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Special thanks to ThisLovelyJourney because I asked her for feedback and she was lovely enough to oblidge! You Rock, girl!!! Go read her stuff, everybody!!!
Excuse the mistakes.
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My bedroom door banged open, and I woke with a start. Before I had a chance to really grasp what was going on, something cold and round was pressed to my forehead. My eyes focused on an angry looking man standing over me, and with a single sideways glance, I realized what was resting on my head.
The muzzle of a gun.
"Get up," he hissed, and I did as I was told, painfully aware of the weapon. When I was standing next to my bed, the man twisted my arms painfully behind my back and forced me forward. I stumbled on going down the stairs, and the man yanked me to keep me upright, causing my shoulders to feel like they were going to pop out.
At first, I had no idea where he was taking me, and I was terrified that it was out of my house and into a van to take me away. However, as we walked down the hallway, I realized that he was forcing me to my dad's office.
"Open the door!" he ordered, and with a shaky hand, I turned the door knob and pushed the door open. The man pushed me into the room, and I blinked in the bright lights.
"What is the meaning of this?" my dad roared, and he jumped out of his seat. "How dare you touch her?"
"This is your fault, Jack" a different man sitting across from my dad said simply. His fancy suit told me that he was an associate of my father, and from the look on his face, I could tell he was angry at my father.
"What's going on, Dad?" I asked hoarsely, and the man holding me pulled on my arm, causing me to whimper and clamp my mouth shut.
"Don't you dare hurt her, Marcus!" my dad screamed, rushing towards me from behind his desk. Before he could reach me, the man, Marcus, rose from his seat and stopped him.
"We won't touch a hair on her pretty little head if you get me my money in the next 48 hours," Marcus said, and then he glanced at me before adding; "After that, her head won't be looking so pretty."
My eyes widened in realization as I understood what he meant, as did my dad's. Then, Marcus snapped his fingers, and the man holding me removed the gun and shoved me hard to the ground. I yelped as my elbow slammed into the ground, and as I cradled it in my other arm, I watched as Marcus and his men filed out of the room.
I looked up at my dad, and we both remained silent, Marcus's threat still hanging thick in the air.
*
"Sawyer? Earth to Sawyer!"
I blinked and looked up to find Norah standing in front of me. I frowned and asked, "How'd you get in here?"
"Your Grandma let me in. She said you weren't feeling well," Norah replied. "I walked into your room and found you staring off into space."
I shivered, remembering the memory I'd just relived, and I tugged my blanket tighter around my body. "I was just thinking," I said, and Norah looked at me skeptically.
"You're not sick are you?" Norah asked, raising an eyebrow. I felt like she already knew the truth, so I just pursed my lips and studied her.
"Wow," I said, "Where'd you get those clothes?" Instead of her normal, bland sweater and baggy jeans, Norah was wearing clothes that really accentuated her curves. She had on a tighter pair of light blue jeans and a pale pink, long-sleeved shirt that was tighter around her chest, and then flowed underneath it. Even Norah's hair was styled instead of her usual French braid.
"I convinced my parents to let me get some more," she searched for the right word. "More flattering clothes. They had to approve everything though, just to make sure it wasn't too revealing."
"Well," I replied, as she sat down next to me, "You look really good. I bet Colby likes it."
"Yeah," Norah said with a dreamy smile, "He told me that he really liked it, but that he would've liked me even if I stayed with my old clothes. Honestly, though, I think he's glad I changed my wardrobe."
"Guys," I said dismissively. Norah and Colby were really cute together, but that just rubbed in the fact that I'd completely messed up whatever had existed between Griffin and I.
"Speaking of guys," Norah said, raising a suggestive eyebrow. "What happened with you and Griffin at your date?" I groaned loudly and pulled my head underneath my blanket. "I take it that the date was a bust?"
I grunted in confirmation. "It was awful, and it was all my fault," I said grimly.
"How is that?" Norah asked, and I moved the blanket so that I was looking at her. "How was the date sucking your fault?"
