The Middle - Volume Three ✔️

Chapter 55 (Patrick)

Patrick

“Abbie, would you stop already? Patrick’s girlfriend is here.”

I look over at Jason, one of the boys in the class. What the hell is he talking about?

“What?” I ask him.

“Yeah, there was a girl at the door just now.” Jason informs.

I look over at the open door, but there’s no one there. I suspect Amanda is waiting for me. We don’t have plans though, weird.

“Did she have purple hair?” I ask him.

“No, brown. She was really pretty.” Jason grins at me. “See you Thursday, Patrick.”

Jason heads over towards the door with the others and Abbie gets up from behind the drum kit. Brown hair? Maybe it was Steph? Her hair's jet black though. Or maybe...

“Jason!” I call over to him, stopping him in his tracks. “What was this girl wearing?”

“Um, like some kinda band t-shirt. Fleetwood something? Jeans. Your girlfriend is hot, man.” He laughs before walking out the door and shouting “Later!” over his shoulder.

Jamie was here just now? Why? And why did she leave?

I spend about 5 seconds wondering if I should go after her, before picking up my phone and deciding that I’m going after her.

As much as I wanna keep my distance from her right now, I’m curious to know why she came here. And why she looked in on the class then left without making her presence known.

I run out of the room, switching off the lights and closing the door behind me. I look around the hallways, but all I see is Jason and the others walking out the front door. Where the hell did she go?

I check my phone. She hasn’t called or text me. Maybe Jason is wrong about this...

I run out the front door and look around. Jason and Nate are getting into one of their parents cars, and Abbie and Claire are talking and laughing, waiting for their ride. No sign of Jamie, though. If she drove over here, she’s probably gone already.

Should I call her? No. No I shouldn’t. I should just forget about this and start walking home. I don't drive here often, the road sucks and I like walking through the park. It’s a nice night, too. I didn’t even bother putting on a hoodie or a jacket earlier.

I walk along the pathway towards the trees that lead into the Fairy Woods. They’re so lame, like something out of a teenage girls romance fiction. Twinkly lanterns everywhere and streamers through the trees. It’s disgusting. But the lanterns light up the pathway in the dark, which is handy. Okay, it is pretty cold now. If I was into running I could run home. But I’m not into running. I’ll walk fast.

I’m in the middle of the stupid Fairy Woods, wondering who’s idea it was to build tiny little wooden 'houses' for fairies and litter them through the trees like this. It’s fucking creepy. Kids like it though, I guess. And girls. Whatever. But anyway, I’m walking pretty fast up the pathway when I hear a thud ahead of me. Sounds like something just hit the ground pretty hard. Then I hear a loud “Fuck!” and instantly I know it’s Jamie, and she’s just fallen down. So clumsy.

I run forward and see her sitting up and hugging her knees with her arms. She’s not on the pathway, she’s sitting next to a tree. She must have tripped over a branch or something. I haven't called her 'Bambi' in a while. It's on the tip of my tongue. I bite my tongue of course.

I'm reminded of this one time before any of us could drive, some friends of Jordan's had agreed to buy alcohol for Joel, and for some stupid reason they decided to hide it in the park for us to collect rather than bring it over to Joel’s parents place and risk Jordan finding out about it and getting pissed, I guess. Whatever. So Joel, Jay, Jamie and I went to the park to pick up the alcohol from one of the treehouses in the Fairy Woods, where the guys had left it for us. But on the walk back through the park, we saw a couple of cops and totally panicked...