It's Just Me

Chapter 9

I am back in Julia's bright red car. We are driving to the park, and its sunny, so I wore black shorts and a grayish tank top. I'm really nervous. Am I showing too much skin? What do I say? What do guys like about a girl? But none of that matters now. All I need to think about is getting relaxed cause if I mess this up, James will HATE me. I look over at Julia, who usually helps me calm down. Her eyes are on the road. I decided to tilt my head back and close my eyes. About 3 or 4 minutes later we arrive at the park. I suddenly feel like I am about to puke. I look around. There are a few sets of playground equipment, but not many considering how big the park was. I get out of the car and look around. I spot James by the entrance of the park and run over to him. He has a towel and a picnic basket with him. I look back and see Julia wave to me. I wave back to her with a smile when she starts to back out of the parking space and drive away.

  "Hi." Says James.

  "Hi." I answer.

  "You look..........hot." he says, and I laugh. I hate my laugh so I cover my mouth. There's always this little snort at the end.

  "Thanks." I say still laughing. I notice he is wearing a grey tank top and light brown shorts going down his legs and ending at the bottom of his thighs."And you look hot as well." Uh oh. Was that the wrong thing to say? I must sound like a geek.

    "Thanks." There is something about his voice that is so soothing. And his laugh is adorable. I laugh with him and keep snorting. "You have the cutest laugh."

   "Oh, no. I hate my laugh. But if you like it that's fine."

   "I brought sandwiches." He says. We walk into the park and he says,"Lets go pick a spot to eat." We walked around the park and I saw a nice spot, by a tree. There was no equipment in the area. It was mostly shady. I point to it.

  "Look! That spot's perfect!"

  "Wow. You have good eyes!" We walk over to the spot and lay the blanket out in the shady area. He puts down the picnic basket and smiles at me, but it's his hot half smile. We sit down together. He hands me a sandwich. He eats his, so I guess it's okay to eat mine. I start to eat it. "So," James says still chewing. "Why we're you at the orphanage?" He asks.

"Well, my mom was abusive so they took me away from her."

"Well, are you okay?"

"Yeah. I mean, I got bullied a lot."

"I would never bully you." He says. He smiled his half smile.I smile back at him. I look closely at him. He has brown eyes and short brown hair. His cheekbones look like Natasha's. He stares back at me, and we are just quiet for a moment.

  "What?" I ask James, and he starts to laugh.

"You're so fun. Like, to be with. You're just different from other for girls." He lays on his back and stares out into the sky, admiring the clouds. I did the same pointing at them saying, "Look, that one looks like a duck!" or, "Wow, look! Did you see that? It was a cow!" as I laughed. I lay my left hand by his arm. The scar was still there. He sits up and looks at them.

  "Is your hand okay?"

"Yeah. I mean, I kinda jumped out of a window..."

"Why?"

"Because.......of...My mom."

"Oh. I understand. Let's go for a walk down toward the exit. We are out of time."

I stand up and get off of the blanket. He picks up the picnic basket and the towel. We walk to the entrance. He leaves, waving to me, and I just stand there and watch him leave me. He gets in his car and drives away. I see his car move away, and there I am again.

    Standing alone.