My Own World

The sixth chapter of A Day Dream.

“Dakota insisted that we should sit over here,” Will began, I could almost feel his eyes burning into me as I looked down at the table, “and when we said we weren’t going, he left, so we decided we might as well come over.” I smiled, hiding it behind my hand, pretending to yawn. The fact that Dakota was going to sit over here regardless of the others was, at the very least, uplifting.

 

“Jessica?” I looked up, Brittney was standing. “Oh right.” I stood up, and followed Erin to the line, regretting that I hadn’t said goodbye to Dakota, even if I would only be gone for a couple minutes. Brittney grabbed her usual two Nature Valley bars, and I grabbed a grape juice and a bag of popcorn. We entered our school code, having memorized them by the second day of school, and started back on our way to the table. “That’s Dakota?” She asked, I nodded. We both laughed as I took my seat, and she sat next to me, in Sara’s usual seat. “What’s the matter, you don’t want to sit next to Jake and Ethan?” I joked. “Not today.” She muttered.

 

Since we had been in line, Dakota had started talking to the other guys. I had two choices: talk to Brittney, or to talk to Dakota and have to listen to the others. I chose the former. “So Brittney, what’s your schedule this semester?” I asked, as I rummaged through my bag. “It is the same, I just got political science instead of health.” “Yeah me too . . . found it.” I smiled, pulling my iPod onto the table. I took the ear buds and began to scroll through my songs, looking for one in particular. I found it quickly, and Helena began to flow into my head. There was something about that song, the mood it created in my head was so emotional, I loved it. I moved my lips in sync with the words, but moved them so little it was almost impossible to see. And what’s the worst you take, from every heart you break? Even though it had nothing to do with my current situation, there was something about how the words were sung that made them stay with me, something unexplainable. What’s the worst thing I could say? Things are better if I stay. So long and goodnight, so long and goodnight.

 

As the song ended the next song on my playlist came up, Vermilion. I had to hear more of Helena though, and scrolled back up, the screen highlighting my favorite song. Dakota happened to be looking over and smiled. I could just barely see it reflected on the iPod’s sleek surface. “Helena?” He asked, “That is my favorite song by My Chemical Romance and one of my top five of all time.” “Really? Do you want to listen?” This was too good to be true, he liked my favorite song. As he smiled I felt my cheeks grow red, I still wasn’t over how warming it was. He took the ear bud from my outstretched hand and began to listen, as I turned the volume up to compensate for the one less source of sound.  About halfway through the song I looked over at him, and was amazed by what I saw. His mouth was moving as mine were, at the same time as mine had been.

 

The song ended, and Dakota returned my ear bud. “If that wasn’t your favorite song, then what is?” I asked him, now in my own little world. I loved that music could do that for me, make everything seem unimportant. “A Little Piece of-“ I cut him off, “Heaven?” I held up my iPod up, ‘Avenged Sevenfold’ crossing the screen. He laughed, “You have a great taste in music.” He commented. “So do you.”

 

We spent the rest of the lunch talking about what music we liked, and what we hated. I laughed each time he added someone like the Jonas Brothers to the hate list. He didn’t listen to the boy band, but regardless there was something about them that he just didn’t like, the same was true for me.

 

With four minutes left in the lunch Brittney, Sara (She had shown up halfway through the lunch, leaving me guilt free from ignoring Brittney.), Dakota, the others, and I stood and made our way to the door. I stood by the stack of tables, Dakota next to me. I could feel a warmth spreading through my body, starting with the area closest to him. I didn’t want this time to end. The one time I wasn’t wanting the bell to ring, it did, loud and piercing.