Ey Dani, are you getting this?"another student asked as her mind snapped back to reality. "Uh, not really," she said back.

meanwhile, Chris was in the bathroom, Mr.H had let him out to get some water and Chris was taking the opportunity to light up, he lit the blunt and took a big hit, draining half of it

As Dani is walking to the bathroom, she smells smoke coming from the boys bathroom. She gets this gut feeling that it is Chris in there smoking, but she decides to ignore that feeling and hope that he wouldn't be. So she continues walking and goes into the bathroom.

Chris flicks the remnants of the joint into the toilet and flushes, he walks out of the bathroom and leans against the wall, he pulls out his phone and begins to write a "memoir" little tidbits of info he writes in his phone about realizations he has when he's high

Dani looks at herself in the mirror, "Great, I look like shit again." She walks out and automatically sees Chris. She smiles and starts walking towards him. But then realizes that he was the one who was smoking in the bathroom and she can even smell it on him. She replaces the smile with sad eyes. Looks at him and continues walking by him.

"oh cmon babe it wasn't even that much i swear" he caught up with her "i even went to class like you wanted" he put his hand on her shoulder to stop her

"Well thank you for going to class. But what would mean a lot more to me would be for you to stop smoking,baby." Dani said.

"old habits die hard?" he brushed aside a strand of hair that had fallen across her face "you look beautiful today you know that?"

Dani pushes him away. "Don't give me that shit. You know how much I hate you smoking!"

"don't be like this please, you know i have trouble quittin' shit" he sighed then chuckled and looked up at her "like you" he smiled

"I know, baby. But continuing to smoke won't help you quit," Dani said. "I just don't know, sometimes I don't think you even wanna quit."

"you....wouldn't be wrong.....necessarily" he chuckled nervously

Dani smiled then put on a serious face and looked at him, "You're never going to quit you know. Well not until you want to quit for yourself."

"well what if i don't wanna quit?" he said a bit hesitantly

"Do whatever you want, Chris. But you know how I feel." Dani said. She turned and started to walk away, hoping that he would stop her and just say the right thing.

"wait" he stopped her with a hand on the shoulder again, he stood in place for a second, a look of deep thought on his face, he started getting frustrated and flung his hands up in the air "GAH WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO SAY!"

It was Jaci's first week of school and already things seemed to have gone well enough. The art teacher had sent Jaci with a pass to start on a new project for the art show coming up in a few weeks and required for her to start looking for inspiration and go to the storage room to grab some clay. Jaci walked out of the room which was just outside the boys and girls bathroom. She saw two people talking and didn't pay much mind. She got to the storage room, grabbed a heavy boxof packaged clay and made her way back to the art room.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK I WANT YOU TO SAY?" she yelled. "Gosh, would you just use your brain for once?"

"um" he caught site of Jaci and took the chance "need help with that?" he quickly scooped the box out of her hands and held it on his shoulder "ill be back in a sec ok babe?" he called to Dani as he started walking away "so where we goin'?" he questioned Jaci, he was relieved he'd have a couple seconds to think of what to say

Jaci was taken off guard by the generousity, but didn't say anything. She had the feeling that she walked by at a bad time after hearing some of the yelling earlier and still didn't say anything.

"Thanks. Umm the art room just down the hall there. "

"thank you" he sighed, he went inside and waved to Mrs. N, the Art Teacher, he was a bit of an artist and had skipped into her class from time to time "hey misses Nguyen, just helpin' uh...what was your name again?" he asked the young girl

"Jaci. I just moved here with my family a week ago."

With the box on the table, Jaci tore open the tape and opened the box to reveal a lot of newly packaged clay. She pulled it out and tore open the package to start on her work.

"uh, ill see you later then i guess" he smiled and walked out, waving goodbye to Jaci and Mrs. N, he walked slowly back down the hall toward Dani

Dani sees him and stands up straight. She wants to hear what he is going to say now.

"look" he sighs, he still hadn't come up with anything he'd consider "good" yet "its been a big part of my life for a long time, i can't bring myself to just put it down" he puts his arms around her waist and holds her close, looking into her eyes, his face inches from hers "you are so important to me, and i hate disappointing you like this" he holds her chin up so that she is looking up into his eyes "your the best thing thats ever happened to me"

Dani smiled. It wasn't what she wanted to hear but it was perfect in a different way. She kisses him, even though he does taste like smoke.

he kissed her back, trying hard to keep from exhaling out of his mouth, remembering that she hated the smell of the smoke

Dani finally pulls away, "We go to get back to class. We've been out here for a while now don't you think?"

"id say not long enough" he smiles and kisses her again, but quickly breaks off once more "cmon, ill walk you back" he takes her hand and slowly starts back to her class