Chapter Fourteen: What Are You doing here?
River Quinn
Dinner with Nirvana’s family last night had been…weird, for lack of a better word. Her parents were alright when they weren’t making the situation awkward, her cousin was a bit suspicious looking yet tolerable for the most part, but there was something off about that Tara chick. The tension between Nirvana and Tara was so thick I could slice it with a butter knife. I didn’t know what was up with those two but they certainly didn’t seem to be friends. And let’s not forget the cherry on top of the cake last night when Nirvana had thrown up, but even before that I knew she wasn’t feeling okay. She’d been acting kind of odd as soon as we stepped inside her house. I haven’t known her long enough to know exactly what was going on with Nirvana but I knew it wasn’t normal. I could feel like there was something she wasn’t telling me.
Summer was coming to an end but I’d have the whole school year to get to know her better. I felt like she was someone I could really become friends with and she was pretty hot too so that was an added bonus for me.
“River I’m off to work. I left some cash on the counter for you to buy your school supplies and the paint for your room. A friend from work is picking me up so you’ll have the car to get around- oh! And pick up some groceries too while you’re out please. I’ll be home late tonight” mom told me when she stuck her head in my room. That was nothing new though she’s been coming home late every night since we moved here.
“Kay” I replied back glancing quickly her way then returning my gaze back to the book on my lap. I didn’t see her but I knew she rolled her eyes at me before she shut the door and left. I heard a car horn outside, the front door open and then the tires of the car as it sped away indicating that she was gone. I finished the chapter I was on and bookmarked it before I set it down on the nightstand. I was heading to the shower when I heard a grunt of frustration. It came from the window across from mine that happened to belong to Ana. I watched as she threw her pillows and sheets off the bed in irritation.
“Morning neighbor, everything alright?” I greeted with a smile. She turned to face me and I couldn’t help but notice how adorable her face looked when she was upset. Then I made the mistake of letting my gaze travel down her bare legs as I realized she was wearing nothing but a big T-shirt. Damn those where the sexiest pair of legs I’d ever laid eyes on! But I didn’t want her thinking I was a perv so with much effort on my part I managed to tear my gaze away from her legs and back to her distressed looking face.
“Yeah, I just lost something” she informed me crossing her arms over her chest.
“Well it’ll probably be where you least expect to find it and don’t worry it’ll turn up when you’re not looking for it. Happens to me all the time” I said with a shrug.
“I hope so” she bit her lip then asked “So what are you up to?”
“Right now I’m gonna take a shower and then I’m headed off to buy some paint for my room and stuff” I told her.
“Oh nice, do you know what color you’re getting?” she asked.
“Not really and I don’t know where the store is either but I guess I’ll find my way” I dropped the subtle hint hopping she didn’t have plans today.
“Oh, um, do you want me to come with you? You know to show you where it is and stuff. Wouldn’t want you getting lost or anything” she offered shyly.
“If you’re not busy today then I’d totally appreciate that” I was suddenly feeling like the luckiest person on earth.
“Cool, I’ll go get ready” she announced and skipped off somewhere. Hmm maybe my trip to the mall wouldn’t be too boring after all.
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An hour later…
“What about this one?”
“Do you like that?”
“Yeah but I’m asking if you like it”
“Well it is your room so it doesn’t matter if I like it or not as long as you’re happy with it”
“Ok”
“But if you ask me it seems a bit depressing”
“Well I just did and you said it didn’t matter yet now you’re saying it’s depressing”
“That’s because it is”
“How about…this color?”
“If you like it…”
“I think I do”
“Then get that one”
“Or do you think it’s a bit too blue?”
“For the love of all that’s holy would you two just pick one already?!”
“Alright chill man I’ll take that one” I told the clerk pointing to the paint we had first picked out an hour ago. The clerk just stared at me and I tried my best not to burst out in laughter when I caught Nirvana stifling a giggle. We’d been in this paint shop for over an hour trying to pick out a color for the walls in my room and the clerk’s annoyed face was pretty amusing. I heard the clerk mutter something about how indecisive young people were as he rung up the paint. We ignored the comment and I paid for the paint.
