I was one of the first ones up the next morning. I left the room and went to the bathroom to fix my hair. After I had redone my hair I went downstairs and woke Josh up.
“I’m off home. Text you later.”
He was only half awake. He grumbled and rolled over, his blonde hair covering his face. I smiled before leaving. Today’s bus driver wasn’t as grumpy as some. I took a seat on the second floor of the bus and listened to music until I got home.
Everyone at home was wide awake and busying themselves with cleaning. Mum offered to make me some food but I politely declined and went upstairs. I jumped in the shower, washed my hair and got out. I decided not to get ready straight away as I had another three hours before I had to leave the house, so for about half an hour I listened to music. I went on my playlists, clicked on the one labelled ‘Marianas Trench’, pressed shuffle, laid on my bed and sang
along to the words. I turned the volume up to 100% and laughed when the warning sign came up on the screen. Ignoring it I placed both earphones in my ears and closed my eyes, mouthing the words.
'So they can watch me explode
Another piece of me is gone again'
I always found their lyrics relatable for some reason. They had written many songs and each one seemed to sum up the situations I had been in. You know when you find a good song
and it makes your hairs stand up? Well that’s how their music makes me feel each time.
'Lost and useless
No more bruises
I'll burn this place down
Don’t make no sound'
An hour later and I was lost in my music and when I realised the time I sprang into action. I quickly brushed and blow dried my hair so that it was moderately straight, grabbed some joggers and a black t-shirt and grabbed my black back pack. I shoved my checkered jacket, a charger and
my wallet inside and ran out the door.
I got on the bus, again, and did what I normally did. Mum was often at work and my brother hadn’t passed a test that allowed him to take passengers on his motorbike so it was either walk or take the bus. Of course I took the bus as it was always the quickest and I was extremely lazy and hated walking anywhere.
Surprisingly town wasn’t that packed and I found the diner easily. When I walked in I immediately saw Ryan waving
his hand frantically to get my attention. I half jogged over to him and gave him a big hug, I'd missed him so much. He'd already ordered me an oreo milkshake, which is what I always ordered, so we could get straight to talking.
“So, spill.” I simply said. He took a deep breath and began. He talked about what this boy looked like and what he was like. He genially sounded nice but I would only know that once I met him. He agreed that I needed to meet him and told me he was
going to host a Halloween party this year and that he was going to be there so if I went I would see him. It was my turn to talk but I had nothing to say so I just sat staring.
“You seriously have nothing to talk about?” He said, dumbfounded. “What about Josh’s party last night?”
“It was just a normal party, people drinking and dancing.”
“Gosh you’re boring.” He said smiling. We eventually found something else to talk about and spent nearly an hour talking
about TV shows and what was happening in them. After an hour or so he had to go back home and go to his grandparents for dinner. I needed to go shopping anyway so I said goodbye and walked in the direction of the book store. It wasn’t too far away so I arrived in no time.
I went to the back as that was where most of the books I read were. I ran my fingers over the books sitting in the shelves, desperately wanting a new book to read. I was running out and needed more books.
“That’s a good book.” I knew the voice straight away and was angry at myself when I felt butterflies in my stomach over him. 'Get a hold of yourself. Remember, teacher.' He was pointing to a book to my left. I pulled it out and looked at the coved. ‘The Haunting’, sounded good.
“Interesting, what’s it about?” I asked finally turning to face him. I must admit he looked really nice today; he had scrapped back his hair into a pony tail and was holding a couple of books.
“Read it and find out.”
I rolled my eyes and shook my head. My eyes widened when I saw one of the books he was holding. He looked down and smiled when he knew what I was looking at. “I thought I’d try reading since you praised it so much.” He was reading Game of Thrones because I had talked about it? “I just read some chapters now and was on my way to buy it.”
“Oh cool, well i’m just going to buy this book so do you want to go?” I said unsure and nervously
of what he was going to say.
“Sure.”
We walked over to the counter in silence. I bought my book first and placed it in my backpack while he bought the books he had but kept them in the bag he was given.
“I’m going to see if they have any albums I want in the music store now.” he said, looking at me.
“I was going to go there next aswell.”
“Do you want to walk together?”
I nodded and we made our way over to the stairs leading out. He
started a conversation about the TV series of Game of Thrones. We talked about favourite and least favourite characters; both of his were the same as mine. Then we talked about favourite moments and the conversation carried on from there. I was really enjoying our talk, most of the things he thought about the show I thought too. There was a moment when I said something and we both fell silent looking at each other, and then all of a sudden we broke out into laughter, gaining some looks
from the people around us.
Finally we made it to the music store and he went straight to the counter to see if they had what he wanted instead of searching for half an hour. I waited patiently; flicking through the albums that were on sale. Some of them were pretty good but I didn’t want to spend any money on them.
“Got it.” I heard him say behind me. I turned and smiled when I saw that he was holding a Pink Floyd album.
“Good choice Mr Reese.”
“Please, call me Noah outside of school, it seems weird.”
I nodded and turned around and began walking.
“Where are you going?” He was once again at my side and smiling.
“I was just going to go to the new pizza place and get something to eat.” I was starving. I hadn’t eaten anything since last night and I had turned down the sandwich mum had made me. The food in the diner was so expensive that I decided not to buy anything there. It felt as if world war three was
going off inside my stomach.
“Mind if I join?” He scrunched his face up, obviously nervous as to what I was going to say. Would it be weird if he did? Did it matter? I looked back up at him. He was staring patiently back at me.
“Fine, sure.” The pizza place was literally across the road so it wasn’t an uncomfortable silence, but I would have preferred if we were having a conversation. We chose some seats and ordered when a pretty waitress came over to us. “Do you think it will take you long to read the book?” I
asked, making conversation.
“No, longer than normal because it’s a big and complicated book so I want to spend more time on it.” Again there was an awkward silence. When the food came we just focused on eating instead of talking, but when we were finished I was desperate for a conversation but not the one that he started. “I’m sorry about Friday.” My heart dropped.
“Look its fine, let’s just forget it happened”
“Why?”
“Because we both know its
awkward.”
“We need to talk about it.”
“What’s there to talk about? You wanted to give me a lift home and I said no. Simple.”
“It’s not simple.”
“Yes it is.”
“No its not!”
“Then let’s talk about it!” I said, annoyed. I really believed there was nothing to talk about, what happened, happened.
“I was inappropriate.” I sat silent, I had nothing to say. “ But it was because I c.. c..” He kept stuttering.
“Because what?”
“Because I care.” I felt my heart miss a beat and I knew I had to say something by the look on his face.
“Well you were concerned about your student and wanted to make sure she was safe.”
“You and I both know that’s not what I meant.” 'Great.' I thought. 'Just what I needed.' I stood up and grabbed my bag. He stood up quickly and looked at me.
“My bus is leaving in ten minutes, I need to go. Look, I’ll see you tomorrow.” I walked away then
and sighed in relief. Yet another thing that’s going to make tomorrow's lesson weird. I hope he just forgets everything and it carries on like normal, but I knew for sure that that was not going to be the case.
Before I turned the corner so he was out of sight, I looked back quickly and felt guilty when I saw him sitting there with his head in his hands. 'I won’t go back', I told myself. 'Just keep on walking.' But deep inside I wanted to go back and talk to him. Damn. I walked back silently and stood in
front of him, holding out my hand. He looked up confused.
“Friends?”
He smiled and took my hand.
“Friends.”
That would make things better but I knew that we really weren’t friends. What he had said was floating through my mind
‘You and I both know that’s not what I meant’. He was right.
'Tomorrow isn’t going to be fun', I though whilst walking away.