*Brian Walt-Hillard*
After breakfast, I sauntered up to my room wondering what I had gotten myself into. The blue walls of my room surrounded me as I grabbed some clothes off the top of my dresser that I guess my mom had folded when I wasn't home.
My matching black jogger set and I went into the bathroom across the hall and I took a brisk shower. Walking out of the bathroom and into my room, I threw myself on my bed and started thinking about things I would rather not.
One, that was the first time all week that I didn't cry in the shower. Two, I don't think I can do this. He's going to be there and if I go, I can't avoid him. I have a class with him, I have classes with her. How am I supposed to see either one of them and act normal?
Maybe I can skip. No, Dennis will rat me out. Mom has that meeting today, so she'll be out of the house. God, I can't do that. She's driving me to school. I know her; she'll be waiting outside the school to make sure we get in safely.
I'm so screwed. Oh, I'm screwed. Why did I even say that? She would have let me stay home and let me watch movies all day or –. Then, there was a knock on my door.
"Who is it?" I could feel the anticipation rising.
"It's just me sweetheart." Oh, yeah... exactly who I want it to be.
"It's open," I flatly said sitting up and crossing my legs under me. She walked in and graced me with her sweet smile. "Hi, I... are you sure about going to school today, baby?"
I nodded yes for some reason. "Don't worry about me mom, just try to have a good day. I know you got a lot going on."
Sitting beside me, she mused, "You don't need to worry about that either. I have good faith that everything will work out."
I nodded, ever since I overheard her talking to her lawyer the seriousness of the whole situation really dawned on me. "Is it the lawyer meeting?" I inquired looking down at my off black joggers.
"Yes, it's just procedural things. Nothing too deep, love." I know she doesn't believe that. This all makes it official: the divorce, custody battle, and everything in between.
Despite this, I contributed, "Yes ma'am, I completely understand."
She leaned over and faintly pecked my forehead, "I love you. Have a great day, okay." A soft smile crept onto my face, "Okay, love you too."
I finished getting ready, walked down the stairs and was greeted with my mom and brother standing by the door.
"I see you finally decided to join us. I thought you got cold feet," Dennis pestered, not making direct eye contact with me.
"No, I'm wearing socks and have very warm feet, thank you."
My mom laughed a tad, "You wouldn't have warm feet if you had to walk in the snow today. Let's go."
As we got nearer and nearer to the school, my chest was pumping even though I tried to mask it. And when we got to the drop off line, my heart landed in my stomach.
Dennis got out the car, "See you later mom." And despite my shaky efforts, I couldn't move. My anxiety came in full force and I knew that if there was a long distance in between when Denny got out and I did, my mom might notice something was wrong. Yet, I still did not move.
My mom turned around to look at me in the back seat, "Sweetheart, if you want, I can take you back home."
I shook my head no, "I got this." I shakily put my hand on the door handle. God, it's too late to turn back now. Why am I so stubborn?
From the outside, I saw the door swing open and heard, "Come on Little Miss, the people in the car line are waiting on us." I got out and grabbed onto Denny's arm as an anchor.
"Bye mom," I uttered barely above a whisper as Denny closed the door and escorted me to the front of the school.
"You okay," I knew the truth, but I spoke the opposite.
"Yeah, just first day back jitters." He brushed it off.
"Do I need to walk you to class?"
"No, I can walk by myself. I'm just embarrassed. The last time I was here I had a darn panic attack in front of everyone. People just don't forget about stuff like that," I worried.
Then I saw him walking into his first class. He didn't seem to notice me, but still, it caused me to hold onto my brother a lot tighter than before. "On second thought, I wouldn't mind a walking buddy."
He laughed, "I'm more like your walking stick, but let's get you to your class."
Oh, thank God he didn't see me. My heart was exploding out of my chest at that very moment, my head was pounding, and my vision was becoming blurry. Denny took me all the way into the class and sat me down in my chair.
"Day, you sure you're alright?"
I was so tired of hearing that question and it was building on the anxiousness I've had in my heart for a while and I just snapped. I grabbed his hand, pulled him down and whisper-yelled, "I said I'm fine like ten times already, you're dismissed."
He gave me an 'okay, fine' look, patted my shoulder, and walked out of the classroom. I was alone with nothing but the odd looks of my classmates. Let us just say the rest of the class went by with a lot of awkwardness coming from me mostly.
First-period Geometry is the bane of my existence, but once that ended something worst filled its place. I rushed out of class in an attempt to avoid seeing any unnamed people in the hallway.
My intuition told me that they were definitely around today. Why wouldn't they be? Except for some random lucky streak, I could have received. Of course, that was not going to happen though.