"Um..." I didn't know how to explain to her how it had gone wrong. I frowned for a moment, thinking about how to phrase it. "I was just really uncomfortable," I said finally. "Griffin asked me a question about something that I just couldn't answer, and I freaked and walked out."
"What was the question about?" Norah asked curiously. I bit my lip and remained silent, and Norah seemed to understand. "It's that bad, huh?" she asked.
"Yeah," I replied. Norah got it immediately that I didn't want to talk about it. Why couldn't Griffin have caught on? I mean, if he'd understood, then maybe our date would've gone differently.
"Maybe," Norah said, snapping me out of my thoughts, "You should've tried to be more open with him."
"What?" I asked in shock, coming fully out of my blanket.
"I just mean that maybe you shouldn't have been so quick to run out," Norah explained.
"I don't think you understand," I said, "He asked me something that was just way too personal, and I'm not the type of person to let others in. It's just the way I grew up."
"Sawyer, I don't think you get it," Norah said, exasperated. "If you want to get to know Griffin, and I can tell that you do, then you're going to need to let him get to know you. Otherwise, it's just not a fair deal."
"There are just some things that I don't think I can share with him yet," I said, "The problems with those things are that they're usually things that one would ask about on a date."
"Then just be honest," Norah replied. "You don't have to tell him everything about yourself on your first couple of dates. You should probably tell him if whatever between you becomes something more. I mean, you didn't even give the relationship a chance to become at all serious."
I frowned and ran a hand through my hair. Norah was completely right. "When did you become such an expert?" I asked, and Norah shrugged.
"I'm obsessed with romantic comedies about intimately stunted girls. I've picked up on a few things," she said simply. "Now what do you think you're going to do about Griffin?"
"I don't know," I moaned, falling back on my bed. "He's probably not even interested in me anymore since I had a freak moment and snapped. Griffin most likely doesn't wanna go out with me anymore."
"You won't know unless you talk to him," Norah replied, and I closed my eyes and groaned.
Just thinking about the conversation I was going to have with Griffin was making me feel sick to my stomach. No doubt it was going to be awkward, but Norah was right; I honestly really wanted to get to know Griffin.
*
Lunch time came too quickly, and I found myself dragging my feet as I made my way to the cafeteria. My heart thumped loudly in my chest as I entered the crowded lunch room, but before I could even start searching for Griffin, someone tapped me on the shoulder.
I turned around and immediately swore under my breath as I found Kaia and her clones standing there. "Can I help you?" I asked, sounding bored.
"I was just wondering how your date with my boyfriend went?" She asked, her voice superficially sweet. I hesitated, and she smirked knowingly. "I guess you just couldn't handle him, Honey." she said victoriously.
"I'm not you Honey!" I snapped, and then I turned on my heel and walked away. I was fuming that I'd let Kaia get to me, but I just wasn't in the mood for her cattiness. I stalked through the cafeteria, muttering swear words, but when my eyes settled on Griffin, I froze.
He was sitting at a table with Colby and other lacrosse players, and they were all wearing their lacrosse jerseys. Colby was saying something to the table, and then everybody burst out laughing.
The look on Griffin's face as he laughed made me want to smile, but I felt too nervous to do anything but keep myself from chickening out. This was the first time I'd ever put myself out there like this, and it was really scary.
I felt like a black cloud about to ruin everyone's day as I approached the table. "Hey Griffin," I said, ignoring the looks I was getting from the other people sitting at the table.
"Hey Sawyer," he replied, the smile dropping from his features. I winced, knowing that his hostility was my fault. Hopefully, I'd be able to remedy that.
"Can we talk?" I asked, giving him a pleading look.
He sighed and glanced at Colby, who smiled and nodded at him. Griffin rubbed the back of his neck and looked up at me.
"Sure."
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It's short, I know... It's more of a filler. I'm working on pacing this story.
I would've uploaded a while ago, but i had a hectic, fun-filled last couple of days. I want to a concert, which was my 16th b-day present, and i got the set list for the main act! It was awesome :)
I also had a sleepover where everyone decided that we should pull an all-nighter... so we ended up watching harry potter.
It's just been a Harry Potter weekend. I was weeping today because Sirius died. It was awful.
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