Little Things

by Madison Street

  I glance at Taylor who’s across the room, talking to Adam. “Oh well. He’s a good dance partner.”

  “Wanna bet?” Duke grabs my hand and leads me onto the dance floor just in time for a new song to start. The speakers start to play Timber by Pitbull and the crowd goes wild as people begin to flood the dance area. My heart literally stops beating and I swear I can’t even breathe because I’m so freaking nervous. I notice that my hand fits so perfectly in Duke’s hand.

  The crowd is so packed together that Duke and I are forced to dance closely; maybe a little too close. As the song starts, he sings the lyrics to me and we begin to groove to the music. Melanie was right, he does have a nice voice.

  I laugh out loud and raise my hands above my head and sing along with him. The crowd is compact and everyone’s bodies are continuously bumping into one another. Duke looks at me and places his hand on my lower back. A shocking jolt of electricity flows through his touch and my eyes widen. He immediately removes his hand from my back and instead keeps his hand by his side. I can still feel the heat flow where his hand was placed, and I miss it being there. We continue dancing as I give him a reassuring smile. He winks and continues to sing and twirl me around.

  I bob my head to the beat and shake my body with everything I have. As we dance together, I no longer pay attention to what’s around me. It’s as if Duke and I are the only ones dancing, and as I stare at him, I get lost in the wonder of what could be. Someone from behind me pushes me forward and I fall against Duke’s strong and broad chest as he catches me. We stare into each other’s eyes for a brief moment before he breaks the contact and helps me stand on my own.

  “You alright?”

  I laugh nervously, “Yeah, sorry. Just crowded, that’s all.”

  The song ends and the crowd begins to clear, leaving only a few stragglers. Duke looks at his watch. “It’s getting late. We should get going.”

  “Okay. I have to use the restroom first.”

  After I use the restroom, Duke finds Melanie among the crowd and we say our goodbyes. Taylor tells me he’ll call soon as he hugs me and kisses me on the cheek. When we pull up to my driveway, Melanie asks, “So, was it a night to remember?” I smile and catch Duke looking at me through the rearview mirror, “Yes, yes it was.”

  Raya

  A few weeks pass, and before I know it, winter break is just around the corner. Most of my classmates are looking forward to two weeks without school, but not me. Craig will be on vacation during the holiday weeks and I intend to avoid him at all cost. My plan is to work during the day and hopefully stay in my room all night; and do it all again the next day.

  It’s the last day of finals week and I’m so ready to get these damn tests over with. Duke, Melanie, Taylor, and I have gotten together a few times after school to study for finals. Ever since the Halloween party, Taylor calls or texts me at least three times a week. We’ve become good friends and I’ve slowly opened up to him. He even visits me at work and hangs out for a couple hours just to keep me company.

  As I lie in bed, waiting for my alarm to go off, I think about how my life has changed these past few months. I never would have thought that I would have a group of caring and true friends. Melanie came over to the house last week, while Craig was out of town, and she spent the weekend. We had a blast talking about the guys, watching Brad Pitt films, vegging out on junk food, and sharing beauty tips. Despite Sandy’s threat, Duke and I are still closer than ever. I can’t get that night out of mind—the way it felt when he placed his hand on me—I can still feel the heat from that spot in my lower back. Just thinking about it now gives me butterflies and I smile. Sometimes, I wonder if Melanie feels threatened by my and Duke’s friendship, but she never gives anything away. All I see is her compassion and true kindness toward us. Not one hint of jealousy or spite radiates off of her. I’m lucky to have her and I’m grateful she understands the dynamics of my friendship with Duke.

  The alarm clock goes off and I throw my covers off, forcing myself to get ready for the last day of school before winter break starts. I bring my phone with me into the bathroom and turn on the shower. Opening the Pandora app, I select the Kelly Clarkson radio and Catch My Breath begins to play. As I wash myself in the shower, I sing along and groove to the music. Minutes later, I’m drying my hair and getting dressed until suddenly I hear Craig yelling. I turn off the music and listen in to confirm it was him yelling. I hear more shouting as my heart drops and I run out of the bathroom and head downstairs.

