Blake's P.O.V
"Dinner is served." Frank announces in a British accent. He places a bowl of spaghetti, two bowls of difference sauces, and the bread sticks down at the table. All the children at once start to dig in. Frank's cooking is exquisite.
We have a dinning room but no one really eats there. Ever since Frank's wife, Anne, left, we've never sat down together to eat. Everyone is scattered all through out the house. I usually sit in the living room next to Josh and watch a movie of some sort. But today, I decide to take my plate food to my room. I have to do my other homework anyways. It's also been a long day of emotional roller coasters, so I kind of just want to sit back and let it all soak in.
I enter my room and take out my school iPad. All I have for homework today is math and language arts. I take out my blue math notebook and start to work on the problems. I get stuck on one of them, but I can just ask someone tomorrow about it. I may be shy but I'm not anti-social.
I take a bite out of my bread stick. It's so good! I dip it into the spaghetti sauce and take another bite. That is one thing that I'm going to miss about this house; the amazing cooking. I continue to eat my food while reading the language arts assignment on my iPad. We are starting to read "The Catcher in the Rye". I take a spoonful of spaghetti and start to read the first chapter. As I'm reading I have to take notes on the characters and important quotes. I hate doing that. I feel like I'm so worried about finding things for the notes that I don't focus enough on the actual book. Oh, well. What am I to do about it?
"There you are." Josh enters my room with two cookies in his hand. "Why are you eating in your room?" He asks.
"I had to work on some homework. All I have left are two pages of reading and I'm done." I reply back to him. Josh shrugs his shoulders and takes a seat on my bed. He stares at me for a bit then starts to speak.
"Listen, I've been thinking about it and you don't have to tell me about your past. I already told you that it's okay if you don't and that I respect.. I just..." I interrupt him.
"It's fine Josh. I should have told you sooner. You are my best friend."
"I know, it's just that I don't want you to go back into the state you were. When I first saw you, you were absolutely crushed. You barely ate and it took me a long time to get you talking. I don't want you to hide away from the world again. Or at least, more than you are right now."
I think back to when I first met Josh. I guess he is right. I remember becoming friends with him right away, but now that he mentioned it, he's right. I remember spending all my time in my room. He was crushed too after what happened to him, but he at least tried to move on. He succeeded whereas I'm still stuck in the past. He is a true friend for worrying about me, and he as all the reason too. But I think it is time that I tell him. We've been friends through thick and thin. We're more then friends, we're like brothers.
"Josh, thank you for worrying about me. I didn't even think about it. But I trust you and I think you should know." I say. He looks hesitant about my decision, but doesn't appose.
"Alright. Go ahead." He replies. I take a deep breath and begin to tell him my story.
I tell him about the year of suffering my dad and I went through watching my mom slowly die. I tell him about her death and how it affected me and my dad. I tell him how devastated I was when she finally passed because of her amazing characteristics. Her smile, her intelligence, and her fairness. She stayed strong the entire time. I think about her as I speak. She loved gardening. We had a small green house in our backyard and she would spend most weekends in there. My dad and I would help her, she absolutely loved it. She told me once when we were working to look up at the sky. She said, "Blake, take in the light as much as you can. It will lead you to happiness."
"Blake?" Josh says. I must have been day dreaming about her. "You alright bro?"
"Yeah, sorry. I was just thinking about her, that's all." I continue telling him about her.
I finish telling him about my mom and move on to my dad. Josh can tell that I have shifted emotionally. He seems worried but he doesn't interrupt me. I tell him about my dad, before my mom passed. My dad loved to be with his family; especially me. We would ride bikes and play catch. That's where my love for baseball started.
But then, I start to talk about my dad after my mom died and the atmosphere in the room shifted. I told him about my dad leaving with out saying goodbye. I told him about the note and what it said. His eyes nearly bulged out of his head when I told him my dad committed suicide. My thoughts travel back to that day. I was just...shocked. Well, that and being angry at my dad. I mean, I just lost my mom....now my dad? I was, and still am, entitled to feel that way.
"So, he just left you like that?" Josh asks.
"Yeah." I don't know what else to say.
"Blake, I'm really sorry that happened to you, but please, don't go back into that dark place you were in." He is truly concerned about me.
"I won't. I have a great best friend that won't let me." I say trying to lighten the mood. Josh's facial expression looks relieved. I can tell he is starting to think about something, then his expression changes. He looks almost....angry.
"I just can't believe he did that to you. It's not fair!" Okay, now he really is angry.
"Josh, I know you're angry. Believe me, I was too. But it's not going to change anything." With that he seems to calm down a bit.
"I know. I'm sorry for snapping. It's just, ugg, it's not fair." I just simply nod. No one deserves to go through anything like that. "Well, thanks for telling me. I appreciate it." Josh says with a small smile.
"Of course. I should have told you sooner. I don't know why it took me this long. I mean I told Olivia so I should..." Oh, crap! I haven't told him that I told Olivia.
"Wait, what! You told Olivia! You just met her!" I had a feeling he would get mad. I need to figure out a way to calm him down, and fast!
"Josh, calm down. It's not like that. It just...happened!"
"It just happened?!? You told her and you didn't tell me. You've known me for years and you tell someone who you've just met!"
"Josh I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry." He is pacing the room. He is slowly calming down but I know he is still mad.
"Whatever. What's done is done." He lets out a sigh and sits back down on my bed.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah." He is back to his normal self, but I know that it bothered him. I don't blame him for getting mad, I mean, he should be. "But now you really owe me. I get to help you with her now. I mean, if you told her your deepest, darkest secret in a matter of days, who knows what else you'll do." Yup, he's back. I start to chuckle at his comment.
"Deal." We are both laughing now.
"Well, I need to go do some homework myself. See ya later, traitor."
