CHAPTER FIVE
FEBRUARY 3RD, MONDAY
TOBIAS WACH
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So I was all talk at Isabel's because before I left, I took the number out of the trashcan. I know. It sounds nasty but I promise you that there was barely any trash in there. Just a banana peel and two candy wrappers so it was totally not disgusting or anything.
Seriously, it wasn't.
So the true question was, did I text him? Well, I had the text ready. Actually, I had several texts ready, and I almost pressed send but I didn't. I pressed backspace instead and then turned my phone off because I needed to sleep but I couldn't.
I wanted to text the number just to see if it was him because there was a great possibility that it was him so I tried again.
But failed.
Then I tried several more times.
2:06 a.m.
"Hey, Brandon. This is Tobias."
Nope. Too dry. It sounds stupid.
2:46 a.m.
"Is this Brandon? Your friend gave me your number. I was wondering if you told him to give it to me."
Nope. That was way too long.
3:15 a.m.
"Hey. It's Tobias."
I hated that too, and I had school in just a few hours. I needed to sleep, so I lied down and closed my eyes. Thoughts about texting him kept circling through my mind but after a while, I finally fell asleep but even in sleep, I couldn't escape him.
~
"MIKEY, GET OUT!" My sixteen year old, brat of a sister hollered.
"USE THE BATHROOM IN THE BASEMENT, CASS THE BRAT!" Mikey was a dick. He was always a dick to Cassandra.
He knew no one liked to use the bathroom in the basement because there were always spiders in there and out of everyone, Cass hated spiders the most. She legit fainted when she saw one. I thought she died. We all did but Mikey being Mikey, he didn't care.
The basement wasn't dirty or anything. It was a very clean basement that anyone could've lived in. It was well furnished with couches, a T.V., hardwood floors and there was even a pool table but it was the basement and basements did have spiders.
Cass started to bang on the door with the strength of Hulk himself. "GET OUT!" She screamed. Her voice cracked on the out part, but her scream was still deadly. Black Canary who? I swear I always felt an earthquake when she screamed.
She kept banging on the door and I knew it was only a matter of time before Mikey lost his cool.
My phone vibrated on my nightstand and then Normani's song "Motivation," started playing. It was my alarm. My third alarm. The alarm that alerted me to leave out.
I was late and I never been late before! I had to hurry! I had no time to waste! I threw all my blankets from off my body and fumbled to the closet to quickly find something to wear.
Without much thought, I pulled out a green sweatshirt and a pair of black Nike sweatpants. I then went to my dresser for a pair of underwear and then I awakened my inner track star and took flight to the basement where my mom was sitting at smoking a cigarette with her coffee in hand. She looked tired and irritated. She was probably trying to stop herself from snapping on her two kids that were screaming upstairs.
Oh yes, Mikey lost his cool which started the shouting war.
"Hey sweetie," she greeted with a smile. Yup, my mom was about ten seconds away from snapping. On a normal day, I would've chatted with her to calm her down, but I was in a hurry. A big hurry!
"No time to talk! I'm going to be late for school!" I slammed the bathroom door shut and turned the shower on.
My plan was to do a quick four minutes in there and then quickly brush my teeth. I had no time for anything else. No skin, no hair styling, nothing and to make sure I stayed on my very tight schedule, I set my timer for four minutes.
The timer started as soon as my leg touched the water. It was speedy mode from that moment forward. One minute on my upper body, two minutes on my lower and a minute to acknowledge and react to a spider I saw crawling on the wall. Stupid spider. To kill it, I flicked water at it until it lost its grip on the wall and fell into the drain.
It was oddly satisfying but then I felt bad. Why did I feel bad? Honestly, I didn't know why I felt bad. Sure the spider invaded my home and basically saw me nude without my consent, but it didn't deserve to die.
My phone rang meaning it was time to get out. I had a minute to dry my body and another minute to put my clothes on. I then gave myself two minutes to brush my teeth and stare at how bad my hair looked in the mirror. I looked like a wet dog. Scratch that, I was a wet dog. All sad and drenched.
But I didn't want to be a late wet dog so once I was finished with the bathroom, I ran back upstairs to get ready to head out. I gave myself three minutes to get situated and yes, I had the timer set as I was scrambling around the place for my backpack and keys and shoes and coat.
With all of that, I was well over three minutes. It was because I couldn't hear my phone over my mom who was yelling at my siblings to stop fighting and my siblings who started to blame each other for everything. The house was just a mess, and I had no time for it.