“I can’t believe after all that you ended up buying the first one we picked out. That guy wanted to kill us” Nirvana’s laughter was contagious and soon we were both hysterical.
“I know did you see his face? Priceless” I said between laughs as we exited the store.
“Where to now?” she inquired.
“I was thinking we could hit a Wal-Mart or something cause I need to pick up some notebooks for school” I replied. She nodded and when we spotted the car in the parking lot we climbed in. I made sure to open her door for her like a gentleman. After buckling my seatbelt, I was about to turn on the car when she offered me hand sanitizer.
“Don’t people just use that when they’re about to eat?” I asked arching an inquisitive eyebrow.
“If people knew how many germs lived on their hands they would use it way more frequently” she said seriously. She squirted a generous amount on her hands and rubbed her palms together feverishly.
“Well in that case I guess I’ll take some then” I gave in holding my hands out for her. After rubbing them I started the car and we were off.
“You’re dashboard is kind of dusty, do you have a Kleenex I could use to wipe it with?” she asked staring intensely at the subject of the topic. I glanced at her weirdly wondering why she’d worry about a dusty dashboard. How did she even notice that anyway?
“I don’t know check the glove compartment” I said casually. Nirvana was definitely a peculiar girl but her weirdness only encouraged me to want to get to know her better. There was something different about her and since I wasn’t very normal myself I figured we were a good match. I heard her rummage through the drawer until she found a tissue, squirted it with hand sanitizer and wiped the dashboard clean. She also wiped the radio buttons while she was at it. So she liked cleanness.
Note to self: remember to clean room before inviting Nirvana over.
After making sure it was squeaky clean, she turned on the radio and I wasn’t sure if I should feel a bit insulted by the fact that she felt the need to clean it before touching it or not but the song she chose distracted me from my thoughts. Smells like Teen Spirit by Nirvana (the band) came on and just as Kurt Cobain was about to start singing, Nirvana actually had the nerve to change the song.
“What are you doing?” I asked outraged. How could she skip such an awesome song?
“I’m not a Nirvana fan, sorry. Anything but that” she explained with a light shrug.
“Well that’s kind of ironic isn’t it?” I chuckled to myself.
“Tell me about it” she rolled her eyes and switched the station to search for another song. 15 steps by Radiohead had been my favorite song since I’d first heard it a couple of years back. We sang the lyrics as Nirvana drummed along to the beat on her lap.
“How come I end up where is started?” she sang and then I sang “How come I end up where I went wrong?” and so on we went until the song sadly came to an end. The time passed by quickly as we listened to music and before I knew it we were at the Wal-Mart parking lot. We got out of the car and I grabbed a cart before we headed inside to pick up school stuff.
“Do I need to direct you to the school supply section or-” Nirvana teased me.
“Aren’t you a little comedian?” sarcasm was dripping from my every word but it made her laugh anyways. After wondering around a couple of wrong aisles we finally stumbled upon the notebooks and pencils. I grabbed a bunch of notebooks, a few pens and some liquid paper. There I had everything I needed. Nirvana eyed the cart suspiciously as I placed my items inside. I asked her if she needed anything but she shook her head and randomly bursts out in laughter as she kept staring at the pushing cart.
“What’s so funny?”
“That’s all you’re getting for school?” she questioned with surprise and I nodded. I pushed the cart further down the aisle as we watched a little kid zoom by us as he pushed off with his feet and climbed on the shopping cart. Watching the kid brought back childhood memories of when I used to do that imagining I was a racecar. I saw Nirvana watching the kid as well when he shouted in excitement and it sparked an idea in my head.
“Climb on it” I told her with a smirk. She hesitated for a few seconds glancing between the cart and I before she complied. When she was perched on the shopping cart with both her fists clenched tightly around the handle, I looked both ways before I pushed her down the aisle. Nirvana let out a yelp as we barely dodged a display of tuna cans stacked in the shape of a pyramid that had stood in our way.
