I looked at my cereal, then pushed it away. I wasn’t in the mood to eat, let alone go to school, but luckily it was the end of the week, and only two more weeks of school left. I got up from the table and put on my jacket to leave for school. “Rosalyn May Randall, take care of your dish,” my mom said over the water that was running in the sink. My mom has blonde hair like my little sister, Lilly, and my older brother, Andrew. I have brown hair like my dad before he started losing his. I have blue eyes like my mom and Andrew, and the others have hazel. My mom is one of those weird clean freaks. One speck of dust hitting the surface must be cleaned immediately.
“Rosie got yelled at,” Lilly said laughing and pointing her finger at me. She just woke up and was wearing her rainbow pajamas. My mom gave her a quick glare and then turned to me.
“For the last time, it’s Rosalyn, not Rosie,” I said trying to be serious, then turned to my mom. “If I clean my bowl now I’ll miss my bus and I’ll be late for school.” I turned and picked up my book bag and purse.
“I don’t care,” my mom said after calling Andrew. “Andrew will drive you to school. Now get over here and clean it,” she said with a “stop arguing with me” face. Andrew went to the same school as me, but refuses to take me to school. I’m saving up my money now to buy a car so I don’t have to ride the bus anymore.
Andrew slowly walked down the stairs while stretching. My mom told him the whole scenario and that he was to take me to school. “Why am I getting punished for something that Rosalyn forgot to do,” he asked with a whiney voice.
“Because I said so,” my mom said handing me the sponge. I cleaned my bowl and then dried it and put it away. While I was picking up my bags, Andrew walked quickly passed me and took my purse and ran.
I walked outside put my bags in his car and waited until he gave it back. It didn’t take him long to do that when he found out I wasn’t in that mood today. It was warm outside so I took off my jacket before getting into the car.
Andrew was a fast driver so before I was even buckled we were on the road. It was quiet so I tried turning on the radio, but he slapped my hand. “Why do you want the music on,” he asked with a confused face. He was so not a normal eighteen year old boy.
“I don’t like it being quiet, but you know the engine has a pretty good beat, don’t you think,” I said sarcastically.
He chuckled. “Are all seventeen girls like you? ‘Cause that would be bad,” he said laughing at his lame joke. He needed to get out more. “You know I’m not driving you any other day, right?”
“Yeah, I know,” I said looking out of the window. I saw a young couple laughing while holding hands. That reminded me, I was supposed to call Rylie last night. Rylie is my boyfriend I have been dating for about a month now. He has dirty blonde hair and blue eyes that makes you smile when you look at them. I’m hoping that we make it through the whole summer that’s coming up soon. I can see us laughing at the beach together. I smiled to myself and then looked out of the window again.
“Oh my goodness, I didn’t to make you sad or mad at me,” Andrew said looking at me then at the road over and over again.
“I’m not sad or mad at you, I just remembered that I was supposed to call Rylie last night.” Andrew and Rylie used to be best friends from kindergarten up until last year. They got into a fist fight because Andrew had enough of Rylie breaking every girl’s heart that he met. Rylie promised me though that what we had was real and that we were meant to be together.
“I don’t know what you see in him,” he said as we pulled into the school’s parking lot. “I’m telling you he’s the one who breaks every girl’s heart. I don’t want you to be one of those girls.” He pulled into an open spot, and I quickly got out. I hate it when he says things like that. He can save the hatred for someone who will actually care.
School wasn’t opened when we got there, so I went to go sit on one of the benches while I waited. When I was putting my bags next to the bench I looked up and saw Rylie. He was leaning against the door with another girl standing in front of him. She had the same shade of hair as him, but I couldn’t see what she looked like since her back was to me. I was more than sure that she was just a cousin or something like that to him. I nodded to myself and started to walk over to them.
I looked behind me and saw Andrew watching Rylie and the girl while he was walking across the parking lot. He was probably thinking that something bad was about to happen with the two of them, but he usually isn’t right when it comes to things like this.
I looked back at Rylie right as he was kissing her! Andrew was right. Andrew and everyone else was right. I froze and stopped walking and looked down. I tried to hold back the tears, but I couldn’t. It felt like my heart shattered into a million pieces. I was sure now that everyone was going to laugh at me and say “I told you so.” They could say all that since they all were right.
Something grabbed my shoulder and scared me out of my frozen position and for a second I forgot what was happening. I turned around and it was Andrew. He looked really sad, but you could see that he was happy in a way since he was right. “I’ll take care of it. I promise,” he said wiping my tears with his sleeve. I was speechless from what just happened, so I could only nod. Andrew was always true to his word so I knew he would actually take care of it for me.
Andrew ran over to Rylie and that girl. Rylie and the girl were laughing, but stopped when Andrew was there. Rylie saw me and looked scared and confused, even more confused than I was right now. He turned his attention to Andrew and opened his mouth to say something, but Andrew punched him before he could.
Soon before I knew it Rylie was punching Andrew and it went on and on. I didn’t know what I should do, what could I do. Those two were really strong and I was as weak as a mouse.
While this was going on the other girl just walked away and started putting on her lip gloss. If there was one thing I hated in girls, it was what she was doing and what she did.
My math teacher, Mr. Nickels, walked out of the building. He is mostly bald on his head, but has hair everywhere else. He wears really big glasses that cover up most of his face. And he tends to talk to himself all of the time.
Mr. Nickels got his keys from inside his pocket and almost missed the fight that was going on. He started walking over to Rylie and Andrew. “Will you to knock it off. I’m tired of all the fighting going on around here. You two come with me, now,” he yelled while fixing his glasses.
