Earthquake?

~*~

Death.

~*~

 

It had been two months since I had started attending Sakura College, and I liked it. The classes were interesting, the extra-curricular activities had me busy and loving it, and Charlotte and Josh were a unique pair. Charlotte had become my best friend and Josh; a really close friend.

Josh was the basketball team Captain so every Saturday Charlotte and I would watch Sakura College’s basketball team play to cheer him on, not that he needed us though; usually the entire female population of the school would turn up to cheer for him and Alex (Yes I said Alex, I had gotten used to calling him that in my head because it was shorter, I never called him that out loud though. Not that I really talked to him.). The other team members used to hate that they were ignored but they had gotten pretty used to it by then and it didn’t faze them. They were just stoked that so many people were there to watch them kick butt every time; the team had won every game so far.

After the game Charlotte and I waited for the ‘Alex and Josh’ fans to leave and the players to get cleaned up. We had gotten into the habit of bringing snack food and baking for them to eat afterwards. They had gotten used to it and started to look forward to it. Well except Alex, he usually just rolled his eyes and left saying he had other important things to do.

As we set up the food and drinks Josh came running over, he looked sexy in a basketball shirt that showed off his strong arms in glory. I had to admit Josh was extremely hot when he ran around the basketball court. Then again so was Alex, the first time I saw him play I nearly died by lack of oxygen. I had to leave the gym to go outside and breath.

“Hey!” Josh said as he got to us.

“Hiii,” I said smiling.

“Good afternoon,” Charlotte handed him a glass of cold fizzy drink. He gulped it down as soon as it was in his hand.

“Gotta love a glass of cold fizzy after a victory,” he grinned. He reminded me of the advertisements where they used very sexy people to advertise their products. If he were advertising the fizzy drink I’m sure it would have sold out in hours.

“Yeah, congrats on another win by the way,” I smiled. He dropped his jaw as if he were offended.

“‘By the way’? ‘By the way’? ‘BY THE BLOODY WAY?’” He raised his voice.

“No, no, no, no ,no! I didn’t mean that to sound like I was dismissing your amazing win, it was a passing statement!” I tried to calm him down.

“Yes! You girls came!” A guy from the team came running over. “Knowing you two beautiful ladies would supply us with food was all that was keeping me going,” he grinned while shoving a handful of chips in his mouth. The other guys started to come over as well, saying their ‘thank you’s and digging in. Josh hit the guy on the arm.

“You too Corbin? Is no one but me dedicated to this basketball team?” The guy swallowed his mouthful.

“Aw come on Josh! Calm down! You know I didn’t mean it like that,” he patted him on the back. “I was just being kind to the ladies here.” Josh sighed and hung his head. It was so cute how he cared so much for the game.

“Hey, did you hear about that earthquake thing on the news last night?” Corbin asked now serious.

“Yes,” Josh said concerned. “Don’t they expect one to hit this side of the country within the next couple of weeks?”

“Yeah, it’s kind of scary. I hope it doesn’t hit here.”

“Nahh! I doubt it will,” Josh said with a smile on his face. “There’s NEVER been an earthquake in Austin City; ever.” Corbin laughed.

“Now that you said that I bet it will hit here just to spite you!” Josh cracked up laughing.

“Highly unlikely man.”

“Have a piece of chocolate cake,” Charlotte said interrupting their conversation. She held out a piece on a serviette for Josh to take. He eyed it sceptically.

“Who baked it?” Charlotte and I glanced at each other. The team were well aware that I was VERY bad at cooking, they found out after I tried to bake them cookies; let’s just say it didn’t turn out very well. I sighed loudly.

“Do you really think I would risk the health of all your team mates? Again?” He looked at me and just raised his eye brow. My jaw dropped.

“JOSH! You know the answer to that! Just eat the damn cake,” he still didn’t take it. “I wasn’t anywhere near the cake when it was being made.” I said flatly. He grinned, happily took the piece of cake from Charlotte and took a bite.

“Yumm, this is delicious! Charlotte you’re amazing at baking!” He said with his eyes heavenward. I actually felt a little put out by that, he said it right in front of my face after he made it clear he wouldn’t go near it if I had baked it. Stupid idiot I scowled as I walked off.

I noticed Alex standing against one of the walls; he had been watching the commotion at the food table. The entire team were eating and joking around; they were having a good time. He’s still here? He usually leaves straight after he has a shower.

