Hard to Feel Whole ~ Sample

Chapter Four

CHAPTER FOUR

The moon shone through my window as I stared at the ceiling, mulling over Abbie’s outburst. I hadn’t felt like facing the inevitable questions from Callum or Jo, so I skipped the afternoon. Not my usual style but I needed to clear my head.

“Fuck!” I rolled onto my stomach and buried my head in the covers. Jeez, girls are confusing.

Images of Abbie at the lake flooded my mind. I’d followed her to the bridge and crouched at the side of the path so she wouldn’t see me. Shit she was gorgeous. She’d always been pretty, but standing on that bridge, and earlier right in front of me… Wow.

Her blue green eyes still sparkled with the determination I remembered from years ago. The urge to touch her flawless skin had almost floored me. I imagined her hair would flow way down her back in thick waves if she untied the ridiculous bun thing. But her body… Oh My God. A new emotion stirred deep in my gut at that memory. Her stomping up and down on the bridge reminded me of her tantrums when we were kids, but my smile turned to a frown with the memory of her right hook. Jeez, she’s one crazy girl now.

“What the hell happened to her?”

As sleep pulled me under, my mind flooded with a stream of familiar images of eight-year-old Abbie. I saw her under the tree at school, a sleepover at her place, a trip to the pool, laughing at my jokes… I thrashed around the bed trying to get comfortable as mid-dream she morphed into the raging beauty of today.My body ached for her embrace as I woke to my usual early morning alarm call.

“You up Jake?”

“Mmm,” I groaned, pulling the covers over my eyes. Memories of the confrontation I’d had with Abbie flooded back. Sleep deprived; the last thing I needed was to face everyone at school. “Argh!”

“Jake?”

“I’m up Mom! Jeez!”

“Hey? I heard that young man.”

It took me less than thirty minutes to shower, dress and get to school; pretty impressive in anyone’s book. I rounded the corner onto the court yard five minutes before the bell and took a deep breath as I spotted Callum, “Here we go...”

“Hey Jake! Wait up!” I carried on walking down the hallway. I didn’t want to talk to anyone at that moment or explain yesterday’s outburst to a relative stranger.

“Jake! Hey, come on man!”

I made the decision to keep mine and Abbie’s history private and turned to face Cal. “Hey, how’s it going Callum?” I said, doing my best to come off calm and cheerful.

“Jeez you must be deaf!” Callum replied with a big grin on his face.

“Sorry, I was miles away. What you up to? You going to Gym?”

“Just heading there. Hey, what went down between you and Freaky Abbie yesterday dude?” My jaw clenched at Callum’s comment. I searched my mind for something that would keep mine and Abbie’s history under wraps for now.

“Oh that! Yeah, sorry about that. She reminded me of someone from another school.”

“You called her Abbie though.”

“Yeah well… the girl next to her called her Abbie.”

“Oh, ok. Whatever, anyway, you don’t wanna go messing with that chick dude, she’s got serious anger issues. She only speaks to Jo; she’s bonkers. They’re both crazy.”

That’s where I know her friend from… It’s Joanna, the girl from next door; I thought I recognized her from somewhere.

“Don’t be lulled into thinking they’re like any other hot chicks. They so aren’t. I’m serious man; she’s not right in her head!” Uncomfortable with our conversation, I focused on my knowledge of Abbie. The Abbie I remembered would never have such a poor reputation. My Abbie was awesome and gorgeous. The girl Callum described was a stranger and it made me nervous. My heart picked up a notch as I considered why she’d gone all psycho on me yesterday. Maybe she’d split with a boyfriend or something. I shuddered at the idea.