Infinity

Chapter 9: Mason

"Eleanor, what happened..?" I asked, concerned. Immedietly, she shook her head, refusing to make eye contact with me as she looked at her hands, which she folded in her lap.

"Nothing..." She murmured, looking embaressed. "In gym yesterday I got hit really hard with a dodgeball, there's still a bruise from it."

"Then why are you so embaressed about it? Its just dodgeball."

She didn't respond, instead looking out of the window, her thin hands tapping away at her grey slacks with delicate yet long fingers. Something was fishy here, and it wasn't good. Though I was curious as to what had really happened, i couldn't ask her. I mean, I barely even knew her, why should I get into her personal life? Why should I even care, for that matter? She was just a girl, right? Then why was I feeling all of these emotions all of the sudden? This worry for her safety, this anger at whatever hurt her, even if it was an inanimate object. Even if it really was a dodgeball, though I highly doubted it. And something else, something unfamiliar, in a region of my mind I'd never ventured to. I couldn't figure out what it was, but it wasn't bad, that much I could tell.

Instead of pressing further, I turned the music back up slightly. The song had changed by this time, to yet another 30 Seconds to Mars song, this time being the acoustic version of Closer to the Edge. I made a CD a while ago of some of their songs, and out of my 15-20 CD's i kept in my glove compartment and the case of them in the door's compartment, this one was probably one of the most played. She started silently singing the words to herself, her hands now tapping out the tempo of the song as opposed to the rapid tapping caused by nervousness or panic. I could almost see her start to relax as we both allowed the music to wash over ourselves, cleansing us of any bad emotions. A certain chord, a certain note, a certain lyric. It can do that to you.

"You totally like them." I stated, smirking slightly. She looked up at me, still not meeting my eyes.

"Yes, I do. Are you happy now?" She said as her face started to grow red. I chuckled, turning back to focus on the road as we drove into slightly heavier traffic.

"Its not a bad this, not at all. In fact, its pretty legit if you as me." I grinned slightly, amused by the idea that someone like her would listen to a band like this, even know of them. She seemed more like a pop or house type of person, and besides, most people didn't really know of them.

"Oh." Was all she said in response. I was going to say more, but by that time we had reached the school. I pulled into my usual parking spot on the edge of the lot, next to where Josh usually parks. Today, the spot where he generally parks his white cadillac is empty. I didn't think that he got suspended or anything, but he hadn't said anything about missing school to me this morning. Looks like I'd probably be eating lunch alone today.

I stepped out of my car and walked around to open the door for Eleanor once again, her stepping out and slipping her backpack onto her shoulders before I locked up.

"Thank you for the ride" She mumbled, turning away and starting to walk into the school, arms crossed over her chest, hands gripping her shoulders, closing her off to the world. One part of me wanted to walk with her, try and make something out of this moment. A friendship, maybe. But another part of me needed a break from people, some air, some time to come up with a plan. Friends were only a small part of life, family was much more important. Righy now, I had my little sister to worry about, since things didn't go as planned that morning.

I walked through the glass double doors of the entrance of the school into the silent halls, mentally preparing myself for bombardment from whatever teacher I'm going to go see at the moment. Class probably wasn't going to be fun. Its not like I hated school or anything, in fact, it could be kind of cool sometimes. But when you don't have a lot of friends and your best friend steals any spotlight you may get in order to reach the top (wherever that was), it can get a little bit dull. And besides, i had so much going on in my life, school was the perfect time to pretend that everything was okay, that I wasn't trying to be a father to my little sister, that my mom wasn't falling into such a deep depression that it seemed that there was no hope of dragging her up from that dark abyss, that I didn't have to worry about attempting to get a job since unemployment was running out and we barely had enough money to keep clothes on our backs and real food on the table. I was sick of everything, taking care of everything, of everyone. I was just so tired. But I mean, I didn't have a choice. I'm the man of the house now. I didn't have a say anymore. It was all on me.