Obstacles

Chapter 3

The ride in the car was almost silent...suspiciously silent. The only noises heard were the cars passing by and the sound of Thomas's Avenge Sevenfold cd playing.

    His music's volume was also on a much lower volume than usual. I noticed this. It was quiet...too quiet. Normally we talk, I would start a conversation, but I don't know what to say...odd. I looked over at Thomas.

    I don't think he realized it, but I caught him looking at me repeatedly from the corner of his eye, and a worried look plastered onto his face.

    Finally we pulled up to a stop light. He turned and looked at me, his eyebrows furrowed with wonder. Suddenly he spoke breaking the silence, "Hey Kora, are you wearing contacts?"

    I look down and reply,"No...why." I than looked back at him and let out a weak smile.

    Thomas looked back at the road as the stop light turned green. Slowly the car began to once again inch forward.
"Well your not wearing your glasses. Did you forget them at home, because if you did I can gladly turn this car around for you to get them from your house."

    I let out a slight frown and responded, "No I broke them again."  awkwardly rubbing the back of my neck.

"Oh...how did you do it this time?" He quickly glanced at me with curiously. His eyebrows relaxed slightly. His fluffy hair fell in his face as he looked back at the road. With a quick hand motion, he moved it back out of his face. But to no avail it fell back into his face once more.

    I laughed, a real, genuine laugh. "Well, are you sure you want to know, after all...curiosity killed the cat."

    He rolled his eyes as a smile creeped on his face. "Mm...and satisfaction brought it back to life, so yes I would like to know."

"Okay." I looked at Thomas still adorably messing around with his hair as he pulled into another red light.

"WELL, you know how we had to run around the gym for a warm up yesterday in class?" I looked at Thomas once more.

He nodded his head, assuring me he was listening. He isn't in the same gym class as me, but our coaches have us do the same things no matter what period we have.

My smile turned to a frown at the thought of the memory. I looked down at my old black leggings while I began biting my lower lip and began to move my hands in a somewhat nervous manner.

Thomas noticed and he put his hand out for me to hold while he drove. I hesitantly, yet graciously grabbed it. He began to playfully rub his thumb on the back of my hand. He had never done that before.

I felt heat rise up onto my face from his touch. So quickly I moved my long bangs with my free hand into a spot were my face was hidden and looked at the window.

Once I felt the heat leave my face, I looked him in the eyes. He had a somewhat serious tone in his voice, "Don't tell me Tara was acting up again."

I looked down, and slowly nodded my head. Than I heard him mumble under his breath, "One day...one day that bitch will get her own." I pretended not to hear him.

His Mustang began to once again move forward due to the green light. "Okay Kora, you know that you can tell me."

I nodded my head and gazed out the window. "I had just come out of the locker room. I walked into the gym and Coach Smith told me we all had to run around the gym 6 times." I looked at Thomas's reflection in the mirror. He was looking intently at he road before him.

"Okay...go on." I could sense a slightly impatient tone in his voice, probably because he wants to know what happened. I averted my gaze down to my lap, Thomas's hand still holding mine.

"I was running around the gym; the third lap I believe; when Tara and her gang came through the door. I noticed they pointed at me, and Tara had a devilish grin on he face. It gave me a slight chill, but I shook it off and kept running."

Once again I looked at Thomas. We were at a stop light, he was looking at me, a look of concern and possible anger was spread across his face.

I looked at him once more, and he completely wiped his face of all emotion with the exception of his eyes.
I let out a smile and with a nod of his head I looked back out the window and continued.

"I didn't realize it yet, but they were walking towards me. When I got around to the area they were in, Tara grabbed the back of my shirt and than let go once more, while she put her leg out and tripped me. My glasses fell off my face, and I landed square on my face. It hurt like hell."

"I bet..." His voice sounded clearly like he was trying to hide his anger. I looked at his reflection in the window, and saw once again the same two emotions from before written on his face.

"I went to stand back up, but Emma pushed me down, and Julia put her foot on top of my back to keep me down. Than Emma grabbed my glasses, and tossed them to Tara.

Tara than said, "Aww, I thought I made it clear to lay down. You're not following my command bitch. My..my...too bad you were bold, now I have to punish you."

"An evil grin appeared on her face and she dropped my glasses on the floor. Than in front of my face, she crushed my glasses with her big clown feet." I suddenly felt Thomas's grip on my hand tighten slightly.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there to help you Kora. Do you have enough money to buy another pair? I mean, I know your father and you don't have much money to pay for things." He asked, his voice now gentle.

I shook my head no, and looked at him. "I have to work extra hours at SubWay now Thomas, it's going to take a month or so to be able to scrounge up enough money to pay for them." My voice grew quiet.

Thomas furrowed his brows, "Hmm. Okay it's settled then."

I looked at him confused. "What is?"

"We have the same free period right?"

I nod my head slowly, beginning to catch on. "Yes. We do..." my voiced trailed off.

"Okay, at our free period, we'll drive down to the nearest Walmart; you know the one that's only 5ish minutes away, and I'll buy you a temporary pair of glasses, and a back up pair. So than you can actually see where your going. Than when you buy another high quality pair, you will have two back ups for the future."

My eyes widened in shock. I couldn't believe my ears. Thomas...my CRUSH, wants to buy me new glasses. What will dad say? I mean, I am going to except the offer, but what will I do then? "R-really?"

Thomas let go of my hand and we pulled into the school parking lot. Thomas parked the car. Thomas than laughed and said, "Yes, really!"

We both got out of the car. I slammed the door shut and ran over to him the best I could, engulfing him in a bear hug. "THANK YOU!!!"

"Heh, no problem Kora, it's what friends are for." He wrapped his arms around me and returned the hug.

We let go of each other, and I began to walk best I could to the school. But Thomas didn't follow. I turned around to see him trying to hold back a laugh and gave him a questioning look. "What's wrong, what's so funny?

" Um, you may want to grab your book bag from the car before we go in." He commented.

My eyes widened once more. "Oh RIGHT!!! That exists still." I walked over and grabbed my old, tattered bag.

Once I closed the door, Thomas locked the car, and we proceeded to walk towards the school. We said our goodbyes and parted ways to our first period class.