They stopped fighting and followed him inside. Andrew looked at me and smiled and Rylie looked at me apologetically. I looked around to see if any of my friends were here now, but no one except me and that girl were outside. She seemed to notice that to and walked over to me. She had brown eyes and freckles covering most of her face. She was wearing a tube top and super short shorts. She had on flip flops, and tons of jewelry and makeup.
She looked at me from my feet to my head then made a face in disgust. “Why are you crying,” she asked buffing her nails. I looked at her in confusion and didn’t answer. “My goodness, you need a makeover is that why you’re crying? I would hate to be you. I would never get a guy if I looked like you do,” she said smirking.
I had it with her. “Umm, excuse me, but I prefer not to dress like a whore, thanks,” I said and turned away from her.
“Well, if you just didn’t notice, but I know have a new boyfriend with this outfit, okay,” she said walking around me until she was in my view again.
“Yeah, your new boyfriend was just mine this morning until I saw you two together,” I said walking towards the bench where my stuff was and sat down on it. I put my face in my hands and thought about what happened.
Before I even thought about it I looked up and there were people all over the place. “Rosalyn,” I heard someone call and I looked around and saw my best friend Sara walking over to me. “Hi. I just got a text from Andrew. He told me to tell you that he was sorry about what happened. Why isn’t your phone on? It’s always on. What exactly is he sorry about too?” she asked sitting down next to me.
I totally forgot about my phone. “I guess I forgot to turn on my phone, and,” just then the bell rang for school to start.
She stood up. “I’ll meet you at your locker and you can tell me then. You know what, I have to talk to Bell real quick, so I can’t walk with you inside,” she said smiling apologetically.
“It’s fine, you can go. It’ll take me a while anyways to pack up all of my things,” I said getting up and grabbing my bags.
Sara jogged over to where Bell was and they started gossiping. That was one thing that me and Sara didn’t do that well together. We would always hear different sides of a story and we’d get into fights. So we stopped doing that. Actually, we stopped doing a lot of things ever since she started dating Ryan.
I followed everyone into school and slowly walked to my locker. My eyes burned from crying earlier, so it took me three tries to open my locker. I threw in my bags and grabbed some books.
I turned to go to class when Sara poked me. “Let’s go into the bathroom where it’s quieter so you can tell me the whole story, okay,” she said not letting me answer and rushing me holding my hand to the girls’ bathroom. The bathroom smelled really bad. Didn’t they wash it last night?
Sara turned to me in a disgusted face from the smell, “God it smells in here. Anyway ignore the smell and tell me before I lose it.”
In a way I didn’t want to tell her, but I did since she’s my best friend. So I decided to tell her. “This morning Andrew took me to school, and…”
“Why did he drive you to school? He never does that,” she interrupted me.
“My mom told him to so I could wash my bowl.”
She looked confused, “Okay, go on.”
“And when I got there Rylie was by the front door with another girl, and at first…”
She was beginning to make me very upset. “O-M-G,” she spelled out. She put her hand over her mouth, “They kissed didn’t they. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s fine. I’m actually happy that it happened. I wouldn’t let myself believe that he would do that and he did,” I sighed. “I knew it would happen too,” I said looking down.
“You have to remember though, we all did warn you.”
“I know and I’m thankful for that,” I said smiling.
“But I still feel sorry for you,” she said hugging me. It felt good to not have her laughing in my face like I thought everyone would. “Now go over to the sink and splash your face with water. It will help make it look like you weren’t crying.”
Did I actually look like I was crying? I walked over to the mirror and looked at myself. My eyes were blood shot, and my nose was red. I had dried up tear streaks on my also red cheeks. I laughed at how stupid I looked. I was crying over something that I knew would happen.
“Why on earth are you laughing now? Hurry up with the splashing of the face. The bell will ring any second now and we’ll be late for class,” she said looking serious. We have almost every class together, but I’m usually a third wheel since Ryan is in most of them too.
“Yeah, sorry about that,” I said turning to the sink and splashing my face with the water. Sara handed me a paper towel to wipe my face with.
I turned to the mirror and looked at myself again. It worked. It looked like I haven’t even shed a tear. “Thanks so much. It actually works,” I said smiling.
“No problem. It’s a tip that I picked up from a magazine. Now let’s go or we’ll be late,” she said turning to the door. I picked up my books and we walked to history together.
The day seemed to go by fast. It was like I sat down then got back up to go to next class, which is a good thing since I just want to go home and take a nap. Before I even thought of it, it was time for lunch.
I went to my locker and got my paper bag for lunch. I looked around the hall and almost everyone was gone. Was I really going that slow? I walked by myself to the cafeteria and to my table with all of my friends.
There’s my friend, Leah, who has brown hair like me, but has brown eyes. She’s the shortest and the most timid one out of our bunch. Then there’s Jake, who has black hair and blue eyes. He has a few freckles on his cheeks and nose. Ryan sits next to him and has blonde hair and blue eyes. We all pick on him because of his funny shaped nose, and he wears chick glasses, which doesn’t make Sara too happy that we laugh at him. Sara sits next to him and she has the same blonde hair and blue eyes as him. She is the one who has the most freckles in the group. Ashley sits by her, and she has red hair and blue eyes. Her and I never ever got along so we just sort of ignore each other now. Luke is the last one and he has brown hair and blue eyes with freckles. He’s the smart, nerdy one with the glasses.
I took my seat between Jake and Ryan, and opened my bag and took out my ham sandwich. Everyone was staring at me with sad eyes. They all told me they were sorry and I told all of them not to be and that I’m fine. Jake was the only one that ever really talked to me during lunch. He asked me out a few times and I rejected all of them. It would feel weird dating your best guy friend.
