It feels weird waking up in a different place. I'm not used to hearing birds singing or the smell of morning around here. It's nice, a mix of pine trees, cold air and something else I can't describe.
I shower and get dressed in jeans and a warm jumper, then slip on my Converse and put my coffee in a travel mug as I head out the door, silently congratulating myself for getting ready in record time.
Mum wanted to make a positive first impression at her new job, so she headed to work early this morning, and I told her I was more than happy to walk to school. Honestly, I don't mind, it's only a twenty-minute walk, and the crisp autumn air is bracing and gives me a chance to clear my head.
At least there's one thing that's remained a constant for me. I'm still disturbed by nightmares every night. It's not like I remember them, I can just tell I've had them by the cold sweat I wake up in and my hoarse throat from screaming. It's obvious I'm early when I arrive at school, barely anyone's here and I can see teachers arriving.
I spot Louise, Maia and the others sitting and a bench and jog over to them, smiling.
"Hi, guys!" I call
"Marcie!" Maia exclaims and embraces me in an unexpected hug.
"Hey, Maia, what's with the hug?" I chuckle.
"Louise told me about Gray's interest in you. I feel bad. We're probably the only girls in the school who don't melt on the spot when we see those three"
"Also, Maia's supplied us with enough gross stories about them when they were younger to turn us off for life," Alex calls out.
It already feels easy with these four, like I've known them for way longer than a day. It's nice and I don't feel awkward or like I'm intruding on their group. Though Jasmine hasn't talked much yet, I get the feeling she's just a quiet person. Time flies, and after what feels like seconds the bell rings and I internally groan. I'm about to reach into my bag to check my timetable before Maia stops me.
"Don't bother checking. The seniors have PE first and second period Wednesdays," Maia groans.
I begrudgingly get up along with the others and try to distract myself from the fact that Gray will be there. God I need to calm down, I'm sure he just wanted to tease the 'new girl' yesterday and will be bored of it by today. It'll be fine.
We make our way towards the girl's changing rooms, and I'm grateful that the school supplies PE kits. We gossip amongst ourselves as we change for PE. According to Maia, the PE teachers rarely show up in this school, so everyone usually changes into the uniform in case the teachers do decide to grace us with their presence and hang out in the gym.
The uniform isn't awful, black shorts and a green top with the school logo. We all walk into the gym, devoid of teachers, and cluster on a bench at the edge of the court.
"Gray's staring at you," Maia whispers
"Why? I just met him yesterday."
"It is odd, he usually just bangs and goes, but he seems to be taking an interest in you."
"Nah, I bet he just wants to get in her pants and is bothered by the fact that she isn't kissing the ground he walks upon," Louise declares
I crack up laughing and glance at Gray, and, as if he can sense my gaze Gray turns away from his friends and stares back, smirking. Why does he always smirk? What's so funny?!
He chuckles and looks away. Did I say that out loud? No, there's no way he could have heard me...
"Hello? Earth to Marcie?" Maia waves her hand in front of my eyes, and I'm interrupted from my thoughts.
"Huh? Sorry, what was that?"
Alex and Maia snort and Louise rolls her eyes,
"We were asking if you wanted to come to the cafe with us after school today?"
"Oh, that would be great. I'd love to!"
"Cool, I just got my license, so I'll be driving," Maia declares with a grin.
"NO. WAY. I am NEVER letting you drive me anywhere, ever again!" Alex yells. They argue back and forth while Jasmine reads and smiles slightly, and Louise and I dish about the girl's volleyball team. Call me bitchy, but I love a good gossip
"Do you remember that girl with the blue hair in history yesterday?" Louise asks,
"Yeah, the one who was being gross and flirting with our ANCIENT teacher?"
Louise snorts and nods, "Yeah, her name's Melissa. Anyways, she's captain of the volleyball team, and I heard she was caught making out with Gray in the janitor's closet!"
I roll my eyes at the mention of Gray's name, "Has he seriously had sex with almost all the girls here?"
"Probably. The only girls whose pants he hasn't gotten into are our group, plus some of the nerdier, quieter girls."
"You know, it's rude to gossip, Louise," an irritating voice says from behind us. I jump and look around to glare at Gray.
"You know, it's even ruder to eavesdrop, Gray," Louise sneers.
"Well, I can't help it if you're practically yelling about my sex life across the gym."
