Entry #516346, added on 02-13-10 @ 11:36 am EST
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| Chapter Three | Entry #516346 |
The next day is like a hangover.
"You look terrible," Morgan mentions to me as we make our way into the cafeteria.
"Wow, thanks." I don't really have a right to be offended. One can always tell when they look like they might be terminally ill. My hair and I had a fight that morning and my eyes ache so much I fear they will fall closed while I'm walking down the hall.
When we step into the large space, however, the cold air, loud noise, and smell of food jar me awake enough to make it through the line. By the time I sit down, however, I feel exhausted again. I know without looking that Sean is sitting at the end of our table. He and his friends always sit at this table, even though it belonged to me and Morgan first.
"So, what's the problem? Why are you so tired? Is it about Sean?"
I turn to look at him and hold back a yelp of pain. My neck is sore. I must have slept on it wrong. I shake my head at Morgan. "No, it's not about Sean. I just couldn't sleep very well." At first, sleep had come easily. Crying always wares a person out. But the storm brought on nightmares, and they certainly didn't help me sleep.
Morgan's spoon clatters to her tray, and I look up to find her mouth open in horror. "Oh my God, what is his problem?"
My mind automatically goes to Sean, sitting at the end of the table, so I let my eyes wander down there to see what's going on. But nobody from that end of the table is paying any attention us or doing anything that might merit Morgan's reaction.
"What?" I ask her, turning back and trying to erase Sean's face from my brain. Thank God his new bimbo girlfriend is nowhere to be found. For now.
"Wren Stoner is staring at you again. I swear, that kid must have a major infatuation. Either that or he's looking to off you." She doesn't even sound bothered by the possibility that Wren might want to murder me.
I scoff and scoop at my yogurt. "He's not planning to off me."
She latched her gaze on me, intense and foreboding. "How could you possibly know that, Beth? You don't even know him, and even if you did, you can never trust boys."
I glance over at Sean. "Yeah, I know." Although I don't know why Wren is staring at me, I don't care. Right now, he's not the most important thing on my mind.
~*~
By the time my fourth period Aquatic Science class rolls around, I still feel like crap, maybe even more so, because now Wren Stoner sits in the back of my class, and I can feel the heat of his eyes on the back of my head.
"Isn't Wren a chick name?" Blake O'Reilly asks across me.
I'm sitting between him and Morgan and it's getting rather annoying having them lean around me to talk crap about Wren, which they've been doing since the beginning of class, when Morgan mentioned him staring at me in lunch.
There is no way I'm mentioning to them that I caught him watching me yesterday after school. I peek behind me at him. I'm not afraid of him. I think I'm more afraid of the way he doesn't try to hide it. If he likes me, he should just say so, not stalk and stare.
"Can we talk about something else, please?" I ask Blake and Morgan.
They change the subject, but I catch both of them stealing glances behind me at him. Morgan keeps sending me worried looks, like she's afraid he'll attack me right here in the middle of Aquatic.
I see him again as Morgan and I walk to my car after school. I walk a little quicker and hope that Morgan won't notice. I've always felt bad for Wren, and having everyone talk about how he's stalking me or whatever is really not helping his popularity.
This time, however, he hasn't noticed me. It's almost a relief to be able to look at him without him staring right back. He leans against his car, staring off into space, or at something I don't see.
Before I can enjoy the moment, however, Wren catches my eye. A flash of lightning makes me close my eyes, and when I open them, he is still staring. About nine cars separate us, but I still get the shivers before I have the sense to get into the car.
"I don't want to go home," Morgan says to me, while texting someone else. "Let's go out."
"Um, sure." Putting the car in gear, I steal one more glance in Wren's direction before pulling into the traffic of the parking lot. Cars and student mill around, some in the way and others trying desperately to get to their own vehicles. "Where do you want to go?"
"How about the Corner Cafe?" She leans forward to see past the cars lining the streets and motions that the road is clear for me to pull out.
I can't hold in my groan. "Why? You know it's going to be crowded. Everyone hangs out there! Why don't we just go to the pizza place next door."
She shakes her head. "I want a burger."
Corner Cafe is our town's definition of a 50s cafe, merited the theme only because the servers deliver orders on skates and the decor includes a lot of cherry red. Seating is outside only and covered by an oblong-shaped awning of sorts.
The tables and stools are covered in high school students, most of which I recognize from my classes or the halls. We wait for a couple to vacate a spot and jump at it the minute they move. I find myself facing a large group of familiar faces, with Morgan in front of me.