He turned to me with his mouth full of pizza. “I asked my mom to let me buy lunch today and she said I could. Now I am never going to eat this food again. It’s gross. I don’t like it,” he said laughing. I laughed with him.
The last to lines he said was an inside joke that we have had since the eighth grade. The history teacher, Mr. Lowie, one time was talking about Ellis Island. He was telling us about how the people in charge of the lines would check the immigrants eyes with a hook. “Sometimes, kids, they would yank to hard and the corner of their eyelids would rip,” he said sitting down at his desk in the front of the class. “It’s gross. I don’t like it.” The whole class cracked up and we ended up getting a class detention because we weren’t listening.
After I finished my sandwich, I drank my apple juice. “Are you almost ready to go up,” Jake asked me grabbing his full tray.
“Yeah, just let me finish my juice,” I said trying to drink as fast as I could. I finished quickly and we both stood up and started to head for the garbage cans.
“Wait for me, guys!” We turned to see who it was. Ashley was quickly grabbing her things and walking over to us. Ashley has had a crush on Jake since sixth grade. He already told her a bunch of times that he didn’t feel the same way. Maybe that’s why she never liked me. “Okay, we can go now,” she said out of breath. I looked to Jake and he was chuckling. It didn’t take much work to walk over to us. Ashley is chubby though, so that may be why.
We headed back to our seats after we threw our trash into the garbage cans. Ashley asked Leah to move to her seat so she was facing Jake. She pushed her hair to behind her shoulders. “So what’s up, Jake,” she asked giving me a glare.
“I guess I’m good. You?”
“Oh, I’m fine. Thanks for asking. You know what? I felt like crap this morning. I almost didn’t want to go to school. Once I saw you, all the signs of sickness went away. Isn’t that marvelous,” she said reaching out to touch Jake’s hand. He quickly pulled it away.
He looked at me kind of scared and annoyed. He has to go through this at least once a month. “Ashley, I told you before. I’m not interested in you. I don’t feel the same way. You should try this on someone else, okay?”
She looked at me hatefully. Did she think this was all my fault? My fault for him not feeling the same way? “Well you told me that before. But I can’t help it. I get lost in your dreamy blue eyes, the way you talk, and how your black hair shines. Why can’t you feel the same way?”
You could tell in Jake’s eyes that this time she really did go too far. He never really liked it when people talk about him like that. “Because I don’t. You always, always ask me this, and I’m tired of it. I don’t feel the same way. Don’t ask me again. I’m sorry.” He got up and left, leaving me and her alone.
She had tears in her eyes, and she slowly wiped them away. “I’m sorry, Ashley,” I said hoping that would make her feel better.
She looked at me confused and that quickly turned to anger. “What are you saying? What is there for you to be sorry about? Oh yeah, everything about this is what you should be sorry about. Well if you’re truly sorry, you will talk Jake into going out with me.”
“I can’t do that. I can’t make him love you. I’m sorry if that upsets you, but he doesn’t feel the same way as you do,” I said in my most calm voice.
She stood up. “He does to love me. He’s just afraid to say so because you are always there. I see you smiling at him all the time when I ask. He sees you and thinks this is all some sort of joke. I’m so sick of you, Randall. All you do is cause people pain. Why don’t you just leave and never come back,” she said all of that so loud the whole cafeteria was quiet. That turned into a burst of murmurs, and Ashley looked embarrassed.
A lunch monitor walked over to us. “Is there a problem to why you shouted everything, Banks?”
“Nothing that you would understand. You’re way too old to know what all of that was about,” she said sitting down looking very fond of herself.
“Really? Then you might want to tell Principal Charles the problem. Since you know he’ll understand the problem since he’s not that old” He really isn‘t. He might be in his early or mid thirties. He had brown hair and brown eyes. He always smiled and talked to everyone in the halls.
“Fine,” Ashley said standing up. “Maybe he will.” She followed the teacher out the door and to the office.
Everyone at the table turned to me. “What in the world made her freak like that,” Ryan asked after no one else would. Jake walked back over to our table and sat across from me instead of next to me. A few other people outside of our group came over to listen in.
I told everyone what happened and Jake added in a few details. After they all heard the new gossip going around we all got up and started heading to next class.
Jake walked with me to my locker. “I’m sorry about the blaming you went through,” he said with his back against the locker next to mine.
“It’s alright. I’m sure she’ll get over it eventually,” I said grabbing some books.
“Not in a million years,” he said laughing. I couldn’t help but laugh with him since it’s probably true. “I have a question for you.”
“Okay, shoot.”
“Now since you’re single and everything again. I was wondering if you would want to go out with me?”
I lost my smile. I didn’t want to. He knew that, but why was he asking? “Jake,” I said closing my locker. “You know what my answer is going to be. Why are you asking?”
“I guess I was just hoping that you changed your mind. I will see you later then,” he said leaving and not even giving me a glance. I always felt so bad when he asked and I answered. It’s actually funny if you think about it. He’s acts the same exact way with me that Ashley does with him.
I walked to my last class of the day. The class was the longest one of the day. I couldn’t get Rylie out of my head. I didn’t even hear Mr. Lesley, the French teacher, when he asked me a question.
Soon enough though, the bell rang for school to be over. I grabbed my things out of my locker and left the school.
Andrew was there outside of the school’s doors. “Do you want me to take you home? It will be quicker than taking the bus,” he said looking down.
I did want to know what happened to him after he was taken inside by the teacher. “Sure, I just want to get home to take a nap,” I said pulling my bags up more on my shoulder. He nodded and we walked to his little red car and got in.
