by Logan Byrne
“Oh,” I said. “I hope you are able to learn more.”
“Me too, sweetie,” he said while smiling at me.
I walked back upstairs and walked over to my computer. I had a message sent hours ago from Marcus.
“Hey, I was wondering if you wanted to get together sometime soon.”
I saw he was still online and decided to message him back to see if he was still there.
“Yeah, I would really like that.”
A few minutes passed and he replied.
“Good, are you able to meet this weekend possibly?”
“Yeah, that should be good.”
“Saturday afternoon then? At the pier?”
It was weird he was asking me to the pier. It was more of a commercial area where barges and boats could come in and out with their goods and products. It smelled of fish and diesel fuel, but I needed to see and talk to Marcus so I was willing to meet at the dump if it meant I would be able to.
“Yeah, that works. I’ll see you then,” I replied with a smiley face.
“See you,” he replied with a smiley face.
I closed my computer and got in bed. Things were starting to look up. I was finally going to meet the friend I had been talking to forever. I was finally going to see my best friend.
I woke up the next morning rested and cleansed. I didn’t have any more nightmares and I didn’t have any visions. I even felt better and cleaner. I felt like a demon had been expelled out of me and that I was a new person. Somehow talking to Marcus really lifted my spirits.
I still wasn’t over James, but I was okay. I was at peace and knew life would go on. A part of me was still praying he would be at my locker today so that I could talk to him and see how he and his family were holding up. I still loved all of them.
As I gathered my things, I stopped and realized something major. I forgot it was Friday. We had a dissection today. First it was a frog, then a cat, now who even knows what it will be. I might walk in to a giant, dead elephant lying in the middle of the room.
As I picked up my purse, my phone beeped from inside.
“See you tomorrow,” Marcus said with a smiley face.
I walked out of my door with a smile on my face. I hadn’t smiled in what felt like an eternity. I started feeling good again.
Chapter Eight
Confused
As I went to school on this beautiful Friday morning, I couldn’t stop thinking about my date with Marcus. Well, I wouldn’t call it quite a date, more like two friends getting together and hanging out. Even if I were still with James, I would still want to see and talk to Marcus. He was like my brother, and he made me happy. He always knew how to make me smile and make me laugh. He would play games with me and let me vent all of my problems and frustrations to him.
His knowledge and wisdom went way beyond his years, and it showed. He was the one person I always knew I could count on.
I got to school and jumped out of the car with a beaming smile across my face. Nobody seemed to notice, but I didn’t care. I was feeling great and nobody was going to bring me down.
I walked to my locker and saw Ariel at hers. Her locker wasn’t too far away from mine, and I knew I needed to apologize to her. I hadn’t been a great friend and yelled at her when she was only trying to help me and be there for me.
I walked over to her and gave her a giant hug.
“What’s this for?” she asked with a smile.
“I was mean to you the other day and you didn’t deserve it. You were trying to be a good friend and I see that now. I just want you to know I am sorry for the way I acted,” I replied.
“It’s OK! I’m not mad at you!”
“It’s just that James and I broke up and I was feeling really down on myself and I took it out on the first person to come along.”
“You two broke up? Why?”
“Because of the fight he was in. I just don’t like that and thought it was better if we took a break.”
“I get ya. If someone gets that mad you never know if they would do it to you.”
As we were talking, the bell rang.
“Are you ready for the test today?” she asked.
“Test? What test?”
“Oh yeah, you were gone. We have a history test today. I don’t think it will be too bad, though.”
Great, just great. Since I was gone I didn’t even know about this test and now I was going to fail it. Even when I was there I was so obsessed with James and everything that I wouldn’t have paid attention anyway.
We had history first today. Our school ran on a variable schedule. It basically meant our classes rotated and changed depending on the day. They said they did this so that people like athletes and those in clubs wouldn’t miss out as much. They also said it made us smarter somehow and that it prepared us for life.
I think it was all made up, but I didn’t mind it too much. It was better than doing the same thing at the same time everyday.
We walked into Mr. Quigley’s class and grabbed our seats. Everybody was looking over their notes and worksheets as I just sat there like an idiot. I didn’t have any of these things. This was the most unprepared I had ever been for a test in my entire life.
“All right, class,” Mr. Quigley said. “Today we have an exam on the Spanish-American War. You will have the entire class period to work on it. When you are finished, please bring your exam up the front and then work quietly at your desk until it is time to leave. Good luck!”
Mr. Quigley handed out the exams individually and I sat there staring at the paper without a clue. My heart rate increased a little as my palms started sweating. Everyone made it look so easy. They were marking down their answers as if this was just common knowledge.
I started reading the questions and got lucky because I knew a few of them. I filled in answers for the rest and took my exam up to the front of the room. I was the twelfth out of twenty-two students to be done, and I felt okay about it.