“Hey Alexander!” One of the guys yelled out to him. “Come and get something to eat! It’s great!” Alex didn’t move. “Aw come on! You’re supposed to be part of the team remember! Teams hang out and spend quality time together every once and a while! It makes them play better together!” Alex rolled his eyes and said something under his breath, but he reluctantly started to move towards the table. “Great! See Josh!” he yelled up the table to Josh. “Alexander is trying to make an effort!” Josh nodded his head in approval towards Alex, Alex ignored it. “And don’t worry about feeling sick, Charlotte promised me Everleigh didn’t help make anything!” the brown haired guy carried on. What! I spun around looking extremely angry.

“Hey!” I yelled loudly. He turned to me his face dropping.

“Oops.” He said as his eyes widened. I felt like yelling at him and telling him to try and cook himself, or maybe if I chucking one of my shoes at his head would be a better message?

“That wasn’t necessary!” I said angrily instead, I didn’t bother to hide the fact that I was angry.

“Ahh, sorry,” He grinned apologetically scratching the back of his head. I closed my eyes in frustration.

“Stupid, ungrateful boys.” I muttered under my breath. “So what if I made them sick once! That was only one time! It’s not like I killed any of them! And I wasn’t intentionally trying to make them sick!”

Alex picked up a chicken roll and started eating it not caring about what had just happened. He was wearing a white t-shirt and you could see his muscles flex as he bent them. My stomach instantly went crazy and my legs felt weak. The effect Alex had on me hadn’t worn off at all; it had increased if anything else.

I had gotten to know a little more about him over the past two months, like the fact that he lived alone and no one knew where his parents were. They didn’t even know if he knew where they were but they made sure never to bring it up. Charlotte had told me about it, I felt sorry towards him, and then I realized that he would have hated that, so I immediately stopped.

For the rest of the first week in biology Alex had helped me catch up, in annoyance to the platinum girls, but we hadn’t gotten friendly like I had hoped. There hadn’t been another ‘pencil’ incident and I noticed that he completely just closed off.

He had this cold and emotionless exterior that he showed all the time. He never displayed any emotion so it was hard to figure out what he was thinking or what he thought; of anything. The pencil incident was the only time Alex had really looked at me as well; he tended to not notice me at all really, even at basket ball. He didn’t look my way, he didn’t talk to me and if I congratulated him he would just reply with a flat “Thanks” without even turning his head even slightly in my direction.

It kind of hurt because even though I had noticed his coldness I still couldn’t help but feel attracted to him and like him even though I hardly knew a thing about him.

I had figured I liked mysterious guys, guys that kept to themselves. Maybe I was a bit weird.

But I had come to the conclusion that he didn’t like me very much; I always got the impression that he couldn’t stand to be in the same room as me. I didn’t know why, I thought it might have been his first impression of me; the girl that clumsily stood on his foot and knocked everything out of his hands, then gawked at him like he were a piece of art that hung in a museum.

I sighed as I thought all of this.  How I wish he could at least stand to be around me! Or look at me! That would be something.

After I had caught up with the work he seemed only too happy to be able to sit where he liked; which ended up being with the platinum girls. That made them extremely happy and me extremely jealous.

Jade flirted with him outrageously while Vicky and Maddie constantly talked to him about Jade and made her sound like a saint. I was sure it was one of Jades plans to make him fall for her. I couldn’t tell if it had been working. But then again he did sit with them out of choice so I guess he probably already likes her, which makes me ask why? She tries to control everyone and only thinks about herself. I guess the ‘real’ Jade is nothing like that, after all Josh fell hard for her and he is a very decent guy. Either that or I would have to question his choice in woman, or lack thereof.

“Hey Everleigh!” Josh said interrupting my thoughts. I looked at him as he walked around the table to me. He was just finishing his piece of cake which reminded me of the incident that had happened a few minutes before. I realized I was really angry at him and hurt at his reaction. He could have just taken the cake and then politely asked who had made it, without indicating he wouldn’t have touched it if it had been me.

I stared at the food on the table pretending I was trying to choose what I would eat.

“What are you up to this weekend?” I didn’t look up.

“Hanging out with Charlotte,” I replied with little emotion.

“Cool! Maybe we could all hang out together?” I wondered what he was trying to imply. Hang out as a date? Or just as friends? I decided to stick to the ‘friends’ theory as he involved Charlotte, although my stomach did flip when I thought about it being a date. But I was stubborn and stuck to being angry at him. I stiffly picked up a chicken club sandwich.