He pulled out of the school’s parking lot even before I got buckled up. “I’m sorry about what happened. He’s such a jerk. It makes me so angry that he does this to every living girl,” he said pushing down on the gas pedal so we went fast.
We were actually going so fast that the police pulled us over. At first, I didn’t know if Andrew would even pull over, but he did.
He was mumbling to himself as he rolled down the window. It took the policeman a while to walk over to us. He had a black mustache with spots of white. He wore round glasses and his nose was in need of a trim.
It took Andrew awhile to put on a decent face. “Hello, Officer, I know I was speeding, but it was an accident. Could you give me a break?”
The Officer lowered himself so he could see through the window. “No, I don’t think I should do that. You should know by now that speeding is against the law. You should also know the consequences that occur if you do speed. So I think you should pay the consequences,” he said standing up, pulling up his pants, then lowering himself again.
Andrew was getting madder and madder at the second. “Listen, Officer, my sister here is very sick at the moment,” he said pointing at me. “I need to get her home immediately. Can you please let us go?” I never knew Andrew would lie like that, especially to a policeman.
The Officer sighed, “All right. I’ll let you off with a warning, but next time don’t expect me to be so easy on you.” Did I really look that bad? I don’t remember crying after I had this morning. Oh well, as long as it worked.
Andrew looked relieved. “Thank you so much, Officer, and I don’t think there’ll be a next time,” he said chuckling.
The officer was chuckling to. “All right, take care,” he said patting the top of the car. He slowly walked to his car, got in, and drove off as Andrew was rolling up his car window.
I all of a sudden needed some answers from Andrew. “What happened to you this morning after the teacher took you inside? Are you mad at me because of…,” I said, but he cut me off before I could finish all of my questions.
“I’m not mad at you. Are you insane? It’s not like you set the whole thing up with Rylie. I got one weeks suspension for punching him. He got nothing because his family’s good friends with Mr. Nickel’s family. Mom told me to pick you up and then grab dad’s pills,” he said starting up the car and drove on with the rest of the traffic. My dad has some sort of bladder disease so he has to take these real nasty looking pills. “When I told mom about everything she wasn’t even mad at me, she was actually kind of proud of me,” he said looking full of himself. He always thinks that everyone is always proud him, even when he screws up big time.
It was a good thing that he wasn’t mad at me. “I’m still sorry though that you got suspension when you didn’t need it. That stupid, retarded thing they call Rylie should suck a stinking egg,” I said smashing my fist on the dashboard.
Andrew was laughing. I think he saw my mad mixed with confused face as why he was laughing at me. “I think it’s funny that you can get so pissed off and not swear like normal people around your age do.”
It was always one of my biggest things. I hate when people swear. It doesn’t help anything. “Yeah, I know. You remind me that I do all of the time,” I emphasized the all because in every conversation it comes up.
We pulled into Rite-Aid. “I’ll be right back I need to pick up dad’s pills,” he said getting out and closing the car door before I could even respond.
I sat there for about five minutes then Andrew came back. He put the bag on the floor, buckled up and drove off.
We sat in silence all the way home. It was awkward, but there was nothing to talk about. It didn’t take us that long to get home.
When we pulled into the driveway, Andrew grabbed my book bag and dad’s pills. I took my purse, jacket and other bag.
I walked slowly to the house because I knew my mother was waiting for me in there. It didn’t take as long as I hoped it would for me to get to the door. I walked in and my mom was making apple pie and my dad was making our chicken dinner.
They both turned and stared at me while I hung up my jacket and bags. My mom wiped her hands on her apron after I was done and walked over to me and gave me a hug. “Andrew told us about what happened to you. My poor baby, I’m so sorry.”
The last thing that I wanted from my parents was for them to be sorry for me. “It’s fine and I’m fine, mom, really,” I said trying to pull out of her hug. She noticed me trying so she let go of me and went back to the apple pie.
Andrew walked by me and gave my dad his pills. I wanted to go up to my room to take a nap. I walked past my dad and he smiled at me and I smiled at him. He knows when not to say things and when to say things. At that moment he was right about not saying anything.
I walked up to my room and closed and locked my door after I got in. I sat down on my bed and looked at the door. It felt like I was waiting for someone to come in even though I locked it.
I fell back on my pillow and took a nap. I woke up about an hour later. I pulled out my laptop from underneath my bed and went online and surfed the web for about another hour.
I remembered about my phone. I haven’t turned it on yet. I took it out of my jean pocket and turned it on. I had about thirty text messages. Most of them Rylie, so I ignored them. One though, was from Ryan.
It said to meet him and the others at the Mc Café. It’s a place where my friends and I go to hang out. We usually sit on the curb and goof around. The town I live in doesn’t have a lot of people in it, so everyone usually knows everyone.
I ran downstairs to go tell my mom I was leaving. “Mom,” I said practically screaming as I went down the stairs. I went into the kitchen where she was waiting to see what I wanted. “I just got a text from Ryan saying to meet him and the others at the café. I’ll be back later.”
My mom didn’t look happy. “I just finished dinner. You’re going to miss it then and you’ll have to eat it cold,” she said with her hands on her hips.
The best way to get things from my mom was to agree and answer to every single things she says. “I know. I’m sorry I won’t be here though, but I want to get out and talk with my friends. And I can just heat the food up when I get back home,” I said grabbing my gray sweater I had on the hook and put it on.
“Are you walking there,” she looked worried.
The café wasn’t that far from our house, and I always walked there. So why was she worried about me now? “Yeah, I’m walking.” I walked out the door.
