Chapter 5

submerged. its not finished.....i know, its been forever, ive been busy

Chapter 5:

What the hell was that??? I wonder incredulously as I blink my eyes open, wincing at the bright light protruding from my between my open curtains.  Why are my curtains open? They’re never open. I rub my eyes; they always hurt in the morning because of my contacts. My mind flutters back to my dream and I ponder the last thing I glimpsed, still surprisingly fresh in my mind, I don’t know what it was but it was some sort of greenish color and it looked scaly. Like a fish, which doesn’t exactly surprise me since I was in the ocean.

I prop myself up on my elbows just as Alice tosses Gargoyle on my bed. He lands squarely on my stomach with a heavy thud.

“Oof…” I pick him up and kiss his nose.

“You’re gonna be late for school, I’ve been trying to wake you up 5 minutes.” Alice says casually.

“What?!” I snatch up my phone and stare at its face. 7:30 A.M. School starts at 8. I can’t be late again since I’ve already got four tardies…5 and its detention, which Alice made me promise to stop going to.

 I plan it out it my head.  I’ll need at least ten minutes to get ready, fifteen to get there and five to get to class. I’d drive it if I had a car but I don’t so I’ll resort to roller blades. Oh yea, I got this.

I fling myself out of bed and throw on the nearest black thing out of my closest, which happens to be a mini skirt that I don’t usually wear and black kami with a leather jacket with shoulder blades. Yes I have outfits hung up together in my closet. I race to the bathroom and turn my straightener on, meanwhile putting in my contacts and hastily applying my makeup.  Once it’s heated I use my straightener to tame my wavy bed head. It’s flatter than I like, I usually give it some poof around the top, but I’m in no position to be picky. I do a couple other things then turn to go downstairs. I almost trip over Princess, our shy, tiny little feral kitty slinking down the stairs for breakfast.

“Hi baby.” I say and she flees.

Reaching the kitchen I shove as much of the bagel Alice made for me in my mouth, grab my bag and head for the garage. Pulling on my skates I take off down the street. As I travel at top speed my mind wanders away from the asphalt beneath me and the monotone houses around.

Did I do all my homework? Do I care? No. I wonder if I’ll see Logan today. It would be amazing if he suddenly decided to dump Juliette because he’s actually desperately in love with me. I picture him walking down the hallway hand in hand with Juliette then stumbling over her and himself as he catches sight of me in all my glory walking past. He pushes Juliette away and she falls very ungracefully to the tile and he rushes to me, scoops me up with those masculine arms causing me to drop my books and kisses me more passionately then anyone has ever been kissed before. No….I don’t care if he likes me, I don’t need him in my life. Wait yes I do. No, I can find someone else, I just need someone else. I wonder if people are going to whisper about my clothes today behind my back. Not like they don’t every other day, I know that shouldn’t bother me but I’m not perfect and I care what other people think. I promised myself long ago that I’d never lie to myself, it just leads to trouble.

My left skate bounces over a mini pot hole jostling me out of my thoughts as I regain my footing. I can see the school about half a mile away. I focus on fantasies of Logan and arrive to school a whole two minutes early. Here we go again.

                                               ****

“Oh my God, that was terrible!” I nod along to my music as well as to Rhia and Mia’s silly conversation about the small little nerve racked freshman that little sophomore Mia just “gently” refused to go out with.

“Okay, I give him props for creativity.” Laughs Rhia as Mia blushes at the memory. Just as school let out he had run up to us…well her… looking very self-conscious with the little bonsai tree held awkwardly in front of him. Mia is Asian and she always has a bonsai tree because she says it reminds her of home. I try not to mention that she was born in Arizona. Anyway he was blushing intensely as he half shoved the tree into Mia’s arms saying “it reminded me of you because, you know, you’re small and cute….and I have one at home to match, so I thought we could match.” He gave a half smile and managed to make eye contacted as he stammered out the last of his cheesy line. I walked over and saw that the little tree had delicate little paper hearts dangling from each branch and one little sign with a flower on it that said “will you be mine?” The kid was very adorable and innocent about the whole thing but he’s only an inch taller than Mia and not too easy on the eyes, not to mention his tendency to say the most inopportune thing at the perfect moment. Yes it sounds petty but I knew Mia could do better, Mia knew she could do better, and so did everyone else. She looked at the freshman sympathetically and gave him a little smile.

