Eternity Ends Now, Forever Starts Here. (Chapter Two)

He finally speaks to her. Isabelle gets a love letter from Shay. Now Lucas & Gabriella will be going on a date. Things couldn't get worse...

 

Chapter Two

I arrived home late that night.  Isabelle’s car had a flat tire that we’d had to fix.  My dad was waiting up for me when I came in.  We looked at each other, not saying a word, and then he tiredly got up from his chair and went to bed.  No “hello”, or “why the hell are you home so late”, nothing.  Under normal circumstances one would get the impression that my father does not care about me.  Under normal circumstances one would overlook the fact that he stayed up to make sure I arrived safely home. 

 

These days I have to search for clues that he cares.  I’ve very alert when it comes to his actions.

 

“Goodnight,” I whispered in the direction of his retreating back, my words sounding hollow in the stale air of the house. 

~*~

 

On Monday Isabelle wasn’t at school, probably feigning sickness.  Her mother, being a nurse, was always aware of her daughter’s little act.  She let Isabelle skip school anyways.  She was cool like that. 

 

However, with Isabelle gone, I was left stranded to eat lunch alone.  I decided to head to the library.  I’d spent a semester last year as an assistant to Mrs. Biggs, the librarian, so she allowed me special privileges.  She had also been a close friend of my mother who’d been a kindergarten teacher and Mrs. Biggs the librarian at the elementary.   

 

“Hey Mrs. Biggs,” I greeted her, as she sat behind her desk reading diligently at the newest Nora Roberts novel. 

 

“Hello darling.  There’s some chocolate cake in the back from one of the library assistant’s birthday if you’d like a piece.”  She smiled at me, her silver eyes glittering similar to the fashion that her gray hair shone. 

 

“Oh thanks!” I responded enthused.  I absolutely, one hundred percent, love chocolate.  Any kind, milk, dark, white, with almonds, with coconut—send it my way. 

 

Grabbing an enormous slice, and then heading to one of the worktables to eat, I planned on getting ahead on reading Grapes of Wrath, for English class. 

 

The slap of a hand on the table I sat quietly at startled me out of my chair.  A strong pair of arms stopped my fall to my gratitude. 

 

Looking over I saw Shay grinning from ear to ear.  My hand twitched to slap him silly. 

 

Raising an eyebrow and narrowing my eyes, I said, “Yes?”

 

He handed me a crudely folded sheet of notebook paper.  I didn’t touch it. 

 

“Can you give this to your friend…Isabelle?” he said, adding her name like an afterthought.

 

Still feeling miffed from his intrusion on my reading, I responded icily, “Give it to her yourself.  I’m not her personal aid.”  Then I folded my arms across my chest to reaffirm my decision.

 

Shay looked at me surprised, but not warded off.  “Please?” his voice begged, his eyes pleading even more. 

 

I shook my head.  “She wouldn’t want a note from a coward anyways.”  Getting up from my seat, I collected my trash then bid a good-bye to Mrs. Biggs. 

 

He followed me.  And with him, multiple pairs of eyes intrigued by the spectacle of him chasing after a girl.  For Shay, it was usually the other way around. 

 

“Come on Gabriella, why won’t you give it to her?” he called out, clearly exhausted and frustrated.

 

I halted.  He knew my name?  We’d never spoken before his current infatuation with Isabelle.  I guess it stunned me into stillness. 

 

I know, I know.  It wasn’t anything.  Just my name.  Hundreds of people had used it before.  But with few friends, and a father who doesn’t speak to me, I rarely hear my name anymore.  So when it comes out of someone’s mouth, it’s like the sweetest melody, reminding me that I do exist and other people know it.  Kind of crazy, isn’t it? 

 

I couldn’t keep these thoughts from exploding outside of me.  “You know my name?”

 

He stared at me like I was a lunatic.  “Yeah,” he said slowly.  “You were best friends with Lucas… when you guys were little right?  He talks about it.”  He shrugged, like it was no big deal at all.  And to him, it wasn’t.  But to me, this was the greatest headline ever presented in the news.  Lucas talked about me.  That could only mean that he thought about me.