  I catch him screaming at my mom in the kitchen as she’s crying over the sink while washing the dishes. My anger begins to boil and I feel the heat rising into my cheeks.

  “What is going on here?”

  Craig and my mom turn to face me and he pulls her away from the kitchen and into the living room. I follow closely behind, “Let go of her, you asshole!”

  Craig’s eyes turn dark and growls, “What did you call me?”

  I step up closer to him and reach for my mother. I take a good look at her and she looks ill and feverish. She should be in bed resting, not being subjected to this prick.

  “Raya, honey, it’s okay. I’m not feeling well so I overslept a little. I’m okay, though. Go get ready for school before you’re late.”

  “No, fuck that, Mom! I’m tired of this bullshit.” I look at Craig and try to stand my ground but inside I’m terrified.

  “Let go of her. Can’t you see she’s sick and you’re only making it worse? I will stay home and keep the house tidy, but she needs her rest.”

  “First of all, the next time you call me an asshole, I will show you what an asshole truly is. Second of all, she’s my wife and she does what I tell her. Now, go to school before you piss me off even more.”

  I am not taking no for answer and I won’t leave my mother alone with him today. I open my mouth to object to his request and suddenly he slaps me across the face, causing me to feel dizzy, and I slightly lose my balance. My left cheek burns from the sting of his hand and tears begin to fill my eyes.

  “Didn’t I tell you to go to school? Or do you want to learn a lesson right here?” His fierce eyes pierce into me and his broad stance towers over me. He reaches out to grab my arm and pulls me toward the stairs.

  “Craig, no! Don’t hurt her! I’m feeling much better now. “ My mother rushes behind us and grabs onto my other arm. He looks behind me and growls before letting go of my arm and I stumble backward into my mom’s arms. He crouches down toward me and points his index finger, “Next time, your mother won’t be able to help you.”

  A stream of tears runs down my face as I tremble in my mother’s arms and stop breathing out of fear and anxiety. I can’t even think straight right now; my mind is scattered and filled with thoughts of what he’s going to do to me. My heart is pounding in my chest and all I sense is hatred for this man. He retreats into his room and my mother guides me back into the living room. She cradles me as I let the tears flow and my cries are muffled into her chest. After a few minutes, I slowly begin to calm down and breathe softly as I gain my composure again.

  “Raya, it’s okay, honey. You should head to school. I don’t want you to miss your finals. Trust me.” She combs her fingers through my hair and rubs the tears off my cheeks. I wrap my arms around her and squeeze, wishing that I will never have to let her go. She kisses my cheek, “Go on. I’m fine.”

  I shake my head in protest, “I can’t leave you, Mom. You shouldn’t stay here with him.”

  She whispers softly, “Your birthday is coming up in a few months. We will leave then. I promise.”

  I sniffle lightly and my crying subdues as I wipe away the last few tears. “Why wait? Let’s just leave now.”

  “Honey, there are just a few things I need to take care of and I need to save some more money.”

  She pleads with me to stay a little longer and I breathe a heavy sigh. “Okay. I’ll be back in a few hours.” I’m still trembling but not as bad as I
was before. I head upstairs to grab my backpack, cell phone, and coat. As I exit my room, I hear Craig watching TV in his room. Only four more months, Raya. Four more months.

  As I enter the halls into the school, I breathe slowly to calm my nerves. Trying to think clearly and forget what happened earlier is easier said than done. The halls are filled with students wrestling junk from their lockers. Some are gathered into small groups chatting about finals while the couples are putting on a vivid display of an all-out kissing war. I make my way to Forensics class and see Duke sitting at our usual table. Just as I’m about to enter, a girl screams loudly and my startled body jumps as my skin begins to crawl. I turn around to find a girl being slung over a guy’s shoulders; I’m assuming their friends, since she begins to laugh. Shit, that scared me. Breathing deeply, trying to catch my breath, I walk into the classroom and sit next to Duke.

  He leans into me, “Hey, you okay?”

  I smile at him, “Yeah, just nerves from the final.” He stares at me for a few seconds longer, waiting to see if I have anything else to say, then he leans back into his chair.

