Song: Perfect
Band: Simple Plan
Enjoy!
-
***_***_***_***_***
My pen twisted in the motion of a helicopter's wings as I held it mid-air with an arm propped on the top of the desk.
After Dontae's little speech, I had hauled my body to my very first class. Which was Math. Math was my favorite subject apart from Chemistry and Physics.
Usually Math class was enjoyable since I liked to delve into a frenzy of crunching large equations and unfolding the correct answers to scenarios which practically begged me to discover their many mysteries.
But today it was a blur. I hadn't seen Sean at all. Which was a bummer. But I did get a sweet message from him wishing me a good day with a heart emoji and a silver and blue ring emoji. I blushed as I imagined him courting me until marriage.
What a dream that would be.
I wondered why he wasn't at school but I didn't ask. I was still a little hesitant about asking him certain things. Which was weird. Aren't boyfriends and girlfriends supposed to communicate openly?
Maybe we'll soon reach that stage..
It still felt unreal that Sean Charlton was my boyfriend.
Me.
Vannessa Walters who was the most unsocial person at Mckinky High School.
Maybe this was all a ginormous prank that was set up by an unscrupulous group of people who I'm sure were out to get me for no particular reason.
Maybe this was all just a dream.
I awaited a sharp pinch on my arm.
A kick.
A slap.
Anything to wake me from this dream-like stupor.
But it never came and I smiled a little at that fact because it meant that for the first time in a long time, something really good was happening to me.
Someone else was seeing me for something other than the nerd girl or the loner of the school.
The elderly teacher scribbled a list of equations in midnight black on the milky white rectangular board. I watched as her mouth jutted out in concentration.
The people in the classroom were surprisingly co-operative. Their heads were ducked as they focused on their notebooks. The pens in their hands ran swiftly over the horizontal blue lines of the ivory pages as they tried to no doubt crack the code on the white board.
But even the unusually focused classroom couldn't calm my mind and allow me to pay attention to the task ahead of me.
This morning's actions were beginning to weigh heavily on my shoulders.
I can't believe I reacted so violently.
So out of character.
This wasn't me.
No.
It couldn't be who I am...
It couldn't be who I was turning into.
Bella was a menace. But maybe it was far-fetched to react like that towards her. Surely she didn't deserve such a cruel reward even though she started this whole debacle.
She had a nasty swell on her jaw.
I know because I had glimpsed her on my way to class.
She had sent me a death glare before disappearing into the female bathroom with her two female friends who had witnessed the encounter between us.
I had ignored her and quickly disappeared into the classroom to not lose my cool again.
And what did she mean by 'this is not over'?
My eyes pulled together briefly as I tried to think of her motives.
I bit the inside of my lip.
Bella's plans would have to wait. She isn't that important anyways.
Among everything else, I really hoped my dad wouldn't ever hear about my recent endeavors.
What was going on with me?
Was this the new norm for me?
Maybe I'm suffering from a new, unique form of illness which may exhibit schizophrenic behaviors or I hit my head and lost all traces of my personality.
Maybe I was even flung into a realistic scenario of 'Freaky Friday' except it was taking place on a random day of the week.
Or who knows? Maybe my blood sugar is low from my lack of breakfast this morning.
I sighed heavily and placed the mickey mouse pen inside my black and white notebook with a light tap of defeat. I grabbed my phone from a pocket of my skin tight jeans pants and angled it skillfully underneath the table to snap a picture of the activity on the whiteboard.
By now, my Math teacher was sitting quietly at her desk as she flipped through a textbook with her small glasses perched neatly on top of her narrow nose.
I'll just do the work as an assignment and get it graded at the next class.
-
***_***_***_***
Sniffing the wonderful lavender aroma, I sighed and shut the front door of my house.
"Hey pumpkin!"
Crap!
I nearly jumped out of my skin at the sound of my dad's enthusiastic greeting.
I spun to face him warily.
Did someone snitch at school and force the school board to call my dad even though there were no adults involved in the fight?
Did he even have an inkling as to what was going on with me?