I turn to look behind me at the gray sky. "I wish it wasn't so gloomy out here."
Morgan shrugs. "Maybe if you cheer up, the sun will come out," she jokes.
I offer a fake smile and order a burger when the waitress rolls to our table. The group behind Morgan shifts just enough that I get a peek at the couple in the center of it, a familiar ex boyfriend and his new arm candy. I feel sick to my stomach.
"What?" Morgan asks when she sees my face. She follows my line of sight and pretends to gag when she catches sight of Sean. "God, don't they ever go away?"
My eyes sink to the table, and I almost feel comforted as the sky gets even darker. "Apparently not."
"Do you think they're doing it on purpose? Maybe they came here because they knew you were gonna be here, just like they sit at our lunch table."
I roll my eyes. "Morgan, we barely ever come here. How could they know we were going to choose today to come?"
She turns back to me, nodding. "You have quite a point, my dear." She sighs. "Do you want to go?"
My eyes slide back to Sean, holding hands with the girl. "I don't know. Maybe."
She probably puts out, I think. That's what it is. I hung out with his lame friends. I went to his stupid parties and pretended to have a good time. I even went to his football games. I hate football. But I wasn't sleeping with him, and I wouldn't, for a second, let his friends believe that I would. That was probably a problem for the poor boy.
I grind my teeth together, but no amount of control will stop the tear that falls down my cheek. This tear is different, though, than the ones I've been crying for the last week. This is a tear of anger.
Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.
I jump a bit and look at the confused faces around me. "What was that?" I ask. My small voice sounds weak, even to me. I'm just too tired to care about anything.
"I don't believe this." The way Morgan whispers freaks me out just a bit. Her eyes are fixed on something past me, so I turn to look at what she's so interested in.
I spy the chunk of ice on the ground and forget whatever I happened to be thinking about before.
"Hail? It can't hail! I'm driving my dad's BMW. He'll kill me if it gets scratched!"
I look up just in time to watch Sean's blond rush past me. She can't just run out into the hail storm, so she stands just under the awning, her face the picture of despair as penny-size hail lands on Daddy's silver BMW.
Morgan snickers, and a smile spreads across my face. This is true revenge. The last time it hailed in our part of Texas, I was six. The more the blond yells, the harder the hail falls around us. But even as it does, the clouds begin to move away from the sun.
"What's going on?" I ask Morgan, who looks as confused as I am. "Sunshine and hail?"
Morgan's eyebrows crease. "Maybe it's the apocalypse."
After a few more minutes of listening to Miss BMW scream at the sky, the hail ceases and she sprints to her car in agony. Morgan and I leave Corner Cafe bustling with excited energy. I examine my car before unlocking the doors.
"Everything okay?" Morgan asks.
"Yup. Dent on the hood, but that's it."
She pulls her door shut and looks at me. "That's not what I meant."
Ignoring her for a second, I start the car and look over at Sean. Apparently her car obtained more damage than mine. She cries into Sean's shoulder, but his eyes are on me. I look away, calming the twisting of my stomach. "Everything is fine."
~*~
"DId you see the hail?"
I watch my mom chop onions on her tomato shaped cutting board and nod. "Sure did. We were at Corner Cafe when it happened."
She sighs and shakes her head. "What was up with that? It didn't even storm. Just lightning and hail. So strange. How are you feeling?"
I shrug and play with the table cloth covering out dining room table. "FIne."
She doesn't seem convinced, and maybe she's right not to be. I don't even know if I'm all right anymore. Sure, my crash injuries are fine, but what about the rest of me? I can't even manage to keep my head on straight so I won't think about Sean.
"Sean's seeing someone else."
She gasps and turns away from the boiling water filling the pot on the stove in front of her. "What? Already?"
I can't look at her. I pull my knees up to my chest and wrap my arms around them. "Maybe he broke up with me so he could date her. Maybe he was already with her when he broke up with me. Who knows?"
"You could know if you asked him."
I snort. "No, thanks. I don't want to talk to him."
She turns back to the dinner she's fixing and plops some vegetables into the boiling water. "I'm sorry, sweetie. Why don't you go take a nap before dinner? You look tired."
I'm much more than tired. I'm physically and emotionally exhausted. I uncurl myself and push my chair under the table. "I think I'll do that."
My mom may not be the best company, or advice, for that matter, but it's better than my empty bedroom, where I sit and think about hail dents in BMWs until I fall asleep. |
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