Ch.7
The next day I met Tabby at school at 9:30am. I was waiting outside for her.
I should have brought a sweater; it's still a little cool in the mornings. Tabby's mom pulled up and she got out. "Hey Rori!" she ran up to me. She was wearing a pink shirt that said 'party girl' on it and a pair of short shorts and some pink sandals. I was wearing a purple tank-top, a pair of tight black pants, and a pair of black and purple converse. "You look good" she said. "You too" I said back. We walked into the school and saw it packed with people. Tabby was starring at all the hot guys. And I was starring at all the booths. The room was full of booths for different kinds of jobs from fast food to being an assistant or secretary. There were a lot of people in the room. A man with a beer-belly and graying black hair came up to me and Tabby. "Are you here for the summer job program?" he asked. He sounded Australian or something. "Yeah we are" Tabby said. He handed us each a flyer, that was a mini map of were all the booths were. "Well feel free to look around and try to visit all the booths" he said cheerfully and walked off as more people came in. "I'm gonna go look around for some hotties" she grinned and left. I looked around some of the booths and found one I liked that had to do with mechanics. The owner of the booth was talking to someone so I waited to talk to him. I was waiting forever and decided to visit some other booths; I turned around and ran right into to someone. "Ow! I'm sorry" I said quickly. I looked up and saw the guy I ran into was sexy as hell. "Sorry about that, I wasn't paying attention" he said. I looked strait at him and he looked back at me. "So what's your name?" he asked. "Aurora Warner" I told him. "My name's Tyler Warrant" he smiled happily. He had medium length black hair, he looked about 5'8, he had a light tan, and he looked Spanish. I didn't ask but ok. "Well sorry for bumping into you" I said turning to leave. "Wait, so what kind of job are you looking for" he asked while running after me. "Mechanics" I said trying to get away from him. "Wow me too!" he said. "That's great well bye" I ran off.
I turned around to make sure he wasn't fallowing me, he wasn't.
I saw Tabby talking to a guy so I wandered to another booth, it was fast food. I moved on to the secretarial booth, it was boring so I headed back over to the mechanics booth. I made sure that weirdo wasn't around and came to talk to the man in charge of the booth. We talked for a while then I told him about my current job and he said something about a scholar ship, but I was distracted when I saw that guy Tyler Warrant walking toward me. "Excuse me" I said and walked away from the man. "Wait, please wait" Tyler said running up to me. "OMG! What do you want?" I half yelled. "Well I wanted to apologize about before, it seems like I was bothering you when I was just trying to be polite" he said apologetically. "*Sigh* it's alright, I was the one being rude" I said back to him. I smiled at him and he smiled back at me. "So, you're interested in mechanics?" he asked.
"Yeah, I actually work at Stanton Mechanics" I told him. "Oh yeah, I know where that is, I heard there good at fixing bike's." he said. "Yeah there the best around, my best friend's father runs the shop, so I got a good deal" I told him. We seemed to be getting along good. "Do you go to this school?" I asked him. "Yeah but I'm a 12th grader" he said. "I'm in the 11th grade, that's funny that I've never seen you around" I said. "Yeah but I've seen you around, you're always laughing with that girl" he pointed out. "Oh yeah, Tabby, she's my best friend" I said happily. We talked more while going from booth to booth.
The Job fair thing ended with me and Tyler exchanging phone numbers, and Tabby smiling at me non-stop. "Stop smiling at me! It's creepy" I grimaced. "I can't help it, you've never really been interested in guys before, and I was starting to think you were a lesbian" she laughed. "It's not about being interested in guys, but more of being interested in one guy" I said quietly. "Well I've never seen you interested in one guy, except for Joshua" she said. "I'm not interested in him, we just happen to run into each other more than I'm comfortable with" I admitted. "Well it's pretty obvious that he likes you" she said. "WHAT! Don't joke like that its gross" I shuddered. "But he does like you, in class he was always staring at you, but you never noticed, and he lives right under you. He might be stalking you" I thought that over a moment and a shudder ran up my spine. He could be stalking me, but why, if he is stalking me, would he? I pushed that thought to the back of my head to save for later.
It was past 5pm, I decided to visit the garage since I hadn't been in forever.
I walked down the hill that led to the garage and saw Mr. Stanton outside fixing up a bike. He saw me coming and stopped working, "Hello Mr. Stanton" I waved. "Hello Rori!" he smiled at me. "Sorry I haven't been around for a while, with summer break starting I should be working more but I've just been hanging out" I said apologetically. "That's alright as long as you're having fun. You always seem to be working and never having fun, so it's nice to see you enjoying yourself" he said. "Thanks, can I come in tomorrow for work?" I asked. "Yeah of course" he said happily.