“You’ll have to ask Charlotte,” I said indifferently. I put the sandwich in my mouth and walked around the other side of the table. Josh looked at me and tried again.

“I’m sure she’ll be fine with it,” I didn’t answer. “What were you two planning on doing?” I picked up a carrot stick and stuck it in some dip.

“Just stuff,” I replied. I walked over to a row of benches that lined the outside of the gym while chewing on my carrot stick and sat down. I could see a few of the guys had noticed my coldness towards Josh; including Alex. I didn’t care, well apart from the fact that Alex was taking interest in something to do with me.

Josh walked over to me and looked at me for a few seconds. I ignored him and studied the flower bed lining the footpath.

“You’re angry with me,” No response. He sat down.

“Aw come on Everleigh don’t be that way!” I continued to ignore him. He slipped his arm around my shoulders. Butterflies erupted in my stomach and I felt blood rise to my cheeks. “You know I was only kidding about the cake!” Just ignore him, but it was extremely hard when he smelt so good.

“Please forgive me,” he whispered in my ear. I stood up pushing his arm off of my shoulder finding it hard not to fall for his charm. Don’t you go using your sexy charms on me! I thought angrier. He just laughed.

“You know, you’re the only girl that’s pushed me away from that move.”

“It’s wasn’t that hard,” I said walking off again. I heard a low ‘ooh’ from the team, which I had only realized were all watching at that moment. I glared at them; they just laughed.

 “Aw she’s so cute when she’s pissed!” I heard one of them say. I hung my head clearly even angrier.

“Ooo look she’s gonna blow!” Another said.

“May I ask the audience to shut up?” I said through clenched teeth. This made everyone laugh harder.

“Aw guys don’t be mean!” Josh said to his team mates. This extremely pissed me off. “She’s angry! Don’t tease her.” I was on the brink of yelling. He’s treating me like a kid! I’m actually angry at him and he thinks it’s a joke! What the hell!

I decided not to embarrass him in front of his team; that would have been disrespectful. So I walked over to Charlotte ignoring the sniggers from everyone else. I walked past Alex and noticed he looked bored out of his mind. I sighed inwardly, upset that he didn’t even look a little jealous.

“Look I think I’m going to go,” I said quietly to Charlotte so no one else could hear me.

“He didn’t mean to hurt your feelings when he ate the cake,” she said sticking up for him. I knew she was right but I felt like being stubborn.

“I know but he did. The reason I got angry was because he didn’t even realize it was something I would get upset over,” she sighed in agreement. “And did you just hear that? He’s treating me like a kid, he doesn’t care that I’m actually angry at him! He doesn’t take me seriously!” Charlotte pursed her lips.

“Mmm, I know.” I was glad she agreed.

“I’ll sort it out later; when his team has gone. But right now I feel like I could hit him if I talk to him again.” Charlotte laughed.

“Okay, I’ll see you later tonight?” She didn’t seem to mind that I was going to leave her alone. I felt extremely bad but I knew she could handle herself. I nodded and walked off to the car park.

“Hey, she’s leaving!” I heard one of the guys say.

“Hey!” I heard Josh yell. “Everleigh? Wait!” I ignored him and carried on.

 

“You’re back!” I heard a deep voice say behind me. “I missed you,” he said quietly. I could feel someone come up behind me.

“Sorry, I couldn’t help it,” I said sadly.

“I know.” The person slipped their arms around my waist and rested their head on top of mine. My stomach went crazy. “I know.” He kissed the top of my head which sent an electric wave down my spine. I put my arms on top of his as if I didn’t want him to let me go. I heard him quietly chuckle. “You make me feel crazy, you know that?” I laughed quietly.

“No, as a matter of fact I didn’t know that.” He tightened his grip around my waist and he moved his head next to my cheek and kissed it. My legs felt weak, my heart started racing, my breathing quickened.

“Well you do,” he whispered. He let go of my waist and moved backwards; he delicately moved my hair off of my shoulder so my neck was exposed.

“Every moment you’re away from me I feel like I’m lost, like I have nowhere to go.” He softly kissed my head again and moved his head down. I titled my head to the left, my eyelids fluttered as he softly kissed my neck, his hands moving round my waist. I closed my eyes taking in every touch. “You are my light,” he murmured into my neck. “I’m nothing without you.” All these words pleased me. “You’re the one.”

