10| Impression
"She is one stubborn fucking girl, man, it's annoying," I said while walking to class with Brandon.
"I think it's nice for a change. She's challenging you," he shrugged.
I shot daggers at him, "As if you don't do that enough."
He chuckled, "If I did it enough, you wouldn't still be like this, Nathan. You'd be a little closer to how you used to be before the crash," he said, his voice lowering as we met the crowd. "Have fun in psychology," he smirked before walking past my classroom.
I sighed, walking in there and taking the seat beside hers yet again.
You know how where you sit at the start of the year determines where you'll be sitting throughout it?
Exactly like that, everyone is settled in by now, this is our second week of school and nobody is willing to give up their seats now.
Emma claimed hers and I claimed the one beside her, so now, this is my seat.
We were sitting in a very awkward silence while people settled into their seats around us as we completely ignored each other. "I'm sorry," she said after a minute of silence.
I turned to her, waiting for her to continue. I'm pettier than that, she better have more to say.
"I shouldn't have taken your cigarettes like that, not only is it none of my business but... it could be serious, so, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that," she said, sliding the box back over to me.
I eyed her, then the box then slid the box back over to her. "It's fine."
"These are yours," she chuckled, handing it to me.
"I have more, you can keep those. That's not an invitation to smoke, just... you can keep the box. It's nearly empty anyway," I shrugged.
"There's about 5 more in here," she reasoned.
"Just keep it," I repeated.
She shrugged and then slipped it into her backpack while Mr. Joshua walked in.
"Okay, okay, okay, listen up," he clapped, "How many of my students here are in relationships?
With somebody in this class please," he asked.
A few students put their hands up, not too many.
"I need 4 volunteers. Two of them, in a relationship, with each other of course, two that aren't," he said.
"Uh, Bella and Oscar, come up quick," he said.
The two stood up and went to the front of the class. Nobody has a clue as to what's going on.
"Do you like each other? Love each other? Sorry, if this is invasive, it's for science," he said, leaning against his desk.
"Um," Bella chuckled awkwardly.
"How long have you been together?" he asked.
"2 years," Oscar answered.
"Would you say you love each other?" he asked. They both nodded. "Okay, two more people. A boy and a girl, quickly, come on," he said. Nobody volunteered. He groaned, "Emma and Nathan, come on."
"This is what I get for answering in his class?" she mumbled while standing up. I stood up with her and we walked to the front.
"How do you know each other?" he asked us.
She turned to me expectantly. "We're friends," I shrugged. People looked at us wide-eyed, whispered some stuff. It makes sense because I never call anybody a friend except for Brandon.
"Okay, you're friends... no uh, no romantic feelings there?"
"No," we said quickly in unison. We looked at each other then looked at Mr. Joshua weirdly. What the hell is he doing?
"Okay, we're studying the science of love in our minds, right?
It automatically means we'll be studying the changes in our body too.
Normally, when you hold eye contact with someone you love, your heart rate is known to increase.
Falling in love triggers the fight or flight reaction in the body.
Epinephrine and norepinephrine are released into the bloodstream when the adrenal medulla in the brain releases catecholamines.
This triggers the heart to beat faster and that is why you can feel it pumping away when you are attracted to someone.
When you love someone, naturally, you're attracted to them.
Your pupils dilate too, most of you already know that.
So today, we're going to test that out," he sighed.
"This is a heart rate monitor," he said while the janitor brought it into the classroom.
"My God, we're going above and beyond for this," Emma chuckled.
"In turns, first Bella and Oscar, you will hold direct eye contact for 4 minutes.
For 2 minutes we will monitor Bella's heart rate and then Oscar's.
Then, Emma and Nathan will do the same and we'll see how your heart rate, how the heart rate of people in love, is different from people who aren't in love," he explained.
"Isn't this just measuring attraction?" I asked. He looked at me. "The heart rate increases first and more when you're attracted to that person, that's true but attraction doesn't mean love, does it?" I asked.
He smiled, "No, it does not. But you tell me, are you attracted to Ms. Hayden? Because heart rate also increases when you look at someone you hate, your pupils will dilate then too," he chuckled, "But I don't expect friends to hate each other, more so be attracted," he mumbled.
Emma looked at me with a smirk but I simply rolled my eyes at her.
I'm not attracted to her.
We watched the whole process with Bella and Oscar.
"Bella's heart rate is at 96 beats per minute and Oscar's is at 110.
As you can see, their hearts are beating pretty fast," he laughed.
Some people in the class 'awed' and the others also chuckled.
"You may take your seats," he nodded at them.
"Now, you two," he turned to us. "Who wants their heart rate measured first? "
Silence.
She shrugged, "I'll do it."
"Very well," he nodded. He clipped the thing onto her finger and we stood there, facing each other.
"So, this is her resting heart rate, 82.
Now, take a deep breath," he said and we both did, "And begin.
" We looked at each other, our eyes locking into place.
"Remember to breathe and blink, kids," he chuckled.
She smiled, biting back a laugh as she stared into my eyes.
She raised her brows at me, then arched one, then the other.
I rolled my tongue along the inside of my cheek, biting back a laugh.
We kept staring and eventually it stopped being funny.
It was just... us staring at each other.
Her pupils dilated, I could see that even though her eyes weren't the lightest.
Her pupils dilated when she looked at me...
"All right, now it's your turn," he turned to me. She let out a breath when he took the monitor off her finger. She shook her wrists as if she were shaking the nerves out while he clipped it onto me. "Take a deep breath and start again," he instructed.
We both took a deep breath and fell back into the stare.
About a minute into the stare, she opened her mouth to say something but decided against it, closing it back up.
I lifted a brow but she shook her head slightly.
Hopefully, she tells me later. I decided not to focus on my heart rate, that might only increase it more.
"Okay, let's see," he said, "Emma, your heart rate was at.
.. 99 beats per minute. Nathan, yours was at 120.
.." We both looked at each other, not knowing what we're supposed to do.
"We can call that attraction for your sake, return to your seats please," he chuckled.
We both walked up to our seats and sat back down in utter silence.
"Nathan," she whispered. I turned to her, hoping she wasn't gonna comment on the heart rate. "Your pupils dilated," she mumbled.
"So did yours," I replied.
"And that brings us to the conclusion that," he sighed, turning to the class, "Heart rate does not only increase for people in love. It increases for attraction? Can we call it that, Mr. Sterling?" he asked, smiling at me.
I'm really starting to hate psychology. I shrugged in response.
"Your heart rate increases when you look at someone you love, someone you're attracted to, someone you hate as well, and it also increases when you look at someone who you miss.
The other 2 we don't have time to test but it's for your knowledge, the more you know.
Now that we've done the practical work, let's get to some theory and study from the textbook, shall we? " he asked, turning to the whiteboard.
"Are you coming to the cafe?" she asked as we were leaving the class. This was the last class.
"Yeah, okay," I shrugged, walking out with her.
"Nathan, Emma." We both turned to Mr. Joshua. "I apologize if that made you uncomfortable in front of the class," he said.
"It's okay, we didn't mind," Emma smiled.
"I must say, 'just friends' is not the impression you two give. Enjoy the rest of your day," he said before leaving.
"Uh, that's... okay," she mumbled.
"Okay," I huffed.
What impression do we give?
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