Haven

Rushing over to the right classroom, I blew a strand of hair out of my face once I abruptly stood still in front of the closed door. Taking a deep breath, I knocked and waited for Professor William to allow me inside.

It were only a few seconds later when the door flew open, a frown plastered on William's face. "Haven Sparks, never thought you'd be late. Got a valid reason?" He questioned, though, still allowed me to walk inside.

"My guinea pig. My brother Jude lost it when he escaped from his cage this morning. He screamed so hard that Cookie ran off and hid underneath the couch! How on earth was I supposed to get him?" I rambled, letting out an exasperated sigh. "That guy is something else, seriously. He doesn't even want to pet it but he does remove wasp nests and insect pests. Hey, that rhymed." I chuckled, but when I looked up at William, it changed to a sheepish smile.

"Good morning, Haven. I'm glad you're present now," he laughed, an amused expression visible on his face. "Interesting reason. Find a seat, we were just talking about our weekends."

Scanning my classmates, I simply smiled at Norah, finding out she was seated next to Abel- Ittarah and Luke together as well. My eyes searched for him, his ochre coloured beanie was the reason I hadn't seen him right away.

His eyes were on me and I smiled once we had briefly made eye contact. Zephaniah looked down, but I could see the corners of his mouth curling up, lightly. Pulling back the chair that stood beside him, I plopped down. "Zepho!"

"What?" Zephaniah chuckled softly, his eyes meeting mine for a split second.

"Yeah, I don't know." I laughed, covering my mouth when William gave me a warning look. "How have you been? Is it alright if I sit here, beside you?"

Zephaniah nodded after a brief moment, glancing at me. "Of course, Haven." He blushed lightly, his fingers fiddling with the pen he was holding. "Don't you want to sit next to- next to Louis?"

I scrunched up my nose, quickly shaking my head. "No way, why would I?"

"I don't know," he whispered, staring outside the window. I thought about it for a while, figuring he asked this because I usually sat down next to either Norah or Tara, he must've thought I hadn't wanted to sit with him.

He usually sat alone, which saddened me. But, since I was such a chaot at times, it simply hadn't really crossed my mind before. Norah and Tara were my friends, but so was Zephaniah. It made me decide that I had to sit with him more often- Tara and Norah would find a replacement fast enough.

"Well, I want to sit here." I shrugged, glancing at him. "Even if you don't want to."

Zephaniah frowned and looked at me, his eyebrows raising as he wanted to speak up- probably to defend his answer- until he noticed my cheeky smile. "I want to, Haven."

"Just teasing, Zeph." I yawned quietly and retrieved my notebook, opening and flipping to the right page.

"Uhm," Zephaniah started out of nowhere, making me innerly smile. Our long talk seemed to have worked- when it came to him speaking up first more often. "What did your guinea pig do?"

I couldn't help but laugh softly, it turning to a warm smile when I searched for his green eyes. "Usually when I feed Cookie, I leave the cage open because I need to grab some hay and all as well, so I know he will jump out- obviously- but I can always get him because he's always calm and all. But, my brother Jude isn't very fond of him so he started screaming loudly, it startled Cookie. He ran off when I tried to grab him, lied down underneath the couch and well, my arm doesn't really fit there, so I had to wait until he left his safe place, no one else was home besides Jude, after all."

Zephaniah's eyes slowly moved up, them staring at the ceiling for a long time. For a split moment I wondered if he hadn't heard my rambling, then I remembered he probably needed some time to process my story.

I felt bad for talking so fast, I didn't want to tire him out.

Why did I need to be so chatty? I internally groaned, but my thoughts faded when I heard him chuckling softly.

"Poor Cookie," he carefully glanced at me, biting his upper lip to hide his smile. "And-"

"Malik and Sparks, quiet!" William frowned, giving the both of us a warning look.

Zephaniah turned bright red, his eyes immediately glued to his table. His hands flapped lightly underneath the table, his eyes blinking quickly. Once he glanced at me, he gulped, rapidly shaking his head when I was about to say something again.

"It's fine, I won't be loud." I assured him, wondering if he couldn't handle critic and corrections well, as William basically corrected our behaviour. "Cookie was fine, after that." I smiled, but Zephaniah frowned as he looked up at me.

"Everyone is looking at us," he stammered out, his left hand flapping still.

Looking up, I noticed that Ittarah and Luke were staring at us, their eyebrows raised. Other classmates looked as well, I wondered why. Simply waving at them, I focused back on Zephaniah, who was already looking at me with something that looked like admiration, in his eyes.

"How can you- how can you be so calm about it? I dislike when people look at me," he gulped, I could see tears brimming in the corners of his eyes.

"Zeph, calm down." I frowned sadly, trying to search for his eyes. He was sensitive, really sensitive, it was something I hadn't quite noticed before, not in situations like this- to the point where he was about to tear up.

Zephaniah stared outside the window, pulling his beanie further over his head. "How can you just wave and go on?"

