What it all comes down to |Chapter 5|

I woke up extremely early the next day in order to avoid Chris. Instead of eating breakfast at home, I went to IHOP to eat, and to pass the time so I wouldn’t be extra early for school.

My cell phone began to ring and I looked down and saw my mother’s cell number. “Hello?”

“Where are you?”

“I’m at the IHOP mommy,” I said taking another bite of my pancakes. “What’s wrong?”

She sighed, “Nothing… I was just checking.”

“Okay then… I’ll see you later.”

“Alright sweetie,” She replied. “I love you.”

“You too.”

I flipped my phone closed and turned my cell phone on silent. The glumness in my mother’s voice almost made me lose my appetite—almost.

The truth was I was starved. I had missed dinner last night because I was trying to make sure I didn’t bump into Chris. I made sure not to come out of my room until about four in the morning when I knew he would be sleep, and it was only so that I could use the bathroom. I didn’t want to go into the kitchen and risk waking him up by dropping a pan or a spoon—it would have been just my luck for that to happen.

I finished eating my food and asked for a carrying cup for my coffee. I needed some caffeine to keep me up throughout the school day since I had already skipped yesterday.

When I got to school, I parked my car and made my way towards my first period English class. Luckily, this year, I didn’t have any classes with Chris. Last year we had Trigonometry and Psychology together, that was one thing I had to be thankful for. Hopefully, if I was lucky, I wouldn’t bump into him in the halls either. I would just go to my locker as quickly as possible and take the short ways to classes.

Yeah… that’s what I’ll do.

“Shayla!” Courtney said as soon as I walked into my Literature class. “Where have you been? I called you and texted you all of yesterday! I was worried sick!”

“Oh yeah, sorry.” I said while trying to sound more apologetic than I actually was. “I went to sleep early. I wasn’t feeling well.”

She gave me that look that I deeply hated. It was the look people gave you when they felt bad for you. “Are you okay?”

I rolled my eyes and took a seat close to the back. “I’m fine… I just needed some sleep.”

The truth was that I was ignoring all my phone calls. I didn’t feel like talking to anyone… not even my best friend.

I opened my binder to the “notes” section, and began taking the notes that were on the board. I noticed out of the corner of my eye that someone was staring at me. I didn’t want to look, but it was making me a little uncomfortable. I shifted my weight in my chair so that my back was slightly turned to the person and continued writing.

“Class, after you’re done writing down the notes, I need each of you to get into groups of six and turn to page 94.” Ms. Richardson said. “To make it simple, everyone in the back row will be a group. Everyone in the middle row will be a group. And the front row will be a group.”

I finished copying the notes and for the first time looked at my surroundings, as soon as I did though, I quickly looked back at my book.

You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!

“So…” The deep-voiced boy said, “Did you have a good time joy riding yesterday?”

I looked up at him and cleared my throat. “Yeah, I guess.”

“You don’t talk much, do you?” He asked with a wry smile on his face.

“I talk enough!” I shot back.

“Miss James?” Ms. Richardson called to me. “Is there a problem?”

“No… I’m fine.”

She nodded. “Okay, class. Everyone should be done now. Turn your desk so that everyone is facing your group and then I’ll give you the assignment.”

There were a few whispered arguments with the word “assignment” but everyone turned their desk toward their group. In my group it was Courtney, Gregory, Adam, Tyra, They guy from the gas station, and me.

“So, Shayla, you never asked me what my name was…” The boy said.

That’s because I don’t care what it is.

I smiled slightly. “You’re right… I guess I didn’t.”

“I’m Kevin.” He said.

“What are we introducing ourselves for?” Tyra asked. “I know everyone’s name!”

“That’s because you spend all your time gossiping like an old woman in church!” Courtney said.

Adam and Gregory laughed. “I agree… you have no life, Tyra.”

Tyra rolled her eyes and took a nail file out of her purse. “I do… some of us prefer to gossip than have sex and get drunk every weekend.”

Greg shrugged. “Who’s complaining?” He and Adam laughed again, this time hysterically.

“I don’t have time for this shit!” Tyra said.

“Is there some place else you have to be, miss thing?” I asked.

“Don’t start with me Shayla!”

“I haven’t started, yet.” I made sure to emphasize “yet”.

She rolled her eyes again.

Ms. Richardson began explaining that each group had to perform a scene from William Shakespeare’s “A midnight summers dream” We would have a week to pull together our lines and each class period until then would be spent rehearsing. The performance would be class participation, and a test grade, so we really had to do well.

After she was done, I asked to go to the restroom. She gave me a pass and I immediately left the room. The hallway was practically empty but I still felt like I was being watched. I shook off the feeling and went into the bathroom. I re-did my make up and decided to let my hair out of the pony tail it had been in this morning since I was rushing and didn’t feel like making it perfect. I took out my brush and fixed my hair just right before exiting the bathroom.

“So you’re avoiding me now?” Chris said from behind me.

I took a deep breath and turned around. “What makes you think that?” I asked.

He smirked. “Look, you don’t have to do that… it wasn’t that big a deal.”

“What wasn’t that big a deal?”

He raised his eye brows slightly, as if he didn’t comprehend what I was asking.

“What do you—” He stopped short when he saw the look in my eyes. He knew what I was doing—I was erasing it. To me, it had never even happened. “Oh.”

“So, uh, I’ll see you at home.”

He nodded slowly. “Yeah… home.”