“Slow down!” she warned me over her shoulder but there was no hint of fear in her voice. On the contrary, she seemed to be enjoying the shopping cart ride a lot. The aisle was coming to a fork in the road and I impulsively took a sharp left as I told Nirvana to hold on tight. However what I couldn’t prepare her for was what happened next. As soon as I’d turned the cart I had to abruptly pull it to a stop when I realized there was a figure standing in front of us. The screeching of the tires alerted the oblivious shopper of our presence and he instantly looked up in surprise. And I didn’t even have to take a look at Nirvana’s face to know that she was just as equally shocked (or maybe more so) as the person we’d almost ran into.
“Nirvana? River?” Will said switching his gaze from her to me as if he couldn’t believe he was seen the two of us together.
“Hey man” I nodded my greetings casually.
“Will…um what are you doing here?” she asked not bothering to cover her surprise.
“I was picking up some things for my mother, but the real question here is what are you doing on a shopping cart?” he asked her with an amused look as he took in the scene. His words seemed to remind her that she was still on the cart and she quickly climbed off of it. I caught sight of her flaming cheeks and couldn’t help but think how adorable it looked on her. For some reason it made her look ten times more innocent than I’d already thought her to be and it was really cute.
“Oh I was just, uh, helping River...pick out some stuff for school. You know school starts soon and he didn’t have any notebooks yet and he’s new in town so I thought I’d show him where the store was and all” she rambled on looking nervous.
“How nice of you. We’ll I guess I’ll see you two in school on Monday.” And with that he went his way and we went ours. The whole encounter was a bit awkward to say the least.
“I’m such an idiot” Nirvana groaned out in frustration taking off her glasses and wiping them off on her shirt. When she was satisfied they were clean enough she placed them back on. I didn’t know exactly what was going on between them so I couldn’t really offer any words of comfort and I didn’t want to just mutter some meaningless thing so I resorted to placing my arm over her shoulder and rubbing her arm in a friendly manner.
“Aren’t we all” I murmured more to myself than to her but I suspected she heard me nonetheless. I invited her to lunch after we paid for the things and we headed to a cute little shack that was by the beach. After we were done eating we slipped into easy conversation and didn’t stop until we realized it was getting a bit late. By the time I dropped her off at home the sun was already going down. I had already parked the car inside the garage, since I didn’t plan on going out again today, when I remembered I hadn’t picked up the groceries mom had asked me to. Crap. I had been so completely distracted with having Nirvana as company that food had totally slipped my mind. I didn’t feel like taking the car out again so I decided the exercise would do me good and walked to the supermarket that was only about fifteen minutes away. On my way there I passed the neighborhood park that was across from the high school I’d be attending in a couple of days. It was a bit nerve wracking being the new kid in school specially in a different country but I had already made friends with Nirvana so maybe it wouldn’t be too bad, I convinced myself.
As I walked by the park I caught the strong unmistakable scent of burning weed. Someone was definitely out smoking near by. I knew the smell well since the crowd I used to hang out with back at my old school smoked a lot and I’d even tried it myself twice but I’d never fancied it much. And when I saw what it did to one of my best friends, how it completely destroyed both his life and those around him as well, when he grew addicted to that shit I swore to myself that I’d never try it again. I wondered who could be out here smoking and then assumed that it was probably a bunch of teenagers. However what I did see came as astonishment to me since I never in a million years expected to actually know who the people smoking by the benches would be.
They were too high and lost in the cloud of smoke that emanated from their mouths to notice me but I still saw them. The chick that had been at Nirvana’s place last night having dinner with us was sitting there next to Nate, Nirvana’s cousin, on the bench just as she had last night. The difference was that instead of eating they were both smoking away like there was no tomorrow. Tara! That was her name, I suddenly remembered.
Questions began swarming inside my head. Why were they smoking? Did Nirvana know her cousin smoked? Should I interfere? But then I shook my head and kept walking. There wasn’t much I could at the moment since they were probably too high to even listen to me and besides I didn’t know them. I would stay out of their business, for now…
A/N: And that was chapter fourteen! Did you like it? Let me know in the comments and votes! Feedback is always greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading. I’m getting the week off from school for thanksgiving vacation so hopefully I’ll update the next chapter soon. Stay beautiful! ;)
Now I must get back to the 100 problem home test my physic teacher decided to give us. How unfair is that. Seriously someone needs to tell teachers that students have lives on weekends!!! Anyway until next chapter my lovely readers.