I was sat cross legged on my bed, phone in hand trying to find the perfect words to use in a text to Alex. I had a feeling that 'WHAT THE HELL! WHY ARE YOU MOVING AND WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME YOU...TURD' wouldn't do it somehow. Ok, maybe I shouldn't go straight in there with the accusations. I should lull him into a false sense of security, then, when he thinks he's safe, BAM. That's when I hit him with the questions. I sighed rolling over to face Brendon.
'Brendon. Say you were special, and there was this fish that was special too. And say this fish was moving to a bigger tank, and you wanted to text him to- oh god this is useless.' I moaned. Is this what it had come to? Asking my fish for advice? Ok, I could do this. I took a deep breath and began tapping away at the keypad. Just a simple text to start with, just checking if it was his number. Trust Amber to supply me with some complete randomers number. I pressed send, and waited with baited breath for a reply. Not a minute later my phone was buzzing away. I impatiently clicked for the message to open, which it finally did after around a century. God, I hate my phone, my parents think I don't know that it is actually a brick masquerading as a phone. I know.
His text confirmed it was his number, so I decided to go straight on in there with my questions. I tried to phrase them in the least aggressive way I could, but it's just hard to make 'since when are you moving house? Why didn't you tell me? Where are you moving to? Tell me!' sound kind.
Suddenly, rock music was blaring out of my phone. Darn, I'd meant to change my ring tone. I checked the I.D.: Alex. I didn't really want to answer. I was scared I'd sound overly aggressive, or I'd loose my nerve and go all shy. Why am I such a baby? Why, God, why?
'Hillo,' I stammered. Crap. Somehow I'd combined the words 'Hi' and 'Hello' and made up a completely ridiculous new word. Maybe he wouldn't notice. Fat chance, he was going to think I was such a freak. Ahh well. If I spent all my time worrying about how many people thought I was a freak...
'Um, hillo?' He asked, sounding amused.
'Uh, yeah, it's a new word. Amber made it...anyway, I heard you're moving.' I mumbled. Way to make myself seem like one of the normal folk.
'Oh, yeah.' He replied, seemingly distracted. Or maybe that's what he wanted me to think to disguise the fact that he wasn't elaborating! Ok, that sounded stupid even to me.
'So...are you? Were you going to tell me?' I probed; abandoning all attempts at sugar-coating my anger.
'Holly-' He cut off, sounding like he was choking or something. I guess I shouldn't have worried about my own phone manners.
'Yeah...' I trailed off. Well this was strange. What, did he think if he pretended to choke he could get out of my questions? Well that was just stupid. I was starting to get the strong impression that Alex was on some kind of drugs. Mainly because Amber kept telling me she thought he was a druggy, but still.
'Uh, no I'm not moving. Not MOVING, moving, anyway.' He replied, sounding normal again.
'I...didn't realise there was more than one way you could move house,' My voice was pure sarcasm.
'I'm not going permanently. Just, it's stress, and I don't like being around so many new people.' He snapped. Oh, no he did not. He was snapping at me. How rude. Big old snapper. I mentally shook myself, returning to the present, and away from what was sure to be a long chain of anger fuelled thoughts directed towards Alex....Alex the snapper. Stop it.
'Fine,' I muttered, sounding horrifically whiney. I was ready for hanging up, figuring this conversation was one that would need to end in a dramatic hang-up, which would leave one person angry that they'd been hung up on, and the other delighted that they'd managed to hang up first. Apparently it wasn't.
'Sorry,' He sounded genuinely embarrassed that he'd been so rude. I know mood swings are supposed to be a common occurrence for teenagers, but he was in an entirely different league.
'So, do you just LIKE being mysterious?' I asked, injecting my voice with sarcasm. I couldn't help myself. It was a really rude thing to say, but I don't understand him. When I don't understand something, sarcasm comes to my defence. Take algebra. Actually I do understand most of algebra but seriously, when am I gonna use it in everyday life? I guess he is just a very mood swing-y person, and it's hard to keep up.
'Sorry?' He answered, sounding politely confused. I instantly regretted my remark. I sighed.
'Nothing. Just, how long are you gone for?' I attempted to stir the conversation away from my catty comments.
'Maybe a week or something. Why do you want to know anyway?' He asked, trying to sound casual, but he couldn't keep the smile out of his voice. He was flattering himself.
