BH

Burning Hearts: Eight

Eight

Sapphire

Oh great! I thought. Eric was late again. It was six weeks into our film/drama assignment and the project was due in a few days. We had done all the filming and most of the edits, and that day we were supposed to do the final edits. Don't get me wrong, there was no way I was over Eric, but when he was late for the fifth lesson in row, I got annoyed. On top of that, I had all this stress from a History test in the next lesson and other assignments due, so I was getting mad. So mad, that I decided to leave a little message.

Usually when I called Eric to see where he was, I hung up when it went to message bank, but not that day. That day, I called him up, waiting for the ‘Leave a message after the beep!’ that I knew was coming, and when I heard that annoying beep I left him the angriest, most threatening message I had ever left, probably the scariest message he would ever hear. Then something funny happened. Well, not so funny for me…

Eric jogged into drama/film class, looking all cute with a red nose and a wooly hat covering his ears. He was carrying a steaming bag of muffins, for me. I had to bite my lip to stop myself from giving him a huge hug, but I did go bright red when I realized he was going to get a very unpleasant message later on.

I quickly said thank-you and asked if he had gotten my message, he smiled cheekily and said no, then shoved a muffin in his mouth, so I left it at that. The class went well and we finished the film that lesson, even though we were both perfectionists and wanted to get everything right, and if I may say so myself, it was great. The storyline was fascinating, Eric was an excellent camera-man, and honestly, I did a pretty good job playing a love-struck teen (not too hard considering my life).

That night I went home in the mood to celebrate, but the parents were out, so instead, I got all the girls involved in a game of ‘Truth or Dare’. Libby only ever took truths, but she was a very open person, so we got nothing interesting out of her, Tash wouldn't play properly, but made Raie and I do some pretty horrible dares, and Raie was very quiet most of the night, that was, until, Libby asked me one particularly interesting Truth.

“Who is it you like? We all know you are love-struck, so who is it?” Libby asked with a sly smile on her face.

“I change my mind, Dare” I said, trying to avoid the question.

“Well then, I dare you to answer the question.” Libby had cornered me, so I finally gave in.

“Eric Sorrenson, from my assignment. Okay? It’s not that interesting,” I was annoyed by then.

Raie’s face suddenly went a bit paler and her eyes dulled, the way they did whenever she was sad. I pulled her into a hug, something I hadn’t done for weeks, and after we finished our game and Libby and Tash had gone to bed, I asked her what was wrong.

Pulling away, she mumbled, “Nothing” and went to bed with the others.

I was hurt by the way she acted, like we didn't even know each other, but I did what I had been doing a lot then, and just left her. She and I had separated so much in the two months before that. For the last few weeks before that night I hadn’t even known where Raie went at lunches, just that she was never with me, Tash or Libby.

Everything was so out of control- I hated it. If it were up to me, I would have never hung out with the Drama kids; I missed Raie that much, but the few lunches that I tried to spend with her, she wasn't there, and none of us knew who else she hung out with, so we just assumed she was in the Photography Club, like she had wanted to be since before we had started at Macquarie. The only other person I had ever seen her with was an attractive new guy, named Guy or Ty or something, but she obviously wasn't close to him.