Okay, so, there were two or three people that told me I should make a continuation of my short story "Don't Ask." Here it is... look, I honestly intended "Don't Ask." to be a short story, and it took me a while to decide what would happen in the second chapter, but once I figured it out I wrote this in one night. That makes me nervous... there are probably several mistakes here... so, I apologize in advance for that.
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Delilah pulled open the front door of her house. Behind her she could hear the familiar [i]beep, beep[/i], of the bus she rode every afternoon backing up. She slammed the door behind her, and dropped her backpack by the front door. Delilah went to her mom and dad’s room. Neither of her parents were there. Good, she thought, no one’s home.
Delilah went to her bedroom. She looked around at the pale yellow walls, and stepped up to her desk. She pushed some of the clutter out of the way until she found her small silver phone. The phone had not been used much, and not because it was new. Because Delilah just didn’t use it. She hated “texting” and she had no idea how to check her voicemail. The phone was a nuisance to her.
Delilah flipped her phone open, and dialed a number. “Pick up, pick up…” she muttered, falling backwards onto her unmade bed.
“Deli!” the voice of Hazel Whitney sounded in Delilah’s ear.
“Zeli!” these nick-names had been a traditional greeting between the two friends for years, but the enthusiasm in Delilah’s tone was forced.
“What’s up?” Hazel asked, noticing a strange air to her voice.
“Uh…” Delilah sighed, unsure what to say.
“Hey!” Hazel interrupted her thoughts, “Did you hear someone totally trashed the upstairs teacher’s workroom?”
Oh, come on, Delilah thought, an upturned table and chair? That counts as totally trashed? “No,” Delilah sighed.
“Well, that’s what I heard… from Kristin. I know, you like, hate Kristin, but-”
“Hazel!” Delilah stopped her mid-speech.
“Oh, sorry…what did you call me for again?”
There was a pause. A pause during which Delilah’s stomach churned, and tears welled up behind her eyes, “Hazel…” she shook her head, “You’ll never believe what I did…”
“Wait, what? You did something? You did something?! What did you do?! Something bad? Something against the rules? Something scandalous?!” Hazel asked in shock.
Delilah just wiped her eyes with the hand not holding her cell phone up to her ear, and groaned.
“Dede? Dede you have to tell me!”
After another pause Delilah took a deep breath and whispered, “I said it.”
Hazel didn’t respond at first. “Um… what?” she asked eventually.
“I said it,” Delilah repeated simply.
“Said what?!” Hazel asked indignantly.
“It,” Delilah muttered, “as in, the thing no guy our age wants to hear… as in… I love you.”
“… Oh… that’s it?” Hazel asked, disappointed.
“What do you mean that’s it?!”
“Sorry, sorry, I was just expecting something else... but, uh, that’s good! You said it to a boy? What boy? I didn’t know you were going out with someone… Dede? Dede, are you crying…?” Hazel’s voice trailed off as she realized she was probably supposed to shut up several seconds ago.
A watery, “…Maybe,” sounded in Hazel’s ear and she realized that Delilah was really upset. And then something clicked in Hazel’s mind.
Hazel gasped violently, “Oh my God Dede! I am so sorry! Listen, do you want to come over? We can watch movies and drink juice boxes and forget about boys, and everything will be alright, alright?”
“What are you talking about?” Delilah asked, sounding more like herself but still very upset.
“Dede, I get it… your upset because… because he didn’t say it back right? What guy are we talking about anyways? Give me a mental picture,” Hazel
Delilah scoffed, “No!... okay, well, maybe that’s part of it… but no. You don’t quite get it, Hazel…”
“What don’t I get? And who is this guy!? Do I know him?” Hazel demanded.
Delilah sighed, and wiped her eyes with the corner of her comforter, “That’s the unbelievable thing…” she muttered.
“Who is it?! Tell me! Tell me!”
“Okay! Stop pestering me!” Delilah groaned in frustration.
“Sorry!” Hazel said in an apologetic whisper.
Delilah took another deep breath, “Brace yourself, Hazel.”
“I’m braced,” she insisted.
“And you realize you can’t tell anyone,” Delilah clarified.
“Yes ma’am.”
“Alright…” Delilah swallowed hard, “I said it to… to Matts.”