I looked at the passing houses on the way to the café. Most of them were small and I could tell which person belongs in which house. The upcoming blue house is the McGuire’s house, the white one is the Brand’s house, the gray one is the Gramm’s house. I could literally go all day doing that. That was one thing I was good at, memorizing things.
It took about twenty minutes to get to the Mc Café. When I walked up to open the doors, they were leaving. “Oh, we didn’t think you were gonna come. We thought you were to scared to show your face in public after that big breakup you had with Rylie. Must have been hard to see him kissing that other girl, huh?” Ashley said looking at her nails. I ignored everything she said.
“Forget about her, I’m sorry, we waited for you for about ten minutes. Do you want a ride home?” Ryan asked. You could tell that Ashley was pissed off about Ryan saying to forget about her.
“Nope, I’m good. I’m going to get a coffee anyways before I leave,” I said opening the door to go inside.
“Wait, do you want me to stay with you?” Jake asked. I didn’t think he would talk to me ever again. He looked really sad and wouldn’t even give me a glance in history.
“No, I’m fine. I actually wanted some alone time to think about things,” I said opening the door again. Jake nodded and ran to catch up with the others who were already in the car.
I walked into the small, bright café. There was always a bunch of lights on, and the wallpaper was a light blue with coffee cups on it. The best thing about the café was that it always smelled of coffee, one of the best scents in the world.
I sat away from the window and went to a corner table against the wall. It wasn’t long after I sat down that a waiter came up to me. He looked just about my age. He had dark brown hair and blue eyes. He had sort of a babyish face, but it was cute. I knew he wasn’t from around here because I haven’t seen him ever before. I immediately fell in love with his beautiful smile. “Would you like something?” he asked, still smiling.
I smiled back. “Umm…I’d like a coffee,” I said as he wrote it down in his notepad.
“Anything else?”
“No thank you.” I looked down at the table. I could feel my face turning red. I never before was so embarrassed about being around a boy.
He walked away. I grabbed one of the napkins in the holder at my table and started folding it into a heart.
Before I could finish folding it, he was back with my coffee. “Here you go,” he said with his beautiful smile returning.
My face turned red again. “Thanks.”
He walked away. I put sugar and cream in my coffee. I drank it with little sips at a time. It didn’t take me long to finish drinking it though.
A different person came to give me my bill. She was plump and had blonde hair with purple, blue, and green highlights. She also had blue eyes that she covered in dark makeup, just like the rest of her face. Every where you looked on her face she had a zit. It was disappointing to me that she came instead of him. “Your bill is two dollars. You can just give me the money now,” she said. When she talked you could see her yellow teeth.
I gave her the money and she grabbed my cup and walked away. I got up from the table and walked out the door to head home. The sun was going down. The town looked really pretty when it did. The sunset was always my favorite part of the day.
I started walking down the street, then I heard someone running behind me. Just ignore the person. Maybe then they’ll leave you alone. I thought.
“Hey wait up,” the voice said. I stopped and turned around, and it was him! I was excited to see him. I thought I’d never see him again. Thinking of how excited to see someone I only met made me feel bad. I mean I just broke up with someone today, shouldn’t I be at home crying now?
By now he caught up with me. “Can I walk you home? I’d like to talk to you,” he said smiling that smile.
I didn’t know what to say, so I just nodded. And again my face turned red.
We started walking. “I’m sorry. I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Erik. Erik Kinley,” he said looking somewhat embarrassed.
“My name’s Rosalyn Randalls,” I said my face turning red again. I didn’t like telling people my name because I was always so embarrassed by it. My name was originally going to be Lyn, but my grandma said that I should be called Rose. My mom ended up liking both names a lot, so she put them together and got Rosalyn.
His smile became bigger. “I like that name,” he said nodding to himself. “Well I’m going to have to follow you, since I don’t know where you live.”
“Okay,” I said. It was the quickest thing I could think of without sounding stupid. “You know, I’ve never seen you around here before.”
He looked even more embarrassed than before. “My mom is weird, and she doesn’t want me to go to a public school. So I’m home-schooled. I know, it makes me sound babyish.”
“Not really. It’s actually kind of cute.”
“Only kind of?”
I nodded and he laughed. We walked in silence for a while. It was awkward since I knew I didn’t have anything to say to him.
I was relieved when he broke the silence. “Do you have any siblings?”
I had a pretty messed up family. My dad works at a steel plant. My mom is a pre-school teacher. I have the most annoying little sister and an older brother who acts more female than male. “Yeah. I have a younger sister, Lilly, and an older brother, Andrew. How about you?”
“I have an older half-sister, Caitlin, but she doesn’t count since I don’t exist to her,” he said frowning.
I could feel that there was another awkward silence coming on, so I said probably the stupidest thing that I could have said. “Why is she your half-sister?”
His face turned even sadder than before. “My dad died from cancer. I was only three though so I didn’t know him that well, but I have heard stories of him and it makes me want to know him. Anyway, my mom got back to the dating business about two years ago. Greg and my mom got married last June.”
I felt even worse about asking the question. I didn’t know what to do. What could I do? I had to do something I’m the one that made him sad. “I’m sorry about your dad.” It was the lamest thing I could have possibly said at that moment and I said it. I need to learn to think before I speak.
Erik looked at me and then back to the sidewalk. “Don’t be. It’s not like you’re the one who gave him cancer.”
I stopped in front of my house and he looked up surprised. “Is this your house,” he asked pointing to it. I nodded. “That didn’t take as long as I thought it would. Hey, before you go, could I have your number? I’d like to see you again.”