  Mr. Cerillo and the other students trek into class with Rob following behind. He gives me and Duke his infamous nod and takes a seat next to Duke.

  “Alright, class, the final consists of fifty multiple choice questions, ten true or false, and three short answer questions. You have the entire period to complete the final. If you finish early, please return your answers to me and you may leave the class. I hope you all enjoy your winter break and it was a pleasure having you in the class.”

  The class replies with shouts and cheers, forcing him to hush us. He passes out the test and instructs us to begin. I look at the first few questions and feel confident with the knowledge I’ve gained. Yeah, Raya, you got this. Duke reaches over to grab my hand and squeezes it. We look at each other and smile. He winks at me and whispers, “Good Luck.” I nod my head in response and let go of his hand and turn by attention back to the test.

  As the time passes by and my classmates start clearing out, I glance over to the clock. Fifteen minutes left. Rob has already finished and left about ten minutes ago. I glance around to see who’s still left with me. I see Stacy in the back with a few other students and Duke is still sitting next to me. He looks at me, points to my test and whispers, “Focus, Raya.”

  I roll my eyes and laugh softly. I look down at my test and read a question about the complexity and identification of extracting fingerprints. My thoughts go back to the first class of the semester and I smile. That’s when I met Duke. I giggle softly as my stomach begins to flutter. I shake my head, clearing my thoughts of him, and answer the final questions. As I get ready to answer the short answers, Duke puts his stuff away, leaves his seat, and gives his test to Mr. Cerillo. My eyes follow him as he turns to me and nods toward the hallway before he exits the class.

  I finish the test and give it to Mr. Cerillo. “Thank you, Mr. Cerillo. Happy Holidays.”

  He takes the test from me and places it with the others. “Same to you, Raya. Enjoy the rest of the school year.” I smile at him and head toward the hallway where I find Duke, Melanie, and Taylor lounging by the lockers. Taylor sees me and pulls me into a bear hug, squeezing a little too hard, causing me to gasp for air. He laughs and steadies me on my feet.

  “So, how’d you do?”

  I smack his arm and he pretends that it hurt. “I have a good feeling I did well. I felt confident.”

  Melanie wraps her arm around me, “Hey, I got something for you.”

  My eyes widen with shock. “You did? I didn’t get anything for you. Sorry.”

  She laughs and shakes her head, “Don’t worry about it. I saw this in the store and immediately thought of you. It’s nothing expensive or anything.” She reaches into her backpack and passes me a small bag. I look over at her, my curiosity piqued.

  Duke leans in, clearly curious as well, “What is it?”

  Opening the bag, I remove a small box and open it. I dig my hand in and pull out a small bobble-head of Harry from One Direction. Melanie and I burst into laughter and I give her a hug, “Thank you!! I love it!” The guys don’t find it as funny as we do and glance at each other with confusion. I laugh and tell them who Harry Styles is. They just nod and shrug their shoulders; clearly they don’t give a shit about boy bands.

  Taylor wraps his arm around me, “Come on. I’ll walk you to Calculus.”

  I smile up at him and wave bye to Melanie, telling her I’ll call her tomorrow. Duke follows close behind me and Taylor as we make our way to Calculus for my next final. As we near the room, Duke enters the class while Taylor keeps his arm on me. “So, are you doing anything tomorrow night?”

  My body stills and I see Duke staring at us. “Umm, I work tomorrow, but I’ll have to check with my mom and see if there are any plans.”

  “If you’re free, I’d like to take you out. There’s a new Italian restaurant that opened up on 59th. Maybe we can check it out and see a movie afterward.”

  “I can’t make any promises, so I’ll let you know.”

  “That’s fine with me. Good luck on your test. I’ll call you tomorrow.” He bends down and kisses me on my cheek and heads down the hall. I stand there completely stunned as I watch him disappear. Holy shit, he just asked me out on a date.

  Still in shock, I enter the classroom and find my seat. I glance behind me and catch Duke staring at me. His eyes are warm and soft and he mouths, “Good Luck” to me. I smile back at him and whisper “Good Luck” to him as well. Jose passes by and sits behind me. Uggh, I can’t wait for this class to end so I can get away from this prick. He sits up and leans toward my right ear, “I’m going to miss sitting behind you. Hopefully, we share more classes next semester.” He reaches his hand to my flowing hair and softly caresses it. My body shivers with disgust and I pull it out of his grasp and turn around, “In your fuckin’ dreams, creep. Leave me the hell alone. You got that?”

