Dancing Around // peter parker

34

We sat in the gas station across from our school. Cindy placed a freshly microwaved burrito and water bottle in front of me. "It's eggs and bacon. I hope that's okay," she said as she took a seat next to me. She too had a burrito and water bottle in front of her.

I nodded my head. "Thank you." We both face forward, looking out the windows, taking bites out of our burrito as cars and people passed the gas stations and went on with their lives. We ate in silence.

She kept looking forward but finally said something once she finished her burrito. "Why the hell did you do that?" She asked. She turned her head, but whatever was captured in her expression, I hardly saw it. My eyes were becoming heavy in the silence and it felt like they were only a couple of seconds away from fully closing. "Marina, are you tired?"

"You're tired," I mumbled.

"Why don't you rest your head for a minute?"

"We have class."

"It will only be a minute."

"Fine, but only for a minute." I placed my arms on the small table against the large window, before inching my face into them. I let go of any tension I kept between my shoulders and the heavy air that never seemed to leave me. I closed my eyes and then, after more than a minute had gone by, I opened them with a jump of fear that I was skipping class.

"You needed it," Cindy told me. "You're awful when you're tired. Do you feel better now?"

I laid my head back down, continue to people watch, wishing I could be one of them. I wonder if any of them looked at me and thought the same, or to them, if I was nothing more than a strange teenage girl they were merely passing by, never to see or think of again. "Not really. My head feels to hold all my weight in it."

"How long did you sleep last night?"

"Like an hour."

"Jesus. Why?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "I can't seem to sleep."

Cindy placed her arms on the table, copying the way I was sitting. She laid on the side of her face, looking at me. "What's wrong?" she asked. "I've never seen you this way before."

"Cindy, do you think I'm easy to leave?"

She pushed her eyebrows together. "What?"

I lifted my head up. "Nevermind." I pushed the empty tinfoil where my burrito was to the side, before taking a sip of the water. "There's a rumor going around that I'm a slut. Have you heard it yet?" I asked.

She lifted her head. "Maybe. Is that why you can't sleep? And why you attacked Adelaide? You thought it was Adelaide who started it?"

"Yeah," I lied. Maybe I did think Adelaide could have behind it, but honestly I think I just wanted to be angry and Adelaide walked in at the perfect time. It really was just bad timing on her part and me now knowing how to express my emotions.

"I thought you didn't care about what people said."

"I never said that. I just said I didn't want to know."

"Yes, you did say that. Multiple times in fact."

I rolled my eyes. "Okay, maybe I did, but truthfully I didn't want to know because I care too much about what people were saying."

"Well, that's a crap way to live. You shouldn't let it affect your sleep schedule, though. You can still be concerned with what people think and get the right amount of sleep that you don't end up killing our goalie."

"I wasn't going to kill her, just mess her up a bit."

"With your butterfly hairclips?"

I smiled. "I'll admit my plan wasn't well thought-out."