Free The Waking (The Upturned Hourglass) by T.K. Burckhardt

sleepily on her desk. Her irritation was fueled by her lack of sleep, but the thought of him and Shane sparked it every time. 
    Almost a half-hour passed without any interruption other than Ms. Bernadine’s lecture, but Valie couldn’t fall asleep. She kept feeling like the guy was watching her. His inconvenient presence tortured the girl to the point that she gave up entirely on trying to relax.
    She opened her eyes to find him unmoved from his earlier, attentive position, like he’d been waiting for Valie to reopen her eyes the whole time.
    Inquisitiveness defined his features, and the youth began where he’d left off. “Why are you so tired?”
    “Why do you care?”
    “Why do you keep avoiding my questions?”
    “Why do you keep asking them?”
    Jack heaved a slow, frustrated sigh.
    “Ahem.” Ms. Bernadine was looking at the two from the front of the room, students’ eyes following her gaze, though she looked less than annoyed. “Can you two be quiet, please? I’m happy to see you’re hitting it off, but not in class.” She smiled pleasantly.
    “Sorry,” Jack said, giving her his most charming, apologetic smile. He then turned back to Valie. “She doesn’t seem very upset,” he observed; his frustration had vanished.
    “She’s just happy to see me socializing,” she muttered.
    “What does that mean?”
    Valie rolled her eyes. “Again with the questions . . . .”
    “Fine. Later,” he chuckled.
    She looked at him suspiciously. “Later?”
    His eyes narrowed playfully. “I thought you said no more questions.”
    Valie frowned and was about to come back with a smart remark when the bell rang.
    “Ugh,” she groaned. She hit her head against her arm on the desk. She was still dead on her feet—she desperately needed coffee.
    “What?”
    Valie looked up to glare at the boy. “Nothing.” She wasn’t used to anyone other than Luci and Jonathan actually paying attention to her.
    Jack searched Valie’s expression for something other than total annoyance, but she knew he wouldn’t find anything. She picked up her things and walked out of the room, joining the mass of costumed students moving through the halls like a school of fish trapped in a fish tank.
    About halfway down the hall Valie realized he was still behind her. She walked faster.
    “Aren’t you supposed to be bugging Shane—or Candace?”
    “Who?” He closed the space between them and walked next to Valie, looking at her face, confused.
    “Candace? Cheer captain? Evil eyes, vindictive smile, large . . . .”
    “Oh. The blonde with the, uh . . . bangs? Yes, well, she is a little too eager.” He chose his words tactfully. As much as Valie hated to admit it, Jack seemed to have some decency.
    She sat down on the grass beneath the birch trees to wait for Luci. Jack sat down next to her.
    At some point, Valie didn’t care that Jack was decent. He had a girlfriend and his attentiveness was like dangling a carrot in front of a starving rabbit only to pull it away to give it to another rabbit--Valie being the starved one and Shane being the lucky as hell one.
    Immediately, Valie got up and walked away with the nearby girls dressed as a clown and a ballerina staring after her in disbelief. They surely wouldn’t walk away from the gorgeous Jack Haden no matter what the circumstances were.
    “You are horrible.”
    Valie almost jumped, surprised by how close behind her he was.
    “What’s horrible is you stalking me. Please leave me alone?” She was cringing inside as she begged. The plea didn’t sit well with her; she was too conflicted. On the one hand, she wanted him to stay for her own selfish reasons and on the other, he was the cause behind her insomnia and she couldn’t see how more time with him was healthy physically or emotionally. And —silly her—she just couldn’t get over the fact that he had a serious girlfriend. 
    He stopped behind Valie, probably expecting her to stop as well, but she didn’t. She kept walking