'Because, I just think we have more to talk about.' I kept my answer short. Not wanting him to try to find some hidden subtext. I wasn't lying either. If he thinks, just because we share a gift, that means we need to be a couple or something, he's wrong. Wait, now I'm seriously flattering myself. I felt my cheeks heat up; glad he wasn't here so he couldn't hear my thoughts.
'Oh, we do?' He asked, sounding a little disappointed. Well, did we? I guess if we'd had so much to talk about we could have spoken about it when he was at my house. It just seemed odd that he wasn't so bothered that he'd found someone that shared his talent. Aside from his initial shock, he seemed almost bored of it now. As though it was old news. Well, I wasn't done with him. Wow, that sounds perverted. Truth be told, I'd wanted to eventually introduce him to my Dad. Eventually. I don't know. I just still had so many questions, I thought he would too. Evidently I was wrong.
'Well, I dunno.' I answered lamely. He gave a dry chuckle.
'Look, I gotta go now. I'm sorta busy, but can we talk about this later?'
'Um, yeah.' I replied, wondering what else there was to say. Later. Alright then.
'See ya,' He bade me a quick goodbye and hung up. I placed my phone (brick) on my nightstand next to Brendon and stretched. I checked my newly-discovered-watch that had been lost under a heap of junk in my bedroom for around three years; there was enough time to get on with homework. Well, that's what I told myself. I somehow became distracted, when I somehow made it into the living room downstairs, and the TV somehow switched itself on. I still have no idea how it happened. Before I knew it I'd been zoned out in front of the TV for most of the night. Oopsie, no homework for moi.
'Why me!' Amber complained. It was Friday afternoon, and we had just completed our last lesson of the day.
'Drama queen,' I muttered under my breath, continuing to tug her arm in the direction of the library.
'Noooo! I can't go on.' She whined struggling against my steady grip on her.
'Put it this way, I told Jared we'd be in the library after school. You're not gonna let HIM down are ya?' I smiled triumphantly, now I had her. She gave a dramatic sigh, and began pulling me.
'Come ON, we have a library to get to.' She stuck her tongue out at me.
'Hmf. NOW you like the library, yeah I see how this works whe-' I grumbled, trying to keep a straight face.
'Drama queen,' She muttered. We had reached the library, and she finally loosened her death grip on me. I winced as the blood flow returned.
'Amber!' We turned to see Emily running behind us, red-faced and out of breath.
'Yup,' Amber replied, looking curious.
'Miss Kent wants to see you. Helen Clapper reported you for...name calling?'
'Busted.' I turned to Amber, trying to wipe the smirk off my face. She narrowed her eyes, with an expression that could kill a puppy.
'Oooh, she is so dead. Helen Crapper. I. Will. End. You-' The rest of her rant was inaudible as she stalked off down the corridor, with a backwards wave to me. Emily gave me a sheepish smile, before hurrying after Amber. I chuckled to myself, and pushed open the library doors, heading to the first free table. I cleared off the clutter of books and piled them onto some other table. Setting my weeks homework down, I had just begun to work through my Algebra booklet when something caught my attention. Whispering. Now I guess that doesn't sound so weird. Whispering...in a library! Oh no! Something about this particular whispering was different. It wasn't giggling school girls talking about their latest crushes. Or guys discussing, whatever it is guys discuss. It seemed sinister somehow. Whatever the voice was saying it wasn't meant to be heard. In fact, if I hadn't chosen that particular seat next to the book shelf, on that particular table I never would have heard it. I held my breath, leaning in to try and catch more of the whispers.
'-oesn't matter. She doesn't mean anything anyway. I'm just using her. She is just an object. She's so dumb she doesn't even realise it. It's so easy-' The voice was saying in barely more then a whisper. I recognised that voice. I peeked through the wall of books separating us, straining for a glance at the speaker. My stomach dropped. I was right. It was Alex. My mind was racing. He could've been talking about anyone. An old girlfriend, anyone. He wouldn't do that to ME because, because....What was the end of that thought? Because I knew him? I didn't know him. Not really. A week, we'd known each other. I'd seen him around for longer, but still. A week. I needed confirmation. I knew what I needed to do. Even though the first time I'd done it he'd somehow kicked me out of his mind, and the second he'd been screaming. No, I hadn't forgotten that. The fact of the matter was, something was going on with Alex, and right now, I was going to find out.
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