[Otto's POV]
"Otto! Otto! Come here!" Jessy yelled excitedly as she beckoned Otto over the very second she'd walked through the school gate and pulled her along to their usual little group of friends. Otto spotted Jasper and Lindsey standing side by side, which was odd, to say the least.
"Tell us all about your date with Alex," Jessy practically squealed, barely containing the urge to jump up and down.
"It wasn't a date," Jasper grumbled lifelessly. Otto smiled at him gratefully. It looked like he had suffered a troubling lack of sleep over the weekend. Knowing him, he'd be making up for it in class. And honestly, it explained why Lindsey was tolerating him on such a close proximity.
"Didn't you subject me to a cross-examination just yesterday?" Otto asked incredulously.
"No, I didn't! Calling over the phone is not the same as seeing you tell it in person. Plus, Lindsey wants to know too. Don't you, Lindsey?" Jessy said, to which Lindsey nodded enthusiastically.
Otto frowned as she doubted. She didn't like to talk about boys or matchmaking business. It always made her feel uncomfortable. Certainly if you kept Jessy's hidden-agenda into account.
But then she thought about the talk she'd had with Sabine and how natural it had felt. If she could talk about it to a stranger, she should be able to talk about it to the friends who cared about her too, right?
"It was fun. I actually found all the clothes I needed," Otto said, smiling softly at the memory, but then noticed that Lindsey had the camera of her smartphone pointed at her and froze.
"Lindsey, you better not be filming! This is a private conversation," Jessy scolded her once she'd followed Otto's gaze.
"Filming is not my thing, Jessy. Just look at that cute blush? How can I not take pictures when she's acting so cute!" Lindsey defended herself as she showed Jessy the picture she'd taken. Jessy, who was still acting as the stern supervisor, gave an approving grunt.
"Oh, dear Lord. If only the earth could swallow me now," Otto complained as she felt her face heat up and hid it in her hands.
"Good morning!" Alex, who had to choose that very moment to join them, greeted happily. The others copied his greeting.
"Good morning," Otto mumbled from between her hands. Alex frowned and did a double-take on her.
"We aren't back to acting awkward around each other, are we?" he asked, looking a little worried. Otto instantly felt her blush flare up even more.
"No!" Otto squeaked embarrassedly and quickly glanced towards her friends. Lindsey was snapping pictures again, Jessy was looking at Lindsey's smartphone screen with an approving smirk and Jasper had an eyebrow raised at her.
"Then why are you blushing like that?" Alex asked as he followed her gaze to Lindsey and Jessy, but clearly didn't have a clue to what they were doing.
"I swear! I've been here for five minutes and those two are already bullying me!" Otto complained as she pointed an accusing finger at Jessy and Lindsey. They met her accusation with an amused chuckle.
"Well, you're making it easy for them too, aren't you?" Alex said, that playful glint shining in his eyes again. Otto heard Jasper snort, but ignored him.
"Oh, no Alex, not you too! I already have enough bullies as it is."
Her reply had Alex hiding a laugh in his fist and he quickly looked away as if that would prevent her from finding out he was laughing. Otto rolled her eyes and bumped a fist against his shoulder. She knew that it wouldn't stop him from laughing, but at least it gave a little mental consolation.
"Oh! Before I forget. Did your brother give you the money I returned on Saturday?" Otto asked.
"Alex has a brother?" Jessy asked, sounding extremely interested. It reminded Otto that the others were listening in on their conversation. Very unlike their private shopping spree that weekend.
"I don't have a brother," Alex said matter-of-factly.
"Huh?! You don't? But the guy looked SO much like you!" Otto said incredulously. "He looked like a college-version of you."
As she said it, she noticed Jessy looked even more interested.
"Like me?" Alex asked dubiously, took his smartphone from his backpack, swiped a few times at the screen and asked: "Him?"
Otto stared at a Snapchat photo on the screen. She saw a guy who looked just like Alex, except for the longer hair and grey eyes, sporting something that looked like glittering bunny ears while blowing a kiss to the camera.
"Yes! That's him," Otto said.
"That's my dad," Alex said with a small smirk. "Seems like you returned the borrowed money directly to him, hmm?"
"What?!" Otto asked, eyes wide in disbelief. "But he looks so young?!"
"I want to see! Please let me see!" Jessy said loudly so Alex wouldn't ignore her. Otto couldn't help but notice, that Jessy was being rather civilised about the matter. If anyone else but Alex had been showing that picture on their phone, she would have taken the device from said person to look at it herself. But now she just held her hand out for Alex to give her the phone.
So Jessy was intimidated by him too? Otto felt rather proud that she knew Alex well enough now to know that he didn't like to be treated differently.
Otto watched as Alex gave Jessy his phone. She took one look at the screen and exclaimed a loud "HUH?!"
"Ok, now I want to see it too," Lindsey said as she leaned against Jessy to look at the screen.
"Hey, you guys. Don't leave me out," Jasper complained in a low-battery kind of way as he leaned against Jessy on the opposite side Lindsey was standing. Otto chuckled and saw that Alex was laughing too.
"Oh My God! Alex! These are brilliant!" Lindsey squealed in amazement as she'd swiped the screen a few times to see more pictures. "Please tell me you are as photogenic as him? Will you please model a photoshoot for me? Please please please? And send me these pictures while you're at it. I'll be laughing forever! Huh?! Hey why did the screen suddenly go black? Why won't it turn on anymore? Did the battery die?"
Otto watched as Lindsey reluctantly returned Alex's phone to him.