I walked home and the sun was just setting behind the horizon. I walked up to my apartment and saw Skole's apartment light on. I walked past his apartment and headed up to mine, I was unlocking my door when I heard something behind me. I spun around and saw Skole standing there. "Where were you today?" he asked quietly. "I went to a job thing with Tabby" I told him. "Hmm that's hard to believe" he said. "Why do you say that?" I asked. "Because I can smell a man's scent all over you" he said coldly. "Well I did go over to the workshop, and talked to the boss and we hung out" I lied to him. He stared me down, and it was getting uncomfortable so I turned to go inside. H grabbed my arm, "Don't lie to me" he growled. "I'm not lying to you, besides why do you care? I'm just a slave to you, so you don't need to know about my personal life!" I yelled at him. His grip on my arm tightened. "Let go of me!" I shouted. "Tell me where you were" he growled again. "It's none of you're business. Now let go of me!" I screamed. The lady next door suddenly burst out of her apartment. "W-what's going on?" she squawked. Skole let go of my arm. "I'm sorry we disturbed you, we were just having an argument" he said apologetically. I turned away from him and opened my apartment door and walked in and shut the door. I locked it to be safe. I realized that my heart felt like it was about to beat out of my chest, I too a deep breath to calm down. Damn him, where dos he get off butting into my life, demanding me tell him about what I do during the day. That made me so mad, it ruined the rest of my day.
The next day I woke up early to go to the store. Hmm I need more toilet tissue, more batteries, some food, and maybe some more shorts. I got all the things I needed in less than 30 minutes and was in line to pay for it. There were two people in front of me, a guy and an old lady who was going super slow. "Man, that lady is taking forever, I want to hurry up and get home" I said annoyed. "I'm sure she'll be done soon" the guy in front of me said. He turned around and I saw that it was Tyler. "Hey" he said in surprise. "Hey to you to" I said in more surprise. He looked into my cart, "Doing some shopping for you're parents?" he asked. "No shopping for myself" I said. He looked like he wanted to ask me something but held back. "Is that what you're doing?" I asked him. He nodded. We talked a bit more than he asked me a surprising question. "I was wondering if you maybe wanted to hang out next Friday?" he asked. I was shocked; "Yeah s-sure" I managed to mutter. "Oh that's great! We could go see a movie or go out to dinner" he suggested. "Going to a movie sounds good. What do you want to see?" I asked him. "We could go see nightmare on Elm Street, or Iron Man?" he suggested. "Nightmare on Elm Street sounds good. Let's see that" I said. "Ok then we'll see that! We can meet at Central Theatre at 6pm!" he said happily. We both agreed, and paid for our stuff. I remembered I said I'd go into the shop today. I put my groceries away felling happy, then I hoped in the shower. Afterwards I pulled on a pair of jean shorts, and a Black Sabbath T-shirt and an old pair of Nike's. I grabbed my keys and headed out the door to the shop. I hoped onto my black little bike and rode the half-mile to Stanton Mechanics shop. I pulled up to the shop and saw the boss working in the on a bike. I got to work immediately. After polishing down some of the bikes and oiling them up, I noticed it was past 4pm. I left at 12 so I've been working for more than 4 hours. "I think you've done enough work now, why don't you head on home now" he smiled at me. "Ok boss." I packed up the equipment, "See-ya later" I waved walking out the door. I decided to do something I hadn't done in a while, I decided to visit my mom.
I rode over to my Mom's house feeling a little scared I might find her passed out like the other time. I rode up to my old house, I saw my Mom's bright red car parked in the front do I new she was home. I pulled my key out and opened the door. The smell that hit me this time was cigarette smoke, not throw-up, or pee, or even sweat. I walked in and was surprised to find the house cleaned up. Did mom clean up the house? I heard the TV on upstairs so I walked up there. "Hey mom it's me" I called. "In here" she called. I walked in her room; she was sitting on her bed watching TV. My mom's room is crimson red, with a purple bed-spread and curtains, and a little window on the wall next to her bed. Her rooms usually covered with dirty clothes or old cans and cigarette buds. "Well, it's you" she said in a bored voice. "Yeah good to see you to" I said with fake enthusiasm. "What do you want this time?" she asked. "Just checking to see if you were still alive" I said sadly. "You sound sad about that" she said. I looked at her and I smiled. I saw a small smile appear on her face. We talked for a while; I asked her how her job was going, if she paid her bills on time things like that. I left after a few more conversations.
I got home at 6:50 and I was dead tired. Tomorrow is going to be a day of doing nothing, of that bastard (Skole) leaves me alone. I sat in bed thinking about my date next Friday, I'm kind of excited.