Lacey.
"Lacey?" One of my best friends, Allen, asked as we exited the school library to head to our next class. "That delinquent is looking at you." He spoke lowly, head leaning in close to me so I could hear.
I shook my head, "They don't let delinquents in here."
"This is public school. Not some fancy private," he argued, but I ignored him and looked over to where his eyes rested. "They let anyone in here."
I saw the kid he was talking about, Travis, who had started here not too long ago. I wouldn't call him a delinquent, but he definitely made an entrance when he showed up places. He was like a bull in a china shop from what I've heard and observed. Everyone knew his name already, though I've never spoken to him. He seemed too out there for me.
But sure enough, just as Allen had said, the new kid was staring directly at me as he leaned up against the wall. He didn't even look away when I met his gaze, just continued with an expressionless face on.
I brushed some of my blonde hair behind my ear, straightening some of it out in the process. Was there something on my face or in my hair?
"Come on, let's go before he sacrifices you to the Gods or sucks your blood," Allen said, pulling me out of my self-conscious moment and moving me from my standstill.
Still curious in why he was looking at me, I kept watching as his eyes moved away from me for the first time and over to Allen, before he turned and walked away. How weird.
"He's not an Aztec or vampire," I tried to reason.
"Not far off," Allen countered as we walked to our next class. I hugged my books to my chest and barely even heard Allen's words. My mind was elsewhere.
"Man, I would love to visit the Aztec Empire," I said with a dreamy sigh.
"Lacey, I'm pretty sure you would love to go anywhere as long as it was out of our city..."
"True." This time I let out an angry sigh, "It's not fair for my dad to practically keep me locked up in this city. I want to see the world. London, Paris, Rome, Egypt, Ireland. Heck, I'd settle for South Dakota, even!"
Allen draped an arm over my shoulders, pulling me close in a friendly and reassuring way as he squeezed me in a side hug.
"Then you should tell him that, stand up to him," he suggested.
I bit my lip, thinking about the odds of me carrying through with something like that. "Yeah, maybe another day I'll try that..."
Allen laughed to himself as we walked into our class. As the teacher came in and started lecture, I let my thoughts drift back to my dad as I absentmindedly copied the notes from the board.
My dad was a nice man, I knew he was. He was just...withdrawn a lot. It was kind of sad. My mom died when I was younger when she went away on a business trip. Ever since then my dad has been paranoid about the "dangers that are outside of the city". Which I thought was stupid, because there were dangers in our own city as well. I think he just didn't want to admit it to himself. Instead of moving on in a healthy way, he's restricted where we go and I can honestly say ever since that I haven't been out of the city much. There have been a few times where I've gone to a neighboring city with him to go to a specific store. Besides that, nothing.
I thought it was normal for awhile when I was younger, until my friends started talking about other stores I hadn't heard of or other malls I had never stepped foot in. I remember they laughed at me like I'd told a joke when I asked if their parents were okay with them going. They used to invite me to go with them and my dad shot the question down immediately whenever I asked him, no matter who many other parents were going to supervise. It was always no and then I would ask if I could go over that friend's house until they left. I would promise to come right home but instead of the compromise, I wouldn't be allowed to leave the house at all. My dad said he didn't trust the other parents to keep me safe but as I got older and went through my early teen years, I thought he just didn't trust me to stay safe.
We got into fights about it. He would just yell and bring up my mom. I would apologize. Right before I turned sixteen, I told him that I could go anywhere once I got my license. He locked me in my room for a night and told me he wasn't going to teach me how to drive. I apologized to him the next morning. Eight months after I turned sixteen, I got my license.
Now, he spends most of his days withdrawn from the world and in his study when he's not off at work. I still get angry with him a lot of the time, feeling like he can't keep me in the boundaries of the city and doesn't have the right to. But then when I look at him and see the pain from the loss of my mother, the anger goes away and I stop fighting him on it. By now, it's just something I've gotten used to.
Thinking of my father's eyes, my mind drifted back towards earlier today and Travis. Why on Earth would he be staring at me? I made a mental note to stop in the bathroom and check my appearance, there had to have been something wrong with how I looked. I wanted to scold Allen for not saying anything himself. I gripped my pencil tighter in my hand as I wrote, thinking of walking around with something on my face and no one having the nerve to tell me.
"You coming, Lace?" I heard from above me. I looked up to see Allen looking down at me with a concerned look on his face. Glancing around the classroom, I noticed everyone was getting up to leave. I scrambled to get my own things, cursing myself for not realizing the bell had rang.
"In your own world again?" Allen guessed and I nodded with an innocent smile.
I stood up quickly and as I started to walk down the aisle, I noticed something. However, it was one of those things that you notice too late and are fully aware of the fault, but there is nothing that you can do to change it. My foot ran into one of the chair legs and I found myself quickly falling towards the ground. I dropped my books in an attempt to stop myself from falling into my face, when I felt a pressure on my arm, holding me up. I looked up once again, to see Allen.
