I woke up and the first thing I did was resume the watching of The Vampire Diaries.
It was something mental of me. Leaving something incomplete bothered me.
So that morning, before I even had breakfast, I watched the remaining ten minutes of the episode.
After I dressed up in a black t-shirt and black pants, I went on Facebook. No messages and no notifications, except for the usual idle conversations on the E-Fed group, which I didn't even bother to look at anymore.
The only thing worth of notice was that Evelyn was online.
And I mean Evelyn Tiger, her primary profile.
The night before, she had left after making me promise to be there that day, so she was probably waiting for me to come online.
And there I was. I waited a few minutes, constantly opening and closing her chat box like a man possessed, and then I decided to contact her myself.
– Here I am, Miss Tiger.
She didn't answer up until some three minutes later.
– hey there, prince charming.
– How original.
– LOL.
I didn't know what else to type, so I struggled a bit, before receiving a new one from her.
– how old r u?
She sounded like a pervert on Omegle.
– 15. You?
– ha! 16.
Great. She's older than me. I must look like a puppy to her.
– Wow. You look younger.
– thanks. i guess. so where u from?
She could have read it on my profile but apparently she didn't. I was rather disappointed by that.
– Queens. What about you?
I knew exactly where she was from after examining her profile all night, but I decided to play along.
– Cleveland.
That was some four hundred miles away. I didn't know exactly how many, so I looked it up on Google, and then typed.
– Nice. You're 404 miles away from me.
– walking distance lol
– Yeah, you wish.
I decided to play cocky, something I would have never done in real life.
– quite the narcissist, uh?
– Who, me? XD you're kidding!
I took a step back fearing the bad first impression yet again.
– yeah well i guessed it from ur name. what's your real name?
– What do you mean?
– the last name. mine ain't trips, so what's yours?
The usual gag about my last name was people laughing after they heard it by teachers at school. Never, though, I had found myself in a situation where one would think it was a fake name.
– Oh. Well. It really is "Charming".
– nah i don't believe you!
– You want me to show you my ID card?
Had she said yes, I would have actually gotten my card and photographed it.
– oh man u serious.
– Yup.
– wow. that's kinda cool.
– But yours is cool too!
– why would you say that?
– Haven't you read it? Tiger. That's the way Mary Jane calls Peter Parker! Like, they could tell you "Go get 'em, Tiger!" any time and they would actually be saying your freaking name! It's so cool!
– wow, all i could think about was the store lol
I smiled. I'd never smiled in front of a chat before. Usually, I would type "HAHAHA" and have a funeral face on, but this time I actually smiled.
– You've never watched Spider-Man?
I wanted to say "read" instead of "watched", but finding comic book readers was as rare as it gets, so I didn't even try.
– no. i always wanted to watch it, but i never sat down and did it.
– No way. We gotta do something about that.
– i'll watch it one day.
– How about this? One day, we get on this chat, put it on at the same time, and watch it together?
That could have been too much to ask for to a person I had basically just met, but I asked anyway.
– that's a great idea! like distance doesn't matter!
– Yeah! I'm glad you like it!
– i think i'll like you a lot, mr. charming.
I just couldn't believe what she just said. Like me a lot. What was even going on in my life.
– So what do you like? Except for wrestling, I mean.
– um i like harry potter. and disney movies.
– Disney movies, uh? You happen to like Peter Pan?
– of course i do. i grew up with it.
– So did I! Or, should I say, didn't grow up with him! XD
– hahaha u're right!
Once again, my theory was correct. This girl was really nice and funny, my first impression of her being presumptuous was dead wrong.
– Any TV Series?
– yeah. i like gossip girl and the vampire diaries and... let me think...
– Hey, I like The Vampire Diaries too!
I immediately told her, without even worrying whether she would make fun of me.
– u do?!! wow never thought i'd see that!
– See what?
– a dude digging this show!
– Well, I do!
– you get more and more interesting, mr. charming
More and more interesting. What is this, Christmas?
– So do you, Miss Tiger. What about music? Favorite bands?
– queens, guns n' roses, green day...
– You gotta be kidding me.
– what? u don't like?
– No, that's not what I mean. Those are my favorite bands too!
– wooow, 4 real?
– We have a lot of things in common indeed!
– that's really cool. i think we'll get along really well!
– You friends with anyone else on the group?
– yeah... i mean, i know them all. actual friends... only frank.
– I see you've got a lot of pictures with a dude. Is that Frank?
– no haha that's my boyfriend Sean
And there it goes, my chances of being more than friends with this girl went to shreds. For no actual reason, I felt as if betrayed. I actually felt a pain in the stomach.
Well, it was a lost cause anyway. She was from Cleveland. 404 miles away. I had barely been to New York. Even if I would have conquered her heart, we would have never met.
But I didn't give it all up. We could still be friends (Never thought I'd be the one saying this).
– Oh, your boyfriend! How long have you two been together?
– about 6 months. what about you? u have a girlfriend.
I laughed. Six months, I thought. That's half a year, they're never breaking up.
– Nope xD still searching.
– well good luck then!
As I was about to type something, my mother yelled my name all the way from the living room.
"WHAT?" I yelled back.
"LUNCH'S READY!"
"COMING!" I wished she'd text me so we wouldn't have to yell every time.