"I was only warning the newbie. I don't want her to risk being near your STD-infested dick."
I widen my eyes in shock at Louise's boldness, then chuckle slightly, smirking at Gray while I'm at it. HA! Two can play at that game! I wait for Gray to make some witty remark, but after a moment of silence, he surprisingly doesn't.
"Did you want something, Gray? Or did you just come to ogle at girl's boobs?" I ask, still smirking.
"No, I just came to ask Louise over here to keep it down. Some of us have sensitive ears... though, now that you say it," Gray starts and runs his eyes up and down my body.
"Pig!" I snap and grab Louise's arm as I stride towards the gym door, screw classes.
"You're blushing!" Louise teases. I roll my eyes and keep walking towards my locker. I reach it and slide down to the floor, my head in my hands.
"I have known him for two days and already, I want to murder him!" I grumble.
"Welcome to the club," Louise snorts and sits down beside me.
"Why is he bothering me!?"
Louise shrugs, "Who knows, there really should be a study on what goes on in that jerk's pea-sized brain."
"Agreed. I thought Maia said Cam was the jerk, not Gray?"
"Usually Gray's scary and brooding, apart from bugging me a bit, Cam usually is the jerk," Louise explains, "He wouldn't dare go near Maia, despite following Gray's every command, Cam would murder him, and he knows that Alex is a lesbian, which surprisingly, neither he nor Cam is assholes about, so he kinda just teases me occasionally."
I nod my head and sigh. I need something else to focus on besides that dickwad. I jump a bit when I hear the bell ring. Had we been talking for that long? huh.
"Is it lunch yet?" I groan.
Louise chuckles and shakes her head, "Nope, we still have an hour to go... though, we could ditch and go get milkshakes or something?"
A grin spreads across my face, "Hell. Yes."
Louise laughs at me, and we walk out of the school entrance, hopping in Louise's red, Volvo 1800. I instantly fall in love and kiss the car's bonnet. Louise cracks up laughing and I give her a death glare.
"How did you afford this!?" I exclaim in complete awe.
"My parents aren't around much but we're pretty well off, so to make up for missing stuff like Christmas and birthdays I got a fancy car."
I instantly felt bad. You never know what someone's going through.
"Don't worry about it, but... if you feel bad I would KILL for a strawberry milkshake."
I laugh and hop in the car and Louise drives to a retro 50s diner. We sit in a booth and a friendly waiter takes our order of two strawberry milkshakes and a portion of fries. My mouth waters slightly as our food arrives, and with no hesitation, I start stuffing my mouth with fries.
Louise laughs and says, "I swear, food is half your personality."
I scoff and swallow my food.
"Do you often bunk off for milkshakes?" I ask,
"Meh, the school cafeteria food is shite and I'm good friends with the manager here so I get my milkshakes half price," Louise explains.
"Then why am I paying!?"
We talk for a bit, then check the time. It's nearing the end of lunch, but I really can't be bothered to go back to school. Then again, it's only my second day, I shouldn't bunk off.
"Come on, we should head back. I can't bunk off on my second day," I say as I chuck enough money on the table to cover the bill and then some. Louise sighs and we drive back to school, much to her complaint.
By the time we were back at school, the bell was already signalling the next class, I sighed as I checked and saw I had history now, with Gray. Louise and I walked into the class, only slightly late and saw that there were only two empty seats, one next to Cam, and another next to Mack. I had no reason to dislike either of them, so I sat next to Cam and pulled out my workbook, hoping Maia was exaggerating due to her hatred for her brother.
Cam turns to me when I sit down and grins, "You're Marcie right? I'm Cam, though Maia's probably told you all about me already, don't believe half of what she says, I'm lovely really."
I chuckle and smile back, "Yup, is it true you put orange dye in her shampoo?" I ask.
"Mhm, her reaction was priceless. Don't feel too bad though, she put a rat in my bed while I was asleep. I woke up to it nibbling on my nose!"
I snort. Cam isn't bad, definitely better than how Maia's described him, thank god. I heard a few whisperings around that at lunch today, Gray beat up some guy for bumping into him, yet for some reason, I'm not scared of him. Am I completely nuts, or do I just have no empathy?
The rest of the lesson isn't bad, Cam is friendly and we chat a bit, but halfway through the lesson, I feel a weird pain thing in my head. It doesn't hurt, it just feels like something is pushing my head, it's... uncomfortable. I wince.