Would I be home bound by an electronic monitoring device until I was a legal adult of the states?
I studied his features.
He didn't seem upset.
In fact, he wasn't really showing any specific emotion. He seemed exhausted. The dark circles underneath his eyes made him appear way older than thirty eight.
I furrowed my eyebrows at him. It was weird seeing him home at this time of the evening. Normally he was either at work or he was outside the borders of California.
"Hey."
My greeting was a meek mutter and his lips pursed in apprehension. There was a brown file in his hands as he stared at me.
He seemed hesitant but said what he wanted to anyways.
"Are you still upset with me?"
I didn't answer. It was so weird. So, unable to face him, I just aimlessly looked around at the foyer's decor.
"Do you want us to go out and grab a bite together?"
I glanced at him and shook my head 'no'.
After the day I just had, I wanted nothing more than to retire to my bedroom for the rest of the day and drift off into a beautifully deep sleep until the sun of tomorrow morning peeped through my thinly gathered curtains.
I fiddled with the strap of my backpack which rested lightly on my right shoulder, anticipating the time when this conversation would be over.
I was glad that he was unperturbed. Which meant he was oblivious to everything that had happened today.
"Ok," Dad sighed.
He rubbed his temple and I noticed the way his eyes crinkled at the corners. The heavy bags under his eyes seemed to deepen as he searched for something to say.
Seemingly out of options and quite possibly, out of any strength to converse with me, he sighed heavily and relented.
He sighed again and tried to give me a small smile but it turned into more of a grimace.
"Bready will finish dinner in an hour so freshen up and come down to the dining room when you're done ok?"
I nodded in response and as if on cue, Bruce popped up from the corner of the kitchen and wiped his forehead with a light blue handkerchief.
"Sir, you said you wanted to help me make the meatballs."
Dad shifted his attention from me to Bruce and nodded solemnly.
"Oh, right."
He glanced back at me.
"I'll see you at dinner then."
I nodded once more before slinging my backpack further over my shoulder and heading up the stairs as quickly as I could.
My dad was making meatballs?
The last time he was in the kitchen making his own food was when he wanted to impress my mom.
Before our family fell apart.
I sighed heavily and began walking slower when the foyer was out of sight.
I hated to admit it, but I missed my dad.
I missed the way we were before that dreadful incident. I also missed how we were before the night I released my panted frustration onto him.
Sure, he was distant. But at least our talks weren't awkward.
I missed getting excited to see him on the rare occasions when he did come home earlier than usual because of his on-the-demand job.
But I knew that as long as things persisted the way they were now, we could never go back to how we once were.
I honestly wasn't anticipating dinner. But secretly, I kind of wanted to eat outside the house for a change.
But then again, having dinner with my dad at home was better than having it in front of plenty of unknown faces who I'm sure would be able to sense the hot tension brewing between us and use us as a source of their evening entertainment.
I threw my school bag on the floor next to my study desk and checked my phone.
Allison and Quincy sent me messages of greetings respectively and I replied as quickly as my fingers could type.
Then I saw one message in particular which stood out. It was an unknown number and I almost never read it. But the words inside the chat made my heart beat irregularly.
'For your smiles I would walk ten
thousand miles.
For the light in your eyes
My heart would gladly pass the fatal tides.
You and I have a story that will end in inevitable victory.
So there's no need to stress and plead.
The dog days are over darling.
And soon your struggles will just be a fleeting memory.
Yours Truly,
Your Sweet Rose.'
-
***_***_***_***_***
Dinner was the same as it seemed to be these days. A one-sided conversation between my dad and I as we ate.
I tried my best to be polite as I gobbled down the large bowl of twisted spaghetti graced by a thick layer of tomato sauce and succulent meatballs.
"Do you like the food?" Dad asked.
I looked up at him and swallowed a mouthful of the delicacy.
"Yeah. It tastes like old times."
I surprised myself by saying so many words at once but it seemed to satisfy him since he sent me a dashing smile.
His features seemed to lift heartwarmingly and for a moment it was just us, reminiscing about our past. About a time when we were both happier.
