Now What?

Now What? - Chapter 2

In the morning my house is as loud as the Mall's food court on a Friday afternoon. My mother blasts the Today Show from the second it starts just so she cam hear it over her blow dryer. My brother, who doesn't believe in shutting off his speakers even when he's wearing headphones,  sees every waking hour as another opportunity to gain experience in who knows how many different MMORPGs that he's currently involved on. My dad's morning is a symphony beeping from his e-mail checking, early morning texts and phone calls from the office to the coffee machine and his incurable addiction to microwave usage. I add to the cacophony with my music in the bathroom. I guess, in our own way, we are morning people.

One benefit of the house's morning ritual is the extreme lighting. One drawback is the inability to have any quiet time. I'll admit, most of the time I don't really require quiet time that my own headphones can't give to me, but on the morning after Murph's call I was still nervous as hell about the day ahead. I felt like a minute of quiet would have been all I needed to get my head straight. A moment to remember that Murph is a normal human being who just wants to have a nice piece for his college portfolio and I am just helping him out.

That quiet time never came. After having Amy approve my outfit on Facetime and advise me on ferry friendly hairstyling, I spent the morning texting Jess about our Friday night movie night that was sure to turn into Mindy throwing herself at David and, Jess pointed out, maybe Murph sketching me. She wasn't being helpful. I was trying to distract myself with this conversation, not be reminded that I was very quickly being thrust into a situation where I would have to own up to my epic crush.

The trip to school was even noisier. The bus is actually hilarious. Everyone is staring at their hands - whether their grasping iPods, phones, DSes, or, believe it or not, books - but they are all still talking. If there was a mute button for life, this scene would look like it should be naturally silent, but it isn't. It's loud. Everything is loud. Everything except detention.

My mind spins with possibilities. It, too, is noisy, so I spill out the distractions into my palm while I wonder if I look okay. I wonder if everyone can see how excited I am about a tiny conversation with a boy.

***

Mrs. Krimble waited in the lobby for the juniors attending the Museum of Natural History. I wasn't happy to have to see her so soon after my detention, but if I wanted to go on the trip, I had to check-in before homeroom.

"Miss Turner, let's hope those solar flares don't interrupt our trip this afternoon, huh?" she gave me a joking jab in my side. She was all smiles.

Oh my God, I thought, she thinks we have an inside joke because of my damn detention! The punishment was finally being dealt. I can only imagine the horror on my face. I stammered a response while darting my eyes to see who was around for this teacher-student chummy behavior. I was grateful that I had at least some clue what she was talking about, though. If not for Murph, I would've been sure she was talking about some impending exam I was doomed to fail.

Murph. All roads lead back to him. Even when I have no reason to think of him, that's what I'm doing.

"Do you have a MetroCard?" Mrs. Krimble interrupted my daydreaming. It was probably for the best.

"What?" I asked.

"Do you use a student MetroCard to get to school, or do you need one for the trip?" she elucidated as I noticed Murph walking in the front door.

"Oh - no. I mean. No, I take the bus. I have one. I'm good," said the babbling idiot (in other words, me).

"OK, then I'll see you back here after homeroom!" Krimble waved me off with a smile, calling out as I started to walk away, "Just as long as the sun doesn't stop us!"

I turned back to see her cracking herself up when I walked right into the chest of the one and only Matt Murphy.

"Ohmygosh," I breathed, mortified that I just walked right into someone because I was joking around with a teacher. I am still waiting for my acceptance letter to the Dork Hall of Fame, it should be here any day now.

"Whoa, Girl!" Murph said putting his hands on my shoulders. They were warmer than I expected. Actually, scratch that I never really expected anything, I never thought about his hands before that moment and then, suddenly I could think of nothing else. How my shoulders fit perfectly in his palms, how he used those hands to create such perfect drawings, what it might feel like to hold hands with him... I was lost in a flurry of thought in a moment. Time travel has to be possible, or else how could I be able to think so much in the time elapsed within a single breath?

"Oh -" I looked at him, "I'm sorry..." and then I was stunned silent.

"No worries," he said letting go of me with a smile, "you okay?"

"Yep," I responded, suddenly at a loss for syllables.

"See ya later?" he asked leaning over to look in my eyes.

"Yep," I couldn't believe I said it again, "Yeah, I better go. I don't want to be late for homeroom," and then I bolted for the down the hallway. I was mortified and terrified of the the ferry trip in less than an hour. I missed the silence of detention.