I went back to my seat and took out my notebook. I had no idea if I even had other homework to work on at this point. I sat there doodling as I periodically glanced up at the clock to see how close we were to leaving. It would feel as if ten minutes would go by until I would look at the clock and see only two really had passed.
I counted down the minutes until finally the bell rang.
“Thank you everybody for your hard work. I will grade the exams and hand them back to you on Monday. Have a great rest of your day and a great weekend!” Mr. Quigley said.
I grabbed my things and walked out of the class. Next up was math, and I was very nervous. Math was a subject you couldn’t miss. If you turn your head for just one second, you might miss ten formulas that just so happen to be the most important you could ever learn.
I went to my locker, got my book and started heading to math. I just knew I was in trouble. I knew my grades were going to suffer.
I went into class and sat down. I looked around and saw everybody looking over worksheets and their books.
“Oh great,” I thought to myself. “What did I miss?”
The teacher walked in and started going over the previous day’s material. I knew it. I learned this stuff last year at my old school. I felt a sigh of relief as I took out my book and started taking notes. I was saved.
The day went on and I found myself doing better and better. I was grasping material easily, and didn’t seem to have any problems with anything.
James hadn’t been at school all day. I kind of liked it. I still loved him, but knew if he were there, things would only get harder for me. I knew it would be almost impossible for me to be at one hundred percent with him standing at my locker or looking at me in class.
My last period of the day was gym. I went into the locker room and got changed and came out to hear Mr. Callahan speaking.
“Today we have a free gym day!” he said to the applause of the students.
“You can walk the track, play basketball, volleyball, or anything you’d l
ike. Just try to stay active and don’t stand around,” he said.
I went over to Ariel, Greg and Taylor as we started walking the track. Many of the other students decided to casually walk the track so they could talk with their friends. It was basically a giant social hour as far as we were all concerned. I saw Cara playing volleyball off in the distance, but I wasn’t really worried about her.
“Are you guys going to the track finals?” Greg asked.
“We made the finals?” asked Taylor.
“Yeah, it was just found out this morning. They are having them next Saturday night. I guess it is a huge deal or something,” Greg said.
“Yeah, I’ll go,” said Taylor. “Do you guys want to come with me?” she asked while looking at Ariel and me.
“I’d love to go. It would be nice to get out of the house and do something to support the school and our friends,” I replied.
“You can count on us being there,” Ariel said, smiling.
“Where has James been?” Taylor asked while looking at me.
“Let’s not talk about him,” Ariel replied while signaling Taylor to be quiet.
“No, Ariel, it’s fine. We broke up and I’m not really sure where he is,” I said.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know,” Taylor said.
“It’s quite all right. You didn’t know,” I said, smiling at her.
We continued to walk the track until class was over. The bell rang and everybody ran to the locker room to try to get changed as fast as they could. You could’ve let a bunch of rabid dogs loose and they wouldn’t do as much damage as a bunch of teenagers trying to get dressed as fast as they could.
I walked out of school feeling good. I wasn’t broken anymore; I was starting to fix myself. I also couldn’t wait to see Marcus. I knew he could brighten my day.
I got into the car and we proceeded to drive home. The sun was shining down through my window as if a sign from the heavens. I looked up and smiled.
I arrived home and ran upstairs to see if Marcus was online. I wasn’t sure why I was so excited to talk to him, but I was. I wanted to see what we were doing tomorrow and whether he wanted to go do anything fun. I still needed to explore this city some more.
I opened my computer and got online. He was on! I smiled and proceeded to message him.
“Hey!” I said enthusiastically.
“Hey you,” he replied back with a smiley face.
“I was wondering when you wanted to hang out tomorrow.”
“Would two work for you?”
“Yeah. What do you want to do?”
“Just hang out and talk.”
“You don’t want to go anywhere or do anything?”
“I thought we could just hang and talk about everything. I hope that’s okay.”
It was okay, but it wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted to go do something, not sit on the smelly pier watching the boats go by. I thought it was a little weird, but I just wanted to see him. In the end it really didn’t matter where we hung out as long as we were hanging out together.
“Yeah that’s okay,” I said. “Maybe next time we can go somewhere?” I replied with a smiley face.
“Yeah, that sounds good,” he replied back with a smiley face.
“Juliet, can you come down here please?” I heard my mother yell.
“Yeah, one minute!” I yelled back.
“I have to get going,” I told Marcus. “I will see you tomorrow!”
I logged off and went downstairs to see what my mother wanted.
“Your father and I are going to Cheshire tomorrow for the day. Do you want to go with us?” my mother asked.
This was perfect. If they leave, I can sneak out and be back before they even get home. I will get to see Marcus easier, and won’t have to worry about them.
“No, I have a lot of homework to do this weekend. You two go on ahead and have a date. It will be fun!” I said with a smile.
“Are you sure? I don’t want you to feel left out.”
“Mom, I’m sure. You guys never spend time with each other anyway. It will be nice if you go out and just have a day to spend together. I’ll be fine.”