I broke eye contact and went back to devouring my food.
I winded the last of my spaghetti around the teeth of my fork and impaled the remaining pieces of ground beef. Then I swirled the tasty combination into the light specs of tomato sauce decorating my green and white dinner plate.
The night had fallen quicker today. And after stuffing my face quickly, I washed my plate and dashed back up to my room.
I transferred the class work that was in a frozen state in my phone onto my notebook and completed it at lightning speed.
A tiger-like yawn left my mouth and my arms stretched over my head tiredly.
I felt so drained that I just wanted to sleep and nothing else.
And I was about to make that thought become a reality by jumping face first into the large, inviting bed. But my phone had other plans as it buzzed to life with the rate of a startled heartbeat, brightening my dimly lit room.
I sighed heavily.
"Hello," I propped a hand on one hip and sighed exhaustedly into man's life changing creation as I struggled to keep my eyes open.
"Put on some good clothes and get ready to meet me."
Any sleep that was initially in my intention grew wings and flew out the door as Dontae's deep voice filled my ears.
Unable to form proper words, I screeched, 'huh?' with wide eyes.
"We're going to a party."
My eyebrows drew together at his ridiculous demand.
I glanced at the large analog clock on my lavender wall.
I licked my lips and felt anger stir deep within me for the third time today.
Is he crazy? My dad is literally downstairs!
"But I'm still grounde-"
"Sneak out."
I was getting annoyed by his attitude.
What is wrong with this boy?
I ran a hand through my unruly mess of dark, curly hair that was beginning to tangle at the ends and indulged in a slow, fretful pace, going back and forth.
"Dontae I can't. I'm-"
A loud sigh seeps into the phone's speaker.
"You said you'll do anything I ask, remember?"
That sentence clamps my mouth shut, mimicking a clam with a vise-like grip at the lips of its shell.
There was no doubt that he was irritated by me.
He was never like this when we were younger. Sure, he was still stubborn. But never this... hostile.
I glanced at Dontae's window out of pure habit and was surprised to see that his curtains were wide open. His body was resting against the wall inside his window in a way that one of his legs was folded on the ledge. His body angled a little far over the ground a few feet below him.
His phone was positioned at his visible ear. The light green shirt and charcoal jeans that he wore accentuated his manly figure and I gasped.
I didn't pull my curtains shut out of forgetfulness and consequently, his stunning pair of dark, brown eyes were staring heatedly at me.
But something was off.
The light that often shone in those alluring orbs of mystery were lost.
Dontae's usual calm and controlled manner was replaced by something else. Something more... tense and potentially destructive.
I couldn't determine what it was that was different. But I knew something was out of the ordinary.
My lips trembled as I moved closer to my window. When my hip hit the cold object, I stared at him accusingly. Pinning the phone tighter to my ear.
"W-why are you bringing this up now? You never seemed to care about anything other than us studying together before."
The girl who became used to cowering away from confrontation was making an unwanted entrance once again and my fingers began to tremble. I wish I could just bury that weak girl forever or burn her at the stake.
I bit my lip, somehow wishing that all this was happening in my unconscious state of mind.
The orange-y glow from Dontae's room enhanced his features as well as the prominent scowl on his face.
"There's no need to ask questions, Vannessa. Just do what I say and get ready in fifteen minutes max. I'll be parked across from the second house down from your house when you're ready."
He hopped off the window and narrowed his eyes dangerously.
"Don't be late."
Then he slammed his thumb over the end button. The beeping sound echoed loudly in my ears, making my ears ring unpleasantly.
For good measure, I'm sure to get his point across, Dontae grabbed the bottom of his window and slammed it shut before pressing the edges of his dark red curtains together.
I stood frozen.
My mind was nothing but a blur as my thoughts tried to find plausible excuses for what had just happened.
My heart sank deep within my chest like it was locked in the titanic. Sinking deeper and deeper into indecipherable darkness.
Again, the consequences of my recent decisions loomed over me dauntingly. Promising unabating torment until who knows when.