 

 Lucas thought about me!

 

I made a mistake to react this way, however.  Shay wasn’t stupid, and he jumped at the bait.  Now he had something on me—my feelings for Lucas.  For I’m sure that everything I was thinking at this moment was written clear as day upon my face. 

 

“Right,” I replied nonchalant. 

 

“So will you give Isabelle the note?” he pressed but his voice was no longer pleading, but more forceful.

 

“Fine,” I muttered, defeated.  He handed it to me, gave me raised brow, as if saying; you better give it to her, and then walked off.

 

“Jerk,” I whispered to myself.  A quiet laughter from behind me made me jump slight. I turned to see who dared to poke fun at me. Thinking wildly of some witty retort to toss at the person, all coherent thought was wiped away when I saw whom it was. 

 

Lucas.

 

Had he heard everything Shay and I exchanged?  Had he seen my face when Shay told me Lucas still talked about me?  

 

I stared at him, utterly flabbergasted. 

 

It was so frustrating that he could do that to me.

 

“Hello, Gabriella.” he said to me, an uncertain smile playing delicately upon his lips.

 

I didn’t respond.  I glared.  I was angry and I didn’t want this to happen.  I wasn’t ready to talk to him again.  Everything has been so ambiguous since Mom died.  

 

I watched as his face darkened, hurt or maybe repulsed at the realization that he was talking to me.  I watched as he turned and walked away from me, my heart steadying its pace.  I watched as he come to an abrupt stop, turn and stomp back towards me.

 

 I remained silent as he yelled in my face, “Why are you like this?”  He gesticulated crazily at me, like I was the cause of the problem. 

 

“What do you mean?” I mumbled, finally speaking out, albeit meekly.

 

His brows furrowed.  He was frustrated, and he looked so gorgeous like that, a child who hadn’t gotten his way. 

 

Self-consciously I tucked a stray curl behind my ear.  Actually it would do better to call it a stray frizz.  When I looked back at Lucas’s face, it has softened.  He was gazing at my hair almost longingly, the way an old man looks at the youth of a child.  Not with jealousy but with fondness, an ancient memory. 

 

His intensely blue eyes darted to meet mine.  We stared. 

 

When he finally spoke it felt like shattered glass painfully slicing the silence.  “There’s a party in a couple of weeks at Angela’s house.  You should go.”  With that he stalked off, not even bothering with a goodbye. 

 

That was…surreal.

 

I drove to Isabelle’s house after school that day, impatient to see what Shay had written in the note to her. 

 

“Sick?” I asked her when she answered the door. 

 

She grinned at me then led me up to her room.  Apparently she wasn’t. 

 

“So I have something for you,” I told her. 

 

“Set in on my desk will you?”  She figured it was homework. 

 

“Okay,” I chirped the jumped off her bed to place it on her old beaten up desk. 

 

She turned when she didn’t hear the sound of a stack of papers plopping down.  A mysterious look settled in her eyes when she saw the note, obviously folded by a boy. 

“Give it to me,” Isabelle demanded.  I handed the note to her while simultaneously settling down on her floral covered bed. 

 

“It’s from Shay,” I added when she began to read diligently. 

 

Upon finishing, she held the note to her heart, speechless.

 

“So what’d it say?” I pressed.

 

“He thanked me for catching him on the stairs.  He said he was too embarrassed to tell me in person.  He also said that he thinks I’m beautiful and he wants to take me on a date.”  She muttered dreamily and I couldn’t help the pang of jealousy… but it quickly faded and turned into shock.

 

My mouth gaped open.  Granted, Isabelle was indeed beautiful, but it surprised me to hear Shay say that.  I’d always figured him for the bubbly, big-boobed, airhead type.  You know, the kind that presents herself as a perfect make out companion before realizing she’d only been used to settle some guy’s bestial urges.  I’d never take him for the dark, silent, intellectual kind. 

 

“So are you going to say yes?” I probed. 

