Wherever It Takes Us

Wherever It Takes Us, 1

I park the car in the school parking lot and look over at Katherine. She sits in the passenger seat with her arms folded over her chest and she has an impatient look on her face. The whole car ride she refused to say a single word to me.

"Okay, you can go now." I say, waving my hand towards the door. She gives me another mean look as she unbuckled, then slides out easily from the car. She slams the door closed and I watch her disappear behind rows of cars.

I let out a long, dramatic sigh and rub my face with my hands then rest my head on the steering wheel. I sit there for at least minute, not caring if I'm late to class. I finally look up and see it's 8:04. Four minutes late. It's a simple four minutes but I know Mr. Shaw, my home room teacher, will be everything but forgiving. I hurry out of the car and run towards the school. I burst through the front doors to the nearly empty hallways and find my way to Mr. Shaw's class. When I walk through the door, everyone drops everything their doing to look at me like I killed somebody.

"Oh, Miss Critchley, so glad you could join us." Mr. Shaw says coldly, motioning to my seat. I glance at Sophie who gives me a look like 'What the hell, Markie?'. I quickly take my seat and Mr. Shaw continues talking in his same cocky voice. "Now that we've waited our extra minutes for Miss Critchley to arrive, let's take attendance, shall me?" He positions himself on his red barstool and begins reading names from the list, beginning with, "Lauren Ashton."

Lauren squeaks, "Here." in her slightly irritating high-pitched voice.

"Marketa Critchley?" he says.

I roll my eyes. I guess using my full name was my punishment. But I wasn't the only one with a reaction. Behind me and a few seats over, I hear someone snicker. I glance behind me to see Declan grinning, the last person I would've suspected. "Here." I say loudly. It surprises me even more when he turns his head slightly to look at me and his smile is perfect. I feel my face getting warm so I quickly face forward.

"Hey--Markie." Sophie whispers. I turn to face her. "What was that about?"

"What was what about?" I ask.

"You and the four leaf clover. That was like a couple moment."

"He's not Irish, Sophie." I tell her, turning away.

At lunch, I try to steer clear of her. But it's hard given that she's one of my best friends, and if I sit by one of my best friends I'm sitting by all of them. So I sat at the opposite end of the table from Sophie. That way if she brings it up, there would be a .1% chance I could save my ass by not hearing her or something. Lunch goes by with all my friends--Beth, Meredith, Lane, Eliza, Sophie, and Alex--laughing and gossiping, and I manage to stay excluded from the conversations. Well, until the near end of lunch, that is.

"So, Markie, how's Declan?" Sophie says loudly. I can't play 'Sorry, didn't hear you' card because I completely froze when she said my name.

"I don't know." I shrug. "Why don't you ask him?"

They all exchange glances, and I know I've become the 'not all there' friend. I guess I checked out or something. Until proven otherwise, I was going to be the friend that needed special attention. I was acting unlike myself. Usually it's Alex who says things like that I have to interject as say, "Hey, come on, Alex." But now it's me. I guess I am fading. Whenever I get a problem on my hands, I let it consume me.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Lane asks, looking my straight in the eyes.

"Yeah, sorry, I just didn't sleep well last night." I tell them, then look directly at Sophie. "I'm sorry, Soph, it was nothing with Declan. I just looked at him when he laughed and then he smiled and it just was weird. I don't even know."

"Okay. Well, you're starting to sound like yourself again." Sophie says triumphantly.

So in honor of things going back to normal, the seven of us stood up and left lunch room together.

As I we were walking out, I hear a voice whispering, "Marketa." I jerk my head around and see Declan sitting alone at a table with a quirky half-smile.

Lane turns around to look at me and I simply say, "I'll catch up with you guys." Lane doesn't object, she just continues walking out of the lunchroom with the rest of the girls. I sit down across from him and folded my hands under my chin. "Well? You called for a Marketa, so here's a Marketa."

"I, uh, kind of wanted someone to talk to." he admits, but then gets that panicked 'I've said too much' look and quickly says, "You know what? Never mind. You should just go."

"No, if you want to talk, let's talk." I say, smiling at him.

But he sure as hell doesn't return that smile. "No, just--just go."

"So you're trying to put on a tough imagine for me? You want to pretend your invincible?" I ask. "Because that's not going to help you. If you want to talk, let's--"

"Just fucking go, Markie." he says, looking me fiercely in the eye, startling me.

"Fine." I sigh. "Just--whatever. Bye." I stand up and leave. I could tell he was on the verge of overflowing with problems. He was like a way intensified version of Katherine. So on the edge he can hardly hide it anymore. But I felt like I could help him. If I could help him, I could definitely help Katherine.