"I said I was sorry already!"
"I know. I'm just messing with you." He winks at me while snapping his fingers and then pointing them at me. He leaves my room. I let out a sigh. What just happened? I think the last ten minutes were the most emotional of the entire day, hands down.
I finish my reading assignment for the night and get ready for bed. I'm just so tired from the day that I've had that I fall asleep almost instantly.
~ | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~
Finally Friday! Yes! We only had four days this week because of Labor Day. Tonight is the football game, so I'm going to go and support the team. It should be fun.
Josh and I leave a bit earlier than usual because we're going to stop by McDonald's for breakfast. Josh didn't want cereals again for breakfast so we might as well have something good to eat.
"Hi, welcome to McDonald's. What can I get for you?" Asked the cashier.
"We'll have two sausage and egg McMuffins to go please." Josh says. We get our McMuffins and head out. We eat them on the way to school.
The school day was pretty boring. We didn't do anything interesting or out of the norm. We just did some class work, that's it. Lunch time finally came around. I grab my plate of salad and make my way to where Josh is sitting.
"Hey Josh."
"Zzuaapp." He says through a mouthful of salad. I'm guessing he meant to say "sup".
"Am I invisable or something?" It's then that I realize Jo sitting next to me.
"Oh, sorry Jo. Didn't see you. What's up?" I say. I place my tray down and take a seat.
"Eh, nothing much." She then raises her hand and punches me in the arm, hard.
"Hey, what was that for?" I ask.
"That's what you get for tricking me yesterday. I could've killed you but I still don't know who your crush is." Jo says with sarcasm. I just roll my eyes.
"Yeah, yeah." I start to eat my salad. It's pretty plain so I add some dressing.
"Are you ever going to tell me who she is?" Jo asks.
"Probably not." I say confidently.
"Man, you miss a couple days of school and all of a sudden you're out of the loop." Jo puts air quotes when she says "loop" for emphasis. Josh and I just laugh at her comment.
The rest of the day goes by quickly after lunch. It's crazy how much energy you get after eating. Olivia and I worked on editing our presentation and entering the interview. We're sure to get an A+ for our presentation! Olivia made it all professional and it looks great. We talked about her visit to the foster house yesterday as well. She says that she really likes Cassie and that she's excited for Saturday. I'm excited too but I wasn't going to tell her that.
"Hey, are you going to the football game?" I ask her. I'm just curious.
"Yeah! Are you?"
"Yup." I reply.
"Cool, we can hangout if you want. I'm going to hangout with my best friend Ally, you can join us. Do you know her?"
"Yeah, I think so." Olivia's best friend is Ally Nelson. Everyone knows her. She's really nice and a very bubbly person.
"So you wanna hangout with us?" Olivia asks. I feel like she's a bit nervous asking me, but it could just all be in my head. I wonder if she likes me?.....
"Sure. I'd love to hang out with two amazing ladies." I wink at her. She blushes a bit and starts to laugh. It's like she knows I'm kidding. The bell rings and everyone quickly vacates the room. Olivia grabs her stuff and heads out.
"See you later Blake!" She yells out as she leaves. I wave goodbye and grab my things.
~ ~ ~ ~
Josh gave me a ride home today. There was no practice because of the game. We arrive at the house and I grab a sweater while Josh grabs his football bag.. I just put on my school sweater and make my way to the car. My sweater has a wolf howling on it and it said "Westpeak High School", since we are the Westpeak Wolves.
Josh drives us to Chipotle to grab us something to eat before the game. While waiting in line, Josh flirts with the girls behind us. I'm just standing next to him quietly, like the dork that I am. I can tell that one of the girls is staring at me and bashing her eyelashes, but I try not to pay attention to her. I only like Olivia.
We finally order our food and sit down to eat it. I ordered a steak burrito while Josh had a chicken burrito bowl. He ate his food like there was no tomorrow. He just loves food.
When we're both done, we throw our trash away and make our way toward the car. The girls behind us took their food to go but when we get to the car I notice something on the windshield. Josh picks it up and smiles.
"Yes! I got her number." He turns the piece of paper toward me and I see the girl's number. I just shake my head and we drive to the school. On our way there I hear the song "Classic" by MKTO on the radio and I can't help but think of Olivia. She is just so elegant and beautiful but still has this edge to her. She's perfect....
When we arrive at the school I make my way to the bleachers and Josh heads toward the locker room. There's already a lot of people here.
"Blake!" I hear my name and turn around to find Olivia walking toward me. She is wearing a school sweater too but hers says "Westpeak High School" in bedazzled letters. She also has a purple bandana on her head, two black lines drawn across her cheeks, and bunch of other purple and black things. Purple and black are the school colors so she is definitely showing school spirit.
"Hey Olivia." I say.
"Hey. Ally is running a bit late, but she'll be here soon. You ready for the big game?"
"Yeah. I would ask you the same thing but you're so immersed into school spirit that I don't need to." I say. She blushes a bit but laughs along with me..
"I know I over did it a bit with all the purple and black, but I really wanted to show spirit. Not just wear a school sweater like someone I now." She hints toward my sweater and I see that she got me there.
"Touché." I say. "Should we find some seats?"
"Yeah." I guide her toward a crowd of people and we start to look for a seat.. All of a sudden, I hear a very familiar voice.
"Nice outfit girly. Did they run out of purple and black for everyone else?" I can hear the sarcasm in his voice. Olivia shifts uncomfortably and I can tell she is embarrassed. So I speak up for her.
"Hey, just leave her alone." I say and turn around to face the guy. My anger boils when I see who it is. You've got to be kidding me! I see the colors of the opposing team; orange and white. We're facing the Longstand Tigers.
"Miss me Blake?" That's the voice of Zach Brewer, my all time rival.