"Why would I dwell on it? He warned us, Zephaniah. It's not a bad thing." I said calmly, my eyes trained onto the side of his face.

"What will they think of us now?" He swallowed thickly, his eyes meeting mine for a brief moment.

"That really doesn't concern me, Zeph. People will always think and have opinions. You won't be able to change them, neither am I- no one is." I explained slowly, Zephaniah staring at my cheek for moments long.

He blinked quickly, his eyes fluttering. "So, you just wave and leave it be?"

"Yeah," I smiled, "We were having fun, they're nobody to ruin our nice moments, are they?"

"You are right," He said quietly, blushing as he stared down again. "Sorry, do not know how to handle it at times."

"That's fine, Zephaniah. I know thoughts can suck. You know it's nonsense to think such ways, but try tell your mind that, right? It's just something inside.." I wondered if he understood me, but when he looked at me with such intensity, a rather surprised expression visible on his face- I thought he did.

"Yeah," he whispered, nibbling on his bottom lip. "You understand."

"I do."

We remained silent for the rest of the class. Zephaniah seemed like he didn't want to talk anymore after the incident, I respected it. He'd glance at me a lot of times, though, which surprised me. I acted as if I didn't see it.

When lunch time came, I had kind of lost him. Zephaniah had left to the restroom, but hadn't returned after minutes long. It had made me feel worried, so I glanced into the boy's toilet area, but got nudged into my side in return.

"I'm not interested in him," Tara mocked, a playful grin on her face.

"I'm not!" I defended, frowning at her. Not in that way, at least. "He left ages ago, what if he has a seizure in there because of his epilepsy? No one would know, and you need to call an ambulance after five minutes!"

Tara raised her eyebrows, chuckling. "What if he's just taking a-"

"Tara," I sighed deeply, wondering if my behaviour really seemed as if I was way too interested in him. But, wasn't it normal to just care for a friend?

She got ahold of my hand and softly pulled me away, dragging me through the hallways. Looking around her, she stood still, looking into my eyes. "He's overthinking in there. Too much things happening around him. You need to give him space."

"I do.." I hesitated. Didn't I?

"You're chatty." Tara shrugged, walking us over to the cafetaria. "I told you he cannot handle chatty people. He will tell you he enjoys talking to you, but that's only because he's afraid of hurting your feelings. He gives answers he thinks other people want him to say."

Was that true? He had said something similar at the lake.

My stomach twirled and I suddenly felt nauseous, not knowing what to believe anymore. Tara was his cousin, she'd know, right? And although I had read and heard about autism, I'd never truly know what it was like to actually have it. Who knew what was going through his mind?

Staring at my lunch, my appetite had faded, my usual cheerful mood dropping.

Respect him, accept him. I wasn't asking too much from him, was I?

"Uhm, why are you sad?" His voice was soft- spoken, barely above a whisper. The fact that he asked why instead of are in the first place confirmed how sensitive he was, how caring he was. How he had felt an emotion before properly seeing it.

Looking up, I was met by his concerned, bright, green eyes. They averted to the table in front of us once I had made eye contact, which made me smile lightly. "I don't mean to tire you, Zeph."

Zephaniah sat down beside me, taking his lunchbox out of his backpack. He parted his lips, his eyebrows furrowing lightly. "I don't know why you would say that? You don't tire me."

"Where were you?" I wondered, not wanting to assume things before actually knowing the truth.

His cheeks flushed pink, his hand reaching for his water bottle. "Sorry, uhm, the library. Asked if mum could, uhm, reserve the table.. for Wednesday." He quickly took a bite out of his grilled chicken sandwich, perhaps, so he couldn't take for a while.

Tara lied.

I breathed out in relief, besides the fact that I was rather upset about her behaviour.

"I thought you went to the restroom, I was already stressing about you having a seizure and all because I didn't see you returning." I chuckled, recovering quickly. "Sorry, didn't mean to hurt you with that or anything, I was just wondering.. yeah." Sighing, I realised Tara was right about one thing, I was chatty.

"I had to pee." Zephaniah whispered, his expression unsure.

"That's okay," I couldn't help but laugh softly, looking at him. "Just tell me if I'm too chatty or anything, yeah? I'm a mess today. Hectic mornings surely don't work for me." I didn't want to tell him about Tara's words, they'd only upset him.

Zephaniah silently took a few bites out of his sandwich, his eyes roaming all over the area, falling onto people that entered the canteen, the ceiling, the windows. "Sometimes," He blushed deeply, glancing at me. "But it's okay! You take the time to talk to me, unlike anybody else."

Tara definitely lied.

Why would he talk to somebody, when nobody else did to him?

~~~

Long time no see, sorry for that.

Haven's chattiness??

Her nickname for Zeph?! I thought it was kinda cute haha

Their relationship in general? Do you think zeph feels comfortable enough around Haven or do you think he can feel EVEN more at ease and that will come eventually?

Question for you; if you could be anyone in this story- who would you want to be and why?