 

She looked at me, uncertain.  “I don’t think so.  It’s probably all some bet or game he’s got going with his friends to see if he can make the outcast fall for him.” She seemed to really think about it, and I saw her face fall slightly. She looked back at the letter, saddened.

 

I laughed at her incredulously.  “Isabelle that only happens in movies.  It’s more likely that he is, in fact, interested in you and he believes that a date would be the perfect opportunity to get to know you.”  Her countenance still doubtful, I added, “I think you should go,” as if my expert opinion would be the swaying factor between date and no date. 

 

She sat there contemplating until I could take it no longer.  “Did he give you his number?”

 

“Yeah,” she replied.  I grabbed the note from her tight clasp and dialled the number on her cordless.

 

Handing the phone to her I said, “Here, talk to him.”

 

“No!” she gasped, pushing the phone towards me. 

 

When a curious, muffled voice started shouting out hello, I picked up the phone and asked, “Hey is Shay there?” 

 

“Just one moment,” came a juvenile voice I assumed to be his sister’s. 

 

“Hello?” came a gruff greeting. 

 

It was then that I betrayed my friend by shoving the phone to her ear. 

 

“He-hello,” she said timidly into the receiver.  “It’s Isabelle, from school.” She closed her eyes, opened them and sent me daggers, before looking back at the phone- a smile spreading across her face.

 

She gave a small laugh at whatever Shay said.

 

“Well I don’t know….” Isabelle trailed off.

 

“I-I just don’t know you that well,” she rationalized.

 

“I know,” she muttered.

 

“Well if we did that, then I guess I’d be willing to go.”

 

“Okay then.  Seven?  All right.  I have ‘the’ friend over right now, so I need to go.  I’ll see you.”  She gently hung up the phone then looked at me with pleading eyes.

 

Confused, I asked, “So?”

 

“Because you’re my best friend you’d be willing to do almost anything for me right?”

 

“Almost anything,” I emphasized, but now felt slight suspicious

 

“Right,” she nodded.  “See- I agreed to go on a date with Shay on the grounds that it would be a double date.  He said he had a friend who’d be willing to go with us:  him, me, you,” I raised a brow when she said I’d be part of this fiasco, “and…Lucas.” 

 

My jaw dropped.  “No way Isabelle.  You’re my best friend.  I’d do many, many things for you, but not this.” I gave her a quick, but firm shake of my head.

 

“Please Gabriella!” she pleaded.

 

“No!  Lucas and I aren’t…we’re not friends anymore.” My voice a small whisper at the last part.

 

Her puppy-dog eyes nearly had me agreeing to go.  “But Gabriella, you still really like him.  This could be your chance to rectify things.  Plus, Shay made it sound like Lucas wanted to go on a date with you.  Maybe he still likes you.” 

 

“Doubtful Isabelle, highly doubtful.” 

 

“Oh come on.  You made me call Shay.  Now it’s payback!  You have to go whether or not you agree.  I already told Shay that I’d go with him and he’s calling Lucas to tell him that you’re going too.  How would you look to call things off?” She said, but this time she wasn’t using pleading, but guilt.

 

I shook my head.  “You suck!” 

 

She guffawed, “I love you too.”

 

Oh, Lord above, what had I- no, Isabelle- gotten me into? 

 

 

 

Author's Note

:] Another Chapter...

Gabriella && Lucas, finally talked, or Lucas yelled...w/e

Anyways- Definitely more to come- Drama :D

Comments; Concerns?

Reviews

[Ashleyy]

OKAY, i know what your thinking- WTH, What happen to Chap One? Just press "Prev" chap && You'll see it.... This s**t it mad gay, idk why it did this, BUT, i am working on fixing it.

BEAR WITH ME :[

[Ashleyy]

Thanks Kit Kat. You've become a great Fan (:

Im glad, you like it. && Yes, Great drama will unfold... I just need to get over with the boring stuff... :]

[deeps]

Such wonderful detail here
I like watching the drama unfold in your story.
This is amazing, I will keep reading too.
I like this.