– Hey, listen, I've gotta go now. Talk to you later?
– count on it!
I closed everything and actually skipped to the kitchen. Whenever I was happy, I'd act ridiculous.
• — • — • — • — • — • — • — •
So there I was, having lunch with my family, thinking about the new and exciting thing I had in my life, when my father, who for once joined us at the table, decided to torment me.
"What are you smiling at, four eyes?" He jeered, seeing me smiling as I adjusted the glasses on my face.
My smile faded. "Are you serious right now?" I barked. The reason I was smiling was that I was simply thinking about Evelyn.
"You're like a fucking teenager!" my mom intervened against my father, "That's your own son right there and you're going to insult him like a stupid bully? What the hell is wrong with you?!"
"Jesus, I was just kidding! What the fuck! You can't take a freaking joke?" he started to yell.
"Nice freaking joke!" I shouted back at him, "Whenever I'm happy, even just a little, you're always out there to get me and take that away from me!" I felt my eyes starting to water and get red, "You piece of shit!"
My father got up from his chair, leaning against me. I quickly stood up too and he tried to catch me as I ran away. I went over the line, but so did he.
"You stay right there!" my mom stopped him, "You started this, you deserve every bit of what he says to you! You reap what you sow!"
I ran to my room, shut the door and jumped into bed.
I felt the tears in my eyes blurring my vision and applying pressure more and more, until they finally got out, rapidly falling down my cheeks, landing on the collar of my shirt, on my sideburns, on the side of my mouth. I felt their salty taste, which made me cry even more. And I sobbed, and sobbed, and sobbed. My own father, right there.
My own father was the biggest bully in my life, making fun of me because I wear glasses.
But I didn't want to let him always ruin everything. This time, I didn't want to care. I stood up, ran a hand under my nose and headed for the bathroom.
I splashed some water on my face and stared right into my red eyes for a few minutes, before taking some money and going for the door, as he tried to talk to me halfway through. "Hey, I'm sorry, alright? It was a joke."
I knew my mom made him say that, so I didn't even want to hear it. "Fuck you." I opened the door.
"Hey, that's enough." said my mom, who couldn't tollerate me cursing at them, which was funny, given the amount of curse in her vocabulary, "Where are you going?"
"Out." I shut the door behind me.
I couldn't stand that madness every day. That toxic house. That toxic street. I couldn't wait to be Tyler's age, done with school and on to some bigger and better things on my own.
I needed calm in my life, and, in that house, I couldn't have it.
"So last day of August, uh?" Belle pondered.
The green of the park matched her shirt, just like the sun matched her hair, as we sat on our usual bench.
"Yeah, right... Means I'll have to listen to Wake me up when September ends from tomorrow on," I joked.
She smiled, "So what's new in your life?"
I gulped and exhaled. "I met a new friend on Facebook. She's from Cleveland, but we have a lot of things in common!"
"Just friends or are you planning something?"
"Just friends," I sighed, "She has a boyfriend..."
"Never say never..." she advised.
I stopped to think for a second and I felt my lips getting really dry, so I had to lick them. "Besides, wouldn't it be dumb? I mean... 404 miles away."
She smacked her lips. "It's not dumb. A lot of great relationships are born like this. Take your cousin Tyler for example!"
"Yeah, well... He met Eleanor after only a week of chatting. It wasn't much of a distance. I don't want to think about it, anyway... It'll be just friends." I concluded.
"That's good too. You need friends in your life."
I groaned. "I hope I'll make some at school too..."
"I'm sure you will!" She reassured me.
"I don't know... I'm a little scared... What if people don't like me?" I worried.
"Then they'd be stupid. How can they not like you?" She honestly asked.
"Well sometimes I ask myself the opposite question... How could people possibly like me?"
"I like you. Andrew likes you. Tyler likes you. This girl you were talking about likes you. It is possible, you see. Your self esteem is way too low."
"I know," I muffled, "and I want to fight this insecurity of mine..."
"Then do it. Fight it. And beat it," she instructed.
"What if it beats me?" I cried.
"C'mon, Pete. You've got to believe in yourself. That's the most important thing. Nobody will ever believe in you if you don't believe in yourself."
"I'm trying to... I mean, this girl said I'm interesting."
"See? You are. And you know it too." She took a deep breath before going on, "You know you're really interesting, and you know most of the other guys your age aren't. You know you find the most popular ones boring. And you know you'd want everyone to be like you. But everyone's so different and you feel like a reject. That's just society trying to make you believe that you are a defect. Because you are different from everyone else, and guess what? Different is scary. But you know that if they get past the scary, they realize that different is actually the best thing ever. Don't fall in line. Don't make the mistake of believing what society wants you to believe. Be real. Be yourself. Free your mind."
"Wow..." I said, left a little bit shocked for a while, "That was... powerful... but what if this, what you just said, is what society actually wants me to believe? What if I'm not really different? What if I'm just like any other kid? I'm sure every other kid feels different.."
"No. And you want to know why? Because they feel different. They want to be different. They try to act different. But they're not. And you know it more than me. You really are different, and smart people will like it."
I smiled. "Then I guess it's hard to find smart people these days..."
"They're out there. And you'll find them. I promise you."
She did promise me that. But sometimes, some promises are just impossible to keep.
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See you on FRIDAY with the next chapter, where things really start heating up!