“Well, okay then. We are leaving at noon and most probably won’t be home until seven. I will make you lunch and dinner and leave it in the fridge.”
“Okay, that sounds great,” I said, smiling.
Things just kept looking up for me. It wasn’t that my parents were so strict they wouldn’t let me hang out with anyone, but with all of the attacks and robberies and everything going on, they were overprotective. They didn’t want anything to happen to me and for good reason. I was their only daughter.
“I have some good news,” I said.
“What is that, dear?”
“Our school made finals for track. We are having it next Saturday.”
“Oh, that is great! Are you going to go?”
“Yeah. I am going with a few friends to support the school and the team.”
“That is wonderful, dear.”
My mother always had these great replies. It was really as if everything in the world was great and nothing could go wrong. I could tell her I dropped out of school and joined a band of traveling gypsies and she would think it was wonderful. Sometimes I wondered if she was really listening or if she just programmed herself to give these answers. Maybe my mother was really a robot.
I went back to my room to try to decide what to wear for tomorrow. I liked to make good first impressions and I wanted him to have a really great one. I saw some clothes in the corner of my closet and picked them up to see what they were. They were the clothes I wore to James’s house when he asked me to be his girlfriend. I smelled them and I could smell him on them. His scent laced every inch of my shirt as the aroma went into my nostrils. I held the shirt to my chest as I closed my eyes and remembered that night. It was one of the most magical nights of my life.
I didn’t want to get rid of the memory of that night or James’s scent. I folded the shirt up and placed it inside the top drawer of my dresser. I wanted something to remember him by, and his scent was the best thing I had.
I stopped and reflected for a moment before resuming what I was doing. I couldn’t get too caught up thinking about him again. I was going to see Marcus not too long from now and I wanted to be my best for him. Even though I wasn’t sure anything romantic would happen between us, I didn’t want to be sad around him. We both waited a long time for this moment and I didn’t want to spoil anything. I at least owed him that much.
I picked out a cute outfit but decided not to wear it or show it to my parents so they didn’t get suspicious. If they saw me all dressed up tomorrow, they might catch on to what I was doing and not leave for the day. Then I would lose out on this opportunity and I couldn’t risk that. If it took this long to even hang out, who knows how long it would take if I had to bail.
I hung up my outfit in my closet and closed it so nothing would be visible. I was so close to meeting my best friend. My excitement was unbearable.
The next morning I woke up and jumped out of bed. Today was the big day! I wanted to dance around and yell, but I knew I couldn’t. I had to stay safe.
I went downstairs and tried to act disinterested around my parents. If I acted too happy or suspicious, I knew they would catch on. After all, my father interrogated people for a living. He could tell a lie from a mile away.
I sat down for breakfast and started small talk with my parents.
“So, what are you two going to do today?” I asked.
“I have some business to attend to for a few minutes, but after that we are going to check out the town. They have really nice shops and restaurants up there. Are you sure you don’t want to go? There is still time,” my father said.
“No, I shouldn’t. I have a lot of homework to do. I have a test next week and I want to make sure I’m prepared. Midterms will be here before you know it. Besides, you two need some time alone,” I replied, trying to take his attention a
way.
“Well, I’m proud of you for taking your schoolwork seriously to put it before having fun. It shows a lot of maturity and responsibility,” he said.
If only he knew what I was really doing. I felt a little bad for lying right to their faces, but I knew I had to. I didn’t want my father to meet Marcus and ask him dozens of questions before I even had a chance to talk with him.
My parents got up from the table and started gathering their things to leave.
“Honey,” my mother said. “I made you lunch and dinner and they are in the fridge. If there is an emergency I put numbers on the fridge. We will be back around seven or so. I love you!”
“OK, thank you! I love you too.”
I closed the door behind them and waved as they drove away. Once they were out of sight, I ran upstairs and started gathering my things for today. It was already eleven and I knew it would take me two hours to get ready and half an hour to even get there. I rushed to get ready and looked at myself in the mirror. I looked hot. I tried to keep it conservative and nice while also making sure he thought I looked pretty.
I looked out all the windows casually to make sure there wasn’t anybody out there. I could see my dad having someone out there make sure I didn’t leave. I inspected every inch outside and didn’t see anyone at all. I snuck out the back door and started to make my way to the pier. This was it. There was no turning back now.
I arrived at the pier fifteen minutes early. It smelled like old, dead fish, but I didn’t mind it too much. I sat on an old, worn bench and looked around to see if I saw him anywhere. I had a slight knowledge of what he looked like from the video chat we had done. The minutes grew closer and closer to two, but I didn’t see anybody anywhere. Other than the fishermen and workers on the boats, there was nobody.
Five minutes passed after two and nobody was there. I couldn’t believe he did this to me. How was I so naive to think he would actually show up? After it took so long to even see his face, I should’ve known.