"The battery seems to be fine to me," Alex said thoughtfully as he easily clicked the screen on and off again, but when Lindsey tried to take the phone back, Alex pulled it out of her reach, shook his head and put the device back to its rightful place in his backpack.
"Will you model a photoshoot then?" Lindsey asked hopefully.
"I am not photogenic at all though," Alex mumbled awkwardly as Lindsey reluctantly returned his phone. Otto chuckled.
"Not so fun when you're the target of their bullying, is it?" she asked Alex and was rewarded with a disarming smile.
Damn it! This boy's smile should be illegal! She felt her heart flutter just from seeing it. Not that she got long to think about it, because a heavy hand suddenly grabbed her shoulder. That in itself was enough to surprised her, but then she noticed that the heavy hand on her shoulder belonged to Thomas.
"We have to talk," Thomas said urgently as their eyes met and tried to pull her along, but was interrupted by Alex who easily lifted Thomas's heavy hand of her shoulder and flicked it away.
"What do you think you're doing?" Thomas asked angrily as he squared his shoulder in an oppressive manner towards Alex.
"You seem to misunderstand something," Alex said coolly as Thomas glared angrily at him. "You talk with words, not by touching. Or perhaps you want the same outcome as Saturday when it also wasn't your intention to hurt her?"
Thomas looked positively startled. Honestly, it startled Otto herself how unimpressed Alex seemed by Thomas's presence. He wasn't intimidated at all!
Otto glanced back to her friends to see if she was imagining things, but they all looked as shell-shocked as she felt. Even Lindsey had forgotten to take pictures.
Until now, Jessy had been the only one who'd dared to talk back to Thomas, but even she had never touched him.
Thomas clenched his teeth and frowned dissatisfied before he turned to Otto.
"Will you please come along, Otto? I need to talk to you," Thomas said. Otto looked up at him even more startled this time. Had Thomas asked nicely? The end of the world must be near.
"Whatever it is you need to tell her, you can tell her here! We have no secrets. Right Otto?" Jessy yelled. Otto grinned at her, but honestly, she was so confused!
Confrontations with Thomas usually were very one-sided. He talked and she listened. Or sometimes he asked a question and she answered. Thomas didn't ask for permission and he most certainly wouldn't take "no" for an answer.
"Do I have to? Is it important?" she asked Thomas instead, who was waiting for an answer.
"It is," he said, looking antsy.
"Honestly, I don't feel like being alone with you. Can you at least tell me what it's about?" Otto said seriously.
"I can't," Thomas said as he frowned and glanced at Alex over his shoulder.
Was this about Alex again? What was it this time? Was he going to tell her to stay away from him? Did he think that she would let him decide who she could and could not hang out with?! The nerve of this guy!
"Then I can't either," Otto said with an angry frown of her own.
"You what?! Why not?" Thomas asked perplexed.
"I can't tell you," Otto said as she stuck up her nose and crossed her arms in front of her chest.
"But it's really important," Thomas insisted.
"I don't care," Otto said as she glared death rays at him. This time Thomas fell silent. He seemed to have picked up that Otto was angry with him. However, the reason why she'd suddenly become angry probably deluded him.
"Ok," he said as he drooped off, but not before he silently told her: "I'll try to talk to you later."
Thomas walked off as the school bell rang.
"He'll talk to me later?" Otto thought as panic started to flood her mind. Later, as in "After school"? Or "when her friends weren't with her"? She'd felt brave with all her friends around her, but she wouldn't be when she was alone.
"Oh my God! Otto! That was amazing! You stood up to him!" Jessy yelled in amazement. Otto offered her a bitter smile, since she didn't want to worry her friend. It seemed to work, since Jessy and the others had started moving towards their first class for the day.
"Are you all right?" Alex asked. He had lingered behind with her. He looked worried again. How did he do that? How did he look through her so easily?
"Actually, no I'm not," she said more honest than she thought she would. "I know he'll be waiting for me after school. What will I do if he finds me alone? What if he forces me into a corner again? I know that I can't stand up to him on my own."
"You're panicking again. Calm down," Alex said calmly and motioned with his hands in a slow pushing down motion to add to his words. The gesture strangely did have a calming effect on her.
"I don't understand what you're so afraid of. Thomas didn't retaliate at all when I reprimanded him earlier. Heck, he even complied to what I'd said."
"Yeah, that's true. He does back off really easily when you're near," Otto mumbled in thought. She didn't know why, but it was clear that Thomas was very careful around Alex for some reason. He couldn't possibly be afraid of him, could he?
Wait, wasn't that the solution to her problem?
"Uhm, ... Hey, Alex? Would you mind walking home with me? It would give me some piece of mind," she said, feeling shy all of a sudden. Otto watched Alex as her question registered. First his eyebrows shot up in surprise, then a beautiful smile bloomed on his face and he laughed.
"Of course, I don't mind," he laughed. "You were stammering so much. Did you think I would refuse?"
"Honestly, I wasn't sure what you'd say," she said as she fell into step next to Alex, doubted for a second and then added: "Did you know that blushing and stammering actually is a trick that women and children use to get what they want?"
Alex laughed again.
"Is that so? Did you feel the need to manipulate me? I would have said okay either way, you know?"
Her heart hiccuped at his words. His answer felt much too intimate to her. The question shouldn't be if she felt the need to manipulate him, but rather why he was so willing to help.
"Is Alex this kind to everyone?" she wondered and suddenly felt glad that he'd promised her beforehand that he wouldn't fall in love with her. Otherwise she probably would have pushed him away again already.
"I guess it's a habit," Otto concluded.