I didn’t know how I was supposed to give him my number. “I don’t have anything on me that I can use to write it down.”
“Oh, sorry, I do. I stole a couple pens from the café.” He dug into his pocket and then pulled out a pen. It had Mc Café written on the side of it in gold the rest of it was a navy blue.
He gave me his hand so I could write on it. And I did. I wrote my number on it slow so I wouldn’t screw up writing it and make it look like a different number. He looked up at me after I was done and smiled that smile. “Thanks. I’ll see you another time then.”
“Yep. Bye,” I said as he started walking away.
I went into the house and up to my room smiling the whole time going there. I sat down on my bed and then Andrew walked in. He looked furious. “Who the hell was that?”
I didn’t see why it was any of his business. “Someone I met at the café.”
“You leave sad and come back the happiest I’ve seen you in years. Do you know how pissed mom and dad are? They’re real pissed,” he said before I could answer. “Mom let you go so you could cool off. Not to find another boy to date.”
The door slowly opened. It was Lilly. “Sorry. Rosie, mom and dad want you downstairs,” she said pointing out the door.
I walked past Andrew and down the stairs. Why was everyone so mad that a nice boy decided to walk me home? “Yeah,” I said as I sat down on the chair.
My mom looked at my dad then at me. “Why in the world would you go out with another boy now? After you broke up with someone this morning.”
“I’m not going out with him or anyone. And if I was I don’t need you to tell me if I can or can’t okay?” I stood up and was about to leave.
“Wait,” my dad said pointing to the chair. I sat back down. “We’re just worried for you. We don’t want you to get your heart broken again, and don’t go out with ten boys in one day,” he must have saw my reaction. “Now, I’m not saying that you are, but that’s not the way we raised you.”
“Okay. Thanks for caring about me,” I didn’t know what to say.
“Now you can go to your room, okay?”
I stood up. “Okay, good night.” I went upstairs and to my room. I pulled out my laptop and wrote to Sara about what happened tonight.
I got a text message not long after I wrote the email. It was from Erik! I opened the text and it said:
Just wanted to say good night
I smiled at the message for the rest of the night. I quickly took a shower and then watched movies until midnight, when I turned off the TV and the lamp and went to sleep.
“Wake up! Wake up!” I heard someone say. I opened my eyes to see Lilly. “Get up Rosie! Someone special is here to see you!” She started jumping on my bed like every other six year old girl would.
She stopped jumping and sat down at the end of my bed as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes. It was finally Saturday and I was up early. “Guess who it is, Rosie. Guess who!” She said clapping her hands together.
Lilly always got like this when ever Rylie came over. I hope it’s not him. Please, don’t let it be him. There was still a chance it wasn’t though. I sat up and leaned back against the wall. “I don’t know. Who?” I said yawning.
She stood up. “It’s the boy you were with last night. Erik, I think,” she said taking my brush and brushing her hair.
My eyes flew open and I ran to my dresser and got out my other brush and started brushing my hair so hard it made my eyes water. “Wait,” she said putting my brush down on my dresser. “He said to take all the time you need,” she started to turn away. “Oh, and wear a bathing suit. He said he’s taking you somewhere fun.” She walked out and closed the door.
I got changed with a bikini underneath my tank top and shorts. I put my hair in a bun and ran downstairs.
Erik was in the living room sitting with Andrew who looked pissed. Andrew got up, took my arm and pulled me to the kitchen. He started preparing a bowl of cereal for himself. “You told me that you weren’t dating him.”
I became mad. “I’m not.”
“Well, mom and dad sure think you are now. They think you were lying to them last night when you guys talked,” he got out a spoon and started eating. “They left though, so I wouldn’t be out to late, or else hell will happen between you and mom.” My mom never wanted me to start dating. She doesn’t want my life to turn out like hers. She married right out of high school with my dad because of Andrew, who she had when she was only seventeen. She never went to college and greatly regrets that decision now.
“Well I’m not going out with him,” he looked at me as if I didn’t know what I was talking about. “And why does it even matter if I do or not?”
He put his bowl on the counter. “Yesturday morning your heart broke. You come home in tears. You go hang out with your friends and come back with a guy no one’s ever seen before. Sorry if mom and dad and everyone else is a little worried for you.”
I ignored him and walked out and into the living room where Erik was. He quickly got up from the seat he was sitting in when I walked in. “Hey, ready to go?”
“Yeah”
We walked to his car. He opened the door and closed it after I got in. His car was amazing! I don’t know what it is since I’m not good with cars, but I know it is amazing!
He pulled out of the driveway and looked at me then the road. “We’re going to a place called the ‘Sweet Spot’. My friends and I named it when we first found it when we were six. We’re the only ones who know where it is.”
“Your friends? Who are they?”
“Well it’s complicated so try to follow along. My mom and my other friends mom’s met one time, and ever since they’ve been friends. So are families were home schooled together. They wanted to all have kids that we the same age to so they all had kids at the same time. I know, my family’s messed up.”
“Don’t worry mine is to,” I said looking out the window as he chuckled.
“So you ready to have fun?”
“Definitly. What are we going to do there?”
“Well it’s a waterfall thing and we jump into it. So that’s one thing we’ll do. We also make a campfire and just hang out,” he said looking at me and smiling that smile.
I noticed something on his face. He had a black eye on his left eye. “That sounds like a bunch of fun. What happened to your face?” I hoped I didn’t sound to invasive.
He sounded scared. “I fell down the stairs last night,” he said and before I could comment he changed the subject. “Sorry for waking you up this morning.”