"What's wrong?" Cam asks, he looks concerned.
"There's this weird pain in my head, it feels like something pushing inside my head, it doesn't exactly hurt, but it's uncomfortable."
Cam immediately turns and glares at Gray, and his eyes glaze over for a moment before he turns back to me, and suddenly, the sensation disappears. Odd.
The rest of the day is fine. Gray doesn't bother me, and I sit and chat with Louise and Alex in my other lessons. Eventually, the bell for the end of the day rings. I look out the window, to see much to my dismay, it's raining. Great, I didn't even bring a coat! And I'm walking home. WHY DOES THE UNIVERSE HATE ME!?
I know I'm being dramatic. I sigh and walk out of the entrance, into the pouring rain. I stomp down the street and begin to make my way home.
I've been walking for 5 minutes when I hear a car beep behind me. I turn to look and see a black truck pull over beside me. The window rolls down, and I see my bestie! Gray. Note my intense sarcasm.
"Care for a ride home?" Gray asks, chuckling slightly at how utterly miserable I look.
"No thanks, I'm good with walking."
"Marcie, I wasn't really asking. Get in the car."
"No, like I already said, I would rather walk thanks."
"If you don't get in the car I will drag you in. Don't be stubborn Princess, you're going to catch a cold."
"What the hell? That's called kidnapping Gray, just let me walk, I don't want a lift."
Gray rolls his eyes and gets out of the car. Walking towards me ominously, I step back a bit. But as I look behind me, about to turn around and run from this obvious psycho, I feel myself being lifted off the ground and before I know it I'm thrown over Gray's shoulder and placed onto the passenger seat. I'm too stunned to move, just sitting in shock as Gray gets in on the other side and locks my door, then actually rather carefully clicks my seatbelt on.
"What the actual fuck?" I exclaim, snapped out of my trance and more than miffed.
"I told you to get in the car, you wouldn't listen. I warned you, Marcie."
"Gray I met you yesterday, why the hell did you THROW me into your car!?"
Gray reaches over and rests his hand on my arm, nice tingles spread through my body. I feel myself calm down for some reason before I shove his hand off and glare out the window. Pissed.
"So stubborn..." I hear Gray mutter under his breath.
I scoff and roll my eyes, then ignore Gray as he drives. I don't mind the silence, I'm too annoyed with him to talk. I hear the car's engine cut and I immediately undo my seatbelt and turn to Gray. We're at my house, but how does he know where I live?
"How the fuck do you know where I live?" I ask.
"Language," he scolds, "I saw you leaving the house as I was driving to school this morning."
"Stalker much..." I mumble as I hop out of the car.
"I'll see you tomorrow, Princess," Gray calls. I flip him the bird from behind me as I walk up to my door and unlock it.
Gray confuses me. He teases me, calls me princess and earlier he forced me into his car. I don't like it, especially the car thing, it reminds me too much of the shit Tom used to do. I am my own woman, who can make her own decisions, no matter how stupid thank you very much.
I text the girls, asking what time they want to meet up at the cafe, then take a shower and change my soaking wet clothes. I change into some light blue jeans and a yellow jumper, then put on my black raincoat and Converse. Louise sent me the address of the cafe, and I set off towards it in the heavy rain. My raincoat doesn't do a very good job of keeping me dry, and by the time I've reached the cute cafe, I'm drenched.
It's small, with fairy lights illuminating it in the rain. Vines are crawling up the veranda and French-styled patio sets. The bell dings as I walk into the cafe and look around for my friends. I see them sitting at a table, talking and laughing and go to join them.
"Hey!"
"Marce, you made it!" Maia exclaims.
"You're soaked." Louise chuckles.
Jasmine smiles slightly, Alex hugs me and I order a latte, then sit and gossip, something I find myself doing a lot of recently.
"I heard a rumour Gray dropped you home today," Maia teases.
"How? Who told you that?" I question.
"It's a small town, gossip spreads fast," Alex shrugs, "Within practically ten minutes of me coming out as lesbian, the whole town knew."
It's getting dark by the time we leave, and I hug everyone goodbye before heading home, thankfully, the rain stopped about an hour ago, so this time I don't look like a drowned rat.
It's a struggle to keep my eyes open when I step inside. So I say goodnight to Mum and head upstairs for bed. For what feels like the hundredth time, my thoughts drift to Gray. What were those tingles earlier?...