I'm Only Seventeen, I Don't Know Anything

Jane

It all started on the first day of last summer. The sky was a barren, breezy blue and it stretched from east to west to north to south, making for a vast blanket that covered the whole Bloomdale. Or as most just called it, Bloom. As a blanket does, the temperature started rising slowly within the sunny region until it spiked midday, causing a bewildering heat wave.

Me and Daniel were waying out the possibilities of either one of us falling in love before the end of summer vacation. I layed on his fuzzy carpet, right beneath the fan. Don't ask me why I was wearing baggy jeans, an oversized sweatshirt and a flannel, those were the least warm things I could find in my closet, okay?

"Face it Jany, with your blasé attitude, my scrawny arms and our combined over obsession with the Lord of The Rings franchise, we'd be better off falling for each other," Daniel said with a dry laugh as he wormed his way to the edge his California King bed to peep at me.

"Dan, you see the problem with your reasoning is the fact that; one, I couldn't care less and two, I hate high school romances," I retorted and jeered at him. "Don't you agree, my precious?" We held each other's gaze for a second too long and I looked away, right at his wall when I saw him getting flushed.

He had these quote and poem cut-outs and a couple of thoughts and phrases that he had come up with plastered on the wall that he called his Berlin Wall, because in his words, it was "a way to break down the barriers in his mind". He's so theatrical sometimes, you know?

"You watch too many movies and you listen to HUNNY and Taylor Swift way too much. We're just average kids, living average lives. We're not destined for greatness or great things. This is the real world."

"Jane, you see the problem with your reasoning is blah blah blah blah blah," he laughed as he moved his hand up and down to 'mimic' me talking.

I hate it when he does that. It kind of hurts a bit. Like he's invalidating what I say. He doesn't realize this, but he's a bigot. A big one. He thinks men are smarter than women. He hates gays and although we're friends, I can tell he dislikes other races. He always talks about them when he talks about Inez, Aquila and the other 'ethnicly challenged' people. I feel sorry for him, but I love him anyway.

"You're so bent on finding the one, but you haven't found yourself."

"You're just jealous, because I'm trying."

He got up from his bed and sat, scrunched up, across from me, leaning against his wall. He just looked at me and I wondered what he was thinking.

I sat up straight and took my flannel off. Silence. I didn't know what to say. Around that time I was doubting our friendship a lot and I was, honestly, just sick and tired of getting patronized.

"I try." I managed to muster.

Then he broke out laughing. Clapping his hands like a lunatic. He got up and walked past me to his desk on the other side of the room. He tore a piece of paper from a notebook and he wrote something on it. After that he took a ball of prestic and walked over to his wall and put something up. When he stepped aside I saw what he had written. "I try. - Jane James".

He turned around and looked down at me. I smiled at him and he smiled right back. Then I stretched out my arms so that he could help me up and he almost fell forward. We laughed.

"I told you. I'm heavy. I'm the great Gali." I put out my arms and flexed my imaginary muscles, which is mostly just fat. He just rolled his eyes and walked to his door.

"Hey, is your mom still here," I asked, because I really was not in the mood to talk to her. Don't get me wrong, the lady is great. She's really friendly, but I was too peaceful to put up with her peppyness.

"Let me check. Mom! No answer, so, no mother."

We walked through their house and passed the usual stuff, family pictures in the hallway, beige walls, wooden floors, high ceilings and the reminder that our house would never look this good nor this functional. When we got to the front porch I picked up my skateboard and ran to the street. Play time.

I glided slowly and waited for Daniel to approach on his bicycle. We hovered lasily in the road. He was looking in front of him and I was looking at the houses we passed.

Somewhere far off Bed of Roses was blazing through a speaker and I just closed my eyes and floated and enjoyed the moment. When I put my right foot down to paddle my board forward. I opened my eyes and it was like I couldn't breathe. A girl -the most beautiful girl I've ever seen- was sitting on their porch, reading a book.

The moment I looked at her she looked up and my whole world stopped for a moment. I didn't realize that I put my foot down without pedaling. So the skateboard slipped from under me and I fell on my back. My flannel was around my waist so the fall was way harder than it had to be.

I could feel that some of my skin on the back of my shoulder grazed off and I had this mighty ache in my chest from the thump. My wind was knocked out, for real now, this time.

I squinted really hard and groaned noisely. I heard Daniel's bike screech and the sound of running approaching me. With my eyes squinted, I could see only a blurry haze above me at that time, so I opened my eyes to looked up.

Daniel and the girl, were towering over me.

"Are you okay-" they said simultaneously and looked at each other to lock eyes. Something in his eyes was territorial. The girl looked down and smiled. She knelt down and helped me sit up straight. Then she waved her fingers in front of my eyes and switched from 1 to 4 to 3 to 1 and she did this quickly while she asked,

"How many fingers am I holding up?"

"You keep switching them, so I can't tell," I croaked and sniggered a bit.

"Good, then you're not concussed."

"I'm fine by the way. You asked and I didn't answer."

"I asked too," he said awkwardly. The two of us looked at Daniel.

"I'm just saying, I asked if you were okay too," I could tell he was getting nervous so I tried to get up, but my arms were too weak.

"Hey, take it easy, I'll help you up."

She put my arm around her shoulder and told me to get up with her. The smell of a soft, hazy lavender blossom swayed around her and I breathed it in, in pure bliss.

"There we go. Come inside and I'll get you a first aid kit for that back."

"Oh no, I'm really alright. His house is down the way. You really don't have t-"

"Non-negotiable. Come, you too. Daniel right?"

"Yeah," he said. You could hear the scepticism in his voice.

"We have calculas together. Remember, last year I was the new girl," she said while we all walked to her house.

"Oh yeah," he said, trying to convince her, but I could tell that he did not remember nor recognize her.

"You're really smart. He's really smart isn't he?" she asked me and all I could do was smile and nodd.

I looked at Daniel out of the creak of my eyes and I could tell he was doing the same to me. Who on this god-forsaken earth was this girl and why the hell was she so beautiful?