“It’s fine. I was about to get up anyway,” I lied. He nodded and turned on the radio. I immediately knew the song by Linkin Park. “Oh my gosh, I love this song.”
He looked at me confused. “You do? I don’t know anyone else that likes this song other than me and now you,” he said smiling.
I looked at his radio and saw the time. No wonder I was so tired. It was only seven!
He turned down the music. “Do you have any pets?”
“Nope, Lilly is allergic to dogs and my mom’s allergic to cats. You?”
“Wow, you have it tough,” he teased. “Yeah, I have two dogs and four cats. I live on a dairy farm, so I have a bunch of cows and goats. I also have horses and pigs to. We’re almost there now.”
I nodded and looked out the window until we got there. It didn’t take us that long until we did. The site was beautiful! There was a water fall like Erik said there would be. There was also millions of trees and flowers all over the place. I could never imagine that this site would be here in this town.
We got out of his car and started walking towards a bunch of other boys that were sitting around a picnic table. They all waved when they saw us. I tried looking for another girl to talk to, but there wasn’t any, just me.
One of the boys jogged over and started to walk with us. He had blonde hair and glasses. He went closer to Erik to whisper to him. “Way to go, Erik. She’s fine.”
Erik smiled and then took of his shirt. I never noticed that he had that much muscle. We got to the picnic table and sat down. All of the boys were looking at me, they had smiles that took up there whole face.
One of them that was by the edge of the cliff whistled, then jumped. “Screw you, Roy,” Erik turned to me. “Sorry, some of them have never been near a girl before.” He laughed.
I laughed to. “It’s alright. I know how they can be. I have an older brother.”
“Do you want to jump in?”
What did that mean? “What?”
He laughed. “Do you want to jump off the cliff and into the water over there?”
“I don’t know I’ve never done anything like that before,” I said embarrassed.
“It’s fun. I promise you,” he said grabbing my hand and taking me over to the edge of the cliff. It looked farther down than before. He must have saw how scared I was. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” he said smiling.
“No, I want to.” I nodded to myself. I took of my top and shorts and threw them to the side. I took my hair out of the bun and looked at Erik.
He put his hand out for me to hold. I grabbed it. “I’ll count to three then we’ll jump,” he said looking down. I nodded to him. “One…Two…Three!”
We jumped and everything zoomed past us fast. It felt like they were the ones moving and not us. We splashed to the water before I even looked at it. My body stung, but it quickly disappeared. Under the water you could see everything clearly. The little fish swimming away like something was after them, the rocks covered in green moss.
I swam back to the surface where Erik was. “That all happened so fast,” I said excited.
“I know, that’s why I love it so much,” he smiled. “It was different for me though. I’ve never held somebody’s hand while coming down.” He laughed.
He pulled me with him until we were by the cliff’s wall. I didn’t know why until I saw all the others coming down, most of them yelling at the top of their lungs. They sounded like huge rocks splashing into the water as they hit the surface.
They all came over to us. “Was it fun, Rose? Can I call you Rose,” the one who I’ve learned the name of Roy asked.
“Sure, and yeah, it was super fun.”
We got out of the water by swimming to where the land isn’t that far from the surface. Erik had to help me climp up, I have no muscle what-so-ever. Then we had to go up a high hill. I wasn’t that bad, even though my legs hurt really bad. The coldness was the only thing that kept me going. You could definetly tell that they walked up it a bunch of times since there was a worn-out path that we were walking on.
When we finally got to the top, I quickly sat down on the bench and tried to warm myself. Erik came over to me and wrapped a towel around me, then one around him, and sat down next to me. One of the boys walked over and pushed us apart to put food on the table. I would have never guessed that they could be neat and set things the way they did. It looked like my mom set the food on the table.
We just sat, talked, laughed and ate for a long time. I even learned everyone’s names and nicknames. I could even tell you why they have a nickname. I usually can’t hold on to much things for a while, but I quickly learned with them. There’s Roy, he doesn’t have a nickname, he’s just plain old Roy. Nick’s nickname is Slug. He used to eat slugs when he was younger all the time. It’s super gross. He even described what they tasted like. He also is the one they told me to call if I want someone slugged. Smith’s nickname is Slippy. He’s super clumsy and will fall for no reason at all. Carter also doesn’t have a nickname, but I like that name. Peter is also a lonesome that doesn’t have a nickname. Scott’s nickname is Pill. He apparently was accused many times of doing drugs, which he hasn’t, and they had to drug test him twice. Zack’s nickname is Tumble. He can tumble anywhere he wants to, even on rocks and sharp things I’ve been told. Micheal’s nickname is Michelle. He has long hair and was once called a girl one time, which made the others laugh. Then the last two in their gang are Bryan and Erik, they both don’t have nickname’s either.
When it started getting dark and a little cold. Everything seems cold when you’re wearing a wet bikini. Slug, Pill, Bryan and Erik went into the woods to grab sticks and to start making a fire as the rest of us talked.
After Erik got up, Roy happily took the open spot next to me. I had to get his arm off from around my shoulder. Unfortunatly, Erik saw it happen. He dropped his huge pile of sticks and stormed like a angry horse over to the picnic table. “Well, Howdy, Partner.” Roy didn’t even look an inch close to being scared or nervous. Even though I was.
Erik grabbed Roy’s shirt and pulled him up and over the picnic table until he was in front of him. “Hi. What the hell was that?” You could see the flames burning inside of Erik’s eyes. It wasn’t hard to guess that Roy has done this one to many times.
“I was just chillin’ with my new friend. What were you doing?” Roy said with a fond look on his face. Roy was really ticking me off right now. Heck, since I first met him.