"Seriously, you are probably the clumsiest person I have ever met," he said, leaning over one of the desks with his arm reaching out to grab the upper half of mine. I laughed nervously, because that wasn't exactly true. When I wasn't at school or home doing work, I was at dance practice. It wasn't very often that I ever tripped, but I didn't correct Allen. Picking up my books off the floor, I heard him grumble as he walked in front of me.
"He's doing it again."
"Who's doing what again? Your imaginary friend bothering you?" I joked and he glared at me.
"You're funny. No. The delinquent," Allen said as we walked out of the classroom.
"Again, he's not a delinquent," I sighed as I looked straight outside of the doorway to see Travis leaning up against the lockers, again staring right at me as I looked at him. Weren't people supposed to look away when they were caught staring?
"Oof!" I cried as I ran into something. I looked away from Travis to see that I had walked into someone's back. Lovely.
"Watch where you're going, Lacey," One of my friends, Melissa, laughed as she talked with Allen.
I looked back to where Travis was but saw that he was no longer there. What was with him today?
The rest of the day went by in the same manner. I was constantly pointed out when Travis was looking at me, and each time he wouldn't hide the fact that he had been.
I was now in my second to last class, Chemistry, and trying as much as I could to ignore the stares that I felt on my back. Seriously, was I not matching today? Was there a sign on my back? Growing self conscious, I reached up my back just to make sure there was no 'Kick Me' sign plastered on there. Unfortunately, I had this class with him. Well, I used to think it wasn't so bad because he was always something that was nice to look at inconspicuously, but he was just making me uncomfortable now.
I looked over at him from behind my blonde hair, which I was using as a shield to mask my face. By now I needed it so he couldn't see that I was checking to see if he was looking and also because half the time now when I caught him staring I would start to blush nervously and out of possible embarrassment.
This time however, I didn't see him in his seat. Where -
The ringing of the fire alarm and screaming cut my thoughts off as I glanced over at a small fire forming in the corner. My eyes widened and I was more than obedient towards my teacher's pleas for everyone to file out of the room as quickly as possible. After many stabs to the ribs from people elbowing each other to get out as fast as they could, I was out of the room and rushing down the stairs. I couldn't help but move a bit slower than the rest of my classmates, fearful of getting caught up in their elbow stabbing again. I subconsciously rubbed one of my sides, thinking about the bruise that was going to be forming later tonight.
When I reached the bottom of the stairs and was about to face the massive crowd elbowing each other to get out of the side door, I felt a hand on my upper arm for the second time today. However, instead of pulling me up, it pulled me roughly to the side. I felt the culprit pull me underneath the stairs and pin me against the wall in the darkest corner with their body. My eyes widened and I caught their hands on either side of my face out of the corner of my eyes, cutting off any escape route.
I could hear my heart beat triple and my body ran cold all the way down to my toes out of fear. I was going to be attacked! Attacked and then left alone in this burning school building! I've had a great life, a great seventeen years.
I opened my mouth to do the thing that came naturally to anyone in a time like this - scream, when I felt a finger on top of my lips in a shushing manner. My eyes only bugged out more at this. I felt my legs start to go weak. This was the end!
"Shh," the mystery person whispered, inches away from my face. I gulped and I'm pretty sure my arms started to shake. This was unbelievable. I'd never been in one of these situations before! What were you supposed to do? Run? Scream? Listen to them? The most danger I've been in is battling spiders that find their way into my bathroom!
I'd gladly take Harry the Daddy-Long-Legged spider over this any day.
I could tell it was a guy from the build of their body which was so rudely in my personal bubble. Their lack of a female chest hinted towards that, along with the fact that I could also tell they were rather muscular. Okay, so maybe the muscles didn't hint towards male or female but it was definitely noticed! And feared! I had sticks for arms, how was I supposed to fight them off?
I gulped again and looked up to the culprit, only to see the same pair of eyes that had been staring at me the entire day.
Travis.
Was he going to kill me? Was he really a delinquent? Oh God! If I could only get my friends attention - anyone's attention!
My eyes moved away from Travis's and towards the mass of people filing out of the building's stairs door. Did no one ever think to look in the creepy corner while leaving a building?
I looked back to Travis to see his head turn to see the people running out. He looked back at me and raised his hand from my lips to his own to tell me to be quiet once more. I felt my stomach drop as he met my gaze once more.
When the last person ran out of the building and the door closed with a loud bang, my heart sank. I was doomed. Done. A goner!
"Sorry," he apologized, removing his finger from his lips, but placing his hand again up on the wall next to my head. "I needed to talk to you."
"Is this small talk before you kill me?" I slipped out, my voice shaky from fright. Realizing what I had said, my eyes got even wider and I raised my hand to my mouth, covering it to stop from other things slipping out.
Travis looked at me oddly, cocking his head to the side in confusion. If he wasn't about to kill me I would have said it was cute.
