The Girl Across the Street

The Girl Across the Street 24

Tuesday, December 11, at 6:30 my alarm starts beeping and I get up, walking over to my bathroom to shower. I get out and brush my teeth then walk over to my dresser and grab the clothes Cassidy and I found last night. I throw them on and go downstairs to get my breakfast and meet Simon.

My mom looks at me and smiles. "Nice shirt." She says, kissing my cheek.

"Thanks Mom, love you, bye!" I shout as I jog outside, taking a bite out of my peanut butter toast. Beep beep Simon honks, seeing me come out. Emma is coming out of her front door as well, turning to lock the door as I go down to Simon's car.

"What happened to the button down boy that usually comes out of your house?" Simon asks me, looking at my bright pink t-shirt, from a cheer leading fundraiser in October supporting breast cancer awareness.

"He got bored." I reply. Emma knocks on the window before opening her door.

Once she gets settled, her bags on the floor below her and seat belt buckled, she looks over at me and laughs out loud. "Dylan I have to say, you look great in pink."

Simon laughs and shoves me with one hand, the other one the steering wheel. "You should have told me we were dressing funny today, I still have my shirt too."

"We can always go back to your house and pick it up." I suggest.

Simon nods. "You know, that's not a bad idea. Let's pick Nathan up then double back and get it. I'm not gonna let you look ridiculous on your own."

Nathan's face when he sees my shirt is hilarious. His eyes widen and he shakes his head, rubbing his eyes as if he just woke up. "What the hell are you wearing?" He asks incredulously.

"A shirt." I answer.

"Clearly." Nathan replies, mumbling "I need to get a new ride." This makes us all laugh and we turn around to go back to Simon's. "Hey stupid, school is the other way." Nathan instructs.

"Yeah but my house is this way. You think I'm going to let Dylan have all the fun causing a ruckus?" Nathan groans and Emma laughs. We pull up to Simon's house a few minutes later and he runs inside to change.

He comes out wearing a shirt matching mine and Emma continues to laugh. Simon sees us watching him and does a model walk down his driveway and a spin at the end. This sends Emma and me into a round a laughter and Nathan just continues to sit there, shaking his head.

We pull into the school parking lot fifteen minutes later than usual so we don't have time to go running so instead we all head to our lockers early then camp out on the floor of the junior hallway. Most people walking down the hall gape openly at Simon and me in our hot pink shirts. Nathan has abandoned us to sit in the library and try to "accidentally" bump into Miss White.

Kate walks down the hallway and laughs when she sees us, shaking her head with an amused grin on her face, she walks over to us and kisses me quickly. "My goodness you are quite the sight to see. Did I ever tell you how good you look in hot pink?" She grins at me again and kisses me one more time before dragging me to her locker. "So what's up with the shirt?" She asks, spinning her lock.

My sister helped me pick it out. I told her I wanted to prove to people that it's okay to look different, that it doesn't change who you are. So she told me to try this shirt. I think it gets my point across, don't you?"

"Oh I totally think it changes who you are. Have I pointed out yet what a good mood you seem to be in?"

"You have not yet but thank you, I am. I love to prove a point and seeing that look on your face just makes it even better. So you like it?"

"I love it. Hot pink looks great on you. I think that I just decided on my dress color for prom." She jokes. I roll my eyes and nod. She walks over to where Emma and Simon are still sitting and sits next to Simon. "You guys are crazy." She tells him.

"Hell yeah we are!" Simon laughs. Emma nods, her hair bouncing around because today she decided to wear it down, still straight. Her cream sweater and red plaid scarf make her skin look pretty on her and ironically, Kate decided to wear a brown sweater with a cream scarf so the girls kind of match. It's scary how well Emma changed her wardrobe to fit in.

The warning bell for home room rings and Emma, Simon and I go off together, saying goodbye to Kate. Mrs. Olivers is already in the classroom when we walk in and she raises her eyebrows at us but doesn't comment. She simply looks back down at her computer and proceeds to mark us in.

By the end of the period, I've had two people comment on my look and one girl wrote a note. None are negative.

When Nick walks into math class, late, he looks over at me and starts to howl with laughter. "Dude, you look ridiculous! I heard that you were wearing pink but figured they were exaggerating or something but, damn, you're really wearing pink!"

"Thank you for your comment Nick but I'd like to start class now if that's alright with you?" Mr. Byrd scolds. Nick nods and continues past me to his own seat.

In French we split up into partners and I am avoided like the plague but Emma pairs up with me, having also been avoided. Even the girl I usually pair with, Kristen, has found another pair to join as a group of three. She's had a crush on me since seventh grade, I guess pink shirts really turn her off.

By lunch, I heard whispering all over the hallway, people commenting on my fashion choice of the day so many times that I think it's become the biggest news since Emma came. The funniest part probably has to be that I have a solid number of girls now seriously crushing on me because I am man enough to actually wear pink to school.

I set my tray down across from Simon at our new lunch table and Kate turns to me when I sit down saying, "have you heard about all this new competition I have?" I chuckle and nod. "It's so not funny! On my, how will I ever compete? One day my boyfriend is wearing pink, suddenly every girl in the whole damn school wants him!"

"Suddenly? Please, they've always wanted me, now they just have even more reason." I joke.

She knocks into me playfully with her shoulder and laughs. "Oh please, you think they all wanted you, but I think it was really Simon they wanted. I mean come on, look at that hottie."

Simon looks up from his history homework at the mention of his name. "What?"

"Just talking about how wonderfully sexy all of the girls in school thought you were." Kate replies easily, winking at him.

"Thought I was? Please, I've still got them feeding from the palm of my hand."

"Actually, they're all crushing on Dylan and his color choice of the day."

"Hey! I pull off the hot pink way better than he does. I mean come on, look at me." He strikes a ridiculous pose, almost hitting Emma in the head with his elbow. "Sorry."

"It's fine." Emma says, brushing it off with a smile. "Watch where those elbows are flying next time."

"Definitely. To make it up to you, we should let you decide which one of us wears this shirt better."

"And this makes it up to her how?" Kate interjects, raising her eyebrows.

Emma agrees. "I was wondering the same thing."

"She gets to stare at my sexy body while pretending to decide who looks better when we all really know that I'm the most attractive guy at the school."

We all laugh at that and Emma rests her chin on her hand. "Hmm..." She narrows her eyes and looks from Simon to me. "Hmm..." She says again, letting the fake suspense of the fake competition settle a little more. "I'd have to say that... Dylan looks better. Sorry Simon but hot pink just gives you a conceited look." She smiles at the Kate and Kate nods, agreeing with her.

"Suck it!" I cheer. Simon sulks for a second before laughing and returning to his history work.