“I swear to goodness. You touch her again, I will beat you senseless. Understand, Mutt?”
“Of course I understand. I mean she is your date today, isn’t she. I was just warming her cause you weren’t there at the time.” He walked over, sat down next to me and did the same thing all over again.
Erik was extremely pissed off now. He quickly came over to Roy and punched him so hard, he was gushing blood out of his nose. I felt terrible. It was all my fault that they were in a fight right now. It was my fault for my brother getting suspension. I just need to lock myself in my room and never come out.
I put my face in my hands while everyone was yelling at Erik for being too protective, and how Roy was just joking around with him. I listened to everyone yelling at Roy for doing that and that he should of known that this would happen. I listened to people yelling at people to get towels and other things for Roy’s bloody, broken nose. I listened to Roy groan as they put the towel over his nose and pick him up to put him in the car. I listened to people argue about who would drive Roy to the hospital. Pill was the one who finally said that he would. He quickly went to the car and drove off.
Everything was then silent. I felt them all staring at me. Someone sat down next to me, and I was expecting it to be Erik, but it was Tumble. “Here, come over to where the fire is and warm up while we find Erik, Okay?”
What did he mean? Did Erik run away and hide? Why would he even do that? I just nodded to Tumble and followed him to one of the logs that surrounded the fire. He put a blanket over my shoulders slowly. I think he was scared that Erik would come out and break his nose too.
“Okay, all of us are going into the woods to look for Erik. If something comes or something scares you, run into my car.” He pointed to a big, dark blue Hummer. I would definitely feel safe in that car.
I smiled at him. “Thanks. Thanks for everything.”
“It’s fine,” and he ran to catch up with the others where they talked for a minute then broke up into separate directions.
I was then alone. I was now, luckily, warm, but being alone made it feel like there was a big hole inside of my chest. And it felt like someone was watching me. I looked around me, ready to run at any second from a rabid coyote. I looked behind me, and Erik was walking over to me. A feeling of relief washed through.
He came over to me and sat down next to me. “Sorry about the whole thing that just happened. Where did the others go?” he said looking around him.
“No, it’s not your fault about what happened at all. He was the one that was being the dooshbag. They went into the woods looking for you. Where did you go?” I was surprised that he didn’t know where the others were. I would have thought that he waited until they were all gone to come out, but I guess I was wrong, again.
“Of course it’s my fault. If I didn’t punch him he wouldn’t be in the hospital now. I went with him and Pill to the hospital. I wanted to say I was sorry to him. I thought they would know that that’s where I went since I told them I was going to. I hope they know about the coyotes’ in the woods. One of them could go missing. But, luckily, they’re not that stupid to do that.”
I decided to drop the whole Roy situation. It was nowhere as important as the situation we were in now. “I don’t think you should be so certain about that. I guess they really think you’re a good friend, cause that’s exactly what they did.”
He went from a little grin to pure scaredness. “What do you mean? They split up?” I nodded. “How stupid can those idiots be. Three people already died this year in those woods. They were all people that were goofing around or just taking a walk. Oh crap. Now do I feel like a total ass.” He stood up. “I’m gonna go looking for them. Stay here.”
I was not going to stay here under any circumstances now. I was scared out of my brains. “Yeah…umm…no…I’m gonna go with you.”
“No you’re not. You’ll get hurt.”
“I probably have better luck going with you since sitting down on a log would be easy prey. Plus, this is sorta my fault too so, of course I’m going with you.”
“Fine, you can go, but you need to know that none of what had happened was your fault,” he said walking in a direction so I followed.
It was tricky walking in the forest, many things were making it extra difficult. One, I couldn’t see. Erik was in front of me, and he was holding the flashlight. I had to follow the sound of his footsteps, which didn’t help when there was logs. Two, I would hear a noise and freak out, and sometimes I would freeze and then think that I lost Erik. Three, it was a little hard concentrate on calling the boys’ names. I was scared out of my mind that I would be attacked by a coyote. I should’ve waited in the car. Four, the thought that they’re back at the fire, leaving because they thought that I might’ve already gone, or they just entered the woods again looking for me. I didn’t know what I was thinking when I told Erik that I was to come, but I said it and now I’m roaming through a coyote infested forest.
I was walking behind Erik the whole time. He figured out that I was having trouble finding out if there were logs in my path or not, so he started telling me when their was.
Since we started this…this journey I should call it. Erik and I hadn’t said a thing to each other, only when there was a log in our path. I started getting disturbed by the silence, so I decided to bring up something random. “So, you’re step dad. What’s it like to have one?” The minute I said those words I regretted them. I knew to Erik it was a touchy subject.
“Umm…well personally, I would rather have my real dad. Greg I hate and will always hate until the day I die. He’s a no good, turkey hunting, cigar smoking, son of a gun,” he said, his voice full of hate.
“Oh…I’m sorry. I thought it was different than that.”
“Greg…I don’t know how to put how he is. He is either hunting, eating, sleeping, fighting, smoking or is just not there all together. He’ll leave for up to a week, leaving my poor mother scared half to death. I don’t know why she just doesn’t divorce him. It pisses me off,” he sighed, “Guys, where are you?” he yelled.
“I wouldn’t know how you feel. I’ve never been in that sort of situation. I’m sorry that you feel that way,” I said. I was hopeful that maybe that would help cheer him up. I hate it when people are sad or mad or anything that’s not happy. I usually try my hardest to make sure that everyone is happy.
“Don’t be. I think we should head back now. It’s late and with are luck we walked all the way out here and their back at the picnic table,” he said stopping and turning around.
keep writing
Gender:
Points: 528
Reviews: 33