"I'm not going to kill you," he said slowly, his eyes still stuck on mine. I fidgeted from foot to foot, feeling that usual self-conscious feeling washing over me that I've been feeling all day.
If he wasn't going to kill me what was he going to do?
I tried to back closer to the wall, away from him out of fear of the things circulating in my mind of what else he could have done this for. It was no use though, because his body was still pinned against mine, forcing mine to already be as close to the wall as possible.
"I need to talk to you, alone," he said to me, his voice not really leaving any room for dispute so I did the only thing I could think of: nod vigorously.
"I don't have enough time right now and to be honest that damned fire alarm is pissing me off like a mother and I want to shoot it," he said loudly, looking up at the ceiling where the noise was coming from.
"I don't think it can hear you," I whispered to him, talking about the fire alarm. Him yelling at it certainly wasn't going to shut it up and it wasn't exactly calming my nerves. He looked back down at me and I shot my eyes to the floor, not wanting to meet his gaze in case he was angry at my sarcasm. I needed to watch my slip ups.
"So meet me in front of the school, ten minutes after class is out?" he asked.
I nodded again, still slightly fearful. I really liked these pair of shoes I was wearing. And his weren't too bad. I changed my eyes from focusing on the shoes to the floor. They really needed to clean back here...
Travis raised a hand to my chin and lifted my head so my eyes would meet his. "Alone. I mean no friends that are always by you. None. Or I'll blow up something else and we'll have a repeat of today's chat tomorrow. Understood?"
My breathing stopped. He was the cause for the fire that could possibly be working its way over to our area right now, ready to burn us alive? If my arms weren't fully shaking before, they were definitely now.
I nodded again, not trusting my voice.
"Good. Now let's go before they realize we're missing," he said and pushed himself off the wall, leading the way out to where our classroom was situated on the football field. My legs felt like Jell-o as I walked and I prayed I wouldn't collapse.
The fire had gotten put out and contained to just the corner of the science room, and I was now leaving my last period class. I'm pretty sure my lip was gnawed to the point of no return and I was going to give myself an ulcer from the amount of stress and anxiety I was feeling. I paced outside of the main doors, checking my wrist watch about every three seconds. Half of me wanted the time to pass so I could get it over with and the other half was too afraid of what was going to happen.
A few of my friends offered to give me a ride home, since I generally walked but I made sure to brush them off and away as soon as possible.
Finally the time came and I walked outside, to see him sitting casually on a bench off to the side. Why was he able to be so calm while I was about to pass out?!
I practically wobbled up to him and sat down on the very end of the bench. He turned to look at me with a boyish smile on his face, one that completely contradicted the view of him that I had only an hour or so ago.
"Hey! How was your day?" he asked, cheerily.
"Um. Good, yours?" I asked, tentatively.
He shrugged, "Principal's not too pleased about the fire but whatever. He's going to have to learn not to get so attached to things."
"Like the corner of our science room?!" I asked, sarcastically but he paid no mind.
"Exactly!" He snapped his finger and pointed at me, "I'm teaching him a lesson to learn to let go," he said and smiled, turning his body to face me with one leg raised on the bench. "He'll thank me for this later."
I laughed nervously and ruffled my hair a bit, looking for something to do.
"Sorry about everything, by the way. Drastic times call for drastic measures. Didn't mean to scare you if I did," he said somewhat hotly, as if he knew I was scared out of my body.
"You didn't," I replied, probably a bit too quickly, causing him to smirk.
"Well anyways, no need to be afraid of me. You can trust me. Got it?" he asked, looking serious as his eyes met mine.
"Trust you? You set the school on fire!" I said, losing some of my fear to point out the obvious.
He laughed, "I didn't do much damage, and no one was in harm's way. Now if I got my buddy Finn over here, then you could question me."
I didn't know what to say to that, too many issues were going through my brain at the time. Like why he thought setting the school ablaze was alright just because it was small and no one got hurt, and who was Finn. Though, I'm pretty sure I didn't want to meet this Finn character.
"So, why did you want to talk to me?" I asked, pulling my books closer to my chest.
"I need a favor," he said, slowly. I nodded, nonverbally asking him to continue. I tried to look calm and collected on the outside but on the inside I was nervous from anxiety. What kind of favor could he possibly want from me?
"Lacey Carson..." Travis started, watching me as if I was about to run away at any second and I didn't blame him.
"Wait, how do you know my name?" I interrupted.
"Don't worry about that," he smiled, looking more than amused and if there was some secret that I didn't know. It set me on edge and only heightened my anxiety. His smile faltered a bit as he kept switching his gaze from me down to his hands and back at me. At least I was no longer the one that was on edge.
Travis let out a sigh and ran his hands through his hair a few times before opening his mouth and letting the words flow effortlessly out, the boyish grin back on his face,
"Will you be my girlfriend?"
Will I be his...what? He had to be kidding me. Was something wrong with him? Was he crazy? He had to be crazy.