"Hey," I heard behind me. I tensed up for a bit until the voice registered in my mind. It was a different unnamed person that I still would have rather avoided.
Turning around I saw the boy from the park yesterday. "Hi," a fake smile slowly crept onto my face.
"Yeah, um, I'm sorry about going off on you yesterday."
My mouth formed a circular shape. So many things happened in between that moment and now, I hardly remembered that it happened.
"Oh, no worries, I needed to hear it. I appreciate the honesty."
He seemed genuinely sorry even though he didn't need to be. "It put things into perspective for me."
He smiled, "Good, I kind of felt like shit." I giggled at his bluntness. "It wasn't my place. My name is Brian by the way. I don't think I told you yesterday."
It is strange how sometimes in life you can talk to someone without going through the formalities that you're used to. Still, we were just two strangers confiding in each other.
"Daya, my name-o Daya."
We both chuckled, "I'm sorry that was stupid," I sputtered with laughter lingering in my voice.
"It was cute in a nursery rhyme kind of way. I got to go to class, but I'll see you around." He smiled that award-winning smile as he walked past me.
"Bye," I blurted trying to think of something else to say before he got too far away. Then he was too far away, good job Daya.
As I was continuing to walk to class with a sheepish expression dancing back and forth across my face, I was stopped dead in my tracks. There she was talking with some girls about things I could not decipher from the distance we were apart.
I tried to turn around before she saw me to no avail. We locked eyes and then she started coming my way. I tried to walk quickly down the hall without making myself noticeable.
"Daya, hold up," she said grasping my arm. I stopped, "Olivia."
"Daya, I was calling you." She seethed as if it was offensive to her that I disobeyed the order.
"I'm sorry I was in the process of avoiding you. What do you want Olivia?" Normally, I wouldn't speak to her in such a matter but I've been extremely moody today.
She scoffed, "Someone came to school with a bitchy attitude. I'm pretty sure I should be the one mad at you. You did after all watch me and bae like a jealous little pervert." I felt my eyes prickle with tears and my body tingle with anger.
"Did you stop me just to insult me or did you actually want something Liv?" She whipped her overly bleached blonde hair over her shoulder, and sassed, "I, for some reason, thought it would be appropriate talk to you about Jay, he -" I stopped her right there.
"Please, we are both going to be late for class if we don't go now," I tried to walk away from her, but she linked our arms together and started walking toward the direction of our class. Did I mention we had second period together? Well, we do.
"He feels, well I don't know the right word for it, but weird I guess, about what happened. I feel like he should drop your creepy ass as a friend, but he just won't, sad. Therefore, I guess we will just have to deal with each other. So, just because he asked me to, I will avoid telling everyone that you are a perv. I won't forget what happened though, so don't act out ok."
"What a saint you are," I said sarcastically as I rolled my eyes.
She grinned like the grim reaper before she pushed me into the classroom.
"Oh, be careful Daya," she fretted with false concern as I stumbled through the doorway.
She leaned in close to me, tilting her head to the side, "We can discuss our agreement later," she challenged with extra emphasis on the word agreement.
Then, she sashayed over to her seat and started talking to her friends like normal as if she didn't just finish tormenting me. My body instinctively tried to flee, but the bell rang, and people bumped into me before I could. "Ms. Johnston take your seat please."
I couldn't pay attention to my World History teacher the whole period, I had just been threatened. I couldn't imagine what I would do if she told anyone, nether the less the whole school. I tried so hard to calm myself down and just do my assignment, but my hands were shaking. Plus, I had extra work to make up because I had missed a few things.
I accidentally knocked a piece of paper off my desk. I looked over at it without moving anything but my eyes. I was scared that if I moved a muscle I would freak out or just start balling.
A girl picked it up off the ground and put the paper close to my direction, "Daya, you dropped this." I couldn't move or say anything to her, but I managed to nod my head, and she put it down on my desk.
I heard Liv and her friends laughing at the front of the class. My anxiety took the best of me and I assumed they were looking and laughing at me. I crammed my eyelids together and balled up my fist. She couldn't help but piss me off.
I laid my head down and covered my face with my hair and arms. I wanted to cry, but I know I'm not very subtle and with the desks so close, I knew the people around me would hear.
If I'm dealing with being in a class with Liv like this, how was I going to handle my third block class with Jay? I tried to ignore everything and focus on the gentle sound of the air conditioning running from the vents and the buzz of the computer on my teachers' desk.
*Another chapter in the books! I hope y'all are excited to see how the rest of the day goes!
I've been thinking about removing the Turning Pages part of the title, One Week Older: Turning Pages. What do y'all think?
Are there any Liv sympathizers out there?
Thanks for reading! Remember to comment, follow and share!*