“Mmm,” I quietly breathed out. He softly turned me around still hugging me so I couldn’t see his face. He brought his head back moving his lips up my neck to my cheek and then the corner of my mouth. Before his lips touched mine he pulled his head away - which I found extremely disappointing - and I found myself looking into warm, chocolate brown eyes.

It was him. It was the man I had dreamed about months ago. He was still amazingly gorgeous, his brown hair shaping his face and his soft lips.

He slightly smiled and brought his hand up to my cheek. I moved into it, closing my eyes at his touch. I found him moving his lips over my neck again. I couldn’t help but softly moan.

“Everleigh...” He whispered into my neck. He brought his lips to my cheek again.

“Everleigh...” He whispered again. Butterflies had taken over my stomach, I could hardly feel my legs and it tingled wherever he touched. How I wanted more! He moved his head back again to look in my eyes.

“Everleigh.” He said normally this time. I looked at him a little confused. “Everleigh!” He said loudly. Suddenly he grabbed my shoulders and started to shake me. “EVERLEIGH!” He yelled.

“What the hell...” My head shot up off of the table.

"Everleigh?" I heard a deep voice to the right of me say. I looked around dazed.

“Huh? Where am I? Where did he go?” I said quietly.

“Where did who go?” the voice said. I looked up shocked. It was Josh.

I realized I was in the library. I had gone there to study for the human evolution test that I had after lunch. I had fallen asleep while reading.

“Damn it,” I whispered, annoyed at my laziness and the fact I had been disturbed from that dream once again.

“Well?” Josh looked at me expectantly.

“No one, I was only dreaming,” I said. It was Monday afternoon and I still hadn’t talked to him about what had happened on Saturday after his game. I found myself still angry at him but it was because he hadn’t realized why I was angry with him.

“What time is it?” I asked while I started to look for my phone underneath the books and pieces of paper I had lying on the table.

“Five minutes until the start of class,” I heard someone else say. I looked behind Josh and saw Alex leaning on the end of a bookcase. Wow he looks gorgeous today but doesn’t he every day? Then it hit me. I stood up shocked.

“What did you say?”

Alex sighed in annoyance.

“I said, five minutes until the start of class. Five minutes until the biology test.” Alex walked off. My eyes widened in horror.

“Crap!” I started to hastily clean up the mess on the table. “Damn it!” I picked up my bag and then started to pick up the books. Josh picked up papers that had fallen onto the floor. “Why the hell did I have to study so late last night!” I said talking to myself as I shoved everything I could fit into my book bag.

“Thanks,” I said as Josh passed me the papers. I hurried out of the library and on my way to class. I still didn’t know my way around the entire school but I did know my way to each of my classes. Josh followed.

“Hey! Everleigh!” He yelled after me.

“Not now Josh, later!”

“Fine, but you better not avoid me after school.” We were just about at the main courtyard. I could see Alex walking slowly ahead of me. I was about to call out to him and ask him to wait so I could ask about some things I wasn’t sure on for biology when all of a sudden I was on the ground.

“What the?” I had no idea how I had ended on the ground. I was extremely confused but I shrugged and quickly picked my book bag back up; I didn’t have time to worry about anything else.

Ahead of me Alex had stopped but he started walking again as I got up.

“Alex!” I yelled, “Wait up!” He turned the corner not hearing me.

“Everleigh!” I heard Josh yell behind me. I ignored him and continued to walk briskly to class. I was in the courtyard now, I couldn’t be late. I heard him run up to me.

“Josh, didn’t we agree that we would talk after class?” I said annoyed.

“Yeah, but it’s not that. I was wondering if you felt the ground shake. I thought I might be going crazy.” I looked at him thinking he was just saying something random to make me talk to him but he looked serious.

“I did fall over for no reason at all, but I didn’t notice the ground shake... at least I don’t think it did.” Suddenly we heard a loud low growling noise. We froze.

“What the hell was that?” Josh asked.

“I... don’t... know,” I felt scared. I had never heard anything like it before. It made me think that there might be a huge animal that was lurking around somewhere. My imagination started to go crazy. I tried to brush it off and continue walking to class.

“I... think I’ll walk you to class,” he said looking behind him. Maybe he’s thinking what I’m thinking? Josh and I were often on the same wave length, that’s why we got on so good.

Suddenly we heard the low growling noise again. But the second time it didn’t stop and it got louder and louder.

“Josh...” I said absolutely terrified. All of a sudden the ground started to shake. I quickly grabbed onto Josh so I didn’t fall over. I thought the shaking would stop, but it didn’t. It got fiercer. We could hear people screaming.

