Levi Harris: A Guide to Middle School

Episode 41: The Kilwa Trip 2

Episode 41: The Kilwa Trip 2

          Tuesday 12th October 2010, much ado about nothing.

          I woke up feeling rough, like an unvarnished table. I rubbed my eyes and sat up with my two arms holding on to the bed as my vision was blurry. I could make out that to my right, Erika was sleeping. After my mind grazed my eyes a few times, my vision cleared up and I noticed the other figures in the room. Mustafa, who looked like a corpse, was clenching onto his pillow to my far right on a single ben. The bed that was behind his was occupied by John and he seemed to be in a deep sleep since half of his body was dangling from the side of the bed. Finally, too my far left was Sameer. He was already awake and was constantly rubbing his eye with a look that seemed to mean that his eye was irritated. He swiftly, in one motion, stood up and jumped onto his bed backwards. Then his annoying rhythm following snore came along. I forced myself out of my bed and went to the bathroom to brush my teeth. I felt too dull and tired and my body was extremely exhausted. I then climbed into the shower and that is how I, with a limp leg, kick-started my day.

          That day was very blunt. I remember the constant looks of suspicion people were throwing me with their hunch that I had lost my virginity and they were right to have their thoughts, I was just hoping that I could have avoided all the unwanted attention especially when they decide to disguise their harsh whispers behind their hands in an obvious manner. The whispers done nothing to dent my day because I wasn’t bothered with that group of people, they weren’t worth it. They were the gossip group. The ones everyone referred to as the ‘bitches’ and I tried my best to avoid them all the time unless, for some reason, I needed something from them and that was fairly rare.

          After our day in the salt farms, we went back to the hotel to relax. I was resting in my bed when Angelina came in holding Erika’s hand and both of them had smiles on their faces. They both sat on either side of my bed and stared forwards for a brief time before bursting into laughter. I didn’t really hold anything against Angelina anymore. I just pushed her back into being ‘just a friend’ and I wasn’t willing to be anything more than that. I was with Erika and that was much more satisfying than being with Angelina. I quickly remembered how I thought that Angelina and I were going to be together for a huge amount of time. I even had dreams about marrying her when I was older. It was sad how it came down to this. We used to, in my honest opinion, be deeply in love and we cared for each other and all that other stuff couples do but we slithered into just being friends. The girl I had dated since class seven. I used to think that we had a long lasting relationship but after it invaded and evaded my mind a few times, I was left to agree that we only dated for basically a year and a half. That wasn’t that long. We could have continued longer if it wasn’t for the disaster that happened on the prom night where I was embarrassed in front of all my friends, in front of all the older students. I forgave her for it but I still felt the burden of her betrayal. I still felt embarrassed. It was a hard thing to deal with every time that memory played in my head and it was like a cold claw scratching the back of my neck. Though I was insanely embarrassed, I did gain from that experience. I was able to find Erika. I was able to live more free, especially considering how wild Erika could be.

So there I was, with two people who had felt my lips before. One I loved and one that I used to love, though I’m not quite sure I got over the latter. They seemed to be getting along. They were whispering and laughing and they had quite a charm between the both of them which was attracting.

          ‘Hey, do you want to go to the swimming pool. Let’s just swim about!’ exclaimed Erika, with a huge smile on her face.

          ‘Yeah, let’s go now. Lee, are you coming?’ Angelina asked, with a blank expression on her face. I turned my head to face Mustafa who was just staring at the ceiling and playing with a blue wristband in his hands.