It's Always Been You. (Anthony Larusso X Reader) BOOK 1

     Today is now Thursday, possibly the slowest first week of school in my entire life. Not much has happened at all, and my uncle is getting anxious with me because of it. He was happy to find out we turned out to be lab partners, he knew this will be valuable. He wanted me to take more action and do something. I told him that I am trying my best, but he needs to give it more time and be patient. He was actually starting to drive me insane with this.
        All week Anthony has been constantly trying to make small talk with me to break the awkwardness. But, I keep being very short with him. I give him one word answers to all of his questions, and don't carry on the conversation. But last night I realized that this actually was the problem. This is why Im not getting any good information or ideas, I need to be his friend. Or pretend to be at least.
       Today once I had gotten to class, I noticed he was already there. He always is one of the first people. Most people would spend the period before each class talking to their friends, but I guess you can't do that when you don't really have any. I assumed that he would be with his sister and her friends. But I guess I am wrong about that.
        I quickly sat down next to him and started to unpack my bag. "Good morning," He said to me quietly.
      "Hello, how are you?" I responded nicely, for once.
       He looked at me and raised his eyebrows at me. I looked back at him, and made eye contact with him for the first time in my entire life.
       "Are you okay?" He asked.
        I gave him a puzzled look. "What do you mean?"
       "This is the first time all week that you've said a full sentence to me." He chuckled.
       "Well... I'm in a good mood today." I told him.
       "Good. I am too." He said with a light smile.
        I smiled back and nodded my head, then turned my focus back to my assignment. Having a conversation with him wasn't as horrible as I thought. He seems like he's matured a lot overtime.
       After the class started, we were given a pop quiz. Thankfully we are able to take them with our table partner. Anthony and I did our quiz a bit differently than others. First, he went through it and answered any questions that he knew. Then, he gave the quiz to me and I answered questions that I knew. He finished his part pretty quickly, and handed the paper over to me. As I was working on it I kept on getting distracted. I kept noticing out of the corner of my eye that he kept staring at someone. I looked up and tried to put together who he was always looking at everyday. It was Lia. He has had a crush on her since she moved to the valley in eighth grade.
      "Why don't you just go talk to her?" I whispered.
      "What?" He asked alarmed and looked back at me quickly.
       "Instead of staring at her like a creep, you should talk to her." I told him honestly.
       "How did you know- never mind. I can't go and talk to her because she hates me."
      "Did she tell you that she hates you?"
She doesn't hate you. I do.
      "Well... no. But I'm assuming so because of the things Ive done in the past. She would never want to be with someone like that."
      Good point.
       "Are you still that type of person?"
       He shook his head.
       "Well just at least try asking her out. Get her alone so you can talk to her and clear everything up."
        He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know... I'll think about it."
      I rolled my eyes at him. He was acting like a typical man. Stubborn and irritating.
      After a few minutes, I finished my part of the quiz and we went over the answers together to make sure we both agreed on it. He offered to be the one to take the quiz up to the teachers desk and turn it in. I allowed him of course. Lia was already done with her quiz long before us, so she had a book out and was reading it. I saw Anthony walk past her slowly as if he was going to say something. He kept hesitating. Once he got to the teachers desk he paused there for a moment. I knew he was still working up the courage to talk to her.
      I then got up and started to walk over to the front of the class to "grab a tissue".  That's when he started to walk back to our desk. When I passed him in the aisle, it was perfect timing. We were right next to Lia's desk. I 'accidentally' bumped into him and pushed him into her desk. He fell on top of the table and made a loud sound, almost knocking it over. Everyone in the class suddenly turned and looked at him for a split second. He froze and didn't move. I tried hard not to laugh. He then turned his head and looked at me as he was still leaning over the table.
"What the fuck?" he mouthed.
I didn't say anything back, I just motioned my head in Lia's direction. Signaling for him to talk to her.
He turned his head back around and stood up straight. "Hey," he said to Lia nervously.
"Are you okay?" She asked concerned.
"Oh yeah. I just slipped... Sorry." He told her dishonestly.
She just gave him a smile and looked back down at her book again.
"So um..." He started, she looked back up at him.
At this point I stopped eavesdropping and turned around to grab the tissue like I was supposed to. I also went and sharpened my pencil while I was up, just to make it seem like I didn't purposefully get up to push him. It needed to look coincidental.

Anthony's POV

"I was wondering if you maybe wanted to hangout tomorrow night? It's been a while since we caught up." I asked her nervously.
She didn't answer for a split second, I could tell that she was thinking about her answer. "Sure that sounds fun! I don't think I have any plans tomorrow." She smiled.
My smile suddenly got really wide. "Okay, cool. I'll text you the details. We can meet up at eight o'clock?"
She nodded her head in agreement.
I smiled again at her before I headed back to my desk. I was almost about to be angry at Y/N for pushing me into the desk. For a minute I felt like a fool and was embarrassed. But, it turns out that she was right.
"How did it go?" Y/N asked as I sat back down next to her.
"Great! She is going out with me tomorrow night!" I told her excitedly.
She suddenly looked surprise. "Nice!" She exclaimed, holding out her hand for a high five.
I high fived her in excitement. She then turned her focus into something else. After a few minutes of silence I brought up the idea that I had. "So... you need to come to my house tomorrow."
She looked at me with a puzzled look. "What? Didn't you JUST say that you're going out with Lia tomorrow?"
"Yes... but that isn't until 8:00. I need you to comeover so we can work on our project and so that you can help me get ready for my date beforehand,"
"Me? Why me? Why don't you have your parents or sister help you?" She asked as if she were annoyed.
I wasn't going to take no for an answer. If we are going to get a good grade on our assignment, we needed to work on it outside of class. Plus, she seems to give out great advice. I definitely need someone smart to help me out.
"My parents are too old and my sister just... she isn't the best for helping me with these things," I argued.
She just looked away from me and shook her head.
I grabbed her arm and started to gently shake her "Y/N PLEASE!!" I begged.
"Ugh! Fine! I will if it gets you to shut up," She snapped.
"Thank you," I smiled. She's so feisty all of the time for no reason. I kind of liked it actually.