“Aw Jeremy, this is adorable,” She crooned “but, well you see I’m not looking to date right now,” Which is most certainly not the truth, “and I think that maybe we could go out someday when we’re older.” Which means ‘you need to get taller and cuter,’ “But not right now…you can have your tree back if you want, I know it must have cost a lot.”

“Nah” He said this very halfheartedly “I bought it for you.” He kicked the dirt and stuck his hands in his pockets and looked at his feet achieving the ‘I don’t care but I really actually do’ look. Mia gave him one of the most awkward hugs ever, especially because she was holding the bonsai tree, and smiled at him again before turning to us looking like she was going to burst. We got about ten yards away before she exploded into a series of small nervous giggles. Rhia soon followed and I managed a half laugh while turning back to see poor Jeremy hunched on a bench with a shock of black hair in his face looking at his hands. I’ve never been rejected like that before. It’s probably because I’ve never asked anyone out. The few times I’ve gone out with someone, they’ve always been the asker. It’s not that there’s no one I want to ask out. I guess I’m just afraid of being the one sitting by myself on a bench.

We are at the buses now and Jeremy is nowhere to be seen. I am only vaguely tuned in to what the twins are saying as we get to their bus. I catch something about ‘hotter with blond hair’ and assume they’re still talking about Jeremy.

“You guys better not try and give him a makeover,” I look at them sternly for a dramatic moment and we bust out laughing. Mia, still clutching her little mini tree, glares at me while trying not to smile which over all turns into a very unattractive facial expression and we start laughing harder. We say good bye and I turn and plop myself down on the still warm concrete to pull on my roller blades.

A hand grabs my head rather rudely and twists it up.

“Hi Oliver.” My eyes meet his and watch them turn into a smile. We hold each other’s gaze for longer than normal and I realize it’s kind of weird so I look back to my blades. He sits down next to me on his skate board and leans his head on my shoulder.

“Willooooowwwwww,” He drawls, drawing out my names into long syllables.

“Oliveeeeeeerrrr,” I mimic.

“I wanna go hooooome.” He slumps against me causing me to tilt on to the sidewalk.

“Uff,” I push us back up “We are going home,” I say in my baby voice.

He sits up and looks at me with big brown puppy eyes.  I smile at him and poke him in the arm.

“Well I can’t go anywhere without my skates.” I point to my feet with one skate on the other one only half on.

“You’ve always sucked at the whole shoe thing.” He leans over and takes my laces from me proceeded to tie them for me. I lean out of his way and casually admire his biceps before realizing that I’m looking at my best friend and not my boyfriend. I feel my cheeks grow hot and I grab his arm in a very friend like way.

“What’s this? Have you actually been working out? What have you done with my Oliver?” He looks back at me and laughs.

“Oh my God, you actually noticed…as a matter of fact I have.” He turns and flexes at me. “Do you think the ladies will like it?”

I punch him squarely in the flexed bicep making him wince, “What ladies, is there someone you haven’t told me about?” We always tell each other about every relationship or cute person we encounter. It’s not weird, that’s just the way it’s always been. Oliver can be like very insightful and sometimes rather blunt about whatever’s going on in my life and I try to do the same. I can’t imagine him not telling me about someone.

“Pssh, no,” he says sounding just a hint nervous but I’ve known him to long not to notice, “Just ladies in general.”

“Suuuure.” I roll my eyes and he helps me to my feet. “Do you have algebra homework?”

“Yep, tons. Wanna come over and pretend to work on it with me?” He jumps on his skate board and we take off in the direction of our neighborhood.

Author's Note

its not finished.....i know, its been forever, ive been busy

Reviews

[JRB]

keep up the writes,,,

[PossiblyAlice]

so btw, i realize the sister name is alice...so is mine, but understand alice isnt my real name :P