Chapter 2

easing in.

Chapter 2:

“Willow?” Someone shakes my shoulder.

I jerk my head up, drawing in a huge breath, filling my crying lungs. Air! Beautiful Air! It feels wonderful as I pull oxygen in and out as fast as humanly possible. I put my hands to my cool face and feel a current of tears cascading down my cheeks. S**t, my make up’s smeared. Yeah, I know it’s shallow but I’m a girl ok? I wipe viciously at my eyes, I’ll definitely need to stop by the restroom.

In the midst of this I’d forgotten about the person standing next to me. I become immediately aware of my surroundings. The drab white walls of the biology room suddenly surround me, and the black lab table before me is shimmering with my tears. I notice the room is empty; the bell must have rung already. Gee, thanks, guys for leaving me here. I look up to see Dr. Mirane starring down at me with looks of worry and fear dancing across her sharp features.

“Willow!” she cries, “Are you alright?”

She’s being unusually kind. We have a mutual “respect” considering that I ace her class but usually only “mess around,” as she once called it. Anyway, she’s mostly not one to care much for my well being. I consider the mess that has become my face and my quickened breath…. Yeah, probably that. I sigh; there goes my reputation with this teacher.

“I’m fine.” I snap with all the civility I can muster.

Standing I grab my bag, shove my things inside and stride from the room. Thank God it’s time for lunch; I don’t think I’d make it through another class without a break. First the restroom though. I hurry into the hall way, and brush my bangs of Doom in front of my eyes to conceal my ruined mess from the wanderers in the hall. I half run into the main hall and shove open the heavy door labeled “women” with some inappropriate doodle drawn on by some poor pervert. Great…. I’m not the only one who’s decided to redo their makeup. Standing prim before the mirror is Juliette accompanied by her little posse: Adrianna and Shania. 

“Hey, Willie!” she squeaks in her high little voice will never match all 5’ 11” of her. She acts nice, but that’s a load of bullshit, she’s been the devil in disguise ever since the 8th grade when she started flirting with her current boyfriend, and sadly my long time crush, Logan… that and other things. I decide to play along with her little charade.

“Hello Julie, how’s your hand?” I watch her flinch through my bangs of Doom; I know she hates that nickname. I suppose she prefers to be called Juliette, the queen of love she was named after. I often wonder if she knows how that story ends. Not to mention the hand I “accidently” stepped on during team sports class yesterday.

“Oh, it’s fine Willie, thank you for caring.” The hidden venom in her voice does nothing, that nickname on the other hand, makes me cringe. I sigh inwardly and set my bag on the counter, pulling out my makeup contents. I’m forced to brush away my precious bangs of Doom and face the disaster in the mirror.  I hear Adrianna and Shania giggling madly. I have to force myself from turning my death glare on them, knowing it won’t do any good right now. Ah s**t, it’s worse than I thought! Messy streams of watery eyeliner cover my cheeks; my evergreen eyes almost scare me as they stare at me from a sea of red. My black and red streaked hair is flattened on the side I was laying on and my black lips now show echoes of pink. I tear angrily at the paper towels and wipe at my face, this takes forever but finally I can see the me I was born with. I stick my tongue at the girl I barely recognize and she imitates the action. I layer on my pasty looking foundation onto my already olive toned face and heavily ring my eyes with my favorite glitter flecked black eyeliner. I only need my Sickly Satin black lipstick now. Then after tearing my fingers though my almost waist length hair I grab my bag, give the evil step sisters my death glare (my nickname for them) and shove off to lunch.

Mia, Rhiannon and Oliver wave at me from under our favorite tree in the courtyard. I grab my lunch and hurry over, sitting down between Oliver and Rhiannon.

“Hey, Rhia.” I say reaching over and giving her a sideways hug.

“Hey penguin.” She replies using my nickname from the second grade.

“Mia!!!” I yell half-heartedly.

“Willow!!!!” She yells back, high fiving me loudly enough to make a couple people stare.

I turn to Oliver on my right and give him a full on hug.

 “Hey!” I say pulling away.

“What was that for?” He asks lightly, surprise sparkling in his eyes.

Yeah, okay, so I don’t normally give hugs, I think today could be an exception, right?

“Yeah, Willow, you’re never this ‘huggy’.”  Rhia states and she and Mia both laugh in unison. Those two are what I call the twins, because they aren’t related but they are basically exactly the same in personality, but Rhia has blond hair with super tan skin while Mia has black hair with virtually no tan, Rhia is also about 5” taller than Mia, they are still both hot as hell, but I swear they’re twins in another universe.

“I think I have a right to give hugs!” I retort, “Plus I’ve known Oliver since, like, the 1^st grade, he’s basically like a brother.” I smile sweetly at him, and he smiles back but it suddenly doesn’t reach his eyes.

“A damn fine brother!” Mia whistles at Oliver and Rhia pretends to swoon, making him laugh. Rhia and Mia are always flirting, especially with Oliver, even though Rhia has a steady boyfriend, Roger, who currently lives in New York City, which devastated Rhia for nearly a month. I received many texts that month concerning whether or not there were girls in New York hotter than her that month.

 I’ve never really seen Oliver as anything more than the best friend living next door, but looking at him now I know I can see that he really isn’t such a young boy any more, I suppose he’s what you could call tall, dark and handsome, Deep brown eyes I’ve always looked to for comfort, framed by long lashes, shaggy brown hair that he hasn’t cut in a while, I like it long. He also had a recent growth spurt, I used to be taller than him but now he towers at least 5” over me, plus that trip to Puerto Rico this summer didn’t leave him pasty by any means. I giggle along and poke Oliver in the ribs, making him laugh harder. I’m soon being tickled by everyone, damn, why am I so ticklish?

 I manage to enjoy the rest of my school day, having the rest of my classes with at least one of my friends; and the thoughts of my vivid dream are pushed and shoved to the back of my head by happier thoughts prying their way in.

Reviews

[Ian]

That was amazing!!
I can't wait to read more!!

[{{Vanessa.Williams}}]

Really nice chapter! Oliver sounds amazing...plus really hot! xD Willow is like me, only I'm not THAT goth... :P Still pretty good though! I'm going to read some more! =)