“Come on!” Josh shouted urgently. “It’s an earthquake!” He grabbed my hand and pulled me away from underneath the balcony. Earthquake?

“What? There’s NEVER been an earthquake in Austin City before!” I yelled over the noise.

“There’s a first time for everything!” was Josh’s reply. Without warning I tripped up on the pavement and went crashing down to the ground. Josh turned around and tried to come back to get me, but he kept falling over because of the shaking. I tried to stand up again but I couldn’t regain my balance. I heard a groaning noise, I had no idea what it was but right then I didn’t care; I just wanted to get out into the open, safely away from anything that could collapse on me.

I was half standing trying to move when the groaning noise got louder and I realized it was above me. I turned my head in time to see one of the stone pillars that were holding up the balcony above start to fall towards me. No, it was crumbling towards me. I had no time to react, no time to move, not even enough time to scream. It was going to fall on top of me. S**t...

Next thing I knew I was lying flat on the ground with a heavy object lying on top of me, but I wasn’t hurt. The stone had landed - softly on my stomach? Huh?

“Are you okay?” I heard Josh yell over the noise. His voice was close, I looked up and I realized he was lying on top of me. The stone pillar hadn’t fallen on top of me at all! Josh had saved my life! I suddenly felt like an idiot about being awful to him over teasing that went too far. I forgave him for Saturday’s incident then and there. “S**t! Everleigh! Please tell me you’re still alive?”

I laughed. “I’m fine!” I yelled back. “Quickly! Let’s move!”

“Thank God!” He replied. We tried to get up and move again but the earthquake wasn’t relenting. It was getting more violent by the second and by then I was starting to feel sick.

I was holding onto Josh’s arm when we managed to start moving in the direction of safety. I could still hear people screaming but I couldn’t see anyone. I hoped that no one was hurt and that the entire school wasn’t falling down. That would have been the worst; thousands of young lives could have been taken.

We fell down again but I felt so sick that I couldn’t get back up. I was prone to motion sickness and the earthquake reminded me of an amusement park ride that I went on when I was little; it shook you up and down. I lost the entire contents of my stomach on that ride that day. I promised myself I would never go on a ride like that again. Now it felt like someone wanted to punish me; I was on that same ride involuntary and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

“Everleigh! Everleigh!” I heard Josh yelling hysterically. “Quickly! We’ve got to move! NOW!” The urgency in his voice made me try harder to move. We were crawling along the ground when I heard a loud rumbling noise and then a noise that sounded like - tearing? Something’s tearing? I didn’t understand what on earth could be making such a noise so I focused on crawling.

Josh was on his feet trying to pull me up but I just couldn’t stay up. I didn’t want to move anymore. I just wanted to lie flat and still with my eyes closed, I wanted to relax. I didn’t want to feel sick.

Out of the blue the earthquake jolted, sending Josh flying some way across the courtyard onto the grass. I collapsed on the ground letting the shaking take me with it. The tearing noise had turned high pitch and was extremely loud by then.

“EVERLEIGH! EVERLEIGH! GET UP! IT’S COMING STRAIGHT FOR YOU!” I heard josh screaming as loud as he could. I didn’t know what he was talking about. “EVERLEIGH! MOVE!” I raised my head and immediately understood why he was in such a panic.

I flayed about trying to get out of its way but it came fast and I didn’t have enough time to move. The ground was tearing open and heading straight for me.

“JOSH!” I screamed loudly. “HELP ME!” I tried as hard as I could to move faster but luck wasn’t on my side.

“EVERLEIGH! NO!” I heard Josh yell as I felt my legs give way underneath me.

“JOSHH!” I screamed in desperation. Suddenly I was falling. I could see the sky and clouds at eye level and I thought how lucky they were to be up high and unaffected from earthquakes. The light started to disappear; it was black everywhere, except for the diminishing light that left an awkward line. The darkness was taking the sun away from me, the clouds were just watching, watching me fall, unable to help me. Those damn clouds couldn’t care less!

No! I yelled in my head. I don’t want to die!

I kept on falling; no one had heard my plea.

Reviews

[Meradee]

What happens next? I want to know! You've had me intruigued the entire time, I was laughing with the characters and enjoying Kairi's reaction. Please write MORE! You have talent.
Pepper...

[SetApartGirl]

You're doing really well on this story! Keep it up!