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Delilah sat in the teacher’s workroom, a half-written essay in front of her. She stared at the clock and chewed on the end of her pencil. One minute, she thought, one minute till third period... Nine-fourteen and a half… Nine fifteen… any second now, and- a bell rang in the hall. She picked up her things, then stood there a moment. Maybe Miss Neighbors forgot about me… she thought hopefully.
At around nine-sixteen the door to the teachers work room swung open, and Allen Matts walked in.
“What are you doing here, Matts?” Delilah asked him, her voice was low and unemotional; however her heart was pounding against her rib cage.
Allen closed the door behind him and replied, “Miss Neighbors wanted you to know the essay’s for homework, due tomorrow, if you’re not done…”
Delilah groaned, “Of course it is…” she muttered bitterly.
“It really isn’t so hard,” Allen explained, “Just fill it up with a lot of quotes… she loves quotes.”
Delilah smiled slightly, “Thanks for the tip.”
He smiled back, “Okay… well, see you tomorrow,” he put his hand on the door knob.
“Wait! Matts, don’t go…” Delilah stopped him quickly, her voice suddenly urgent.
“What?” Allen asked, sounding confused, but his hand slipped away from the door knob all the same.
There was a pause where Delilah took a deep breath, “We need to talk,” she said simply.
Allen groaned, and sighed, “No, Dede…”
“Yes!” she insisted.
“Dede, I have to get to History, like, pronto.”
”Give me five minutes, Coach Ray is forgiving,” Delilah pleaded.
“What in the world is so important that we have to talk about it now?”
Delilah looked at her feet. She had always had issues with eye contact, but forced herself to look up into Allen’s brownish-hazel eyes, “I think you know,” she said quietly.
Now Allen didn’t look her in the eye, “No, Dede…”
“Matts…”
He crossed his arms, “Just say it then!”
Delilah’s face was hard, her eyes narrow and her voice angry as she replied, “I love you!”
“Don’t say that!” Allen gasped.
“What did you think I was going to say?” Delilah asked indignantly.
“I don’t know!” he shouted at her in frustration, “That you want to be more then friends? I think that would have been a slightly less drastic way to put it!”
“But… I do,” Delilah murmured.
“No you don’t,” Allen said simply, “We’re fourteen years old. The only people we’re aloud to ‘love’ are people directly related to us.”
“Shut up Matts,” Delilah said in a growl, “You don’t know everything about love.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” he asked, sounding offended.
“It means twelve stupid weeks means nothing when a relationship is as shallow as a pie tin,” Delilah muttered darkly.
“Ouch,” Allen flinched as if Delilah had physically harmed him, “A pie tin? I can honestly say I’ve never heard that one before,” he sounded mildly interested.
“Do you really care about her?” Delilah asked, her voice critical.
“Bethany?” Allen snorted, “Of course! She’s my girlfriend…”
That last word made Delilah role her eyes, “What’s so great about Beth anyways?”
Another bell rang, but they both ignored it.
Allen shrugged, and, after a short pause said, “She’s tall.”
“Ouch,” Delilah muttered, “Really? You like tall girls, Matts? What are you, five-one?”
“Five-three!”
“Same as me then,” Delilah noted, “And, what’s Beth? Five-nine? That makes her a whole half-foot taller then you.”
“Yes I do like that,” Allen said in a matter-of-fact tone.
“What else?” Delilah pressed on.
Allen rolled his eyes, “Do you want me to be honest?”
“Brutally,” Delilah actually sounded eager.
“Fine,” Allen’s face became unforgiving, “She’s prettier then you,” he stated simply.
Delilah just stared at him, having no reply. Her face was stony.
“And smarter,” he added, turning and opening the door. Just as he took a step out of the workroom Allen froze.
There was a heavy sniff from behind him. Great, he thought, you made her cry, nice job… he turned back to Delilah and sighed. “Look, Dede, I’m-” his apology was cut off by a great crash. “Holy crap!” he yelled in shock.
Delilah had hurled a chair across the workroom. There were tears in her eyes and on her cheeks as she shouted at him, “And in all her beauty, and her height, and her incredible intellect has Bethany ever once shown you an ounce of passion?!” she thrust the small round table in the middle of the room over on its side.
Allen just stared at her, having no idea what to say or do.
“Of course she hasn’t! Bethany has about as much passion in her soul as a two year old!” Delilah continued, kicking the wall as there was no more furniture to throw.
“That’s not fair…” Allen said quietly.
“It’s true,” she huffed, not screaming any longer, although her eyes were still feebly leaking tears.
“I thought you two were good friends!” Allen said, confused and upset.
“We were… now I’ve gotten to know her and decided she’s… well, she’s a selfish baby,” Delilah explained, wiping her eyes with her shirt collar.
Allen sighed, and hung his head, “Dede, she’s my girlfriend…”
“I keep hearing you talk about that stupid title, why don’t you tell me exactly how you feel about her? Do you love her, Matts?”
“Stop talking about love! I might not know anything about it, but neither do you. My relationship with Bethany might be shallow but she is my girlfriend. I can’t betray her.”
“I’m not asking you to… to… betray her,” Delilah insisted.
“Then what exactly do you want me to do?”
Delilah was ready with the answer, “I want you to admit you like me back.”
“Dede…” he sounded weak.
“Don’t lie, Matts,” she said in a warning tone.
Allen didn’t say anything at first. He just looked at the ground, the walls, anywhere but Delilah. “I’m sorry I said Bethany’s smarter and prettier then you… that was… well, not totally true,” he looked at her very quickly to see that wasn’t the reply she had been looking for. Allen just shook his head and left the workroom without another word.
Gender:
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