I threw my shoes on and then my coat and I was out.
I couldn't believe that I was late. I was actually late. Like the class was almost over, late! I was speeding, and I had every right to speed. Well. Not really. I went 45 in a 40. But that was still very fast for me.
So the real question was, did I make it to class? Short answer, yes. Longer answer was, yes but I missed the entire lecture which sucked. I never missed a lecture, ever.
Whatever, right?
It was just one tardy day. Not a big deal, right?
Not right.
It was a huge deal. One reason why and honestly, the main and only reason why it was a huge deal was because I missed the lecture notes which was important for the exams.
Therefore, I had two options. I either had to ask one of my classmates for their notes, or I just had to put in extra time in the library to study.
Obviously, I chose the latter. Brandon was going to be there.
After class, I was the first one out. Mainly because I was embarrassed and scared that my professor was going to pull me aside to talk to me about why I was so late. I didn't want to be embarrassed like that in front of Brandon. I didn't want to look like an irresponsible adult.
I felt like one, though.
On my way to the library, I noticed that the door was closed which was odd because it was usually opened. I also noticed the bright pink paper that was stuck to it.
My heart dropped. If the library was closed then, that would've meant that I couldn't spend those extra moments with Brandon. It also meant that I had to go home and study, which was usually a hard thing for me to do. I would either get caught up in procrastination or distracted by the loudness of my family.
Studying at home was not an option.
I immediately walked up to the door to read the note that was covered with pictures of hearts and cupids. It was a slip that informed us about the Valentine's Day dance the school was having.
I sighed as I read it. I always wanted to go to a dance but was never asked to one. Never.
"Hey, is the library closed?"
My heart stopped for a moment. I couldn't believe it. Brandon asked me a question. Which meant I had another shot of talking to him. I just had to make sure not to mess things up.
"Uh n-no."
Tobias breathe.
"Oh. What is the paper about?"
I turned to him and smiled to hide the fact that I was dying on the inside. "A Valentine's Day dance."
"Oh. I didn't know we had those. Is it new?"
"No. They had one last year."
"Ah okay." The way he said that sounded so cute. I literally died. "Did you go?"
"No."
"Are you going to this one?"
"No. Valentine's Day just reminds me that I'm single."
"Oh!" He chuckled. "Same here!"
We shared a laugh. It was cute. It was everything. I was living. I wanted to continue the conversation, but I didn't know what else to say.
Think Tobias. Think!
I was kicking myself in the butt as we stood there. I wanted to look at him and say words but my face was too far in the ground and I was burning.
"Hey, do-"
"I like your shoes," I blurted. Shit! Oops. I meant, dang it! Ugh! What the hell was I thinking?
He chuckled. "Thank you. These were the same shoes I wore when you ran into me that one day."
"Yeah. I'm sorry about that again and also sorry about cutting you off. You were saying something?"
"No. It was nothing and stop apologizing. You're good."
"Good."
I was smiling. He was smiling. My face was hurting. He reached out his arm, and I thought it was coming towards me but it slipped right passed me and landed on the doorknob.
"After you." He opened the door and motioned me to go inside.
I was screeching on the inside. He was a gentleman. I loved that. Wow. Literally. Perfect man. Thank you, Jesus or whoever was up there pulling the strings to Brandon. I was forever grateful.
"Thanks," I said. My voice was a bit higher than usual. I hope he didn't notice. He probably did notice. If I had any chance with him, I probably lost it. He might've thought my voice was too feminine. What if he was that type of gay guy? The type of gay guy who looked down on the more feminine ones? I hated them. I didn't even know if he was gay. He probably wasn't. He was just a nice straight boy.
Yes.
That was it.
I felt like I walked into the library weird. Like I had a stick up my butt or something. What if he didn't like the way that I walked? What if the back of my head looked weird?
With all of that in mind, I hurried to my side of the library and sat at my table. I felt like I sat down weird and I felt like Brandon was laughing at me so to avoid looking at him, I pulled out my phone. I wanted to seem cool. I wanted to be chill, so I pretended to laugh at something on my phone as if I had friends who sent me funny messages.
I then looked up at him, and he also had his phone out. Was he trying to be chill too? He then looked up at me and smiled. I smiled.
Things could've gone so much easier if I just texted him so I attempted to text him but I couldn't. It was too hard.
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