Clockwork Daisy

Chapter 8

Deacon

Chapter 8

The laces on my shoes had never been more interesting. The weave of the flimsy fabric, the splattering of mud stains, the broken threads. I wished I could stay that way. Just me and my shoes. But she was waiting for an answer, and I was going to be late to Calculus. I swallowed, suddenly very aware of the width of my throat. It wasn't big enough to hold down my nerves. "I've got to go." I stuttered. The grass squeaked under my feet as I turned and dashed for the door. I didn't have to look at her face to know it was clouded with confusion. 

Ellie Wells had caught me off guard. What was she doing under an isolated tree during lunch hour? Hadn't I seen her sitting at a crowded table, brimming with hopeful conversation? The truth was that Ellie Wells made me weak at the knees. Every boy meets a girl at least once in his life that cuts off his air, shuts off his brain, and explodes his heart. I was convinced Ellie Wells was mine. I just had to work on keeping my feet on the ground after I fell. 

I entered the mob of people populating the hallway. My anxious feet pushed me past the slow walking lip gloss appliers and the grumpy teachers savoring their final moments of mid-day freedom. As I passed a set of bathrooms, the door labeled "women" swung open into the hallway (an annoying design flaw) and nearly clapped me on the forehead. I stumbled backward, hitting a few oblivious passerbys in the process. 

"I'm sorry." The flat, lifeless voice spilled out of Beth Mallard's mouth. Her face was pale and her body slumped. Her eyes appeared glazed, but she definatley saw me. "Deacon." She spoke my name quickly, as if to get it out as painlessly as possible. 

"Hi Beth." I remained monotone yet polite. Beth lingered in next to me for a few beats, her eyes darting from corner to corner, her foot tapping to an invisible drum. Eventually, she shuffled awkwardly into the crowd, disappearing in a matter of seconds. 

My mind flickered to the summer before high school that Beth and I had shared together. The laughter, the sunsets, the secrets that we'd never share. Once we walked into the entrance of St. Wisteria High, all of that disenigrated. We rarely talked, and we kept that summer locked in a vault.

"Where'd you disappear to?" Madge was with me, nudging my shoulder.

"I got some air." I said. It wasn't a lie.

"And?" Madge tilted her head.

"And what?" I asked, staring straight ahead.

"Something else happened." Madge took to scratching a ketchup stain off her dress. "I can tell."

"I had a conversation with Ellie Wells." There was no point in not telling her. She'd pester me about it either way. 

"Oh." The tone in Madge's voice dropped, even cracking slightly. "Remember what I said; she's a passing fad." She sounded less confident than earlier.

"I'm not so sure about that." I challenged her, puffing out my chest. Granted, my first conversation with Ellie hadn't gone well, but I had other chances. Right?

"Right. Well, I turn here." Madge pointed down a corridor leading to the Math classrooms. 

"I'm going that way too." I said, angling my body to turn. 

"I have to go talk to one of my teachers before class." Madge announced, quickening her pace. "Don't try and keep up with me." 

So I slowed down and let Madge charge in front of me. I highly doubted she actually had to talk to a teacher on the first day, but I let it slide. Something was causing her funky mood swing, and I wasn't about to ask what. 

I swung into my Calculus class, plopping into an empty seat in front of Wes Harlem. "I talked to her, Wes!" 

"Nice work." Wes congratulated, looking up from his small stack of notebooks. Color coordinated because Wes was a neat freak. "So that's where you were at lunch."

I nodded. "It wasn't as picturesque as you think, though." I prefaced. "I was somewhat of a blabbering idiot. Come to think of it, our run in isn't much to brag about."

Wes patted my arm. "We all gotta start somewhere, right?"

The final bell rang loud and clear a few hours later. I took a secluded pathway some high schoolers in the 1950s had created starting behind the school, lacing through a short forest and eventually letting out near the failing pizza joint called Pie Shack, which was only s five minute's walk away from the clock tower. The buzz of late summer bugs and the lush, untouched greenery through the woods succeeded in clearing my mind. I tried to think of something to say next time I saw Ellie, by nothing charming came to fruition. By the time I reached Pie Shack, I had shifted my thoughts to the pile of homework weighing down my backpack. As I passed the sad buiness's windows, littered with peeling advertisements and grease stains, I crossed my fingers that Dirk would let me off work a little early. 

I pushed open the door to the tower and threw my over sized backpack in the corner, rubbing my shoulders for relief. Dirk nodded at me sympathetically, lifting his eternally dirty hands to smooth some flyaway hairs on his moustache. "Do I need to ask how the first day was?" I grunted as a response, igniting a short chuckle from Dirk. "So nothing interesting happened?"

I flicked out my rag and began adjusting the ladder. "I met a girl." The statement flew out of my mouth like a hummingbird learning to beat its wings. I desperately wanted to take it back, but Dirk had already soaked the words in. It was too late. 

"A girl, huh?" Dirk walked over and steadied the base of the ladder as I climbed. "Did you tell Madge?"

I paused mid-way up. It was a strange question. It was true that Dirk and his wife were dear friends of the Spell family. They'd been at the hospital wearing green scrubs on the day Madge was born. I even met Dirk when I was a mere nine year old on the Spell's front porch. I had been deeply impressed by the thickness of Dirk's facial hair and the depth of his hearty laugh. Madge admired him and had partially aided in me getting the clock tower gig. But the Spells rarely came up in work day conversation. 

"Yes, I told her." I regained my footing and continued my ascention. 

"How'd she react?" Dirk's voice was steady and stern, almost like an interegation. 

"Uh," I had reached the ladder's top. "She didn't really have much to say."

"Okay, I'm going to tell you something, boy. And it's only because you are so oblivious." Dirk had to holler now in order for me to hear him from my height. 

"Alright..." I tried to break the awkward feeling I had by swiping some microscopic dust off a few gears.

"I've known Madge Spell her whole life." Dirk knew I was already aware of this, but I held on to see what he had to say. "She'd kill me if she knew I was telling you this." Dirk paused a moment and sucked in a breath. "Deacon, Madge Spell is in love with you!"