Total Darkness

Back to School

My alarm goes off waking me from a deep sleep. I grab my phone from under my pillow and shut off my alarm fighting to keep myself awake. My dad knocks on the door making sure I'm awake a few minutes later. I answer him to let him know I'm up and drag myself out of bed to get ready for the day. As I get ready my mind drifts off and comes to an abrupt halt when I realize Im thinking about Riley. It's going to be my first time in years at school without my best friend. My heart sinks and I stare at myself in the bathroom mirror. I look away as my eyes fill with tears. I breath in deeply calming myself. Riley wouldn't want this, shed want me to get through each day happily. It still hurts so much though. 

I walk to the kitchen to grab an apple before school and sit at the table to eat it. Derick texts me telling me he's picking me up and not to take the bus. I smile at the text giving him a quick okay in reply. A short while later I hear Der's truck pull up. I stand up throwing my apple core into the garbage and grab my back and head out the door. I make sure its locked behind me and head down the hill towards the truck. I hear the sound of the bus coming down the street and turn to look in its direction seeing Myles walking out of his house. He stares at me sadly and then looks away walking to the sidewalk. I get into the truck and we start the drive to school.

When we get to school we walk the halls till the first bell rings. Derick kisses me goodbye and heads to his homeroom and I head to mine. I sit down in my normal seat and look over to Riley's empty one. I feel my heart break a little bit more thinking about all the things she won't be here with me for. I shake the thoughts away as the rest of the students file In and take their seats. " Hey Addie, How are you?" I hear from behind me. I turn around and Max the "weird" kid smiles awkwardly at me. I give a nice smile back and tell him I'm doing okay. He nods and I turn back facing the teacher.

The end of homeroom bell rings and I head to my science class. Our science teacher doesn't waste anytime and gets right into the assignment. After his lecture, he told everyone to pick a partner for the group assignment. I looked to Riley's empty seat next to me and frowned. I felt myself on the verge of tears again. I missed her so much. While trying to calm myself down I felt someone tap me on the shoulder. I wiped my eyes and turned to the side to see Max there. "Hey Addie, you okay?" he asked me with a shy smile. I nodded to him " I just noticed we are the only ones without partners so I was wondering if you wanted to partner for the project?" he explained to me obviously nervous.

I look around realizing he's right and nod to him. "Yeah sure that's fine" I say to him motioning to the seat next to me. He smiles awkwardly at me again and slides into the seat next to me. We both open our text books and work till the end of the class only talking when needed on the project. A few minutes before the bell rings Max turns to me and asks for my number. I look at him shocked.  "So we can work on it at home.." he explains obviously embarrassed at my reaction. I apologize quickly scribbling my number onto a piece of paper and handing it to him. He sticks it in his pocket and just looks away.

I know I look like the biggest piece of shit right now. I go to apologize again but as the bell rings he stands up quickly to go speak to the teacher. My next class I share with Der so he meets me at the door. I go over to meet him and Max brushes past us staring at Derick. Derick looks at me and then back at Max. He turns bright red and turns and scurries down the hall. Der looks at me confused. I explain what happened in class and he laughs loudly while we walk to class. " It's not funny Der I feel really bad about it" I say a bit pissy. " oh Ad he will live" Derick says brushing it off. 

My day continues on and I let what happened earlier go telling myself I'll talk to him about it tomorrow. Or if he messages me about the project I can just apologize then. I hate making people upset in general let alone someone who gets bullied daily. The bell rings finally signaling the end of the day and I head to my locker waiting for Derick to meet me. As I'm packing my books into my locker and exchanging the ones I need for homework and studying I hear someone clear their throat awkwardly behind me. 

I close my locker to see Max standing there. "Hey Max, what's up?" I ask looking around for Derick. " I was just passing by your locker and wanted to know if you wanted to work on the project at your house, or mine? Or we can just call and try to do it on the phone" he says stumbling over his words. His face starts to turn red and I feel bad that he's so nervous. "We can work on it at my house if you want?" I offer with a smile. " Yeah, yeah.. Ok!" Max says and he starts to walk away. " Wait!! Don't you need my address?!" I shout to him as he makes his way quickly down the hall. He turns around and holds his phone up to me. I nod realizing I can just text him my address.

I feel an arm wrap around my stomach from behind and smell Derick's cologne. I smile and turn around to kiss him. I feel peoples eyes on us silently judging. People still haven't gotten it into their heads that he's not a bad guy. " You ready to get going?" he asks me. I nod and we head towards the main entrance. We get to Derick's truck and climb in and he starts driving towards my house. I pull my phone out of my pocket and see I have a text from Max asking me for my address. I quickly send it to him and let him know that 5 is a good time for me. Derick tells me about his classes on the drive home and we make our normal small talk till we reach my house. 

"I'll come by after work ok?" Derick asks me as I unbuckle my seatbelt. I nod and lean over to kiss him. " Oh before I forget, that guy Max is coming by to work on our project tonight" I tell him. "Alright, just let him know I'll kick his ass if he tries anything stupid" Der says with a wink. I giggle at him and kiss his cheek before climbing out of the car. I head up the walkway to my door  unlocking it and letting myself in. I turn to wave at Derick as he starts to drive away. I close the door behind myself and lock it then head up to my room. I quickly pick up the clothes around the floor putting them in my laundry basket. I take the couple of cups in my room down to the kitchen and wash them and put them on the counter too dry. I grab my books and get them set up on the dining room table so I'm ready to work on the project. Once I'm done I sit and wait for Max to show up.