There was no response. No gasp. No crackle of feedback, or clatter as Hazel’s cell phone dropped to the floor. Nothing, for at least two minutes. Well, it felt like that to Delilah, anyways.
“As… as a joke?” Hazel’s voice was shaking slightly.
Delilah replied quietly, “No.”
“Okay… then you meant as, like, friends, right?” she insisted.
“No,” Delilah was more firm with her response this time.
“Then you must be talking about a different Matts. Not Allen Matts. You must be referring to Allen’s more attractive, less annoying, single brother, that I was not aware existed,” towards the end of this statement Hazel started sounding mad.
“Zeli…” Delilah murmured, sounding very week, “You can’t tell Beth…”
“Don’t Zeli me! You betrayed her!” Hazel replied angrily.
Delilah scoffed, “Betrayal?! Seriously? No. No, you can’t say that. You just cannot say I betrayed Beth. I didn’t!”
“You did to! Trying to seduce her boyfriend… it’s sick! You two are like freaking sisters!” Hazel nearly shouted into the receiver.
“You don’t get it!” Delilah bawled, “It’s how I feel! I can’t help it! How can you blame me for having emotions?! Don’t you realize I was friends with Matts years before Beth and him got together? I’m the one who made everyone call him by his last name! He had a crush on me since middle school! He acted like a complete fool around me all of sixth grade! He and I were supposed to be together! We were going to be freaking junior high sweethearts and we were never going to break up, and everything was going to be lovely and then that bitch came and ruined everything! Now I’ve gone and made a huge fool of myself in front of him… He probably won’t even look me in the eye for months… maybe all year. I don’t know. And worse, the jerk might go and tell Beth… then I won’t be on speaking terms with either of them. I might not even be on speaking terms with you since you say I ‘betrayed’ Beth, even though that’s complete BS.”
Hazel seemed to need a moment to take this all in. Eventually she sighed and muttered, “Déjà vu…”
“Huh?” Delilah asked, confused.
“Déjà vu. It means-"
“I know what déjà vu means!” Delilah insisted.
“Okay, well, I’m saying this is kind of like when Beth told me, ‘I like Allen Matts,’ except different because, you know, she’s going out with him now and all,” Hazel explained.
“Right…”
“But I’m thinking the same thing. Matts? Seriously? Know-it-all-suck-up Matts?”
That made Delilah smile, “Are you mad at me?” she asked.
“No… not like I was at Beth. Beth… well, she has a disorder. A disorder where she must be loved twenty-four-seven, or else she dies a little inside. Part of that disorder means if she ever feels like a third wheel she freaks out at the other two wheels about being left out. Another part of the disorder makes it so if she doesn’t have a boyfriend, she must try to get one. Even if it means sinking her standards to Matts’s level.”
“What about me?” Delilah asked.
“You? Well, I think you’re sincere here. I mean, okay, so, neither of us have ever really been with a guy, so, I don’t know what makes you think you know you’re in love with someone, but obviously you’re very… passionate. And, yeah, you’ve known him for longer, so…”
“So you agree with me!” Delilah said in triumph.
“Agree with you?” Hazel queried.
“That I deserve Matts more then Beth. You agree, right?”
“I guess…” Hazel said, uncertain, “But what do you want to do? Break them up?”
“No… well,” she groaned, “I don’t know.”
Delilah heard the front door open, and sat up, “Listen, I’ll talk to you in speech tomorrow, okay?”
“Okay… bye Dede,” Hazel bid her farewell, and pushed the ‘end’ button on her iPhone. She took a deep breath, and balanced the small rectangular device in her hand. She had been sitting in the living room. Her parents were at work. Her brother was in his bedroom. I feel like I’m committing a crime… she thought, Well, I am… but it’s not nearly as bad as Dede’s.
She went to her contacts, scrolled past the all the As, and then tapped her finger against the touchpad surface.
After just a couple rings Hazel said, “Hello? Look, I’ve got to tell you something…”
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oh, and by the way, kakagirl was kind enough to make me a page, so, if you would like to follow that would be great page.php?id=886
oh, and by the way, kakagirl was kind enough to make me a page, so, if you would like to follow that would be great page.php?id=886
I have nothing bad to say, Kakagirl, pretty much said everything. I can't wait for more. (:
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