  His eyes widen and he leans back into his seat, a devilish smirk on his face. “I guess we’ll see, won’t we?

  I turn around just in time for Mrs. Robinson to pass out the finals. Letting go of my anger, I focus solely on the test in front of me. Within the next hour, calculations and equations are all I think about, and as I answer the final question, I breathe a sigh of relief. With a quick pace, I give Mrs. Robinson my test and race out of the class only to crash into Duke.

  “Whoa!! Slow down!” He steadies me with his arms.

  I chuckle, “Sorry, I’m just happy to get away from Jose. I’m happy this is the last class with him.”

  “Me, too. He’s gotten in the way of a lot of things and I can’t fucking stand him. It’ll be alright, Raya. He won’t bother you anymore.” He caresses my arm for a few seconds and then pulls away, clearing his throat. “So, uhh, what did Taylor want?”

  I glance away to avoid his eyes, “He asked me out on a date.”

  “He finally did it, huh? Took him forever.”

  My head snaps to look at him, “Wait. What do you mean?”

  He laughs and shakes his head, “After the Halloween party, he asked me if he should ask you out and I told him to go for it. Honestly, I thought he would have asked you out weeks ago. I don’t know what took him so long.”

  My heart drops and an unbearable sadness falls over me. “Oh, is that right?”

  “You know he’s crazy about you. You should give him a chance. He’s a really good guy.”

  I close my eyes and try to force back the tears that are threatening to escape. My heart aches at the loss of Duke’s affection. All I want is him and I know I won’t ever get it. “I’m not so sure. I like him, but not as much as he likes me. I don’t want to rush anything. Besides, I told him that I can’t make any promises. I’ll be very busy with work during the break and won’t have much free time.”

  “Ehh, he’ll wait. He doesn’t have a lot going on anyway.” He glances at his phone and responds to a text m
essage. “Okay, well I’m going to catch Melanie before she heads off to her next class. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

  “Okay. Tell her I’ll see her in English.”

  “I will.” He waves at me as he heads off to go get his girlfriend. At that moment, I realize that my feelings for Duke are purely one-sided and I need to get a grip on them. A single tear escapes and I quickly wipe it away. I promised myself that I wouldn’t stand in the way of Duke and Melanie. I’m not like that and I refuse to be the reason for a breakup. Their friendship means so much to me and I won’t ruin it.

  Maybe I should go out with Taylor, but how can I with Craig being home? Hopefully, he has a conference coming up soon and will have to go out of town. I’m going to have to find a way to explain this to Taylor. I hope he’ll understand. I grab my cell phone and send a quick text to him.

  Me: Meet me at work tomorrow.

  I head down the hallway, making my way to endure the next final in line. A few minutes later, I hear my phone beep with an incoming text notification. I grab my cell to read the message sent from Taylor.

  Taylor: So, is that a yes?

  I laugh to myself. He always gets a head of himself.

  Me: It’s a maybe. I’d like to take things slow so if you want come visit me at work.

  Taylor: Of course! What time is your shift?

  Me: From 11-7

  Taylor: Okay, I’ll see you there. Maybe we can do lunch?

  Me: Yeah, that sounds good. See ya tomorrow.

  Taylor: See ya then sweetie ;)

  I smile at his text and think about seeing him tomorrow. He really is a nice guy and maybe I should listen to Duke and give him a chance. My hopes and wishes are slowly diminishing and I can use any bit of happiness I can get right now. Maybe Taylor is just what I need.

  Duke

  “So, how are things going with Melanie? I bet she’s excited about prom.” Taylor follows me out into the hallway as our class ends.

  “Yes, she already has her dress picked out and has been talking about it non-stop. It’s still three weeks away. She’s adamant about choosing my tux as well. I don’t understand the big deal with it. It’s just a dance.” He nods in agreement and we make our way to the lockers.